---
title: Lamentations 4
slug: kjv/lamentations-4
createdAt: 2024-08-21T04:16:39.429Z
---

א

**1 **How is the gold become dim! *how* is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.

ב

**2 **The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

ג

**3 **Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people *is become* cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

ד

**4 **The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, *and* no man breaketh *it* unto them.

ה

**5 **They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

ו

**6 **For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.

ז

**7 **Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing *was* of sapphire:

ח

**8 **Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

ט

**9 ***They that be* slain with the sword are better than *they that be* slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for *want of* the fruits of the field.

י

**10 **The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

כ

**11 **The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.

ל

**12 **The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

מ

**13 **For the sins of her prophets, *and* the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,

נ

**14 **They have wandered *as* blind *men* in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

ס

**15 **They cried unto them, Depart ye; *it is* unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn *there*.

פ

**16 **The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.

ע

**17 **As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation *that* could not save *us*.

צ

**18 **They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

ק

**19 **Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

ר

**20 **The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.

ש

**21 **Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.

ת

**22 **The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins.