The Lamentations of Jeremiah
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Lamentations 4
| 1 | How is the gold become dim! [how] is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. |
| 2 | The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! |
| 3 | Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people [is become] cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. |
| 4 | The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, [and] no man breaketh [it] unto them. |
| 5 | They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills. |
| 6 | For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her. |
| 7 | Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing [was] of sapphire: |
| 8 | Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick. |
| 9 | [They that be] slain with the sword are better than [they that be] slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for [want of] the fruits of the field. |
| 10 | The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people. |
| 11 | The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof. |
| 12 | The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem. |
| 13 | For the sins of her prophets, [and] the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her, |
| 14 | They have wandered [as] blind [men] in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments. |
| 15 | They cried unto them, Depart ye; [it is] unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn [there]. |
| 16 | The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders. |
| 17 | As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation [that] could not save [us]. |
| 18 | They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come. |
| 19 | Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness. |
| 20 | The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen. |
| 21 | Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked. |
| 22 | The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins. |
| This Bible is in the Public Domain in most parts of the world. However, in the United Kingdom, it is under perpetual Crown copyright. | |
| Authorized King James Version copyright. Crown Copyright in the UK, public domain elsewhere | Year: 1611 / 1769 |