Lamentations 4:1-10 ▼

1 Alas! Gold has lost its luster; pure gold loses value. Jewels are scattered on every street corner.

2 The precious sons of Zion were worth their weight in gold--Alas!--but now they are treated like broken clay pots, made by a potter.

3 Even the jackals nurse their young at their breast, but my people are cruel, like ostriches in the desert.

4 The infant's tongue sticks to the roof of its mouth due to thirst; little children beg for bread, but no one gives them even a morsel.

5 Those who once feasted on delicacies are now starving to death in the streets. Those who grew up wearing expensive clothes are now dying amid garbage.

6 The punishment of my people exceeded that of of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment with no one to help her.

7 Her consecrated ones were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies more ruddy than corals, their hair like lapis lazuli.

8 Now their appearance is darker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it is dried up, like tree bark.

9 Those who died by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger, those who waste away, struck down from lack of food.

10 The hands of tenderhearted women cooked their own children, who became their food, when my people were destroyed.