Lamentations 4:1-10 ▼

1 How dark the gold has become, How the pure gold has changed! The sacred stones are poured out At the head of every street.

2 The precious sons of Zion, Weighed against fine gold, How they are regarded as earthen jars, The work of a potter’s hands!

3 Even jackals offer the breast; They nurse their young; But the daughter of my people has become cruel Like ostriches in the wilderness.

4 The tongue of the nursing baby cleaves To the roof of its mouth because of thirst; The infants ask for bread, But no one breaks it for them.

5 Those who ate delicacies Are desolate in the streets; Those reared in crimson Embrace ash pits.

6 So the iniquity of the daughter of my people Is greater than the sin of Sodom, Which was overthrown as in a moment, And no hands whirled toward her.

7 Her Nazirites were purer than snow; They were whiter than milk; They were more ruddy in body than corals, Their polishing was like lapis lazuli.

8 Their form is blacker than soot; They are not recognized in the streets; Their skin is shriveled on their bones; It is withered, it has become like wood.

9 Better are those pierced through with the sword Than those pierced through with hunger; For their life flows away, being stricken For lack of the produce of the field.

10 The hands of compassionate women Boiled their own children; They became food for them Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.