UST GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR EZRA NEH EST JOB PSA PROV ECC SNG ISA JER LAM EZE DAN HOS JOEL AMOS OBA YNA MIC NAH HAB ZEP HAG ZEC MAL MAT MARK LUKE YHN ACTs ROM 1 COR 2 COR GAL EPH PHP COL 1 TH 2 TH 1 TIM 2 TIM TIT PHM HEB YAC 1 PET 2 PET 1 YHN 2 YHN 3 YHN YUD REV

LAM C1 C2 C3 C5

UST LAM Chapter 4

◄ LAM 4 ► ║ ═ ©

4 ALEPH

4 How terrible that the people of Jerusalem, who used to be so valuable, have now become completely worthless!

The enemy has thrown out the precious young men

at every street corner.

BETH

2 People once considered the young men of Zion to be extremely valuable,

but now everyone treats them as completely worthless,

like ordinary clay pots that a potter makes.

GIMEL

3 Even jackals nurse their young,

but the women among my people have neglected their own children

and have stopped caring for them.

DALETH

4 The babies are so thirsty

that their tongues stick to the roofs of their mouths.

The children beg for food,

but no one gives them any.

5 People who used to eat the finest food

now starve in the streets.

People whose parents raised them wearing expensive clothes

now search through garbage heaps for something to eat.

WAW

6 God has punished my people more severely

than he punished the people of Sodom.

He destroyed Sodom in an instant,

and nobody cried for it.

ZAYIN

7 Jerusalem’s most honored people used to look very pure and healthy.

They had strong, attractive bodies

and appeared very vigorous.

HETH

8 But now they look so dark and thin

that no one recognizes them in the streets.

Their skin has shriveled tightly over their bones

and has dried out completely.

TETH

9 Those who died quickly in battle were better off

than those who died slowly from starvation,

because the starving people wasted away gradually

since no food grew in the fields.

YODH

10 Women who were normally very compassionate

cooked their own children.

They ate them as food

when the enemy destroyed Jerusalem.

KAPH

11 Yahweh expressed all of his anger against Jerusalem.

He burned the city with fire

and destroyed it down to its very foundations.

LAMEDH

12 No king anywhere on the earth,

and no one else in the whole world,

believed that an enemy

could ever enter the city of Jerusalem.

MEM

13 But it happened because Jerusalem’s prophets sinned

and her priests did evil things.

They killed innocent people

right there in the city.

NUN

14 Those prophets and priests wandered through the streets,

confused and unable to find their way.

The blood of the people they had killed made them so unclean that no one would touch even their clothes.

SAMEKH

15 People shouted at them, “Go away! You are unclean!

Do not touch us!”

So those priests and prophets fled and wandered from place to place,

but even the people in other nations said, “They cannot stay here.”

AYIN

16 Yahweh himself scattered them

and no longer watches over them.

People in those nations do not respect our priests

and do not show any kindness to our elders.

17 We kept watching and waiting for a nation to come and help us,

but no help ever came.

The nation we hoped would rescue us could not save us.

TSADHE

18 Our enemies tracked us so closely

that we could not even walk through our own city squares.

The time for our destruction was near,

and our final days had come.

QOPH

19 Those who chased us were extremely fast.

They pursued us over the mountains

and ambushed us in the desert.

RESH

20 Our enemies captured the king whom Yahweh had chosen to lead us,

the one who kept us alive.

We had said about him,

“He will protect us even if we have to live among other nations.”

SIN

21 The people of Edom who live in the land of Uz

may be happy now about what has happened to Jerusalem,

but Yahweh will punish them too.

He will cause them to suffer greatly and be completely humiliated.

TAW

22 Yahweh will finish punishing the people of Jerusalem,

and he will not keep them in exile any longer.

However, he will punish the people of Edom

and expose all the evil things they have done.

LAM C1 C2 C3 C5