Lamentations 4:1-12

The Punishment of Zion Accomplished

4¹ How is the gold become dim! the most pure gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary poured out at the top of all the streets! ² The sons of Zion, so precious, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! ³ Even the jackals offer the breast, they give suck to their young; 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, no man breaketh it unto them. ⁵ They that fed delicately are desolate in the streets; they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dung-hills. ⁶ And the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the reward of the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were violently laid upon her. ⁷ Her Nazarites were purer than snow, whiter than milk; they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their figure was as sapphire. ⁸ Their visage is darker than blackness, they are not known in the streets; their skin cleaveth to their bones, it is withered, it is become like a stick. ⁹ The slain with the sword are happier than the slain with hunger; for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field. ¹⁰ The hands of pitiful women have boiled their own children: they were their meat in the ruin of the daughter of my people. ¹¹ Jehovah hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, which hath consumed the foundations thereof. ¹² The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should enter into the gates of Jerusalem.