The Distress of Zion

¹ How the gold has become dull!
The purest gold has changed!
The stones of the sanctuary are scattered
at the top of every street.

² The precious sons of Zion,
comparable to fine gold,
how they are esteemed as earthen pitchers,
the work of the potter’s hands!

³ Even the jackals offer their breast.
They nurse their young ones.
But the daughter of my people has become cruel,
like the ostriches in the wilderness.

⁴ The tongue of the nursing child
clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst.
The young children ask for bread,
and no one breaks it for them.

⁵ Those who ate delicacies
are desolate in the streets.
Those who were brought up in purple
embrace garbage dumps.

⁶ For the iniquity of the daughter of my people
is greater than the sin of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment,
without a hand touching her.

⁷ Her nobles were purer than snow.
They were whiter than milk.
They were more ruddy in body than rubies.
Their polishing was like sapphire.

⁸ Their appearance is blacker than coal.
They are unrecognizable in the streets.
Their skin clings to their bones.
It is withered.
It has become like a stick.

⁹ Those who die by the sword are better off
than those who die from hunger,
for they waste away, stricken through
for want of the fruits of the field.

¹⁰ The hands of compassionate women
have boiled their own children,
who became their food
in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

¹¹ The Lord has accomplished his wrath.
He has poured out his fierce anger.
He has kindled a fire in Zion,
which has devoured its foundations.

¹² The kings of the earth did not believe,
nor did the rest of the world,
that the adversary and the enemy
would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³ It is because of the sins of her prophets
and the iniquities of her priests,
that have shed the blood of the just
in the midst of her.

¹⁴ They wander like blind men in the streets.
They are polluted with blood,
So that men cannot touch their garments.

¹⁵ “Go away!” they cried to them.
“Unclean! Go away! Go away! Don’t touch!
When they fled away and wandered,
men said among the nations,
“They can’t live here any more.”

¹⁶ The anger of the Lord has scattered them.
He will not pay attention to them any more.
They did not respect the office of the priest.
They did not favor the elders.

¹⁷ With failing eyes,
we looked in vain for our help.
From our looking tower we watched for a nation
that could not save us.

¹⁸ They track our steps,
so that we cannot go in our streets.
Our end is near.
Our days are fulfilled,
for our end has come.

¹⁹ Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky.
They chased us on the mountains.
They set an ambush for us in the wilderness.

²⁰ The anointed of the Lord,
the breath of our nostrils,
was caught in their trap,
of whom we said,
under his shadow we will live among the nations.

²¹ Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom,
that dwells in the land of Uz.
But the cup will pass to you also.
You will be drunken,
and will be stripped naked.

²² Daughter of Zion,
the punishment of your iniquity
has been accomplished.
He will no longer keep you in exile.
But daughter of Edom,
he will punish your iniquity,
He will expose your sins.

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