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1 [ALEPH-BET] How the gold has become dim, || Changed the best—the pure gold! Stones of the sanctuary are poured out || At the head of all out-places. 2 The precious sons of Zion, || Who are comparable with fine gold, || How they have been reckoned earthen bottles, || Work of the hands of a potter. 3 Even dragons have drawn out the breast, || They have suckled their young ones, || The daughter of my people has become cruel, || Like the ostriches in a wilderness. 4 The tongue of a suckling has cleaved to his palate with thirst, || Infants asked for bread, they have no dealer [of it] out. 5 Those eating of delicacies have been desolate in out-places, || Those supported on scarlet have embraced dunghills. 6 And greater is the iniquity of the daughter of my people, || Than the sin of Sodom, || That was overturned as [in] a moment, || And no hands were stayed on her. 7 Purer were her Nazarites than snow, || Whiter than milk, ruddier of body than rubies, || Of sapphire their form. 8 Their face has been darker than blackness, || They have not been known in out-places, || Their skin has cleaved to their bone, || It has withered—it has been as wood. 9 Better have been the pierced of a sword || Than the pierced of famine, || For these flow away, pierced through, || Without the increase of the field. 10 The hands of merciful women have boiled their own children, || They have been for food to them, || In the destruction of the daughter of my people. 11 YHWH has completed His fury, || He has poured out the fierceness of His anger, || And He kindles a fire in Zion, || And it devours her foundations. 12 The kings of earth did not believe, || And any of the inhabitants of the world, || That an adversary and enemy would come || Into the gates of Jerusalem. 13 Because of the sins of her prophets, || The iniquities of her priests, || Who are shedding in her midst the blood of the righteous, 14 They have wandered naked in out-places, || They have been defiled with blood, || Without [any] being able to touch their clothing, Lamentations 4:1-14, Literal Standard Version. Copyright © 2020 Covenant Press.
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