< Lamentations 4 >
1 How is dimmed the gold! changed the most fine gold! Poured out are the stones of the sanctuary, at the top of all the streets.
2 The precious sons of Zion, they who were weighed against pure gold, How are they accounted as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
3 Even wild dogs, draw out the breast, give suck to their whelps—The daughter of my people, hath become cruel, like the ostriches in the desert.
4 The tongue of the suckling, cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst, —Young children, have asked bread, there was none, to break, it to them.
5 They who used to eat delicacies, are deserted in the streets, —They who used to be carried on crimson, have embraced heaps of refuse.
6 And the punishment of the daughter of my people hath grown greater than the punishment of Sodom, —which was overthrown as in a moment, when no hands had been laid violently upon her.
7 Purer were her Nazirites than snow, whiter were they than milk, —more ruddy, in body, than coral, A sapphire, was their beauty of form.
8 Darker than a coal, is their visage, They are not known in the streets—Their skin shrivelleth on their bones, is withered, become like a stick.
9 Better are the slain of the sword, than the slain of the famine, —for, these, pine away, stricken through, wanting the produce of the field.
10 The hands of compassionate women, have cooked their own children, —they have served as nourishment to them, in the grievous injury of the daughter of my people.
11 Yahweh hath completed his indignation, hath poured out the glow of his anger; and hath kindled a fire in Zion, which hath devoured her foundations.
12 Neither the kings of the earth, nor any of the inhabitants of the world, believed, that an adversary or an enemy, should enter, the gates of Jerusalem!
13 [It is] for the sins of her prophets, the iniquities of her priests, —who have been pouring out, in her midst, the blood of the righteous!
14 They have wandered—blind—in the streets, have defiled themselves with blood; so that men may not touch their garments.
15 Turn aside! Unclean! have they cried to them, Turn aside! Turn aside! Do not touch! because they have fled, yea, wandered, Men said among the nations, They will not again tarry;
16 The face of Yahweh, hath scattered them, He will look them out no more: The persons of the priests, they have not respected, To the elders, have they shown no favour.
17 Silly shall our eyes fail, for our help that is vain: In our watchtower, have we watched—for a nation that will not save.
18 They have laid snares for our steps, that we cannot walk in our own broadways: Drawn near hath our end, Fulfilled are our days, yea arrived hath our end.
19 Swifter are our pursuers, than the eagles of the heavens, —Over the mountains, have they come hotly after us, In the wilderness, have they lain in wait for us.
20 The fragrance of our nostrils, The Anointed of Yahweh, hath been captured in their pits, —of whom we had said—In his shade, shall we live among the nations.
21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, thou inhabitress in the and of Uz, —Even unto thee, shall the cup pass along, thou shalt be drunken, and expose thy shame.
22 Completed is thy punishment, O daughter of Zion, He will no more carry thee away captive—He hath punished thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he hath stripped the veil from off thy sins.
