Lamentations 4

1How the gold has grown dim, how the finest gold has changed! The sacred stones lie scattered at the corner of every street.

2The precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in fine gold, how they are now counted as clay jars, the work of a potter’s hands!

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

4The nursing infant’s tongue sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the little children ask for bread, but no one breaks any for them.

5Those who once ate delicacies are desolate in the streets; those who were brought up in crimson now cling to ash heaps.

6The guilt of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, without a hand laid on her.

7Her consecrated ones were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, their form like sapphire.

8Now their appearance is blacker than soot; no one recognizes them in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as wood.

9Those killed by the sword are better off than those killed by hunger, who waste away, pierced through for lack of the produce of the field.

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

11Yahweh has given full vent to his wrath; he has poured out his fierce anger. He has kindled a fire in Zion that has consumed her foundations.

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

13It happened because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed in her midst the blood of the righteous.

14They wandered blind through the streets, so defiled with blood that no one could touch their garments.

15“Go away! Unclean!” people cried to them. “Go away! Go away! Do not touch!” So they fled and wandered, and people among the nations said, “They can stay here no longer.”

16Yahweh himself has scattered them; he will no longer look on them with favor. No respect was shown to the priests, no favor to the elders.

17Our eyes still wore themselves out looking in vain for help. From our watchtower we watched for a nation that could not save.

18They dogged 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 eagles in the sky; they chased us over the mountains and lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

20Yahweh’s anointed, the breath of our life, was caught in their pits, the one of whom we said, “Under his shadow we will live among the nations.”

21Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, you who live in the land of Uz. But to you also the cup will pass; you will become drunk and strip yourself naked.

22Your punishment is complete, daughter of Zion; he will not keep you in exile any longer. But he will punish your iniquity, daughter of Edom; he will expose your sins.