Zion Is Punished

¹ How the gold has grown dim, the pure gold has changed. The stones of holiness are scattered at the head of every street.

² The precious sons of Zion weighed against fine gold, how they are thought of as earthen vessels of clay, the work of the potter’s hands.

³ Even the jackal bears the beast and nurses their cubs; but the daughter of my people has become ruthless, like ostriches in the wilderness.

⁴ The tongue of the nursling cleaves to its palate in thirst. Children beg for food, ⌞no one lays it out before them⌟.¹

1. Literally “nothing spreads to them”

⁵ The ones who eat delicacies, they are ruined in the streets; the ones nurtured in purple lie on piles of trash.

⁶ The iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom; it was overthrown in a moment and no hands were laid on her.

⁷ Her princes were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than rubies, sapphire their appearance.

⁸ Now their appearance is blacker than soot, they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones, it has become dry like wood.

⁹ Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of famine; they have pined away, very hungry for the crops of my field.

¹⁰ The hands of compassionate women, have cooked their children; they became as something to eat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

¹¹ Yahweh has completed his anger, he has poured out ⌞his fierce anger⌟;¹ he has kindled a fire in Zion, it consumed her² foundations.

1. Literally “the fierce anger of his nose”
2. Or “its”

¹² The kings of the earth did not believe, and all the inhabitants of the world, that a foe and an enemy could enter into the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³ Because of the sins of her prophets, the guilt of her priests, who shed blood in her midst, of righteous people.

¹⁴ They wander blindly in the streets; they were defiled with the blood, their clothes could not be touched.

¹⁵ “Go away! Defiled!” they shout to them. “Go away! Go away! Do not touch!” so they left, they left; it was said among the nations, “⌞They will no longer dwell with us⌟.”¹

1. Literally “They will no longer be here as aliens”

¹⁶ The presence of Yahweh has scattered them, he will no longer watch over them; ⌞they did not honor the priests⌟,¹ they did not show mercy to elders.

1. Literally “they did not lift up the faces of the priests”

¹⁷ Still our eyes failed, looking for our help in vain; in our watchtower, we kept watch for a nation that could not save.

¹⁸ They hunted our steps, from walking in our streets; our end has come near, ⌞our days are finished⌟,¹ our end has come.

1. Literally “our days are filled”

¹⁹ Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens; they chased us on the mountains, they have set an ambush for us in the desert.

²⁰ The breath of our nostrils, the anointed one of Yahweh, was captured in their pits; of whom we said, “In his shadow we will live among the nations.”

²¹ Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz; but to you also the cup will pass, you will become drunk and strip yourself bare.

²² The punishment of your iniquity is completed, O daughter of Zion, your exile will not continue; but he will punish your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will reveal your sins.