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 4,13 Klgl 4,13
Thy prophets have seen for thee false and foolish visions;And they have not uncovered thine iniquity, to bring back thy captivity,But have seen for thee false {Hebrew: burdens.}oracles and {Or, things to draw thee aside}causes of banishment.
For of old time {Or, thou hast}I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bonds; and thou saidst, I will not {Another reading is, transgress.}serve; for upon every high hill and under every green tree thou didst bow thyself, playing the harlot.
the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule {Or, at their hands}by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?
And it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that Jehovah had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold on him, saying, Thou shalt surely die.
For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
Why hast thou prophesied in the name of Jehovah, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant? And all the people were gathered unto Jeremiah in the house of Jehovah.
Then Jehovah said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name; I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake I unto them: they prophesy unto you a lying vision, and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their own heart.
Wherefore ye witness to yourselves, that ye are sons of them that slew the prophets.
for both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith Jehovah.
Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery places in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil upon them, {Or, in the year}even the year of their visitation, saith Jehovah.
And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.
In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies; and they strengthen the hands of evil-doers, so that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them become unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of {Or, poison}gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem is ungodliness gone forth into all the land.
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they teach you vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Jehovah.
They say continually unto them that despise me, Jehovah hath said, Ye shall have peace; and unto every one that walketh in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, No evil shall come upon you.
For who hath stood in the council of Jehovah, that he should perceive and hear his word? who hath marked {Another reading is, his.}my word, and heard it?
Behold, the tempest of Jehovah, even his wrath, is gone forth, yea, a whirling tempest: it shall burst upon the head of the wicked.
The anger of Jehovah shall not return, until he have {Or, done it}executed, and till he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall {Or, consider}understand it perfectly.
I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I spake not unto them, yet they prophesied.
Ye serpents, ye offspring of vipers, how shall ye escape the judgment of {Greek: Gehenna.}hell?
Therefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: some of them shall ye kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city:
that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar.
Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her! how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.
And her prophets have daubed for them with {Or, whitewash}untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, when Jehovah hath not spoken.
Woe unto you! for ye build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.
So ye are witnesses and consent unto the works of your fathers: for they killed them, and ye build their tombs.
Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send unto them prophets and apostles; and some of them they shall kill and persecute;
that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the {Greek: house.}sanctuary: yea, I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation.
The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet they lean upon Jehovah, and say, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? no evil shall come upon us.
Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they killed them that showed before of the coming of the Righteous One; of whom ye have now become betrayers and murderers;
Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.
who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove out us, and please not God, and are contrary to all men;
Her princes in the midst of her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they {Or, gnaw not the bones on the morrow}leave nothing till the morrow.
forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved; to fill up their sins always: but the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.
Her prophets are light and treacherous persons; her priests have profaned the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.