Lamentations 4
JPS Tanakh 1917

א

1How is the gold become dim!
How is the most fine gold changed!
The hallowed stones are poured out
At the head of every street.

ב

2The precious sons of Zion,
Comparable to fine gold,
How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers,
The work of the hands of the potter!

ג

3Even the jackals draw out the breast,
They give suck to their young ones;
The daughter of my people is become cruel,
Like the ostriches in the wilderness.

ד

4The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth
To the roof of his mouth for thirst;
The young children ask bread,
And none breaketh it unto them.

ה

5They that did feed on dainties
Are desolate in the streets;
They that were brought up in scarlet
Embrace dunghills.

ו

6For 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 fell upon her.

ז

7Her princes were purer than snow,
They were whiter than milk,
They were more ruddy in body than rubies,
Their polishing was as of sapphire;

ח

8Their visage is blacker than a coal;
They are not known in the streets;
Their skin is shrivelled upon their bones;
It is withered, it is become like a stick.

ט

9They that are slain with the sword are better
Than they that are slain with hunger;
For these pine away, stricken through,
For want of the fruits of the field.

י

10The hands of women full of compassion
Have sodden their own children;
They were their food
In the destruction of the daughter of my people.

כ

11The LORD hath accomplished His fury,
He hath poured out His fierce anger;
And He hath kindled a fire in Zion,
Which hath devoured the foundations thereof.

ל

12The 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.

מ

13It is because of the sins of her prophets,
And the iniquities of her priests,
That have shed the blood of the just
In the midst of her.

נ

14They wander as blind men in the streets,
They are polluted with blood,
So that men cannot
Touch their garments.

ס

15‘Depart ye! unclean!’ men cried unto them,
‘Depart, depart, touch not’;
Yea, they fled away and wandered;
Men said among the nations:
‘They shall no more sojourn here.’

פ

16The anger of the LORD hath divided them;
He will no more regard them;
They respected not the persons of the priests,
They were not gracious unto the elders.

ע

17As for us, our eyes do yet fail
For our vain help;
In our watching we have watched
For a nation that could not save.

צ

18They hunt our steps,
That we cannot go in our broad places;
Our end is near, our days are fulfilled;
For our end is come.

ק

19Our pursuers were swifter
Than the eagles of the heaven;
They chased us upon the mountains,
They lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

ר

20The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD,
Was taken in their pits;
Of whom we said: ‘Under his shadow
We shall live among the nations.’

ש

21Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom,
That dwellest in the land of Uz:
The cup shall pass over unto thee also;
Thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.

ת

22The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion,
He will no more carry thee away into captivity;
He will punish thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom,
He will uncover thy sins.
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES
ACCORDING TO THE MASORETIC TEXT
A NEW TRANSLATION

Jewish Publication Society
1917

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