The Holy Stones Lie Scattered

Lamentations 4

1 q How the gold has grown dim,
how the pure gold is changed!
The holy stones lie scattered
r at the head of every street.

2 The precious sons of Zion,
worth their weight in s fine gold,
how they are regarded as t earthen pots,
the work of a potter's hands!

3 Even jackals offer the breast;
they nurse their young,
but the daughter of my people has become cruel,
like the ostriches in the wilderness.

4 The tongue of the nursing infant u sticks
to the roof of its mouth for thirst;
v the children beg for food,
but no one gives to them.

5 Those who once feasted on delicacies
perish in the streets;
w those who were brought up in purple
embrace ash heaps.

6 x For the chastisement 1 of the daughter of my people has been greater
than the punishment 2 of Sodom,
y which was overthrown in a moment,
and no hands were wrung for her. 3

7 Her princes were purer than snow,
whiter than milk;
their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
the beauty of their form 4 was like sapphire. 5

8 z Now their face is blacker than soot;
they are not recognized in the streets;
their skin has shriveled on their bones;
it has become as dry as wood.

9 Happier were the victims of the sword
than the victims of hunger,
who wasted away, pierced
by lack of the fruits of the field.

10 a The hands of b compassionate women
c have boiled their own children;
d they became their food
during the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11 e The Lord gave full vent to his wrath;
he poured out his hot anger,
and f he kindled a fire in Zion
that consumed its foundations.

12 g The kings of the earth did not believe,
nor any of the inhabitants of the world,
that foe or enemy could enter
the gates of Jerusalem.

13 This was for h the sins of her prophets
and h the iniquities of her priests,
who shed in the midst of her
the blood of the righteous.

14 i They wandered, blind, through the streets;
they were so defiled with blood
j that no one was able to touch
their garments.

15 "Away! k Unclean!" people cried at them.
"Away! Away! Do not touch!"
So they became fugitives and wanderers;
people said among the nations,
"They shall stay with us no longer."

16 l The Lord himself 6 has scattered them;
he will regard them no more;
m no honor was shown to the priests,
n no favor to the elders.

17 o Our eyes failed, ever watching
o vainly for help;
in our watching we watched
for p a nation which could not save.

18 q They dogged our steps
so that we could not walk in our streets;
r our end drew near; our days were numbered,
for our end had come.

19 Our pursuers were s swifter
than the eagles in the heavens;
they chased us on the mountains;
they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

20 t The breath of our nostrils, u the Lord's anointed,
was captured v in their pits,
of whom we said, w "Under his shadow
we shall live among the nations."

21 x Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom,
you who dwell in y the land of Uz;
but to you also z the cup shall pass;
you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.

22 a The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished;
he will keep you in exile no longer; 7
but b your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will punish;
he will uncover your sins.

  1. Cross References
    Isaiah 1:22
    Your silver has become dross, your best wine mixed with water.
    Jeremiah 6:30
    Rejected silver they are called, for the Lord has rejected them.
  2. Cross References
    Lamentations 2:19
    "Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street."
  3. Cross References
    Psalms 19:10
    More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
  4. Cross References
    Jeremiah 19:11
    And shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it can never be mended. Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury.
  5. Cross References
    Psalms 22:15
    My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.
  6. Cross References
    Lamentations 2:11
    My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city.
  7. Cross References
    2 Samuel 1:24
    You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you luxuriously in scarlet, who put ornaments of gold on your apparel.
  8. Cross References
    Matthew 10:15
    Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
    Luke 10:12
    I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
  9. Cross References
    Genesis 19:25
    And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
    2 Peter 2:6
    If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.
    Jude 1:7
    Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
  10. Cross References
    Lamentations 5:10
    Our skin is hot as an oven with the burning heat of famine.
    Job 30:30
    My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat.
    Psalms 119:83
    For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke, yet I have not forgotten your statutes.
  11. Cross References
    Jeremiah 19:9
    And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.
  12. Cross References
    1 Kings 3:26
    Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, "Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death." But the other said, "He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him.
    Isaiah 49:15
    Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
  13. Cross References
    2 Kings 6:29
    So we boiled my son and ate him. And on the next day I said to her, 'Give your son, that we may eat him.' But she has hidden her son.
  14. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 28:57
    Her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything she will eat them secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns.
  15. Cross References
    Ezekiel 5:13
    Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the Lord - that I have spoken in my jealousy - when I spend my fury upon them.
  16. Cross References
    Jeremiah 17:27
    But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.'
  17. Cross References
    Isaiah 52:15
    So shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.
    Isaiah 53:1
    Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
  18. Cross References
    Lamentations 2:20
    Look, O Lord, and see! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
    Jeremiah 5:31
    The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?
    Jeremiah 23:21
    I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
  19. Cross References
    Lamentations 2:20
    Look, O Lord, and see! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
    Jeremiah 5:31
    The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?
    Jeremiah 23:21
    I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
  20. Cross References
    Isaiah 59:10
    We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men.
  21. Cross References
    Numbers 19:16
    Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally, or touches a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
  22. Cross References
    Leviticus 13:45
    "The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, 'Unclean, unclean.'
  23. Cross References
    Lamentations 2:17
    The Lord has done what he purposed; he has carried out his word, which he commanded long ago; he has thrown down without pity; he has made the enemy rejoice over you and exalted the might of your foes.
  24. Cross References
    Isaiah 24:2
    And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor.
  25. Cross References
    Lamentations 5:12
    Princes are hung up by their hands; no respect is shown to the elders.
  26. Cross References
    Psalms 119:82
    My eyes long for your promise; I ask, "When will you comfort me?
    Psalms 119:123
    My eyes long for your salvation and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise.
    Jeremiah 3:23
    Truly the hills are a delusion, the orgies on the mountains. Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.
  27. Cross References
    Psalms 119:82
    My eyes long for your promise; I ask, "When will you comfort me?
    Psalms 119:123
    My eyes long for your salvation and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise.
    Jeremiah 3:23
    Truly the hills are a delusion, the orgies on the mountains. Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.
  28. Cross References
    Jeremiah 37:7 - 8
    Thus says the Lord, God of Israel: Thus shall you say to the king of Judah who sent you to me to inquire of me, 'Behold, Pharaoh's army that came to help you is about to return to Egypt, to its own land.
  29. Cross References
    Lamentations 3:52
    I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause.
  30. Cross References
    Ezekiel 7:2 - 3
    And you, O son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel: An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.
    Ezekiel 7:6
    An end has come; the end has come; it has awakened against you. Behold, it comes.
    Amos 8:2
    And he said, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the Lord said to me, "The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them.
  31. Cross References
    Jeremiah 4:13
    Behold, he comes up like clouds; his chariots like the whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles - woe to us, for we are ruined!
    2 Samuel 1:23
    Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely! In life and in death they were not divided; they were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions.
    Habakkuk 1:8
    Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
  32. Cross References
    Genesis 2:7
    Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
  33. Cross References
    Lamentations 2:9
    Her gates have sunk into the ground; he has ruined and broken her bars; her king and princes are among the nations; the law is no more, and her prophets find no vision from the Lord.
    2 Kings 25:5 - 6
    But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him.
  34. Cross References
    Ezekiel 12:13
    And I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my snare. And I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, yet he shall not see it, and he shall die there.
    Ezekiel 17:20
    I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon and enter into judgment with him there for the treachery he has committed against me.
    Ezekiel 19:4
    The nations heard about him; he was caught in their pit, and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt.
    Ezekiel 19:8
    Then the nations set against him from provinces on every side; they spread their net over him; he was taken in their pit.
  35. Cross References
    Judges 9:15
    And the bramble said to the trees, 'If in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade, but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.
    Ezekiel 31:6
    All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs; under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth to their young, and under its shadow lived all great nations.
    Ezekiel 31:17
    They also went down to Sheol with it, to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were its arm, who lived under its shadow among the nations.
  36. Cross References
    Lamentations 1:21
    They heard my groaning, yet there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it. You have brought the day you announced; now let them be as I am.
  37. Cross References
    Job 1:1
    There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
    Jeremiah 25:20
    And all the mixed tribes among them; all the kings of the land of Uz and all the kings of the land of the Philistines ( Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod).
  38. Cross References
    Jeremiah 25:15 - 16
    Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: "Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.
  39. Cross References
    Isaiah 40:2
    Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord 's hand double for all her sins.
  40. Cross References
    Obadiah 1:10
    Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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