Berean Standard Bible

Lamentations 4:1-11

1How1 the gold has become tarnished, the pure gold has become dull! The gems of the temple lie scattered on every street corner.

2How the precious sons of Zion,once worth their weight in pure gold,are now esteemed as jars of clay,the work of a potter’s hands!

3Even jackals2 offer their breaststo nurse their young,but the daughter of my people has become cruel,like an ostrich in the wilderness.

4The nursing infant’s tongueclings in thirst to the roof of his mouth.Little children beg for bread,but no one gives them any.

5Those who once ate delicaciesare destitute in the streets;those brought up in crimsonhuddle in ash heaps.

6The punishment3 of the daughter of my peopleis greater than that of Sodom,which was overthrown in an instantwithout a hand turned to help her.

7Her dignitaries were brighter than snow,whiter than milk;their bodies were more ruddy than rubies,their appearance4 like sapphires.5

8But now their appearance is blacker than soot;they are not recognized in the streets.Their skin has shriveled on their bones;it has become as dry as a stick.

9Those slain by the sword are better offthan those who die of hunger,who waste away, pierced with painbecause the fields lack produce.

10The hands of compassionate womenhave cooked their own children,who became their foodin the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11The LORD has exhausted His wrath;He has poured out His fierce anger;He has kindled a fire in Zion,and it has consumed her foundations.

Read all of Lamentations 4

Notes

1. Lamentations 4:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem, each verse beginning with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. ↩
2. Lamentations 4:3 Or serpents or dragons ↩
3. Lamentations 4:6 Or iniquity ↩
4. Lamentations 4:7 Or their polishing or their hair ↩
5. Lamentations 4:7 Hebrew lapis lazuli ↩

Notes

Commentaries on Lamentations 4