Lamentations 4-5

American Standard Version

4 How is the gold become dim! how is the most pure gold changed!
The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.
² The precious sons of Zion, ^[a]comparable to fine gold,
How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
³ Even the jackals draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones:
The daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
⁴ The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst:
The young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.
⁵ They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets:
They that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
⁶ For ^[b]the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than ^[c]the sin of Sodom,
That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands ^[d]were laid upon her.
⁷ Her ^[e]nobles were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk;
They were more ruddy in body than ^[f]rubies, their polishing was as of sapphire.
⁸ Their visage is ^[g]blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets:
Their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.
⁹ They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger;
For these ^[h]pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.
¹⁰ The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children;
They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

¹¹ Jehovah hath accomplished his wrath, he hath poured out his fierce anger;
And he hath kindled a fire in Zion, which hath devoured the foundations thereof.
¹² The kings of the earth believed not, neither all the inhabitants of the world,
That the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.
¹³ It is because of the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests,
That have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.
¹⁴ They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood,
So that men cannot touch their garments.
¹⁵ Depart ye, they cried unto them, Unclean! depart, depart, touch not!
^[i]When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, They shall no more sojourn here.
¹⁶ The ^[j]anger of Jehovah hath scattered them; he will no more regard them:
They respected not the persons of the priests, they favored not the elders.

¹⁷ Our eyes do yet fail in looking for our vain help:
In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.
¹⁸ They hunt our steps, so that we cannot go in our streets:
Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
¹⁹ Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens:
They chased us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
²⁰ The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Jehovah, was taken in their pits;
Of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.

²¹ Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz:
The cup shall pass through unto thee also; thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.
^22 [k]The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity:
He will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will uncover thy sins.

5 Remember, O Jehovah, what is come upon us:
Behold, and see our reproach.
² Our inheritance is turned unto strangers,
Our houses unto aliens.
³ We are orphans and fatherless;
Our mothers are as widows.
⁴ We have drunken our water for money;
Our wood ^[l]is sold unto us.
⁵ Our pursuers are upon our necks:
We are weary, and have no rest.
⁶ We have given the hand to the Egyptians,
And to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
⁷ Our fathers sinned, and are not;
And we have borne their iniquities.
⁸ Servants rule over us:
There is none to deliver us out of their hand.
⁹ We get our bread at the peril of our lives,
Because of the sword of the wilderness.
¹⁰ Our skin is ^[m]black like an oven,
Because of the burning heat of famine.
¹¹ They ravished the women in Zion,
The virgins in the cities of Judah.
¹² Princes were hanged up by their hand:
The faces of elders were not honored.
¹³ The young men bare the mill;
And the children stumbled under the wood.
¹⁴ The elders have ceased from the gate,
The young men from their music.
¹⁵ The joy of our heart is ceased;
Our dance is turned into mourning.
¹⁶ The crown is fallen from our head:
Woe unto us! for we have sinned.
¹⁷ For this our heart is faint;
For these things our eyes are dim;
¹⁸ For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate:
The ^[n]foxes walk upon it.

¹⁹ Thou, O Jehovah, ^[o]abidest for ever;
Thy throne is from generation to generation.
²⁰ Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever,
And forsake us so long time?
²¹ Turn thou us unto thee, O Jehovah, and we shall be turned;
Renew our days as of old.
^22 [p]But thou hast utterly rejected us;
Thou art very wroth against us.