‏ Lamentations 4

Distress of the Siege Described


1 How adark the gold has become,
How the pure gold has changed!
The sacred stones are spilled out
At the
Lit head
corner of every street.

2 The precious sons of Zion,
Weighed against pure gold,
How they are regarded as cearthenware jars,
The work of a potter’s hands!

3 Even djackals offer the breast,
They nurse their young;
But the daughter of my people has proved herself ecruel,
Like fostriches in the wilderness.

4 The gtongue of the infant clings
To the roof of its mouth because of hthirst;
The children iask for bread,
But no one breaks it for them.

5 Those who used to eat jdelicacies
Are made to tremble in the streets;
Those who were raised in crimson clothing
Embrace garbage heaps.

6 For the
Or punishment for wrongdoing
wrongdoing of the daughter of my people
Is greater than the
Or punishment for sin
msin of Sodom,
Which was noverthrown as in a moment,
I.e., without human intervention
And no hands were turned toward her.

7 Her
Or Nazirites
consecrated ones were qpurer than snow,
They shined more than milk;
They were more ruddy in
Lit bones
body than pearls of coral,
Their form was like
Heb sappir
tlapis lazuli.

8 Their appearance is udarker than soot,
They are not recognized in the streets;
Their vskin is shriveled on their bones,
It is dry, it has become like wood.

9 Better off are those wkilled by the sword
Than those killed by hunger;
For they
Lit flow away
ywaste away,
Lit pierced through
stricken
By the lack of the produce of the field.

10 The hands of compassionate women
aaBoiled their own children;
They became abfood for them
Due to the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11 The Lord has acexpended His wrath,
He has poured out His fierce anger;
And He has adkindled a fire in Zion,
And it has consumed its foundations.

12 The kings of the earth did not believe,
Nor did any of aethe inhabitants of the world,
That the adversary and the enemy
Would afenter the gates of Jerusalem.

13 Because of the sins of her agprophets
And the wrongdoings of her priests,
Who have shed in her midst
The ahblood of the righteous,

14 They wandered, aiblind, in the streets;
They were defiled with ajblood,
Such that no one could touch their akgarments.

15 “Keep away! alUnclean!”
Or they (other people) cried to them
they cried out of themselves.
Keep away, keep away, do not touch!”
For they andistanced themselves as well as wandered;
People among the nations said,
“They shall not continue to reside with us.

16 The presence of the Lord has scattered them,
He will not continue to look at them;
They did not
Lit lift up the faces of
aphonor the priests,
They did not favor the elders.

17 Yet our eyes failed,
Looking for
Lit our help
help was aruseless;
At our observation point we have watched
For a asnation that could not save.

18 They athunted our steps
So that we could not walk in our streets;
Our auend drew near,
Our days were
Lit full
finished
For our end had come.

19 Our pursuers were awswifter
Than the eagles of the sky;
They chased us on the mountains,
They waited in ambush for us in the wilderness.

20 The axbreath of our nostrils, the ayLord’s anointed,
Was azcaptured in their pits,
Of whom we had said, “
I.e., under his protection
In his bbshadow
We shall live among the nations.”

21 Rejoice and be joyful, daughter of bcEdom,
Who lives in the land of Uz;
But the bdcup will pass to you as well,
You will become drunk and expose yourself.

22 The punishment of your wrongdoing has been becompleted, daughter of Zion;
He will no longer exile you.
But He bfwill punish your wrongdoing, daughter of Edom;
He will expose your sins!
Copyright information for NASB2020