4
1 How is the gold become dim!
how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.
2 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work
of the hands of the potter!
3 Even the sea monsters 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 the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the
sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.
7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies,
their polishing
was of sapphire:
8 Their visage is 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 be slain with the sword are better than
they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for
want of the fruits of the field.
10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction
of the daughter of my people.
11 The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in
Zion, and it hath devoured 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 have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.
13 For 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 have wandered
as blind
men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.
15 They cried unto them, Depart ye;
it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They
shall no more sojourn
there.
16 The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons
of the priests, they favoured not the elders.
17 As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation
that could not save
us.
18 They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our
end is come.
19 Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid
wait for us in the wilderness.
20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under
his shadow we shall live among the heathen.