1. How the gold has lost its luster, the fine gold become dull! The sacred gems are scattered at every street corner.
2. How the precious children of Zion, once worth their weight in gold, are now considered as pots of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!
3. Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but my people have become heartless like ostriches in the desert.
4. Because of thirst the infant’s tongue sticks to the roof of its mouth; the children beg for bread, but no one gives it to them.
5. Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets. Those brought up in royal purple now lie on ash heaps.
6. The punishment of my people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment without a hand turned to help her.
7. Their princes were brighter than snow and whiter than milk, their bodies more ruddy than rubies, their appearance like lapis lazuli.
8. But now they are 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 killed by the sword are better off than those who die of famine; racked with hunger, they waste away for lack of food from the field.