4 How the gold has lost its luster!
How the fine gold has changed!
How the stones of the sanctuary
lie scattered at every streetcorner!

² The precious sons of Tziyon,
as precious as fine gold —
to think they are now worth no more
than clay jars made by a potter!

³ Even jackals bare their breasts
in order to nurse their young,
but the daughters of my people have become as cruel
as ostriches in the desert.

⁴ The tongue of the baby at the breast
sticks to the roof of its mouth from thirst;
young children are begging for bread,
but no one is giving them any.

⁵ People who once ate only the best
lie dying in the streets;
those who were raised wearing purple
are clawing at piles of garbage.

⁶ For the offense of the daughter of my people
is greater than the sin of S’dom,
which was overthrown in an instant,
without a hand to help her.

⁷ Her princes were purer than snow;
they were whiter than milk,
their bodies more ruddy than pink pearls,
as beautiful as sapphires.

⁸ Now their faces are blacker than coal;
in the streets they go unrecognized.
Their skin has shriveled over their bones
and become as dry as a stick.

⁹ Those slain by the sword are better off
than those who are dying from hunger;
since these waste away as if pierced through,
for lack of food from the fields.
¹⁰ With their own hands compassionate women
have cooked their own children;
their children became their food
when the daughter of my people was destroyed.

¹¹ Adonai has finished with his fury,
he has poured out his blazing wrath;
he kindled a fire in Tziyon
that consumed its very foundations.

¹² The kings of the earth could not believe,
neither could anyone living in the world,
that enemy or foe would ever enter
the gates of Yerushalayim.

¹³ It happened because of the sins of her prophets
and the offenses of her cohanim,
who, within her walls,
shed the blood of the righteous.

¹⁴ They wander in the streets like the blind;
they are so polluted with blood
that nobody is able
even to touch their clothing.

¹⁵ “Keep away! Unclean!” people shout at them,
“Keep away! Away! Don’t touch us!”
They flee, to wander here and there;
but no nation allows them to stay.

¹⁶ Adonai himself scattered them;
he will no longer look after them;
they had no respect for cohanim
and showed no kindness to the leaders.

¹⁷ As for us, our eyes are worn out
from looking in vain for help;
we kept on watching and watching
for a nation that couldn’t save us.

¹⁸ They keep dogging our steps,
so that we can’t go out in our streets.
Our end is near, our time is up;
yes, our end has come.

¹⁹ Those who pursued us were swifter
than eagles in the sky.
They chased us over the mountains
and waylaid us in the desert.

²⁰ Adonai’s anointed, our life-breath,
was caught in their pits;
though of him we had said, “Under his protection,
we can live among the nations.”

²¹ Rejoice, be glad, daughter of Edom,
who lives in the land of ‘Utz.
To you too the cup will pass;
you will get drunk and strip yourself naked!

²² Your offenses, daughter of Tziyon, are atoned for;
he will keep you in exile no longer.
Your offenses, daughter of Edom, he will punish;
he will expose your sins.