Family Prayer
in the Early Evening

² The precious sons of Zion,
    worth their weight in fine gold,
how they are regarded as 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 sticks
    to the roof of its mouth for thirst;
the children beg for food,
    but no one gives to them.

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

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

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

⁸ 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 The hands of compassionate women
    have boiled their own children;
they became their food
    during the destruction of the daughter of my people.

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

¹² 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 the sins of her prophets
    and the iniquities of her priests,
who shed in the midst of her
    the blood of the righteous.

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

¹⁵ “Away! 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 The Lord himself has scattered them;
    he will regard them no more;
no honor was shown to the priests,
    no favor to the elders.

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

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

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

²⁰ The breath of our nostrils, the Lord's anointed,
    was captured in their pits,
of whom we said, “Under his shadow
    we shall live among the nations.”

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

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