Lamentations 4:3-10

3Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the women of my people are as cruel as wild ostriches.

4The tongues of nursing infants stick to the roofs of their mouths because of their thirst. Little children beg for bread, but no one will break off a piece for them.

5Those who used to eat delicacies are now destitute in the streets. Those who used to wear expensive clothes now pick through piles of garbage.

6The punishment for my people’s wickedness has been more severe than the punishment for the sins of Sodom. Sodom was destroyed instantly, without one human hand touching it.

7Zion’s princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk. Their bodies were more pink than coral. Their hair was like sapphires.

8Their faces are ⌞now⌟ blacker than soot. No one recognizes them on the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones. It has become as dry as bark.

9Those who were killed with swords are better off than those who are dying from starvation. Those who were stabbed bled to death. The others are dying because there is nothing in the fields to eat.

10The hands of loving mothers cooked their own children. The children were used for food by my people when they were being destroyed ⌞by a blockade⌟.