AFV2020 - Lamentations - 4

4:1  How the gold has become dim; the fine gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.

4:2  The precious sons of Zion are weighed against pure gold; how they are counted as earthen vessels, the work of a potter's hands!

4:3  Even the jackals draw out the breast; they suckle their young ones. The daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

4:4  The infant's tongue cleaves to the roof of his mouth in thirst; the young children ask for bread; there is no one breaking it for them.

4:5  Those who ate delicacies are desolate in the streets; those reared in scarlet embrace dunghills.

4:6  For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, with no hands to help her.

4:7  Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:

4:8  But now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled upon their bones; it is dried up; it has become like a stick.

4:9  Better are the ones slain by the sword than the ones slain by hunger; for these pine away, stricken for want of the fruits of the field.

4:10  The hands of the women of compassion have boiled their own children; they became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

4:11  The LORD has accomplished His fury; He has poured out His fierce anger, and has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has devoured its foundations.

4:12  The kings of the earth, and all the people of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy would go into Jerusalem's gates.

4:13  For the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in her midst,

4:14  They wandered blindly through the streets; they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their clothes.

4:15  They cried to them, "Depart! Unclean! Depart, depart! Touch not!" Indeed, they fled away and wandered; they said among the nations, "They will not continue to live there."

4:16  The face of the LORD has scattered them; He will no longer watch over them; they did not respect the persons of the priests; they were not gracious to the elders.

4:17  As for us, our eyes fail, for our help is vain; in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.

4:18  They hunted our steps so that we cannot go in our streets; our end was near, our days were fulfilled, for our end has come.

4:19  Our persecutors were swifter than the eagles of heaven; they pursued us on the mountains, they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

4:20  The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits—of whom we said, "Under his shadow we shall live among the nations."

4:21  Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, who lives in the land of Uz. The cup also shall pass through unto you; you shall be made drunken and stripped naked.

4:22  The punishment of your iniquity is fulfilled, O daughter of Zion; He will exile you no more. But He will punish you for your iniquity, O daughter of Edom; He will expose your sins.