Lamentations 4–5

Chapter 4

God’s Anger Satisfied

¹How the gold has lost its luster!

Even the finest gold has become dull.

The sacred gemstones

lie scattered in the streets!

²See how the precious children of Jerusalem,

worth their weight in fine gold,

are now treated like pots of clay

made by a common potter.

³Even the jackals feed their young,

but not my people Israel.

They ignore their children’s cries,

like ostriches in the desert.

⁴The parched tongues of their little ones

stick to the roofs of their mouths in thirst.

The children cry for bread,

but no one has any to give them.

⁵The people who once ate the richest foods

now beg in the streets for anything they can get.

Those who once wore the finest clothes

now search the garbage dumps for food.

⁶The guilt of my people

is greater than that of Sodom,

where utter disaster struck in a moment

and no hand offered help.

⁷Our princes once glowed with health—

brighter than snow, whiter than milk.

Their faces were as ruddy as rubies,

their appearance like fine jewels.

⁸But now their faces are blacker than soot.

No one recognizes them in the streets.

Their skin sticks to their bones;

it is as dry and hard as wood.

⁹Those killed by the sword are better off

than those who die of hunger.

Starving, they waste away

for lack of food from the fields.

¹⁰Tenderhearted women

have cooked their own children.

They have eaten them

to survive the siege.

¹¹But now the anger of the Lord is satisfied.

His fierce anger has been poured out.

He started a fire in Jerusalem

that burned the city to its foundations.

¹²Not a king in all the earth—

no one in all the world—

would have believed that an enemy

could march through the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³Yet it happened because of the sins of her prophets

and the sins of her priests,

who defiled the city

by shedding innocent blood.

¹⁴They wandered blindly

through the streets,

so defiled by blood

that no one dared touch them.

¹⁵“Get away!” the people shouted at them.

“You’re defiled! Don’t touch us!”

So they fled to distant lands

and wandered among foreign nations,

but none would let them stay.

¹⁶The Lord himself has scattered them,

and he no longer helps them.

People show no respect for the priests

and no longer honor the leaders.

¹⁷We looked in vain for our allies

to come and save us,

but we were looking to nations

that could not help us.

¹⁸We couldn’t go into the streets

without danger to our lives.

Our end was near; our days were numbered.

We were doomed!

¹⁹Our enemies were swifter than eagles in flight.

If we fled to the mountains, they found us.

If we hid in the wilderness,

they were waiting for us there.

²⁰Our king—the Lord’s anointed, the very life of our nation—

was caught in their snares.

We had thought that his shadow

would protect us against any nation on earth!

²¹Are you rejoicing in the land of Uz,

O people of Edom?

But you, too, must drink from the cup of the Lord’s anger.

You, too, will be stripped naked in your drunkenness.

²²O beautiful Jerusalem, your punishment will end;

you will soon return from exile.

But Edom, your punishment is just beginning;

soon your many sins will be exposed.

Chapter 5

Prayer for Restoration

¹Lord, remember what has happened to us.

See how we have been disgraced!

²Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,

our homes to foreigners.

³We are orphaned and fatherless.

Our mothers are widowed.

⁴We have to pay for water to drink,

and even firewood is expensive.

⁵Those who pursue us are at our heels;

we are exhausted but are given no rest.

⁶We submitted to Egypt and Assyria

to get enough food to survive.

⁷Our ancestors sinned, but they have died—

and we are suffering the punishment they deserved!

⁸Slaves have now become our masters;

there is no one left to rescue us.

⁹We hunt for food at the risk of our lives,

for violence rules the countryside.

¹⁰The famine has blackened our skin

as though baked in an oven.

¹¹Our enemies rape the women in Jerusalem

and the young girls in all the towns of Judah.

¹²Our princes are being hanged by their thumbs,

and our elders are treated with contempt.

¹³Young men are led away to work at millstones,

and boys stagger under heavy loads of wood.

¹⁴The elders no longer sit in the city gates;

the young men no longer dance and sing.

¹⁵Joy has left our hearts;

our dancing has turned to mourning.

¹⁶The garlands have fallen from our heads.

Weep for us because we have sinned.

¹⁷Our hearts are sick and weary,

and our eyes grow dim with tears.

¹⁸For Jerusalem is empty and desolate,

a place haunted by jackals.

¹⁹But Lord, you remain the same forever!

Your throne continues from generation to generation.

²⁰Why do you continue to forget us?

Why have you abandoned us for so long?

²¹Restore us, O Lord, and bring us back to you again!

Give us back the joys we once had!

²²Or have you utterly rejected us?

Are you angry with us still?