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4:1  How dulled is the gold, how tarnished the fine gold. The sacred gems are poured out at the corner of every street.
4:2  The precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in gold— alas! now they are treated like clay jars, the work of a potter’s hands!
4:3  Even jackals offer their breast to nurse their young. The daughter of my people has become cruel, like ostriches in the desert.
4:4  The nursing infant’s tongue clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst. Little children ask for bread, but no one gives it t0 them.
4:5  Those who used to eat delicacies are desolate in the streets. Those who were brought up in purple embrace trash heaps.
4:6  For the iniquities of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, yet no hands turned to her.
4:7  Purer than snow were her princes, whiter than milk, their bodies more ruddy than rubies, their appearance like sapphire.
4:8  Their form has become darker than soot! They are not recognized in the street. Their skin has shriveled on their bones, withered like a tree.
4:9  Better are those slain by the sword than those struck down by famine— they waste away, racked with pain, for lack of fruits of the field.
4:10  The hands of compassionate women boiled their own children. They became their food when the daughter of my people were destroyed.
4:11  Adonai has vented His fury. He has poured out His burning anger. Yes, He kindled a fire in Zion that devoured her foundations.
4:12  The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did the inhabitations of the world, that enemy and foe would enter the gates of Jerusalem.
4:13  Yet it happened because of the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her kohanim, who shed in her midst the blood of the tzadikim.
4:14  They wander in the streets, like blind men. They are so defiled with blood, no one can touch their garments.
4:15  “Turn away! Unclean!” They cry to them. “Turn away, turn away! Don’t touch!” So they fled and wandered about. People among the nations say, “They can stay here no longer.”
4:16  Adonai Himself has scattered them. He will look on them no more. They did not respect the kohanim. They did not favor the elders.
4:17  Even now our eyes waste away looking in vain for our help. From our towers we watched for a nation that could not save us.
4:18  They hunted our steps, so we could not walk in our streets. Our end was near. Our days were numbered, for our end had come.
4:19  Our pursuers were swifter than eagles of the sky; they pursued us over the mountains; they ambushed us in the wilderness.
4:20  The anointed of Adonai, the breath of our nostrils, was captured in their pits, of whom we have said, “Under His shadow we will live among the nations.”
4:21  Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz. To you also will the cup be passed. You will be drunk and stripped naked.
4:22  O daughter of Zion, your punishment is accomplished; He will exile you no longer. But, O daughter of Edom, He will punish your iniquity and uncover your sins.