Lamentations 4
Distress of the Siege Described
1How adark the gold has become,How the pure gold has changed!
The sacred stones are poured out
At the ▼
▼ Lit head
corner of every street.2The precious sons of Zion,
Weighed against fine gold,
How they are regarded as cearthen jars,
The work of a potter’s hands!
3Even djackals offer the breast,
They nurse their young;
But the daughter of my people has become ecruel
Like fostriches in the wilderness.
4The gtongue of the infant cleaves
To the roof of its mouth because of hthirst;
The little ones iask for bread,
But no one breaks it for them.
5Those who ate jdelicacies
Are desolate in the streets;
Those ▼
▼ Lit established in crimson
reared in purpleEmbrace ash pits.
6For the ▼
▼ Or punishment for iniquity
iniquity of the daughter of my peopleIs greater than the ▼
▼ Or punishment for sin
,
nsin of Sodom,Which was ooverthrown as in a moment,
And no hands were ▼
▼ Or wrung over her
turned toward her.7Her ▼
▼ Or Nazirites
consecrated ones were rpurer than snow,They were whiter than milk;
They were more ruddy in ▼
▼ Lit bones
body than corals,Their polishing was like ▼
▼ Heb sappir
,
ulapis lazuli.8Their appearance is vblacker than soot,
They are not recognized in the streets;
Their wskin is shriveled on their bones,
It is withered, it has become like wood.
9Better are those ▼
▼ Lit pierced
,
yslain with the swordThan those ▼
▼ Lit pierced
slain with hunger;For they ▼
▼ Lit flow away
,
abpine away, being strickenFor lack of the fruits of ▼
▼ Lit my fields
the field.10The hands of compassionate women
adBoiled their own children;
They became aefood for them
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11The Lord has afaccomplished His wrath,
He has poured out His fierce anger;
And He has agkindled a fire in Zion
Which has consumed its foundations.
12The kings of the earth did not believe,
Nor did any of ahthe inhabitants of the world,
That the adversary and the enemy
Could aienter the gates of Jerusalem.
13Because of the sins of her ajprophets
And the iniquities of her priests,
Who have shed in her midst
The akblood of the righteous;
14They wandered, alblind, in the streets;
They were defiled with amblood
So that no one could touch their angarments.
15“Depart! aoUnclean!” ▼
▼ Or they (men) cried to them
they cried of themselves.“Depart, depart, do not touch!”
So they aqfled and wandered;
Men among the nations said,
“They shall not continue to dwell with us.”
16The presence of the Lord has scattered them,
He will not continue to regard them;
They did not ▼
▼ Lit lift up the faces of
,
ashonor the priests,They did not favor the elders.
17Yet our eyes failed,
Looking for ▼
▼ Lit our help
help was auuseless;In our watching we have watched
For a avnation that could not save.
18They awhunted our steps
So that we could not walk in our streets;
Our axend drew near,
Our days were ▼
▼ Lit full
finishedFor our end had come.
19Our pursuers were azswifter
Than the eagles of the sky;
They chased us on the mountains,
They waited in ambush for us in the wilderness.
20The babreath of our nostrils, the bbLord’s anointed,
Was bccaptured in their pits,
Of whom we had said, “Under his bdshadow
We shall live among the nations.”
21Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of beEdom,
Who dwells in the land of Uz;
But the bfcup will come around to you as well,
You will become drunk and make yourself naked.
22 The punishment of your iniquity has been bgcompleted, O daughter of Zion;
He will exile you no longer.
But He bhwill punish your iniquity, O daughter of Edom;
He will expose your sins!
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