The people’s suffering
1 Oh, no! Gold is tarnished; even the purest gold is changed. Sacred jewels are scattered on every street corner.
2
Zion's precious children, once valued as pure gold— oh no!—now they are worth no more than clay pots made by a potter.
3
Even jackals offer the breast; they nurse their young. But the daughter of my people has become cruel, like desert ostriches.
4
The baby's tongue sticks to the roof of its mouth, thirsty. Children ask for bread, beg for it—but there is no bread.
5
Those who once ate gourmet food now tremble in the streets. Those who wore the finest purple clothes now cling to piles of garbage.
6
Greater was the punishment of the daughter of my people than Sodom's penalty, which was quickly overthrown without any hand-wringing.
7
Her nazirites were purer than snow; they were more dazzling than milk. Their limbs were redder than coral; their bodies were sapphire.
8
But their appearance grew darker than soot; they weren't recognized in the streets. Their skin shriveled on their bones; it became dry like wood.
9
Things were better for those stabbed by the sword than for those stabbed by famine— those who bled away, pierced, lacking food from the field.
10
The hands of loving women boiled their own children to become their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11
The LORD let loose his fury; he poured out his fierce anger. He started a fire in Zion; it licked up its foundations.