Lamentations 4:9-22 ▼

9 Those who die by the sword are better off than those who die from starvation, who slowly waste away like those pierced through for lack of food from the fields.

10 With their own hands, compassionate women boil their own children— they become their food— when my beloved people were destroyed.

11 The LORD has exhausted his wrath, pouring out his fierce anger. He kindled a fire in Zion, consuming its foundations.

12 None of the kings of the earth would have believed, nor the world's inhabitants, that the adversary and the enemy could have breached the gates of Jerusalem.

13 Due to the sins committed by her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests who shed in her midst, the blood of the righteous,

14 people stagger around in the streets like the blind, defiled by blood unclean so that no one is able to touch their clothing.

15 |Go away! Unclean!| they shouted at them. |Go away! Go away! Don't touch!| When they fled away and wandered, those among the nations decreed, |They cannot live here!|

16 The LORD himself separated them; he will do nothing more for them. They did not respect their own priests; they did not honor their elders.

17 Our eyes failed, searching in vain for hope; we kept watching and looking for a nation that would not help.

18 Our steps were closely stalked, so we couldn't travel on our own streets. Our end is near, our days are over; indeed, our end has come.

19 Our pursuers were swifter than soaring eagles; they pursued us over the mountains, lying in wait for us in the wilderness.

20 The LORD's anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their pits. About him we had said, |Under his protection we will survive among the nations.|

21 Celebrate and rejoice, you women of Edom, who live in the land of Uz. But to you the cup also will pass— you will become drunk and stripped naked.

22 The punishment for your sin is complete, you women of Zion, and God will no longer exile you. He will punish your iniquity, you women of Edom, and he will expose your sins.