Lamentations 4:1-12

The Punishment of Zion Accomplished

4¹ How the gold has grown dim, how the pure gold is changed! The holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street. ² The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how they are regarded as earthen pots, the work of a potter's hands! 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 sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but no one gives to them. ⁵ Those who once feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple embrace ash heaps. ⁶ For the chastisement[1] of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment[2] of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were wrung for her.[3] ⁷ Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, the beauty of their form[4] was like sapphire.[5] ⁸ Now 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 The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people. ¹¹ The Lord gave full vent to his wrath; he poured out his hot anger, and he kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations. ¹² The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any of the inhabitants of the world, that foe or enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.