Lamentations4

¹ How the gold has grown dim, how the pure gold is changed! The holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street.

² The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how they are regarded as earthen pots, the work of a potter’s hands!

³ Even jackals offer the breast; they nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

⁴ The tongue of the nursing infant sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but no one gives to them.

⁵ Those who once feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple embrace ash heaps.

⁶ For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were wrung for her.

⁷ Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, the beauty of their form was like sapphire.

⁸ Now their face is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as wood.

⁹ Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who wasted away, pierced by lack of the fruits of the field.

¹⁰ The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people.

¹¹ The Lord gave full vent to his wrath; he poured out his hot anger, and he kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations.

¹² The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any of the inhabitants of the world, that foe or enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³ This was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous.

¹⁴ They wandered, blind, through the streets; they were so defiled with blood that no one was able to touch their garments.

¹⁵ Away! Unclean! people cried at them. Away! Away! Do not touch! So they became fugitives and wanderers; people said among the nations, They shall stay with us no longer.

¹⁶ The Lord himself has scattered them; he will regard them no more; no honor was shown to the priests, no favor to the elders.

¹⁷ Our eyes failed, ever watching vainly for help; in our watching we watched for a nation which could not save.

¹⁸ They dogged our steps so that we could not walk in our streets; our end drew near; our days were numbered, for our end had come.

¹⁹ Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles in the heavens; they chased us on the mountains; they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

²⁰ The breath of our nostrils, the Lord ’s anointed, was captured in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.

²¹ Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz; but to you also the cup shall pass; you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.

²² The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished; he will keep you in exile no longer; but your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will punish; he will uncover your sins.