¹ How is the gold become dim, Changed the best -- the pure gold? Poured out are stones of the sanctuary At the head of all out-places.

² The precious sons of Zion, Who are comparable with fine gold, How have they been reckoned earthen bottles, Work of the hands of a potter.

³ Even dragons have drawn out the breast, They have suckled their young ones, The daughter of my people is become cruel, Like the ostriches in a wilderness.

⁴ Cleaved hath the tongue of a suckling unto his palate with thirst, Infants asked bread, a dealer out they have none.

⁵ Those eating of dainties have been desolate in out-places, Those supported on scarlet have embraced dunghills.

⁶ And greater is the iniquity of the daughter of my people, Than the sin of Sodom, That was overturned as [in] a moment, And no hands were stayed on her.

⁷ Purer were her Nazarites than snow, Whiter than milk, ruddier of body than rubies, Of sapphire their form.

⁸ Darker than blackness hath been their visage, They have not been known in out-places, Cleaved hath their skin unto their bone, It hath withered -- it hath been as wood.

⁹ Better have been the pierced of a sword Than the pierced of famine, For these flow away, pierced through, Without the increase of the field.

¹⁰ The hands of merciful women have boiled their own children, They have been for food to them, In the destruction of the daughter of my people.

¹¹ Completed hath Jehovah His fury, He hath poured out the fierceness of His anger, And he kindleth a fire in Zion, And it devoureth her foundations.

¹² Believe not did the kings of earth, And any of the inhabitants of the world, That come would an adversary and enemy Into the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³ Because of the sins of her prophets, The iniquities of her priests, Who are shedding in her midst the blood of the righteous,

¹⁴ They have wandered naked in out-places, They have been polluted with blood, Without [any] being able to touch their clothing,

¹⁵ `Turn aside -- unclean,' they called to them, `Turn aside, turn aside, touch not,' For they fled -- yea, they have wandered, They have said among nations: `They do not add to sojourn.'

¹⁶ The face of Jehovah hath divided them, He doth not add to behold them, The face of priests they have not lifted up, Elders they have not favoured.

¹⁷ While we exist -- consumed are our eyes for our vain help, In our watch-tower we have watched for a nation [that] saveth not.

¹⁸ They have hunted our steps from going in our broad-places, Near hath been our end, fulfilled our days, For come hath our end.

¹⁹ Swifter have been our pursuers, Than the eagles of the heavens, On the mountains they have burned [after] us, In the wilderness they have laid wait for us.

²⁰ The breath of our nostrils -- the anointed of Jehovah, Hath been captured in their pits, of whom we said: `In his shadow we do live among nations.'

²¹ Joy and rejoice, O daughter of Edom, Dwelling in the land of Uz, Even unto thee pass over doth a cup, Thou art drunk, and makest thyself naked.

²² Completed [is] thy iniquity, daughter of Zion, He doth not add to remove thee, He hath inspected thy iniquity, O daughter of Edom, He hath removed [thee] because of thy sins!

¹ How doth the Lord cloud in His anger the daughter of Zion, He hath cast from heaven [to] earth the beauty of Israel, And hath not remembered His footstool in the day of His anger.

² Swallowed up hath the Lord, He hath not pitied any of the pleasant places of Jacob, He hath broken down in His wrath The fortresses of the daughter of Judah, He hath caused to come to the earth, He polluted the kingdom and its princes.

³ He hath cut off in the heat of anger every horn of Israel, He hath turned backward His right hand From the face of the enemy, And He burneth against Jacob as a flaming fire, It hath devoured round about.

⁴ He hath trodden His bow as an enemy, Stood hath His right hand as an adversary, And He slayeth all the desirable ones of the eye, In the tent of the daughter of Zion, He hath poured out as fire His fury.

⁵ The Lord hath been as an enemy, He hath swallowed up Israel, He hath swallowed up all her palaces, He hath destroyed His fortresses, And He multiplieth in the daughter of Judah Mourning and moaning.

⁶ And He shaketh as a garden His tabernacle, He hath destroyed His appointed place, Jehovah hath forgotten in Zion the appointed time and sabbath, And despiseth, in the indignation of His anger, king and priest.

⁷ The Lord hath cast off His altar, He hath rejected His sanctuary, He hath shut up into the hand of the enemy The walls of her palaces, A noise they have made in the house of Jehovah Like a day of appointment.

⁸ Devised hath Jehovah to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion, He hath stretched out a line, He hath not turned His hand from destroying, And He causeth bulwark and wall to mourn, Together -- they have been weak.

⁹ Sunk into the earth have her gates, He hath destroyed and broken her bars, Her king and her princes [are] among the nations, There is no law, also her prophets Have not found vision from Jehovah.

¹⁰ Sit on the earth -- keep silent do the elders of the daughter of Zion, They have caused dust to go up on their head, They have girded on sackcloth, Put down to the earth their head have the virgins of Jerusalem.

¹¹ Consumed by tears have been my eyes, Troubled have been my bowels, Poured out to the earth hath been my liver, For the breach of the daughter of my people; In infant and suckling being feeble, In the broad places of the city,

¹² To their mothers they say, `Where [are] corn and wine?' In their becoming feeble as a pierced one In the broad places of the city, In their soul pouring itself out into the bosom of their mothers.

¹³ What do I testify [to] thee, what do I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What do I equal to thee, and I comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? For great as a sea [is] thy breach, Who doth give healing to thee?

¹⁴ Thy prophets have seen for thee a false and insipid thing, And have not revealed concerning thine iniquity, To turn back thy captivity, And they see for thee false burdens and causes of expulsion.

¹⁵ Clapped hands at thee have all passing by the way, They have hissed -- and they shake the head At the daughter of Jerusalem: `Is this the city of which they said: The perfection of beauty, a joy to all the land?'

¹⁶ Opened against thee their mouth have all thine enemies, They have hissed, yea, they gnash the teeth, They have said: `We have swallowed [her] up, Surely this [is] the day that we looked for, We have found -- we have seen.'

¹⁷ Jehovah hath done that which He devised, He hath fulfilled His saying That He commanded from the days of old, He hath broken down and hath not pitied, And causeth an enemy to rejoice over thee, He lifted up the horn of thine adversaries.

¹⁸ Cried hath their heart unto the Lord; O wall of the daughter of Zion, Cause to go down as a stream tears daily and nightly, Give not rest to thyself, Let not the daughter of thine eye stand still.

¹⁹ Arise, cry aloud in the night, At the beginning of the watches. Pour out as water thy heart, Over against the face of the Lord, Lift up unto Him thy hands, for the soul of thine infants, Who are feeble with hunger at the head of all out-places.

²⁰ See, O Jehovah, and look attentively, To whom Thou hast acted thus, Do women eat their fruit, infants of a handbreadth? Slain in the sanctuary of the Lord are priest and prophet?

²¹ Lain on the earth [in] out-places have young and old, My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword, Thou hast slain in a day of Thine anger, Thou hast slaughtered -- Thou hast not pitied.

²² Thou dost call as [at] a day of appointment, My fears from round about, And there hath not been in the day of the anger of Jehovah, An escaped and remaining one, They whom I stretched out and nourished, My enemy hath consumed!