Lamentations Chapter 4
The LORD’s Anger Satisfied
4:1How the gold has tarnished; how pure gold has changed!
The holy stones lie scattered at the beginning of every street.
2 The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in gold,
are treated like clay pots that potters make!
3 Even jackals nurse their young,
but my people have become cruel like wild ostriches.
4 The infant’s tongue sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst;
little ones beg for bread, but nobody gives them any.
5 People that used to eat delicacies sit desolate in the streets;
the ones brought up in purple lie on ash heaps.
6 The iniquity of my people is worse than the sin of Sodom,
which was overthrown without hands in one moment.
7 Zion’s Nazirites were purer than snow, whiter than milk,
healthier looking than corals, like polished lapis lazuli.
Lam 4:1-7
8 Now they’re darker than soot, not recognizable in the streets;
their skin is shriveled on their bones, withered like wood.
9 Those killed with the sword are happier than those slain by hunger;
they pine away, stricken for lack of crops in the field.
10 Merciful women boiled their own children;
they became their food because my people were being destroyed.
11 The LORD has accomplished his wrath,
poured out his hot anger,
and sparked a fire in Zion that has consumed its foundations.
12 The kings and inhabitants of the region
didn’t believe enemies could get in the gates of Jerusalem.
Lam 4:8-12
13 Because of its prophets’ sins and its priests’ iniquities—
who shed the blood of good people in it—
14 they wandered in the streets, blind and defiled with blood
so nobody would even touch their clothes.
15 They shouted at them, “Get away! Unclean! Don’t touch!”
So they fled and wandered.
People in the nations said, “They can’t stay here anymore.”
16 The LORD has scattered them;
he won’t continue to care especially about them;
they didn’t honor the priests or bless the elders.
Lam 4:13-16
17 Our eyes failed us; looking for help was useless;
we certainly watched for a nation that couldn’t save.
18 People dogged our steps so we couldn’t walk in the streets;
our end came near, our days failed, we were through.
Lam 4:17-18
19 Our pursuers were faster than eagles in the sky;
they chased us on the mountains and ambushed us in the desert.
20 Our very breath, the LORD’s anointed, was captured in their pits;
we’d said about him, “In his shadow we’ll live among the nations.”
21 Celebrate and be happy, Edom that lives in Uz;
the cup will come around to you as well; you’ll be drunk and naked.
22 The punishment for your sinfulness is finished, Zion;
he won’t exile you any longer.
But he’ll punish your iniquity, Edom;
he’ll expose your sins!
Lam 4:19-22