איכה דLamentations 4

א Alas!The gold is dulled, Debased the finest gold!The sacred gems are spilledAt every street corner.

ב The precious children of Zion;Once valued as gold—Alas, they are accounted as earthen pots,Work of a potter’s hands!

ג Even jackals offer the breastAnd suckle their young;But my poor people has turned cruel,Like ostriches of the desert.

ד The tongue of the suckling cleavesTo its palate for thirst.Little children beg for bread;None gives them a morsel.

ה Those who feasted on daintiesLie famished in the streets;Those who were reared in purpleHave embraced refuse heaps.

ו The guilt of my poor peopleExceeded the iniquity of Sodom,Which was overthrown in a moment,Without a hand striking it.

ז Her elect were purer than snow,Whiter than milk;Their limbs were ruddier than coral,Their bodies were like sapphire.

ח Now their faces are blacker than soot,They are not recognized in the streets;Their skin has shriveled on their bones,It has become dry as wood.

ט Better off were the slain of the swordThan those slain by famine,Who pined away, [as though] wounded,For lack of the fruits of the field.

י With their own hands, tenderhearted womenHave cooked their children;Such became their fare,In the disaster of my poor people.

כ GOD gave full vent to fury,And poured out blazing wrath—Kindling a fire in ZionThat consumed its foundations.

ל The kings of the earth did not believe,Nor any of the inhabitants of the world,That foe or adversary could enterThe gates of Jerusalem.

מ It was for the sins of her prophets,The iniquities of her priests,Who had shed in her midstThe blood of the just.

נ They wandered blindly through the streets,Defiled with blood,So that no one was ableTo touch their garments.

ס “Away! Unclean!” people shouted at them,“Away! Away! Touch not!”So they wandered and wandered again;For the nations had resolved:“They shall stay here no longer.”

פ GOD’s countenance has turned away from them, And will look on them no more.They showed no regard for priests,No favor to elders.

ע Even now our eyes pine awayIn vain for deliverance.As we waited, still we waitFor a nation that cannot help.

צ Our steps were checked,We could not walk in our squares. Our doom is near, our days are done—Alas, our doom has come!

ק Our pursuers were swifterThan the eagles in the sky;They chased us in the mountains,Lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

ר The breath of our life, GOD’s anointed, Was captured in their traps—He in whose shade we had thoughtTo live among the nations.

ש Rejoice and exult, Fair Edom,Who dwell in the land of Uz!To you, too, the cup shall pass,You shall get drunk and expose your nakedness.

ת Your iniquity, Fair Zion, is expiated;You will be exiled no longer.Your iniquity, Fair Edom, [God] will note,And uncover your sins.