Lamentations 4:1-16 ▼

1 How the gold has become tarnished, the fine gold become dull! The stones of the temple lie scattered at the head of every street.

2 Zion’s precious children — once worth their weight in pure gold — how they are regarded as clay jars, the work of a potter’s hands!

3 Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but my dear people have become cruel like ostriches in the wilderness.

4 The nursing baby’s tongue clings to the roof of his mouth from thirst. Infants beg for food, but no one gives them any.

5 Those who used to eat delicacies are destitute in the streets; those who were reared in purple garments huddle in trash heaps.

6 The punishment of my dear people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in an instant without a hand laid on it.

7 Her dignitaries were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, their appearance like lapis lazuli.

8 Now they appear darker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become dry like wood.

9 Those slain by the sword are better off than those slain by hunger, who waste away, pierced with pain because the fields lack produce.

10 The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children; they became their food during the destruction of my dear people.

11 The LORD has exhausted his wrath, poured out his burning anger; he has ignited a fire in Zion, and it has consumed her foundations.

12 The kings of the earth and all the world’s inhabitants did not believe that an enemy or adversary could enter Jerusalem’s gates.

13 Yet it happened because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous within her.

14 Blind, they stumbled in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments.

15 “Stay away! Unclean! ” people shouted at them. “Away, away! Don’t touch us! ” So they wandered aimlessly. It was said among the nations, “They can stay here no longer.”

16 The LORD himself has scattered them; he no longer watches over them. The priests are not respected; the elders find no favor.