1How is the gold become dim!

How is the most fine gold changed!

The hallowed stones are poured out

At the head of every street.

2The precious sons of Zion,

Comparable to fine gold,

How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers,

The work of the hands of the potter!

3Even the jackals draw out the breast,

They give suck to their young ones;

The daughter of my people is become cruel,

Like the ostriches in the wilderness.

4The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth

To the roof of his mouth for thirst;

The young children ask bread,

And none breaketh it unto them.

5They that did feed on dainties

Are desolate in the streets;

They that were brought up in scarlet

Embrace dunghills.

6For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater

Than the sin of Sodom,

That was overthrown as in a moment,

And no hands fell upon her.

7Her princes were purer than snow,

They were whiter than milk,

They were more ruddy in body than rubies,

Their polishing was as of sapphire;

8Their visage is blacker than a coal;

They are not known in the streets;

Their skin is shrivelled upon their bones;

It is withered, it is become like a stick.

9They that are slain with the sword are better

Than they that are slain with hunger;

For these pine away, stricken through,

For want of the fruits of the field.

10The hands of women full of compassion

Have sodden their own children;

They were their food

In the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11The LORD hath accomplished His fury,

He hath poured out His fierce anger;

And He hath kindled a fire in Zion,

Which hath devoured the foundations thereof.

12The kings of the earth believed not,

Neither all the inhabitants of the world,

That the adversary and the enemy would enter

Into the gates of Jerusalem.

13It is because of the sins of her prophets,

And the iniquities of her priests,

That have shed the blood of the just

In the midst of her.

14They wander as blind men in the streets,

They are polluted with blood,

So that men cannot

Touch their garments.

15‘Depart ye! unclean!’ men cried unto them,

‘Depart, depart, touch not’;

Yea, they fled away and wandered;

Men said among the nations:

‘They shall no more sojourn here.’

16The anger of the LORD hath divided them;

He will no more regard them;

They respected not the persons of the priests,

They were not gracious unto the elders.

17As for us, our eyes do yet fail

For our vain help;

In our watching we have watched

For a nation that could not save.

18They hunt our steps,

That we cannot go in our broad places;

Our end is near, our days are fulfilled;

For our end is come.

19Our pursuers were swifter

Than the eagles of the heaven;

They chased us upon the mountains,

They lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

20The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD,

Was taken in their pits;

Of whom we said: ‘Under his shadow

We shall live among the nations.’

21Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom,

That dwellest in the land of Uz:

The cup shall pass over unto thee also;

Thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.

22The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion,

He will no more carry thee away into captivity;

He will punish thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom,

He will uncover thy sins.