| 4 | Lamentations | ||
| 1 | How the gold has grown dim, how the pure gold is changed! The holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street. | Jerusalem after its fall. Lm.4.1-22 | |
| 2 | The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how they are reckoned as earthen pots, the work of a potter's hands! | ||
| 3 | Even the jackals give the breast and suckle their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. | ||
| 4 | The tongue of the nursling cleaves to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but no one gives to them. | ||
| 5 | Those who feasted on dainties perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple lie on 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, no hand being laid on it. | ||
| 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 visage is blacker than soot, they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled upon their bones, it has become as dry as wood. | ||
| 9 | Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who pined away, stricken by want of the fruits of the field. | ||
| 10 | The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people. | ||
| 11 | Yahweh gave full vent to his wrath, he poured out his hot anger; and he kindled a fire in Zion, which consumed its foundations. | ||
| 12 | The kings of the earth did not believe, or 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, so defiled with blood that none could touch their garments. | ||
| 15 | "Away! Unclean!" men cried at them; "Away! Away! Touch not!" So they became fugitives and wanderers; men said among the nations, "They shall stay with us no longer." | ||
| 16 | Yahweh himself has scattered them, he will regard them no more; no honour was shown to the priests, no favour 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 | Men 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 vultures in the heavens; they chased us on the mountains, they lay in wait for us in the wilderness. | ||
| 20 | The breath of our nostrils, Yahweh's anointed, was taken in their pits, he of whom we said, "Under his shadow we shall live among the nations." | ||
| 21 | Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, dweller 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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