Yahweh’s Wrath Spent
א Aleph
How adark the gold has become,
How the pure gold has changed!
The sacred stones are poured out
At the head of every street.
ב Beth
2 The precious sons of Zion,
Weighed against fine gold,
How they are regarded as aearthen jars,
The work of a potter’s hands!
ג Gimel
3 Even ajackals offer the breast;
They nurse their young;
But the daughter of my people has become bcruel
Like costriches in the wilderness.
ד Daleth
4 The atongue of the nursing baby cleaves
To the roof of its mouth because of bthirst;
The infants cask for bread,
But no one breaks it for them.
ה He
5 Those who ate adelicacies
Are desolate in the streets;
Those reared in crimson
Embrace ash pits.
ו Vav
6 So the iniquity of the daughter of my people
Is greater than the asin of Sodom,
Which was boverthrown as in a moment,
And no hands whirled toward her.
ז Zayin
7 Her Nazirites were apurer than snow;
They were whiter than milk;
They were more ruddy in body than corals,
Their polishing was like blapis lazuli.
ח Heth
8 Their form is ablacker than soot;
They are not recognized in the streets;
Their bskin is shriveled on their bones;
It is withered, it has become like wood.
ט Teth
9 Better are those apierced through with the sword
Than those pierced through with hunger;
For their life bflows away, being stricken
For lack of the produce of the field.
י Yodh
10 The hands of compassionate women
aBoiled their own children;
They became bfood for them
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
כ Kaph
11 Yahweh has aspent His wrath;
He has poured out His burning anger;
And He has bkindled a fire in Zion
Which has devoured its foundations.
ל Lamedh
12 The kings of the earth did not believe,
Nor did any of athe inhabitants of the world,
That the adversary and the enemy
Could benter the gates of Jerusalem.
מ Mem
13 Because of the sins of her aprophets
And the iniquities of her priests,
Who have shed in her midst
The bblood of the righteous;
נ Nun
14 They wandered, ablind, in the streets;
They were defiled with bblood
So that no one could touch their cgarments.
ס Samekh
15 “Depart! aUnclean!” they cried of themselves.
“Depart, depart, do not touch!”
So they bfled and wandered;
Men among the nations said,
“They shall not continue to sojourn with us.”
פ Pe
16 The presence of Yahweh has eradicated them;
He will not continue to look at them;
They did not ahonor the priests;
They did not favor the elders.
ע Ayin
17 Yet our eyes were spent,
Looking for help was avanity;
In our watching we have watched
For a bnation that could not save.
צ Tsadhe
18 They ahunted our steps
So that we could not walk in our open squares;
Our bend drew near,
Our days were finished,
For our end had come.
ק Qoph
19 Our pursuers were aswifter
Than the eagles of the sky;
They hotly pursued us on the mountains;
They waited in ambush for us in the wilderness.
ר Resh
20 The abreath of our nostrils, the banointed of Yahweh,
Was ccaptured in their pits,
Of whom we had said, “Under his dshadow
We shall live among the nations.”
שׂ Sin
21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of aEdom,
Who inhabits the land of Uz;
But the bcup will pass on to you as well;
You will become drunk and make yourself naked.
ת Tav
22 The punishment of your iniquity has come ato an end, O daughter of Zion;
He will exile you no longer.
But He bwill punish your iniquity, O daughter of Edom;
He will expose your sins!