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 reckoned as earthen pots, the work of a potter's hands! ³ Even the jackals give the breast and suckle their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. ⁴ The tongue of the nursling cleaves to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but no one gives to them. ⁵ Those who feasted on dainties perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple lie on ash heaps. ⁶ For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, no hand being laid on it. 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. ⁸ Now their visage is blacker than soot, they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled upon their bones, it has become as dry as wood. ⁹ Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who pined away, stricken by want of the fruits of the field. ¹⁰ The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food in 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, which consumed its foundations. ¹² The kings of the earth did not believe, or any of the inhabitants of the world, that foe or enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.