Lamentations 4

Lamentations 4

¹How is the gold become dim! how is the most pure gold changed!

The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.

²The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold,

How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

³Even the jackals draw out the breast, they nurse their young ones:

The daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

⁴The tongue of the nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst:

The young children ask bread, and no man breaks it to them.

⁵Those who fed delicately are desolate in the streets:

Those who were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

⁶For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom,

That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were laid on her.

⁷Her nobles were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk;

They were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was as of sapphire.

⁸Their appearance is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets:

Their skin clings to their bones; it is withered, it has become like a stick.

⁹Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger;

For these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.

¹⁰The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children;

They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

¹¹Yahweh has accomplished his wrath, he has poured out his fierce anger;

He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured its foundations.

¹²The kings of the earth didn’t believe, neither all the inhabitants of the world,

That the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³ It is because of the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests,

That have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.

¹⁴They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood,

So that men can’t touch their garments.

¹⁵Depart! they cried to them, Unclean! depart, depart, don’t touch!

When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, They shall no more live here.

¹⁶The anger of Yahweh has scattered them; he will no more regard them:

They didn’t respect the persons of the priests, they didn’t favor the elders.

¹⁷Our eyes do yet fail in looking for our vain help:

In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.

¹⁸They hunt our steps, so that we can’t go in our streets:

Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end has come.

¹⁹Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky:

They chased us on the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

²⁰The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Yahweh, was taken in their pits;

Of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.

²¹Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, that dwell in the land of Uz:

The cup shall pass through to you also; you shall be drunken, and shall make yourself naked.

²²The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, daughter of Zion; he will no more carry you away into captivity:

He will visit your iniquity, daughter of Edom; he will uncover your sins.