Parallel
Lamentations 4
World English Bible British Edition · Berean Standard Bible
How the gold has become dim!
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.
The precious sons of Zion,
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!
Even the jackals offer their breast.
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.
The tongue of the nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst.
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.
Those who ate delicacies are desolate in the streets.
Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps.
For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom,
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.
Her nobles were purer than snow.
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).
Their appearance is blacker than a coal.
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.
Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger;
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.
The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children.
The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
The LORD has accomplished his wrath.
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.
The kings of the earth didn’t believe,
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.
It is because of the sins of her prophets
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.
They wander as blind men in the streets.
They wandered blind in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments.
“Go away!” they cried to them.
“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.”
The LORD’s anger has scattered them.
The presence of the LORD has scattered them; He regards them no more. The priests are shown no honor; the elders find no favor.
Our eyes still fail,
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.
They hunt our steps,
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!
Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky.
Those who chased us were swifter than the eagles in the sky; they pursued us over the mountains and ambushed us in the wilderness.
The breath of our nostrils,
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.”
Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom,
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.
The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, daughter of Zion.
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.