1How the gold has dimmed! The fine gold has changed. The holy stones are poured out at the head of every street.2The sons of Zion, the precious ones, the ones like refined gold—how they have been reckoned as earthenware jars, the work of the hands of the maker!3Even jackals offer the breast and nurse their cubs—the daughter of my people has become cruel like ostriches in the wilderness.4The tongue of the nursing infant clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst; children ask for bread, but no one gives any to them.5Those who ate delicacies gasp in the streets; those who were raised in scarlet embrace ash heaps.6And the iniquity of the daughter of my people has grown greater than the sin of Sodom, the overthrown one, which came like a moment—no hands profaned her.7Their Nazirites were purer than snow; they were whiter than milk. Their bones were redder than coral; their polishing was lapis lazuli.8Their form is darker than black; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled over their bones; it has dried up like wood.9Better were the slain of the sword than the slain of famine, those who pour out from piercings, from the fruit of the breast of God.10The hands of compassionate women have boiled their children. They became food for them in the breaking of the daughter of my people.11The LORD has finished his heat, poured out the burning of his anger, and kindled fire in Zion, and it devoured her foundations.12The kings of the earth did not believe, nor all the inhabitants of the world, that an enemy would come into the gates of Jerusalem with affliction.13From the sin of her prophets, the iniquities of her priests, the ones pouring out in her midst the blood of the righteous.14They wandered blind in the streets; they were redeemed in blood, without being able to touch their garments.15"Turn away! Unclean!" people called to them. "Turn away, turn away; do not touch!" For they had become repugnant. People said among the nations, "They will not continue to sojourn."16The face of the LORD has scattered them; he will no longer look upon them. They did not lift up the faces of priests, and he did not favor elders.17Still our eyes fail, looking in vain for our aid; in our watching we watched for a nation that will not save.18They hunted our steps. There was no queen in our open spaces. Our ends drew near; they filled our days, for our end came.19Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens. They burned us up on the mountains; in the wilderness they lay in wait for us.20The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was captured in their pits—those pits in which we said, "In his shade we will live among the nations."21Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, dwelling in the land of Uz; the cup will also pass over to you. You will drink, and you will stagger.22Your iniquity is completed, daughter of Zion; he will not add to exile you. He has visited your iniquity, daughter of Edom; he has revealed your sins.