Lamentations 4

1 How the gold has grown dim, the pure gold has changed! The stones of holiness are poured forth at the head of every street.

2 The precious sons of Zion were weighed with fine gold. How they are esteemed as pots of clay, the work of the hands of a potter!

3 Even the jackals draw out the breast [and] suckle their young, [but] the daughter of my people [is] cruel, like ostriches in the wilderness.

4 The tongue of the sucking [babe] clings to the roof of its mouth in thirst; the little children ask for bread—there is no one dispersing [it] for them.

5 Those once eating delicacies are desolate in the streets; those being set firmly in scarlet embrace heaps of rubbish.

6 And the punishment of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were wrung for her.

7 Her princes were brighter than snow and whiter than milk; they were [more] ruddy in essence than rubies; their polishing [was] of sapphire.

8 [Now] their appearance is darker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones, it has grown dry [and] become like wood.

9 Better are those slain by the sword than those dying of hunger, who waste away from the piercing of produce the field.

10 The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became food for them in [this] destruction of the daughter of my people!

11 YHWH has fulfilled His fury, He has poured out the burning of His nose; He has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has devoured her foundations.

12 The kings of the earth did not believe and all those dwelling in the world, that the adversary would come and the enemy into the gates of Jerusalem,

13 for the sins of her prophets, the iniquities of her priests, those pouring in her midst the blood of the righteous,

14 They wandered blind in the streets, they have defiled themselves with the blood, that none would be able to touch their garments.

15 “Turn away! Unclean!” They called out to them. “Turn away! Turn away, do not touch us!” So they fled and wandered, they said among the nations, “They shall not continue to sojourn!”

16 The face of YHWH has scattered them; He shall not continue to look on them; the faces of the priests they do not lift up, and [to] the elders they do not show favor.

17 Again our eyes came to an end, for our helper in vain; in our keeping watch we watched for a nation [that] could not save [us].

18 They tracked our steps, from walking in our own streets; our end came near; our days were fulfilled, for our end had come.

19 Swifter were our pursuers than the eagles of the heavens; over the mountains they were hot after us, [and] in the wilderness they set an ambush for us.

20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of YHWH, was caught 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, dwelling in the land of Uz! Even to you shall pass over the cup, and you shall become drunk and uncover yourselves!

22 Your guilt is complete, O daughter of Zion; He will not continue to leave you exiled. He will visit punishment [on] your iniquity, O daughter of Edom! He will remove the cover over your sins.