Lamentations 4

The Holy Stones Lie Scattered

¹How the gold has grown dim,

how the pure gold is changed!

The holy stones lie scattered

at the head of every street.

²The precious sons of Zion,

worth their weight in fine gold,

how they are regarded as earthen pots,

the work of a potter's hands!

³Even jackals offer the breast;

they nurse their young;

but the daughter of my people has become cruel,

like the ostriches in the wilderness.

⁴The 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.

⁵Those who once feasted on delicacies

perish in the streets;

those who were brought up in purple

embrace ash heaps.

⁶For 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.

⁷Her princes were purer than snow,

whiter than milk;

their bodies were more ruddy than coral,

the beauty of their form was like sapphire.

⁸Now 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.

⁹Happier were the victims of the sword

than the victims of hunger,

who wasted away, pierced

by lack of the fruits of the field.

¹⁰The hands of compassionate women

have boiled their own children;

they became their food

during the destruction of the daughter of my people.

¹¹The Lord gave full vent to his wrath;

he poured out his hot anger,

and he kindled a fire in Zion

that consumed its foundations.

¹²The 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.

¹³This 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.

¹⁴They 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.”

¹⁶The Lord himself has scattered them;

he will regard them no more;

no honor was shown to the priests,

no favor to the elders.

¹⁷Our eyes failed, ever watching

vainly for help;

in our watching we watched

for a nation which could not save.

¹⁸They 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.

¹⁹Our pursuers were swifter

than the eagles in the heavens;

they chased us on the mountains;

they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

²⁰The 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.”

²¹Rejoice 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.

²²The 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.