איכה ד

א Alas!
The gold is dulled,
Debased the finest gold!
The sacred gems are spilled
At every street corner.

ב The precious children of Zion;
Once valued as gold—
Alas, they are accounted as earthen pots,
Work of a potter’s hands!

ג Even jackals offer the breast
And suckle their young;
But my poor people has turned cruel,
Like ostriches of the desert.

ד The tongue of the suckling cleaves
To its palate for thirst.
Little children beg for bread;
None gives them a morsel.

ה Those who feasted on dainties
Lie famished in the streets;
Those who were reared in purple
Have embraced refuse heaps.

ו The guilt of my poor people
Exceeded the iniquity of Sodom,
Which was overthrown in a moment,
Without a hand striking it.

ז Her elect were purer than snow,
Whiter than milk;
Their limbs were ruddier than coral,
Their bodies were like sapphire.

ח Now their faces are blacker than soot,
They are not recognized in the streets;
Their skin has shriveled on their bones,
It has become dry as wood.

ט Better off were the slain of the sword
Than those slain by famine,
Who pined away, [as though] wounded,
For lack of the fruits of the field.

י With their own hands, tenderhearted women
Have cooked their children;
Such became their fare,
In the disaster of my poor people.

כ GOD gave full vent to fury,
And poured out blazing wrath—
Kindling a fire in Zion
That consumed its foundations.

ל The kings of the earth did not believe,
Nor any of the inhabitants of the world,
That foe or adversary could enter
The gates of Jerusalem.

מ It was for the sins of her prophets,
The iniquities of her priests,
Who had shed in her midst
The blood of the just.

נ They wandered blindly through the streets,
Defiled with blood,
So that no one was able
To touch their garments.

ס “Away! Unclean!” people shouted at them,
“Away! Away! Touch not!”
So they wandered and wandered again;
For the nations had resolved:
“They shall stay here no longer.”

פ GOD’s countenance has turned away from them,
And will look on them no more.
They showed no regard for priests,
No favor to elders.

ע Even now our eyes pine away
In vain for deliverance.
As we waited, still we wait
For a nation that cannot help.

צ Our steps were checked,
We could not walk in our squares.
Our doom is near, our days are done—
Alas, our doom has come!

ק Our pursuers were swifter
Than the eagles in the sky;
They chased us in the mountains,
Lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

ר The breath of our life, GOD’s anointed,
Was captured in their traps—
He in whose shade we had thought
To live among the nations.

ש Rejoice and exult, Fair Edom,
Who dwell in the land of Uz!
To you, too, the cup shall pass,
You shall get drunk and expose your nakedness.

ת Your iniquity, Fair Zion, is expiated;
You will be exiled no longer.
Your iniquity, Fair Edom, [God] will note,
And uncover your sins.