Lamentations of Jeremiah 4 The Great Afflictions of Various Classes of People

 Lamentations of Jeremiah 4

The Great Afflictions of Various Classes of People

1 How the gold has become tarnished! How the fine gold has changed! How the stones of the sanctuary are scattered at the corner of every street!

2 The precious children of Zion, comparable to pure gold, how are they now regarded as earthen vessels, the work of the potter's hands!

3 Even jackals lower their breasts to nurse their young; but the daughter of my people has become cruel like ostriches in the desert.

4 The tongue of the nursing child clings to its palate for thirst; the children ask for bread, and no one gives it to them.

5 Those who ate delicacies faint in the streets; those who grew up in crimson embrace dung.

6 For the wickedness of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, without anyone working on it.

7 Their noses were whiter than snow, whiter than milk, more purple in color than rubies, more polished than sapphire.

8 But now their appearance has grown darker than blackness; they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has clung to their bones; it has dried up, it has become like a stick.

9 Those slain by the sword are more fortunate than those slain by famine, for these wither away like those pierced through, for lack of the fruits of the fields.

10 The hands of devout women have boiled their own children; they became food for them in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11 The Lord has fulfilled his wrath; he has poured out the fierceness of his anger, and kindled a fire in Zion, which has consumed its foundations.

12 The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did all the inhabitants of the world, that the adversary and the enemy would enter through the gates of Jerusalem. 

13 Because of the sins of the prophets, the wickedness of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst.

14 They wander like blind men in the streets, they are defiled with blood; so that no one can touch their clothes.

15 “Depart!” they cried. “Unclean! Depart, depart, do not touch!” When they fled and wandered, they said among the nations, “They shall never dwell here again.”

16 The anger of the Lord has divided them; he will never look upon them again; they did not revere the face of the priests, nor did they have compassion on the elders.

17 Our eyes failed, waiting for vain help; we looked intently at a people who could not save.

18 They spied on our steps, so that we could not walk in our streets: our end is coming, our days are fulfilled, for our end has come. 

19 Our pursuers were swifter than the birds of the air; they chased us on the mountains and set traps for us in the desert.

20 The breath of our nostrils, the Lord’s anointed, was caught in their graves; we said of him, “Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.”

21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, who dwell in the land of Uz; the cup will come to you also; you will be drunk and uncover yourself.

22 The punishment for your wickedness is complete, O daughter of Zion; he will never again carry you away captive; he will visit your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will uncover your sins.