How is the gold become dim! how is the most pure gold changed!
The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.
The precious sons of Zion, {Hebrew: that may be weighted against.}comparable to fine gold,
How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
Even the jackals 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.
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.
They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets:
They that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
For the {Or, the punishment of the inquity}iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than {Or, the punishment of sin}the sin of Sodom,
That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands {Or, fell See 2 Samuel 2:29. }were laid upon her.
Her {Or, Nazirites}nobles were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk;
They were more ruddy in body than {Or, corals}rubies, their polishing was as of sapphire.
Their visage is {Hebrew: darker than blackness.}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.
They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger;
For these {Hebrew: flow away.}pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.
The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children;
They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Jehovah hath accomplished his wrath, he hath poured out his fierce anger;
And he hath kindled a fire in Zion, which hath devoured the foundations thereof.
The kings of the earth believed not, neither all the inhabitants of the world,
That the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.
It is because of the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests,
That have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.
They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood,
So that men cannot touch their garments.
Depart ye, they cried unto them, Unclean! depart, depart, touch not!
{Or, Yea}When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, They shall no more sojourn here.
The {Hebrew: face.}anger of Jehovah hath scattered them; he will no more regard them:
They respected not the persons of the priests, they favored not the elders.
Our eyes do yet fail in looking for our vain help:
In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.
They hunt our steps, so that we cannot go in our streets:
Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens:
They chased us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Jehovah, was taken in their pits;
Of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.
Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz:
The cup shall pass through unto thee also; thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.
{Or, Thine iniquity hath an end}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 uncover thy sins.
Querverweise zu Klagelieder 4,2 Klgl 4,2
There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand among all the sons that she hath brought up.
The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets;My virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword:Thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast slaughtered, and not pitied.
For I have bent Judah for me, I have filled the bow with Ephraim; and I will stir up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O {Hebrew: Javan.}Greece, and will make thee as the sword of a mighty man.
Princes were hanged up by their hand:The faces of elders were not honored.
And he shall break it as a potter's vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing; so that there shall not be found among the pieces thereof a sherd wherewith to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.
and shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury in Topheth, {Or, because there shall be no place else}till there be no place to bury.
Is this man Coniah a despised broken {Or, pot}vessel? is he a vessel wherein none delighteth? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they know not?
Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?
What if God, {Or, although willing}willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction:
{Some ancient authorities omit and.}and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory,
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves;
Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some unto honor, and some unto dishonor.