Lamentations 4-5

Lamentations 4

¹How is the gold become dim! [how] is the most pure gold changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.

²The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

³Even the jackals draw out the breast, they nurse their young ones: The daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

⁴The tongue of the nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst: The young children ask bread, and no man breaks it to them.

⁵Those who did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: Those who were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

⁶For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were laid on her.

⁷Her nobles were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk; They were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was as of sapphire.

⁸Their appearance is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: Their skin clings to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

⁹Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.

¹⁰The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children; They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

¹¹Yahweh has accomplished his wrath, he has poured out his fierce anger; He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured its foundations.

¹²The kings of the earth didn't believe, neither all the inhabitants of the world, That the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³[It is] because of the sins of her prophets, [and] the iniquities of her priests, That have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.

¹⁴They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, So that men can't touch their garments.

¹⁵Depart! they cried to them, Unclean! depart, depart, don't touch! When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, They shall no more live [here].

¹⁶The anger of Yahweh has scattered them; he will no more regard them: They didn't respect the persons of the priests, they didn't favor the elders.

¹⁷Our eyes do yet fail [in looking] for our vain help: In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.

¹⁸They hunt our steps, so that we can't go in our streets: Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

¹⁹Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky: They chased us on the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

²⁰The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Yahweh, was taken in their pits; Of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.

²¹Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, that dwell in the land of Uz: The cup shall pass through to you also; you shall be drunken, and shall make yourself naked.

²²The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, daughter of Zion; he will no more carry you away into captivity: He will visit your iniquity, daughter of Edom; he will uncover your sins.

Lamentations 5

¹Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us: Look, and see our reproach.

²Our inheritance is turned to strangers, Our houses to aliens.

³We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows.

⁴We have drunken our water for money; Our wood is sold to us.

⁵Our pursuers are on our necks: We are weary, and have no rest.

⁶We have given the hand to the Egyptians, To the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

⁷Our fathers sinned, and are no more; We have borne their iniquities.

⁸Servants rule over us: There is none to deliver us out of their hand.

⁹We get our bread at the peril of our lives, Because of the sword of the wilderness.

¹⁰Our skin is black like an oven, Because of the burning heat of famine.

¹¹They ravished the women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah.

¹²Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored.

¹³The young men bare the mill; The children stumbled under the wood.

¹⁴The elders have ceased from the gate, The young men from their music.

¹⁵The joy of our heart is ceased; Our dance is turned into mourning.

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

¹⁷For this our heart is faint; For these things our eyes are dim;

¹⁸For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate: The foxes walk on it.

¹⁹You, Yahweh, remain forever; Your throne is from generation to generation.

²⁰Why do you forget us forever, [And] forsake us so long time?

²¹Turn us to yourself, Yahweh, and we shall be turned. Renew our days as of old.

²²But you have utterly rejected us; You are very angry against us.