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4:1  How the gold has grown dim; how the pure gold is changed! The sacred stones lie scattered at the head of every street.
4:2  The precious children of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold— how they are reckoned as earthen pots, the work of a potter’s hands!
4:3  Even the jackals offer the breast and nurse their young, but my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
4:4  The tongue of the infant sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but there is nothing for them.
4:5  Those who feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple cling to ash heaps.
4:6  For the chastisement of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, though no hand was laid on it.
4:7  Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, their form cut like sapphire.
4:8  Now their visage is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as wood.
4:9  Happier were those pierced by the sword than those pierced by hunger, whose life drains away, deprived of the produce of the field.
4:10  The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food in the destruction of my people.
4:11  The Lord gave full vent to his wrath; he poured out his hot anger and kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations.
4:12  The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the inhabitants of the world, that foe or enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.
4:13  It was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst.
4:14  Blindly they wandered through the streets, so defiled with blood that no one was able to touch their garments.
4:15  “Away! Unclean!” people shouted at them; “Away! Away! Do not touch!” So they became fugitives and wanderers; it was said among the nations, “They shall stay here no longer.”
4:16  The Lord himself has scattered them; he will regard them no more; no honor was shown to the priests, no favor to the elders.
4:17  Our eyes failed, ever watching vainly for help; we were watching eagerly for a nation that could not save.
4:18  They dogged our steps so that we could not walk in our streets; our end drew near; our days were numbered, for our end had come.
4:19  Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles in the heavens; they chased us on the mountains; they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
4:20  The Lord’s anointed, the breath of our life, was taken in their pits— the one of whom we said, “Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.”
4:21  Rejoice and be glad, O daughter Edom, you that live in the land of Uz; but to you also the cup shall pass; you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.
4:22  The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter Zion, is accomplished; he will keep you in exile no longer; but your iniquity, O daughter Edom, he will punish; he will uncover your sins.