1How is the gold dimmed, the good fine gold changed! The stones of holiness are poured out at the head of every street.
2The precious sons of Zion, weighed against fine gold, how are they reckoned as earthen jars, the work of the hands of a potter!
3Even the jackals draw out the breast, they suckle their young; the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
4The tongue of the suckling cleaves to its palate in thirst; the young children ask bread, none spreads it to them.
5Those who ate delicacies are made desolate in the streets; those brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
6And the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands fell upon her.
7Her Nazirites were purer than snow, whiter than milk; they were more ruddy of body than corals, their form was sapphire.
8Their visage is darker than blackness, they are not recognized in the streets; their skin clings to their bones, it is dried up, become like wood.
9Better were the slain of the sword than the slain of hunger; for these pine away, pierced through, for lack of the produce of the field.
10The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became food for them in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11YHWH has accomplished his fury, he has poured out the heat of his anger; and he kindled a 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 adversary and an enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.
13From the sins of her prophets, the iniquities of her priests, who shed in her midst the blood of the righteous.
14They wandered blind in the streets, they were defiled with blood, so that none could touch their garments.
15"Turn aside! Unclean!" they cried to them, "Turn aside, turn aside, do not touch!" For they fled and also wandered; they said among the nations, "They shall not continue to sojourn."
16The face of YHWH has divided them, he will no more regard them; they did not lift up the faces of the priests, they were not gracious to the elders.
17Still our eyes fail for our help of vanity; in our watching we watched for a nation that could not save.
18They hunted our steps from walking in our broad places; our end drew near, our days were fulfilled, for our end had come.
19Swifter were our pursuers than the eagles of the heavens; upon the mountains they chased us, in the wilderness they lay in wait for us.
20The spirit (ruach) of our nostrils, the anointed of YHWH, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, "In his shadow we shall live among the nations."
21Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, dwelling in the land of Uz; also to you the cup shall pass over, you shall be drunken and make yourself naked.
22Your iniquity is finished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry you away into exile. He has visited your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he has uncovered your sins.