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Lamentations - Chapter 4

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

² The children of Zion, as precious as finest gold -- to think that they should now be reckoned like crockery made by a potter!

³ The very jackals give the breast, and suckle their young: but the daughter of my people is as cruel as the ostriches of the desert.

⁴ The tongue of the baby at the breast sticks to its palate for thirst; little children ask for bread, no one gives them any.

⁵ Those who used to eat only the best, now lie dying in the streets; those who were reared in the purple claw at the rubbish heaps,

⁶ for the wickedness of the daughter of my people exceeded the sins of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment without a hand being laid on it.

⁷ Once her young people were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; rosier than coral their bodies, their hue like sapphire.

⁸ Now their faces are blacker than soot, they are not recognised in the streets, the skin has shrunk over their bones, as dry as a stick.

⁹ Happier those killed by the sword than those killed by famine: they waste away, sunken for lack of the fruits of the earth.

¹⁰ With their own hands, kindly women cooked their children; this was their food when the daughter of my people was ruined.

¹¹ Yahweh indulged his fury, he vented his fierce anger, he lit a fire in Zion which devoured her foundations.

¹² The kings of the earth never believed, nor did any of the inhabitants of the world, that foe or enemy would ever penetrate the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³ Owing to the sins of her prophets and the crimes of her priests, who had shed the blood of the upright, in the heart of the city,

¹⁴ they wandered blindly through the streets, polluted with blood, so that no one dared to touch their clothes.

¹⁵ 'Keep away! Unclean!' people shouted, 'Keep away! Keep away! Don't touch!' If they left and fled to the nations, they were not allowed to stay there either.

¹⁶ The face of Yahweh destroyed them, he will look on them no more. There was no respect for the priests, no deference for the elders.

¹⁷ Continually we were wearing out our eyes, watching for help -- in vain. From our towers we watched for a nation which could not save us anyway.

¹⁸ Men dogged our steps, to keep us out of our streets. Our end was near, our days were done, our end had come.

¹⁹ Our pursuers were swifter than eagles in the sky; they hounded our steps through the mountains, they lay in ambush for us in the wilds.

²⁰ The breath of our nostrils, Yahweh's anointed, was caught in their traps, he of whom we said, 'In his shadow we shall live among the nations.'

²¹ Rejoice, exult, daughter of Edom, you who reside in Uz! To you in turn the cup will pass; you will get drunk and strip yourself naked!

²² Your wickedness is atoned for, daughter of Zion, he will never banish you again. But your wickedness, daughter of Edom, will he punish, your sins he will lay bare!