¹How gold has become dull,

And the good fine gold has changed!

The holy gemstones are poured out

At the head of all the streets.

²As for the precious sons of Zion

Who were weighed against fine gold,

How they are considered as earthen jars

– The work of the hands of the potter!

³Even the jackals present a breast;

They suckle their cubs.

The daughter of my people is prey to the cruel one,

Like the ostriches in the desert.

⁴The baby's tongue cleaves to the roof of his mouth with thirst.

Children ask for bread,

But there is no-one to break any for them.

⁵Those who used to eat delicacies

Have become desolate in the streets.

Those brought up in scarlet

Embrace the rubbish dumps.

⁶And the punishment for the iniquity of the daughter of my people

Is greater than the punishment for the sin of Sodom,

Which was overthrown in a moment,

And no hands in it endured.

⁷Her Nazarites were purer than snow,

They were brighter than milk,

They were redder in body than red corals;

Their features were as of a sapphire.

⁸Their appearance has become darker than blackness,

They are not recognized in the streets;

Their skin cleaves to their bones

– It has become dry like wood.

⁹Those who fell by the sword were better off

Than those who died of hunger,

For they bled to death when pierced,

Rather than dying for lack of the produce of the field.

¹⁰The hands of compassionate women

Have cooked their own children.

They were food to them

In the devastation of the daughter of my people.

¹¹The Lord has discharged his wrath;

He has poured out his furious anger,

And he has kindled a fire in Zion,

And it has consumed its foundations.

¹²The kings of the earth

And all the inhabitants of the world

Did not believe that an adversary and an enemy

Would enter the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³Because of the sins of her prophets,

And the iniquities of her priests

Who shed the blood of the righteous

In her precincts,

¹⁴They stagger along in blindness in the streets;

They are stained with blood.

In their powerlessness

They strike their clothes.

¹⁵“Go away, you unclean person”,

They call out to them,

“Go away, go away. Do not touch.”

For they fled and wandered.

Among the Gentiles they said,

“They will not dwell there any more.”

¹⁶The presence of the Lord has divided them;

He no longer watches over them.

They did not show the priests respect,

Nor did they show the elders compassion.

¹⁷Our eyes still fail us

At the worthlessness of the help we had,

When in our expectation we awaited a people,

But they could not save us.

¹⁸They hounded us at our steps,

So that we could not walk on our streets.

Our end came near;

Our days were fulfilled,

For our end had come.

¹⁹Our pursuers were swifter than eagles of the sky;

They ardently pursued us on the mountains

– In the desert they ambushed us.

²⁰The breath of our nostrils

– The Lord's anointed –

Was caught in their snares,

Of whom we said,

“We will live in his shadow among the Gentiles.”

²¹Exult and be joyful, O daughter of Edom,

You who live in the land of Uz.

The cup will pass over you too,

And you will become drunk

And make yourself naked.

²²Your iniquity has come to its culmination,

O daughter of Zion;

He will not send you into exile any more.

He will punish your iniquity,

O daughter of Edom;

He will expose your sins.