# Lamentations 4 
<a id="1" name="1"></a>
1. How the gold has grown dim, how the pure gold is changed! The holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street. 
<a id="2" name="2"></a>
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! 
<a id="3" name="3"></a>
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. 
<a id="4" name="4"></a>
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. 
<a id="5" name="5"></a>
5. Those who once feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple embrace ash heaps. 
<a id="6" name="6"></a>
6. For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were wrung for her. 
<a id="7" name="7"></a>
7. Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, the beauty of their form was like sapphire. 
<a id="8" name="8"></a>
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. 
<a id="9" name="9"></a>
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. 
<a id="10" name="10"></a>
10. The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people. 
<a id="11" name="11"></a>
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. 
<a id="12" name="12"></a>
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. 
<a id="13" name="13"></a>
13. This was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous. 
<a id="14" name="14"></a>
14. They wandered, blind, through the streets; they were so defiled with blood that no one was able to touch their garments. 
<a id="15" name="15"></a>
15. “Away! Unclean!” people cried at them. “Away! Away! Do not touch!” So they became fugitives and wanderers; people said among the nations, “They shall stay with us no longer.” 
<a id="16" name="16"></a>
16. The LORD himself has scattered them; he will regard them no more; no honor was shown to the priests, no favor to the elders. 
<a id="17" name="17"></a>
17. Our eyes failed, ever watching vainly for help; in our watching we watched for a nation which could not save. 
<a id="18" name="18"></a>
18. They dogged our steps so that we could not walk in our streets; our end drew near; our days were numbered, for our end had come. 
<a id="19" name="19"></a>
19. Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles in the heavens; they chased us on the mountains; they lay in wait for us in the wilderness. 
<a id="20" name="20"></a>
20. The breath of our nostrils, the LORD’s anointed, was captured in their pits, of whom we said, “Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.” 
<a id="21" name="21"></a>
21. Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz; but to you also the cup shall pass; you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare. 
<a id="22" name="22"></a>
22. The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished; he will keep you in exile no longer; but your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will punish; he will uncover your sins. 

(ESV)