6
1For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom,
2which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were wrung for her.
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.
8
3Now their face is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as wood.
9
Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who wasted away, pierced by lack of the fruits of the field.
10
4The hands of
5compassionate women
6have boiled their own children;
7they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11
8The LORD gave full vent to his wrath; he poured out his hot anger, and
9he kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations.
12
10The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any of the inhabitants of the world, that foe or enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.
13
This was for
11the sins of her prophets and
12the iniquities of her priests, who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous.
14
13They wandered, blind, through the streets; they were so defiled with blood
14that no one was able to touch their garments.
15
"Away!
15Unclean!" people cried at them. "Away! Away! Do not touch!" So they became fugitives and wanderers; people said among the nations, "They shall stay with us no longer."
16
16The LORD himself has scattered them; he will regard them no more;
17no honor was shown to the priests,
18no favor to the elders.