Lam 4:3-10 | ESV | STEP | Even jackals offer the breast ; they nurse their young ; but the daughter of my people has become cruel , like the ostriches in the wilderness .

Lamentations 4:3-10

3 Even jackals offer the breast;
they nurse their young;
but the daughter of my people has become cruel,
like the ostriches in the wilderness.
4 The tongue of the nursing infant ^asticks
to the roof of its mouth for thirst;
^bthe children beg for food,
but no one gives to them.
5 Those who once feasted on delicacies
perish in the streets;
^cthose who were brought up in purple
embrace ash heaps.
6 ^dFor the chastisement ^{▼▼Or iniquity} of the daughter of my people has been greater
than the punishment ^{▼▼Or sin} of Sodom,
^gwhich was overthrown in a moment,
and no hands were wrung for her. ^{▼▼The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain}
7 Her princes were purer than snow,
whiter than milk;
their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
the beauty of their form ^{▼▼The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain} was like sapphire. ^{▼▼Hebrew lapis lazuli}
8 ^kNow their face is blacker than soot;
they are not recognized in the streets;
their skin has shriveled on their bones;
it has become as dry as wood.
9 Happier were the victims of the sword
than the victims of hunger,
who wasted away, pierced
by lack of the fruits of the field.
10 ^lThe hands of ^mcompassionate women
ⁿhave boiled their own children;
^othey became their food
during the destruction of the daughter of my people.