Lamentations 4:1-12

The Punishment of Zion Accomplished

4¹ How the gold has grown dim, how the pure gold is changed! The sacred stones lie scattered at the head of every street. ² The precious children of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold- how they are reckoned as earthen pots, the work of a potter's hands! ³ Even the jackals offer the breast and nurse their young, but my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. ⁴ The tongue of the infant sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but no one gives them anything. ⁵ Those who feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple cling to ash heaps. ⁶ For the chastisement of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, though no hand was laid on it. ⁷ Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, their hair like sapphire. ⁸ Now their visage 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 those pierced by the sword than those pierced by hunger, whose life drains away, deprived of the produce of the field. ¹⁰ The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food in the destruction of my people. ¹¹ The Lord gave full vent to his wrath; he poured out his hot anger, and kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations. ¹² The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the inhabitants of the world, that foe or enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.