4:1 How dark the gold has become,
How the pure gold has changed!
The sacred stones are spilled out
At the ①corner of every street.
▷ ①Lit head
4:2 The precious sons of Zion,
Weighed against pure gold,
How they are regarded as earthenware jars,
The work of a potter’s hands!
4:3 Even jackals offer the breast,
They nurse their young;
But the daughter of my people has proved herself cruel,
Like ostriches in the wilderness.
4:4 The tongue of the infant clings
To the roof of its mouth because of thirst;
The children ask for bread,
But no one breaks it for them.
4:5 Those who used to eat delicacies
Are made to tremble in the streets;
Those who were raised in crimson clothing
Embrace garbage heaps.
4:6 For the ①wrongdoing of the daughter of my people
Is greater than the ②sin of Sodom,
Which was overthrown as in a moment,
③And no hands were turned toward her.
▷ ①Or punishment for wrongdoing ②Or punishment for sin ③I.e., without human intervention
4:7 Her ①consecrated ones were purer than snow,
They shined more than milk;
They were more ruddy in ②body than pearls of coral,
Their form was like ③lapis lazuli.
▷ ①Or Nazirites ②Lit bones ③Heb sappir
4:8 Their appearance is darker than soot,
They are not recognized in the streets;
Their skin is shriveled on their bones,
It is dry, it has become like wood.
4:9 Better off are those killed by the sword
Than those killed by hunger;
For they ①waste away, ②stricken
By the lack of the produce of the field.
▷ ①Lit flow away ②Lit pierced through
4:10 The hands of compassionate women
Boiled their own children;
They became food for them
Due to the destruction of the daughter of my people.
4:11 The LORD has expended His wrath,
He has poured out His fierce anger;
And He has kindled a fire in Zion,
And it has consumed its foundations.
4:12 The kings of the earth did not believe,
Nor did any of the inhabitants of the world,
That the adversary and the enemy
Would enter the gates of Jerusalem.
4:13 Because of the sins of her prophets
And the wrongdoings of her priests,
Who have shed in her midst
The blood of the righteous,
4:14 They wandered, blind, in the streets;
They were defiled with blood,
Such that no one could touch their garments.
4:15 “Keep away! Unclean!” ①they cried out of themselves.
“Keep away, keep away, do not touch!”
For they distanced themselves as well as wandered;
People among the nations said,
“They shall not continue to reside with us.”
▷ ①Or they (other people) cried to them
4:16 The presence of the LORD has scattered them,
He will not continue to look at them;
They did not ①honor the priests,
They did not favor the elders.
▷ ①Lit lift up the faces of
4:17 Yet our eyes failed,
Looking for ①help was useless;
At our observation point we have watched
For a nation that could not save.
▷ ①Lit our help
4:18 They hunted our steps
So that we could not walk in our streets;
Our end drew near,
Our days were ①finished
For our end had come.
▷ ①Lit full
4:19 Our pursuers were swifter
Than the eagles of the sky;
They chased us on the mountains,
They waited in ambush for us in the wilderness.
4:20 The breath of our nostrils, the LORD’S anointed,
Was captured in their pits,
Of whom we had said, “ ①In his shadow
We shall live among the nations.”
▷ ①I.e., under his protection
4:21 Rejoice and be joyful, daughter of Edom,
Who lives in the land of Uz;
But the cup will pass to you as well,
You will become drunk and expose yourself.
4:22 The punishment of your wrongdoing has been completed, daughter of Zion;
He will no longer exile you.
But He will punish your wrongdoing, daughter of Edom;
He will expose your sins!