Lamentations 4-5

Lamentations 4

¹How the gold has become tarnished, the pure gold has become dull! The gems of the temple lie scattered on every street corner.

²How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in pure gold, are now esteemed as jars of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!

³Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.

⁴The nursing infant’s tongue clings in thirst to the roof of his mouth. Little children beg for bread, but no one gives them any.

⁵Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps.

⁶The punishment of the daughter of my people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in an instant without a hand turned to help her.

⁷Her dignitaries were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than rubies, their appearance like sapphires.

⁸But now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.

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

¹⁰The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

¹¹The LORD has exhausted His wrath; He has poured out His fierce anger; He has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has consumed her foundations.

¹²The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any people of the world, that an enemy or a foe could enter the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³But this was for the sins of her prophets and the guilt of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst.

¹⁴They wandered blind in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments.

¹⁵“Go away! Unclean!” men shouted at them. “Away, away! Do not touch us!” So they fled and wandered. Among the nations it was said, “They can stay here no longer.”

¹⁶The presence of the LORD has scattered them; He regards them no more. The priests are shown no honor; the elders find no favor.

¹⁷All the while our eyes were failing as we looked in vain for help. We watched from our towers for a nation that could not save us.

¹⁸They stalked our every step, so that we could not walk in our streets. Our end drew near, our time ran out, for our end had come!

¹⁹Those who chased us were swifter than the eagles in the sky; they pursued us over the mountains and ambushed us in the wilderness.

²⁰The LORD’s anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their pits. We had said of him, “Under his shadow we will live among the nations.”

²¹So rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz. Yet the cup will pass to you as well; you will get drunk and expose yourself.

²²O Daughter of Zion, your punishment is complete; He will not prolong your exile. But He will punish your iniquity, O Daughter of Edom; He will expose your sins.

Lamentations 5

¹Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace!

²Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.

³We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers are widows.

⁴We must buy the water we drink; our wood comes at a price.

⁵We are closely pursued; we are weary and find no rest.

⁶We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.

⁷Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their punishment.

⁸Slaves rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hands.

⁹We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness.

¹⁰Our skin is as hot as an oven with fever from our hunger.

¹¹Women have been ravished in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.

¹²Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders receive no respect.

¹³Young men toil at millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood.

¹⁴The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.

¹⁵Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.

¹⁶The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹⁷Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim—

¹⁸because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate, patrolled by foxes.

¹⁹You, O LORD, reign forever; Your throne endures from generation to generation.

²⁰Why have You forgotten us forever? Why have You forsaken us for so long?

²¹Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, so we may return; renew our days as of old,

²²unless You have utterly rejected us and remain angry with us beyond measure.