# Lamentations 4 - Translation: Berean Standard Bible - Canonical: https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4 - License: Scripture: Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. Source: Scriptoria (scriptoria.digital). ## Text [1] How the gold has become tarnished, the pure gold has become dull! The gems of the temple lie scattered on every street corner. [2] How 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! [3] Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness. [4] The nursing infant’s tongue clings in thirst to the roof of his mouth. Little children beg for bread, but no one gives them any. [5] Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps. [6] The punishment of the daughter of my people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in an instant without a hand turned to help her. [7] Her dignitaries were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than rubies, their appearance like sapphires. [8] But 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. [9] Those slain by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger, who waste away, pierced with pain because the fields lack produce. [10] The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people. [11] The 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. [12] The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any people of the world, that an enemy or a foe could enter the gates of Jerusalem. [13] But this was for the sins of her prophets and the guilt of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst. [14] They wandered blind in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments. [15] “Go away! Unclean!” men shouted at them. “Away, away! Do not touch us!” So they fled and wandered. Among the nations it was said, “They can stay here no longer.” [16] The presence of the LORD has scattered them; He regards them no more. The priests are shown no honor; the elders find no favor. [17] All the while our eyes were failing as we looked in vain for help. We watched from our towers for a nation that could not save us. [18] They stalked our every step, so that we could not walk in our streets. Our end drew near, our time ran out, for our end had come! [19] Those who chased us were swifter than the eagles in the sky; they pursued us over the mountains and ambushed us in the wilderness. [20] The LORD’s anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their pits. We had said of him, “Under his shadow we will live among the nations.” [21] So rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz. Yet the cup will pass to you as well; you will get drunk and expose yourself. [22] O Daughter of Zion, your punishment is complete; He will not prolong your exile. But He will punish your iniquity, O Daughter of Edom; He will expose your sins. ## Places in this chapter - **Jerusalem** (Judea · today Jerusalem) — https://scriptoria.digital/en/atlas/jerusalem - **Sodom** — https://scriptoria.digital/en/atlas/sodom - **Zion** — https://scriptoria.digital/en/atlas/zion - **Uz** — https://scriptoria.digital/en/atlas/uz - **Edom** — https://scriptoria.digital/en/atlas/edom ## Each verse - Lamentations 4:1 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/1 - Lamentations 4:2 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/2 - Lamentations 4:3 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/3 - Lamentations 4:4 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/4 - Lamentations 4:5 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/5 - Lamentations 4:6 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/6 - Lamentations 4:7 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/7 - Lamentations 4:8 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/8 - Lamentations 4:9 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/9 - Lamentations 4:10 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/10 - Lamentations 4:11 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/11 - Lamentations 4:12 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/12 - Lamentations 4:13 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/13 - Lamentations 4:14 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/14 - Lamentations 4:15 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/15 - Lamentations 4:16 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/16 - Lamentations 4:17 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/17 - Lamentations 4:18 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/18 - Lamentations 4:19 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/19 - Lamentations 4:20 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/20 - Lamentations 4:21 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/21 - Lamentations 4:22 — https://scriptoria.digital/en/bible/lamentations/4/22