Terrors of the Besieged City

¹How the gold has become tarnished,

the fine gold become dull!

The stones of the temple lie scattered

at the head of every street.

²Zion’s precious children –

once worth their weight in pure gold –

how they are regarded as clay jars,

the work of a potter’s hands!

³Even jackals offer their breasts

to nurse their young,

but my dear people have become cruel

like ostriches in the wilderness.

⁴The nursing baby’s tongue

clings to the roof of his mouth from thirst.

Infants beg for food,

but no one gives them any.

⁵Those who used to eat delicacies

are destitute in the streets;

those who were brought up in purple garments

huddle in rubbish heaps.

⁶The punishment of my dear people

is greater than that of Sodom,

which was overthrown in an instant

without a hand laid on it.

⁷Her dignitaries were brighter than snow,

whiter than milk;

their bodies were more ruddy than coral,

their appearance like lapis lazuli.

⁸Now they appear darker than soot;[#4:8 Jb 30:30; Lm 5:10]

they are not recognised in the streets.

Their skin has shrivelled on their bones;

it has become dry like wood.

⁹Those slain by the sword are better off

than those slain by hunger,

who waste away, pierced with pain

because the fields lack produce.

¹⁰The hands of compassionate women

have cooked their own children;

they became their food

during the destruction of my dear people.

¹¹The Lord has exhausted his wrath,

poured out his burning anger;

he has ignited a fire in Zion,

and it has consumed her foundations.

¹²The kings of the earth

and all the world’s inhabitants did not believe

that an enemy or adversary

could enter Jerusalem’s gates.

¹³Yet it happened because of the sins of her prophets

and the iniquities of her priests,

who shed the blood of the righteous within her.

¹⁴Blind, they stumbled in the streets,[#4:14 Dt 28:29; Is 59:10; Zph 1:17]

defiled by this blood,

so that no one dared

to touch their garments.

¹⁵‘Stay away! Unclean! ’ people shouted at them.

‘Away, away! Don’t touch us! ’

So they wandered aimlessly.

It was said among the nations,

‘They can stay here no longer.’

¹⁶The Lord himself has scattered them;

he no longer watches over them.

The priests are not respected;

the elders find no favour.

¹⁷All the while our eyes were failing

as we looked in vain for help;

we watched from our towers

for a nation that would not save us.

¹⁸Our steps were closely followed

so that we could not walk in our streets.

Our end approached; our time ran out.

Our end had come!

¹⁹Those who chased us were swifter

than eagles in the sky;

they relentlessly pursued us over the mountains

and ambushed us in the wilderness.

²⁰The Lord ’s anointed, the breath of our life, ,[#4:20 Lit nostrils; #4:20 Gn 2:7; 2Kg 25:7]

was captured in their traps.

We had said about him,

‘We will live under his protection among the nations.’

²¹So rejoice and be glad, Daughter Edom,[#4:21 Ezk 35:15; Ob 12]

you resident of the land of Uz!

Yet the cup will pass to you as well;

you will get drunk and expose yourself.

²²Daughter Zion, your punishment is complete;

he will not lengthen your exile.

But he will punish your iniquity, Daughter Edom,

and will expose your sins.