Lamentations 4:1-9

Thomson(i) 1 How gold can be tarnished! How pure silver can be changed! Holy stones were shot down at the head of all the outlets. 2 The sons of Sion who were precious, more precious than gold; how they have been accounted as earthen vessels, the works of a potter's hands. 3 Surely jackals drew out the breasts; their whelps suckled the daughters of my people, to make them unnatural as the ostrich in the desert. 4 The tongue of a sucking babe cleaved to the roof of its mouth for thirst: infants asked for bread, there is none who breaketh it for them. 5 They who had fed upon dainties perished in the highways; they who had been nursed in scarlet were covered with dung. 6 The transgression of the daughter of my people was greater than that of Sodom which was overthrown suddenly, without tiring hands with it. 7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow; they were whiter than milk. They were more ruddy than a sapphire. Behold their change! 8 Their visage became blacker than soot. They are not distinguished in the streets. Their skin is shrivelled to their bones. They are withered. They are become like a stick. 9 The victims of the sword are more beautiful than those slain by famine. These stalked about pierced through for want of the fruits of the field.