rsv@Lamentations:4:1 @ How the gold has grown dim, how the pure gold is changed! The holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street.
rsv@Lamentations:4:2 @ The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how they are reckoned as earthen pots, the work of a potter's hands!
rsv@Lamentations:4:3 @ Even the jackals give the breast and suckle their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
rsv@Lamentations:4:4 @ The tongue of the nursling cleaves to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but no one gives to them.
rsv@Lamentations:4:5 @ Those who feasted on dainties perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple lie on ash heaps.
rsv@Lamentations:4:6 @ For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, no hand being laid on it.
rsv@Lamentations:4:7 @ Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, the beauty of their form was like sapphire.
rsv@Lamentations:4:8 @ Now their visage is blacker than soot, they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled upon their bones, it has become as dry as wood.
rsv@Lamentations:4:9 @ Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who pined away, stricken by want of the fruits of the field.
rsv@Lamentations:4:10 @ The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
rsv@Lamentations:4:11 @ The LORD gave full vent to his wrath, he poured out his hot anger; and he kindled a fire in Zion, which consumed its foundations.
rsv@Lamentations:4:12 @ The kings of the earth did not believe, or any of the inhabitants of the world, that foe or enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.
rsv@Lamentations:4:13 @ This was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous.
rsv@Lamentations:4:14 @ They wandered, blind, through the streets, so defiled with blood that none could touch their garments.
rsv@Lamentations:4:15 @ "Away! Unclean!" men cried at them; "Away! Away! Touch not!" So they became fugitives and wanderers; men said among the nations, "They shall stay with us no longer."
rsv@Lamentations:4:16 @ The LORD himself has scattered them, he will regard them no more; no honor was shown to the priests, no favor to the elders.
rsv@Lamentations:4:17 @ Our eyes failed, ever watching vainly for help; in our watching we watched for a nation which could not save.
rsv@Lamentations:4:18 @ Men dogged our steps so that we could not walk in our streets; our end drew near; our days were numbered; for our end had come.
rsv@Lamentations:4:19 @ Our pursuers were swifter than the vultures in the heavens; they chased us on the mountains, they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
rsv@Lamentations:4:20 @ The breath of our nostrils, the LORD's anointed, was taken in their pits, he of whom we said, "Under his shadow we shall live among the nations."
rsv@Lamentations:4:21 @ Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, dweller in the land of Uz; but to you also the cup shall pass; you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.
rsv@Lamentations:4:22 @ The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished, he will keep you in exile no longer; but your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will punish, he will uncover your sins.