Lamentations 4

¹ Oh, how the old gold has tarnished, that gold so fine! The sacred stones now lie scattered at the corner of every street.

² The sons of Zion, as precious as finest gold, Oh, reckoned now no better than earthenware pots made by the potter!

³ The very jackals give the breast, and suckle their young: but the daughters of my people have grown cruel like the ostriches of the desert.

⁴ The tongue of the baby at the breast sticks to his palate for thirst, little children go begging for bread; no one spares a scrap for them.

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 The crimes of the daughter of my people have outdone the sins of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, no time for a man to wring his hands.

⁷ Once her young men were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; rosier than coral their bodies, their hue as radiant as sapphire.

⁸ Now with faces darker than blackness itself they move unrecognisable through the streets. The skin is shrunken against their bones, dry as a stick.

⁹ Happy were those killed by the sword, happier than those by hunger, spent and sinking, deprived of the fruits of the fields.

¹⁰ With their own hands, tender-hearted women have boiled their children; these have been their food in the disaster that fell on the daughter of my people.

¹¹ Yahweh has indulged his fury, has poured his anger out. He has lit a fire in Zion that has devoured her foundations.

¹² The kings of the earth never believed, nor did all the inhabitants of the world, that oppressor and enemy would ever penetrate the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³ It came through 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 Through the streets like blind men, they roamed polluted with blood, so that no one dared to touch their clothes.

¹⁵ ‘Keep away! Unclean!’ people shouted ‘Keep away! Do not touch us!’ If they left and took refuge with the nations, they were not allowed to shelter there either.

¹⁶ The face of Yahweh dispersed them; he never spared a glance for them again. People respected the priests no longer, they paid no attention to the prophets.

¹⁷ And still we wore out our eyes, watching for help in vain. From our towers we watched for a nation[*a] which could not save us anyway.

¹⁸ Our enemies eyed our steps, and barricaded our squares. Our end was near, our days were done.

¹⁹ Our pursuers were swifter than eagles in the sky; they dogged our steps in the mountains, they ambushed us in the desert.

²⁰ The breath of our nostrils, Yahweh’s anointed,[*b] was captured in their pits, he of whom we said, ‘Under his shadow we shall live among the nations’.

²¹ Rejoice, exult, daughter of Edom, as you dwell in Uz! To you in turn the cup will pass; it will make you drunk, and you will show your nakedness.

²² Your crime has been atoned for, daughter of Zion; he will never banish you again. Your crime he will punish, daughter of Edom; he will lay bare your sins.