Lamentations 4

Distress of the Siege Described

1How dark the gold has become,

How the pure gold has changed!

The sacred stones are poured out

At the corner of every street.

2The precious sons of Zion,

Weighed against fine gold,

How they are regarded as earthen jars,

The work of a potter's hands!

3Even jackals offer the breast,

They nurse their young;

But the daughter of my people has become cruel

Like ostriches in the wilderness.

4The tongue of the infant cleaves

To the roof of its mouth because of thirst;

The little ones ask for bread,

But no one breaks it for them.

5Those who ate delicacies

Are desolate in the streets;

Those reared in purple

Embrace ash pits.

6For the iniquity of the daughter of my people

Is greater than the sin of Sodom,

Which was overthrown as in a moment,

And no hands were turned toward her.

7Her consecrated ones were purer than snow,

They were whiter than milk;

They were more ruddy in body than corals,

Their polishing was like lapis lazuli.

8Their appearance is blacker than soot,

They are not recognized in the streets;

Their skin is shriveled on their bones,

It is withered, it has become like wood.

9Better are those slain with the sword

Than those slain with hunger;

For they pine away, being stricken

For lack of the fruits of the field.

10The hands of compassionate women

Boiled their own children;

They became food for them

Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11The Lord has accomplished His wrath,

He has poured out His fierce anger;

And He has kindled a fire in Zion

Which has consumed its foundations.

12The kings of the earth did not believe,

Nor did any of the inhabitants of the world,

That the adversary and the enemy

Could enter the gates of Jerusalem.

13Because of the sins of her prophets

And the iniquities of her priests,

Who have shed in her midst

The blood of the righteous;

14They wandered, blind, in the streets;

They were defiled with blood

So that no one could touch their garments.

15“Depart! Unclean!” they cried of themselves.

“Depart, depart, do not touch!”

So they fled and wandered;

Men among the nations said,

“They shall not continue to dwell with us.”

16The presence of the Lord has scattered them,

He will not continue to regard them;

They did not honor the priests,

They did not favor the elders.

17Yet our eyes failed,

Looking for help was useless;

In our watching we have watched

For a nation that could not save.

18They hunted our steps

So that we could not walk in our streets;

Our end drew near,

Our days were finished

For our end had come.

19Our pursuers were swifter

Than the eagles of the sky;

They chased us on the mountains,

They waited in ambush for us in the wilderness.

20The breath of our nostrils, the Lord's anointed,

Was captured in their pits,

Of whom we had said, “Under his shadow

We shall live among the nations.”

21Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom,

Who dwells in the land of Uz;

But the cup will come around to you as well,

You will become drunk and make yourself naked.

22The punishment of your iniquity has been completed, O daughter of Zion;

He will exile you no longer.

But He will punish your iniquity, O daughter of Edom;

He will expose your sins!