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.
12
The kings of the earth could not believe, neither could anyone living in the world, that enemy or foe would ever enter the gates of Yerushalayim.