Parallel
Lamentations 4
Louis Segond 1910 · Berean Standard Bible
Eh quoi! L’or a perdu son éclat!
How (note: This chapter is an acrostic poem, each verse beginning with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.) the gold has become tarnished, the pure gold has become dull! The gems of the temple lie scattered on every street corner.
Les nobles fils de Sion,
How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in pure gold, are now esteemed as jars of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!
Les chacals mêmes présentent la mamelle,
Even jackals (note: Or serpents or dragons) offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.
La langue du nourrisson s’attache à son palais,
The nursing infant’s tongue clings in thirst to the roof of his mouth. Little children beg for bread, but no one gives them any.
Ceux qui se nourrissaient de mets délicats
Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps.
Le châtiment de la fille de mon peuple est plus grand
The punishment (note: Or iniquity) of the daughter of my people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in an instant without a hand turned to help her.
Ses princes étaient plus éclatants que la neige,
Her dignitaries were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than rubies, their appearance (note: Or their polishing or their hair) like sapphires (note: Hebrew lapis lazuli).
Leur aspect est plus sombre que le noir;
But now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.
Ceux qui périssent par l’épée sont plus heureux
Those slain by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger, who waste away, pierced with pain because the fields lack produce.
Les femmes, malgré leur tendresse,
The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
L’Éternel a épuisé sa fureur,
The LORD has exhausted His wrath; He has poured out His fierce anger; He has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has consumed her foundations.
Les rois de la terre n’auraient pas cru,
The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any people of the world, that an enemy or a foe could enter the gates of Jerusalem.
Voilà le fruit des péchés de ses prophètes,
But this was for the sins of her prophets and the guilt of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst.
Ils erraient en aveugles dans les rues,
They wandered blind in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments.
Éloignez-vous, impurs! Leur criait-on,
“Go away! Unclean!” men shouted at them. “Away, away! Do not touch us!” So they fled and wandered. Among the nations it was said, “They can stay here no longer.”
L’Éternel les a dispersés dans sa colère,
The presence of the LORD has scattered them; He regards them no more. The priests are shown no honor; the elders find no favor.
Nos yeux se consumaient encore,
All the while our eyes were failing as we looked in vain for help. We watched from our towers for a nation that could not save us.
On épiait nos pas,
They stalked our every step, so that we could not walk in our streets. Our end drew near, our time ran out, for our end had come!
Nos persécuteurs étaient plus légers
Those who chased us were swifter than the eagles in the sky; they pursued us over the mountains and ambushed us in the wilderness.
Celui qui nous faisait respirer, l’oint de l’Éternel,
The LORD’s anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their pits. We had said of him, “Under his shadow we will live among the nations.”
Réjouis-toi, tressaille d’allégresse, fille d’Édom,
So rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz. Yet the cup will pass to you as well; you will get drunk and expose yourself.
Fille de Sion, ton iniquité est expiée;
O Daughter of Zion, your punishment is complete; He will not prolong your exile (note: Or He will not exile you again). But He will punish your iniquity, O Daughter of Edom; He will expose your sins.