1How gold has tarnished! Even pure gold has lost its shine! Jewels from the Temple ¹⁴have been scattered on every street corner.

2Look at how the precious people of Zion, worth their weight in gold, are now valued like cheap clay jars made by a potter!

3Even jackals nurse their young at their breasts, but the women of my people have become cruel, like an ostrich ¹⁵in the desert.

4The nursing babies are so thirsty that their tongues stick to the roof of their mouths. Little children beg for food, but nobody gives them anything.

5Those who used to eat gourmet food now die starving in the streets. Those who dressed in fine clothes ¹⁶from their childhood now live in heaps of rubbish.

6Jerusalem's ¹⁷punishment is worse than sinful Sodom's, which was destroyed in a brief moment, without the help of human hands. ¹⁸

7Her leaders were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were a healthier red than coral, and they shone like lapis lazuli. ¹⁹

8But now they look blacker than soot; no one recognizes them in the street. Their skin has shrunk to their bones and is as dry as wood.

9Those killed by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger, who slowly waste away in agony because the fields produce no crops.

10The hands of loving women have cooked their own children to eat during the destruction of Jerusalem.

11The Lord has given full expression to his anger. He has poured out his fury. He has started a fire in Zion, and it has burned down her very foundations.

12No king on earth—in fact nobody in all the world—thought that an enemy or attacker could enter the gates of Jerusalem. ²⁰

13But this happened because of the sins of her prophets and the wickedness of her priests, who shed the blood of the innocent right there in the city.

14They wandered like blind men through the streets, made unclean by this blood, so no one would touch their clothes.

15“Go away! You're unclean!” people would shout at them, “Go away, go away! Don't touch us!” So they ran away and wandered from country to country, but the people there told them, “You can't stay here!”

16The Lord himself has scattered them; he doesn't bother with them anymore. Nobody respects the priests, and nobody admires the leaders.

17We wore out our eyes pointlessly looking for help the whole time; we watched from our towers for a nation to come that couldn't save us.

18The enemy ²¹tracked our every movement so we couldn't walk through our streets. Our end approached. Our time was up because our end had come.

19Our pursuers were faster than eagles in the sky. They chased us across the mountains and ambushed us in the desert.

20The king, ²²the Lord's anointed, our country's “life-breath,” ²³was trapped and captured by them. We had said about him, “Under his protection we will live among the nations.”

21Celebrate and be happy while you can, people of Edom, you who live in the land of Uz, because this cup will be passed to you too. You will get drunk and strip yourself naked.

22People of Zion, your punishment is coming to an end—he won't continue your exile for long. ²⁴But he is going to punish your sins, people of Edom; he will reveal your sins.