Lamentations
Chapter 4
1 The gold has lost its shine! The purest gold is no longer bright! The sacred stones are scattered at the beginning of every street.
2 The valuable children of Zion, once worth as much as fine gold, are now treated like common clay pots made by a potter.
3 Sea creatures nurse their young, but my people have become heartless, like ostriches in the desert.
4 The baby’s tongue sticks to the top of its mouth because it’s so thirsty; the little children beg for bread, but nobody gives any to them.
5 People who ate fine foods are now alone in the streets; those who wore red clothes hug trash heaps.
6 The punishment for my people’s wrongs is worse than what Sodom faced, which was destroyed suddenly without anyone helping.
7 Her holy people were cleaner than snow, they were brighter than milk, their bodies were redder than jewels, and they shone like sapphires.
8 Their faces are darker than black; they are unrecognizable in the streets: their skin sticks to their bones; it is dried up and has become like a stick.
9 People killed by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger, for the hungry waste away, suffering for lack of food from the fields.
10 Compassionate women have cooked their own children; they became their food during my people’s ruin.
11 God has carried out his anger; he has unleashed his intense wrath and started a fire in Zion that has consumed its foundations.
12 Earth’s rulers and everyone living in the world would not have believed that the foe and enemy could come into Jerusalem’s gates.
13 Because her prophets sinned and her priests did wrong, spilling the blood of innocent people among her,
14 They wandered around like blind people in the streets; they made themselves dirty with blood, so no one could touch their clothes.
15 They called out to them, “Leave; you are unclean; go away, do not touch.” As they ran and roamed, among the nations it was said, “They will not stay there anymore.”
16 God’s anger has scattered them; He will no longer look after them: they did not respect the priests, they did not honor the old people.
17 We keep looking for help that never comes, and we have waited for a country that cannot rescue us.
18 They chase us so we can’t walk in our streets; our end is close, our days are over, for our end has arrived.
19 Our enemies chase us faster than eagles in the sky; they chased us on the mountains and set traps for us in the desert.
20 The one we breathed through, God’s chosen one, was captured by them, and we thought we would live safely under his protection even among foreign nations.
21 Be happy and glad, you daughter of Edom, living in the land of Uz; the cup will also come to you: you will get drunk and undress.
22 Your punishment is finished, daughter of Zion; you won’t be taken away anymore: but he will punish your sins, daughter of Edom; he will expose your wrongs.