The Distress of Zion

1How ¹¹the gold has become tarnished, the pure gold has become dull! The gems of the temple lie scattered on every street corner.

2How 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!

3Even jackals ¹²offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.

4The nursing infant’s tongue clings in thirst to the roof of his mouth. Little children beg for bread, but no one gives them any.

5Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps.

6The punishment ¹³of the daughter of my people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in an instant without a hand turned to help her.

7Her dignitaries were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than rubies, their appearance ¹⁴like sapphires. ¹⁵

8But 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.

9Those slain by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger, who waste away, pierced with pain because the fields lack produce.

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

11The 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.

12The 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.

13But this was for the sins of her prophets and the guilt of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst.

14They wandered blind in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments.

15“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.”

16The presence of the LORD has scattered them; He regards them no more. The priests are shown no honor; the elders find no favor.

17All 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.

18They 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!

19Those who chased us were swifter than the eagles in the sky; they pursued us over the mountains and ambushed us in the wilderness.

20The 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.”

21So 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.

22O Daughter of Zion, your punishment is complete; He will not prolong your exile. ¹⁶But He will punish your iniquity, O Daughter of Edom; He will expose your sins.