² “Zion’s precious children, who are worth their weight in fine gold,
    are now treated like clay pots,
        like those made by a potter’s hands.
³ Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young,
    but the women of my people are as cruel as wild ostriches.
⁴ The tongues of nursing infants stick to the roofs of their mouths
    because of their thirst.
    Little children beg for bread,
    but no one will break off a piece for them.
⁵ Those who used to eat delicacies are now destitute in the streets.
    Those who used to wear expensive clothes now pick through piles of garbage.
⁶ The punishment for my people’s wickedness has been more severe
    than the punishment for the sins of Sodom.
        Sodom was destroyed instantly, without one human hand touching it.
⁷ Zion’s princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk.
    Their bodies were more pink than coral.
    Their hair was like sapphires.
⁸ Their faces are now blacker than soot.
    No one recognizes them on the streets.
    Their skin has shriveled on their bones.
        It has become as dry as bark.
⁹ Those who were killed with swords are better off
    than those who are dying from starvation.
    Those who were stabbed bled to death.
    The others are dying because there is nothing in the fields to eat.
¹⁰ The hands of loving mothers cooked their own children.
    The children were used for food by my people
        when they were being destroyed by a blockade.
¹¹ Yahweh’s fury has accomplished his purpose.
    He unleashed his burning anger.
    He started a fire in Zion that even burned its foundations.
¹² Neither the kings of the earth nor anyone living on earth could believe
    that enemies or invaders would ever get through the gates of Jerusalem.
¹³ They got through because of the sins of Jerusalem’s prophets
    and the crimes of its priests,
        who spilled the blood of righteous people within it.
¹⁴ My people staggered blindly through the streets.
    They were so contaminated with bloodstains
        that no one would touch their clothes.
¹⁵ ‘Get away! You’re unclean,’^[b] people yelled at them.
    ‘Get away! Get away! Don’t touch anyone.’
    When they fled and wandered around,
        the people of the nations said, ‘They can’t stay here any longer.’
¹⁶ Yahweh himself has scattered them.
    He will no longer look favorably on them.
        They no longer respected the priests,
            nor did they honor their older leaders.”