4 ¹ How the gold has grown dim,
how the pure gold is changed!
The holy stones lie scattered
at the head of every street.

4 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!

4 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 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.

4 ⁵ Those who feasted on dainties perish in the streets;
those who were brought up in purple lie on ash heaps.

4 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.

4 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.

4 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.

4 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.

4 ¹⁰ The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children;
they became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

4 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.

4 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.

4 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.

4 ¹⁴ They wandered, blind, through the streets,
so defiled with blood that none could touch their garments.

4 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."

4 ¹⁶ Yahweh himself has scattered them,
he will regard them no more;
no honour was shown to the priests,
no favour to the elders.

4 ¹⁷ Our eyes failed, ever watching vainly for help;
in our watching we watched for a nation which could not save.

4 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.

4 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.

4 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."

4 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.

4 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.