Lamentations 4

The Holy Stones Lie Scattered

1 How the gold has become dim!
How changed the fine gold!
The stones of the sanctuary are 1 scattered
At the head of every street.

2 The precious sons of Zion,
2 Valuable as fine gold,
How they are 3 regarded a as clay pots,
The work of the hands of the potter!

3 Even the jackals present their breasts
To nurse their young;
But the daughter of my people is cruel,
b Like ostriches in the wilderness.

4 The tongue of the infant clings
To the roof of its mouth for thirst;
c The young children ask for bread,
But no one breaks it for them.

5 Those who ate delicacies
Are desolate in the streets;
Those who were brought up in scarlet
d Embrace ash heaps.

6 The punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people
Is greater than the punishment of the e sin of Sodom,
Which was f overthrown in a moment,
With no hand to help her!

7 Her 4 Nazirites 4 were 6 brighter than snow
And whiter than milk;
They were more ruddy in body than rubies,
Like sapphire in their 7 appearance.

8 Now their appearance is blacker than soot;
They go unrecognized in the streets;
g Their skin clings to their bones,
It has become as dry as wood.

9 Those slain by the sword are better off
Than those who die of hunger;
For these h pine away,
Stricken for lack of the fruits of the i field.

10 The hands of the j compassionate women
Have 8 cooked their k own children;
They became l food for them
In the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11 The LORD has fulfilled His fury,
m He has poured out His fierce anger.
n He kindled a fire in Zion,
And it has devoured its foundations.

12 The kings of the earth,
And all inhabitants of the world,
Would not have believed
That the adversary and the enemy
Could o enter the gates of Jerusalem -

13 p Because of the sins of her prophets
And the iniquities of her priests,
q Who shed in her midst
The blood of the just.

14 They wandered blind in the streets;
r They have defiled themselves with blood,
s So that no one would touch their garments.

15 They cried out to them,
"Go away, t unclean!
Go away, go away,
Do not touch us!"
When they fled and wandered,
Those among the nations said,
"They shall no longer dwell here."

16 The 9 face of the LORD scattered them;
He no longer regards them.
u The people do not respect the priests
Nor show favor to the elders.

17 Still v our eyes failed us,
Watching vainly for our help;
In our watching we watched
For a nation that could not save us.

18 w They 10 tracked our steps
So that we could not walk in our streets.
x Our end was near;
Our days were over,
For our end had come.

19 Our pursuers were y swifter
Than the eagles of the heavens.
They pursued us on the mountains
And lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

20 The z breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD,
a Was caught in their pits,
Of whom we said, "Under his shadow
We shall live among the nations."

21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of b Edom,
You who dwell in the land of Uz!
c The cup shall also pass over to you
And you shall become drunk and make yourself naked.

22 d The punishment of your iniquity 11 is accomplished,
O daughter of Zion;
He will no longer send you into captivity.
e He will punish your iniquity,
O daughter of Edom;
He will uncover your sins!

  1. Cross References
    Isaiah 30:14
    And He shall break it like the breaking of the potter's vessel, Which is broken in pieces; He shall not spare. So there shall not be found among its fragments A shard to take fire from the hearth, Or to take water from the cistern.
    Jeremiah 19:11
    And say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, which cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury.
    2 Corinthians 4:7
    But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
  2. Cross References
    Job 39:14 - 17
    For she leaves her eggs on the ground, And warms them in the dust.
  3. Cross References
    Psalms 22:15
    My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death.
  4. Cross References
    Job 24:8
    They are wet with the showers of the mountains, And huddle around the rock for want of shelter.
  5. Cross References
    Ezekiel 16:48
    As I live," says the Lord GOD, "neither your sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done.
  6. Cross References
    Genesis 19:25
    So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
    Jeremiah 20:16
    And let that man be like the cities Which the LORD overthrew, and did not relent; Let him hear the cry in the morning And the shouting at noon.
  7. Cross References
    Job 19:20
    My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, And I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
    Psalms 102:5
    Because of the sound of my groaning My bones cling to my skin.
  8. Cross References
    Leviticus 26:39
    And those of you who are left shall waste away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; also in their fathers' iniquities, which are with them, they shall waste away.
    Ezekiel 24:23
    Your turbans shall be on your heads and your sandals on your feet; you shall neither mourn nor weep, but you shall pine away in your iniquities and mourn with one another.
  9. Cross References
    Jeremiah 16:4
    "They shall die gruesome deaths; they shall not be lamented nor shall they be buried, but they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth."
  10. Cross References
    Leviticus 26:29
    You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you s...
    Deuteronomy 28:57
    Her placenta which comes out from between her f...
    2 Kings 6:29
    "So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said t...
    Jeremiah 19:9
    "And I will cause them to eat the flesh of thei...
    Lamentations 2:20
    See, O LORD, and consider! To whom have You don...
    Ezekiel 5:10
    Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your ...
  11. Cross References
    Isaiah 49:15
    Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you.
  12. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 28:57
    Her placenta which comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.
  13. Cross References
    Jeremiah 7:20
    Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place - on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and not be quenched.
    Lamentations 2:17
    The LORD has done what He purposed; He has fulfilled His word Which He commanded in days of old. He has thrown down and has not pitied, And He has caused an enemy to rejoice over you; He has exalted the horn of your adversaries.
    Ezekiel 22:31
    Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads," says the Lord GOD.
  14. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 32:22
    For a fire is kindled in My anger, And shall burn to the lowest hell; It shall consume the earth with her increase, And set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
    Jeremiah 21:14
    But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings," says the LORD; "I will kindle a fire in its forest, And it shall devour all things around it." '
  15. Cross References
    Jeremiah 21:13
    "Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, And rock of the plain," says the LORD, "Who say, 'Who shall come down against us? Or who shall enter our dwellings?'
  16. Cross References
    Jeremiah 5:31
    The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule by their own power; And My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?
    Ezekiel 22:26
    Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.
    Ezekiel 22:28
    Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies for them, saying, 'Thus says the Lord GOD,' when the LORD had not spoken.
    Zephaniah 3:4
    Her prophets are insolent, treacherous people; Her priests have polluted the sanctuary, They have done violence to the law.
  17. Cross References
    Jeremiah 2:30
    In vain I have chastened your children; They received no correction. Your sword has devoured your prophets Like a destroying lion.
    Jeremiah 26:8
    Now it happened, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, "You will surely die!
    Jeremiah 26:9
    Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, 'This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without an inhabitant'?" And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.
    Matthew 23:31
    Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
  18. Cross References
    Jeremiah 2:34
    Also on your skirts is found The blood of the lives of the poor innocents. I have not found it by secret search, But plainly on all these things.
  19. Cross References
    Numbers 19:16
    Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain by a sword or who has died, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
  20. Cross References
    Leviticus 13:45
    "Now the leper on whom the sore is, his clothes shall be torn and his head bare; and he shall cover his mustache, and cry, 'Unclean! Unclean!'
    Leviticus 13:46
    He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore he shall be unclean. He is unclean, and he shall dwell alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.
  21. Cross References
    Lamentations 5:12
    Princes were hung up by their hands, And elders were not respected.
  22. Cross References
    2 Kings 24:7
    And the king of Egypt did not come out of his land anymore, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the Brook of Egypt to the River Euphrates.
  23. Cross References
    2 Kings 25:4
    Then the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled at night by way of the gate between two walls, which was by the king's garden, even though the Chaldeans were still encamped all around against the city. And the king went by way of the plain.
  24. Cross References
    Ezekiel 7:2
    And you, 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 7:3
    Now the end has come upon you, And I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways, And I will repay you for all your abominations.
    Ezekiel 7:6
    An end has come, The end has come; It has dawned for you; Behold, it has come!
    Amos 8:2
    And He said, "Amos, what do you see?" So I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the LORD said to me: "The end has come upon My people Israel; I will not pass by them anymore.
  25. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 28:49
    The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand.
  26. Cross References
    Genesis 2:7
    And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
  27. Cross References
    Jeremiah 52:9
    So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgment on him.
    Ezekiel 12:13
    I will also spread My net over him, and he shall be caught in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans; yet he shall not see it, though he shall die there.
  28. Cross References
    Psalms 83:3 - 6
    They have taken crafty counsel against Your people, And consulted together against Your sheltered ones.
  29. Cross References
    Jeremiah 25:15
    For thus says the LORD God of Israel to me: "Take this wine cup of fury from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it.
  30. Cross References
    Isaiah 40:2
    "Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, That her warfare is ended, That her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the LORD's hand Double for all her sins."
    Jeremiah 33:7
    And I will cause the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel to return, and will rebuild those places as at the first.
    Jeremiah 33:8
    I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned and by which they have transgressed against Me.
  31. Cross References
    Psalms 137:7
    Remember, O LORD, against the sons of Edom The day of Jerusalem, Who said, "Raze it, raze it, To its very foundation!
New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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