How the gold has become dim! The most pure gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.
The precious sons of Zion, once valued as fine gold, how are they regarded as clay pots, the work of the hands of the potter!
Even the jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness.
The tongue of the nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth because of thirst; the young children ask for bread, but no one gives to them.
Those who ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those who were brought up in purple cling to dunghills.
For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment even though no human hands were laid against her.
Her nobles were purer than snow, they were brighter than milk; they were more ruddy in body than coral, their form was like lapis lazuli.
But now their appearance is darker than soot; they are not known in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become like dry wood.
Those killed by the sword are better off than those killed by famine, whose lives drain away, being stabbed by the lack of the fruit of the field.
The hands of the compassionate women have boiled their own children. They became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Yahweh has accomplished his wrath, he has poured out his fierce anger. He has kindled a fire in Zion that has devoured its foundations.
The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the inhabitants of the world, that the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.
It was because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests. They have poured out the blood of the righteous in her midst.
They wander like blind men in the streets, polluted with blood such that people will not even touch their clothing.
“Go away!” they cried out to them, “Unclean! Go away! Go away! Don’t touch anything!” When they fled away and wandered, even people among the nations said, “They cannot continue to stay here anymore.”
The face of Yahweh has scattered them; he does not continue to regard them. They did not respect the persons of the priests, they did not favor the elders.
Our eyes still fail watching in vain for our help. In our watch-tower we watched for a nation that could not save.
They hunt our steps so that we cannot go in our open squares. Our end is near, our days are done, for our end has come.
Those who chased us were swifter than the eagles of the heavens. They hotly pursued us on the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Yahweh, was captured in their pits of whom we said, “Under his shade we will live among the nations.”
Rejoice and be glad, O Daughter Edom, you who live in the land of Uz! But the cup of judgment will pass to you also; you will get drunk and strip yourself naked.
O Daughter Zion, the punishment of your iniquity is completed, he will not continue to exile you. O Daughter Edom, he will punish your iniquity, he will uncover your sins.