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Lamentations 4
How has the gold become dim! How has the most pure gold changed!
The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head 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 jackals draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones:
The daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
4 The tongue of the sucking child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst:
The young children ask bread, and no man breaks it to them.
5 They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets:
They that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
6 For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom,
That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were laid upon her.
7 Her nobles were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk;
They were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was as of sapphire.
8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets:
Their skin clings to their bones; it has withered, it has become like a stick.
9 They that are killed with the sword are better than they that are killed with hunger;
For these pine away, struck through, for want of the fruits of the field.
10 The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children;
They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11 Yahweh has accomplished his wrath, he has poured out his fierce anger;
And he has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured the foundations of it.
12 The kings of the earth believed not, neither all the inhabitants of the world,
That the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.
13 It is because of the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests,
That have shed the blood of the just in the middle of her.
14 They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood,
So that men cannot touch their garments.
15 Depart, they cried to them, Unclean! Depart, depart, touch not!
When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations,
They shall no more sojourn here.
16 The anger of Yahweh has scattered them; he will no more regard them:
They respected not the persons of the priests, they favored not the elders.
17 Our eyes do yet fail in looking for our vain help:
In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.
18 They hunt our steps, so that we cannot go in our streets:
Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end has come.
19 Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens:
They chased us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Yahweh, was taken in their pits;
Of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.
21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwells in the land of Uz:
The cup shall pass through to you also; you shall be drunken,
and shall make yourself naked.
22 The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion;
he will no more carry you away into captivity:
He will visit your iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will uncover your sins.
Lamentations 5
Remember, O Yahweh, what has come upon us:
Behold, and see our reproach.
2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers,
Our houses to aliens.
3 We are orphans and fatherless;
Our mothers are as widows.
4 We have drunk our water for money;
Our wood is sold to us.
5 Our pursuers are upon our necks:
We are weary, and have no rest.
6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians,
And to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers sinned, and are not;
And we have borne their iniquities.
8 Servants rule over us:
There is no one to deliver us out of their hand.
9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives,
Because of the sword of the wilderness.
10 Our skin is black like an oven,
Because of the burning heat of famine.
11 They ravished the women in Zion,
The virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes were hanged up by their hand:
The faces of elders were not honored.
13 The young men bore the mill;
And the children stumbled under the wood.
14 The elders have ceased from the gate,
The young men from their music.
15 The joy of our heart is ceased;
Our dance is turned into mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head:
Woe to us! For we have sinned.
17 For this our heart is faint;
For these things our eyes are dim;
18 For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate:
The foxes walk upon it.
19 You, O Yahweh, remain forever;
Your throne is from generation to generation.
20 Why did you forget us forever,
And forsake us so long time?
21 Turn us to you, O Yahweh, and we shall be turned;
Renew our days as of old.
22 But you have utterly rejected us;
You are very angry against us.
