LEB - Lamentations - 4

4:1  How the gold has grown dim, the pure gold has changed. The stones of holiness are scattered at the head of every street.

4:2  The precious sons of Zion weighed against fine gold, how they are thought of as earthen vessels of clay, the work of the potter’s hands.

4:3  Even the jackal bears the beast and nurses their cubs; but the daughter of my people has become ruthless, like ostriches in the wilderness.

4:4  The tongue of the nursling cleaves to its palate in thirst. Children beg for food, ⌞no one lays it out before them⌟.

4:5  The ones who eat delicacies, they are ruined in the streets; the ones nurtured in purple lie on piles of trash.

4:6  The iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom; it was overthrown in a moment and no hands were laid on her.

4:7  Her princes were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than rubies, sapphire their appearance.

4:8  Now their appearance is blacker than soot, they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones, it has become dry like wood.

4:9  Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of famine; they have pined away, very hungry for the crops of my field.

4:10  The hands of compassionate women, have cooked their children; they became as something to eat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

4:11  Yahweh has completed his anger, he has poured out ⌞his fierce anger⌟; he has kindled a fire in Zion, it consumed her foundations.

4:12  The kings of the earth did not believe, and all the inhabitants of the world, that a foe and an enemy could enter into the gates of Jerusalem.

4:13  Because of the sins of her prophets, the guilt of her priests, who shed blood in her midst, of righteous people.

4:14  They wander blindly in the streets; they were defiled with the blood, their clothes could not be touched.

4:15  “Go away! Defiled!” they shout to them. “Go away! Go away! Do not touch!” so they left, they left; it was said among the nations, “⌞They will no longer dwell with us⌟.”

4:16  The presence of Yahweh has scattered them, he will no longer watch over them; ⌞they did not honor the priests⌟, they did not show mercy to elders.

4:17  Still our eyes failed, looking for our help in vain; in our watchtower, we kept watch for a nation that could not save.

4:18  They hunted our steps, from walking in our streets; our end has come near, ⌞our days are finished⌟, our end has come.

4:19  Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens; they chased us on the mountains, they have set an ambush for us in the desert.

4:20  The breath of our nostrils, the anointed one of Yahweh, was captured in their pits; of whom we said, “In his shadow we will live among the nations.”

4:21  Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz; but to you also the cup will pass, you will become drunk and strip yourself bare.

4:22  The punishment of your iniquity is completed, O daughter of Zion, your exile will not continue; but he will punish your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will reveal your sins.