Lamentations - Chapter 4 | English Standard Version

  • 1. How the gold has grown dim, how the pure gold is changed! The holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street.
  • 2. The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how they are regarded as earthen pots, the work of a potter's hands!
  • 3. Even jackals offer the breast; they nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
  • 4. The tongue of the nursing infant sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but no one gives to them.
  • 5. Those who once feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple embrace ash heaps.
  • 6. For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were wrung for her.
  • 7. Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, the beauty of their form was like sapphire.
  • 8. Now their face is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as wood.
  • 9. Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who wasted away, pierced by lack of the fruits of the field.
  • 10. The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people.
  • 11. The LORD gave full vent to his wrath; he poured out his hot anger, and he kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations.
  • 12. The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any of the inhabitants of the world, that foe or enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.
  • 13. This was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous.
  • 14. They wandered, blind, through the streets; they were so defiled with blood that no one was able to touch their garments.
  • 15. "Away! Unclean!" people cried at them. "Away! Away! Do not touch!" So they became fugitives and wanderers; people said among the nations, "They shall stay with us no longer."
  • 16. The LORD himself has scattered them; he will regard them no more; no honor was shown to the priests, no favor to the elders.
  • 17. Our eyes failed, ever watching vainly for help; in our watching we watched for a nation which could not save.
  • 18. They dogged our steps so that we could not walk in our streets; our end drew near; our days were numbered, for our end had come.
  • 19. Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles in the heavens; they chased us on the mountains; they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
  • 20. The breath of our nostrils, the LORD's anointed, was captured 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, you who dwell in the land of Uz; but to you also the cup shall pass; you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.
  • 22. The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished; he will keep you in exile no longer; but your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will punish; he will uncover your sins.
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