³ Even jackals offer the breast;
    they nurse their young;
but the daughter of my people has become cruel,
    like the ostriches in the wilderness.

⁴ The tongue of the nursing infant ^(A)sticks
    to the roof of its mouth for thirst;
^(B)the children beg for food,
    but no one gives to them.

⁵ Those who once feasted on delicacies
    perish in the streets;
^(C)those who were brought up in purple
    embrace ash heaps.

^6 (D)For the chastisement^[a] of the daughter of my people has been greater
    than the punishment^[b] of Sodom,
^(E)which was overthrown in a moment,
    and no hands were wrung for her.^[c]

⁷ Her princes were purer than snow,
    whiter than milk;
their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
    the beauty of their form^[d] was like sapphire.^[e]

^8 (F)Now their face is blacker than soot;
    they are not recognized in the streets;
their skin has shriveled on their bones;
    it has become as dry as wood.

⁹ Happier were the victims of the sword
    than the victims of hunger,
who wasted away, pierced
    by lack of the fruits of the field.

^10 (G)The hands of ^(H)compassionate women
    ^(I)have boiled their own children;
^(J)they became their food
    during the destruction of the daughter of my people.

^2 (B)“Judah mourns,
    and ^(C)her gates languish;
her people lament on the ground,
    and ^(D)the cry of Jerusalem goes up.
³ Her nobles send their servants for water;
    they come to the cisterns;
they find no water;
    they return with their vessels empty;
they are ^(E)ashamed and confounded
    and ^(F)cover their heads.
⁴ Because of the ground that is dismayed,
    since there is ^(G)no rain on the land,
the farmers are ashamed;
    they cover their heads.
⁵ Even ^(H)the doe in the field forsakes her newborn fawn
    because there is no grass.
^6 (I)The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights;
    they pant for air like jackals;
their eyes fail
    because there is no vegetation.