1
ow the gold has lost its luster! How the fine gold has changed! How the stones of the sanctuary lie scattered at every streetcorner!
2
The precious sons of Tziyon, as precious as fine gold -to think they are now worth no more than clay jars made by a potter!
3
Even jackals bare their breasts in order to nurse their young, but the daughters of my people have become as cruel as ostriches in the desert.
4
The tongue of the baby at the breast sticks to the roof of its mouth from thirst; young children are begging for bread, but no one is giving them any.
5
People who once ate only the best lie dying in the streets; those who were raised wearing purple are clawing at piles of garbage.
6
For the offense of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of S'dom, which was overthrown in an instant, without a hand to help her.
7
Her princes were purer than snow; they were whiter than milk, their bodies more ruddy than pink pearls, as beautiful as sapphires.
8
Now their faces are blacker than coal; in the streets they go unrecognized. Their skin has shriveled over their bones and become as dry as a stick.
9
Those slain by the sword are better off than those who are dying from hunger; since these waste away as if pierced through, for lack of food from the fields.
10
With their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children; their children became their food when the daughter of my people was destroyed.
11
ADONAI has finished with his fury, he has poured out his blazing wrath; he kindled a fire in Tziyon that consumed its very foundations.