א (Alef)
4:1 Alas! Gold has lost its luster;
pure gold loses value.
Jewels are scattered
on every street corner.
ב (Bet)
4:2 The precious sons of Zion
were worth their weight in gold –
Alas! – but now they are treated like broken clay pots,
made by a potter.
ג (Gimel)
4:3 Even the jackals nurse their young
at their breast,
but my people are cruel,
like ostriches in the desert.
ד (Dalet)
4:4 The infant’s tongue sticks
to the roof of its mouth due to thirst;
little children beg for bread,
but no one gives them even a morsel.
ה (He)
4:5 Those who once feasted on delicacies
are now starving to death in the streets.
Those who grew up wearing expensive clothes
are now dying amid garbage.
ו (Vav)
4:6 The punishment of my people
exceeded that of of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment
with no one to help her.
ז (Zayin)
4:7 Her consecrated ones were brighter than snow,
whiter than milk;
their bodies more ruddy than corals,
their hair like lapis lazuli.
ח (Khet)
4:8 Now their appearance is darker than soot;
they are not recognized in the streets.
Their skin has shriveled on their bones;
it is dried up, like tree bark.
ט (Tet)
4:9 Those who died by the sword are better off
than those who die of hunger,
those who waste away,
struck down from lack of food.
י (Yod)
4:10 The hands of tenderhearted women
cooked their own children,
who became their food,
when my people were destroyed.
כ (Kaf)
4:11 The Lord fully vented his wrath;
he poured out his fierce anger.
He started a fire in Zion;
it consumed her foundations.
ל (Lamed)
4:12 Neither the kings of the earth
nor the people of the lands ever thought
that enemy or foe would enter
the gates of Jerusalem.
מ (Mem)
4:13 But it happened due to the sins of her prophets
and the iniquities of her priests,
who poured out in her midst
the blood of the righteous.
נ (Nun)
4:14 They wander blindly through the streets,
defiled by the blood they shed,
while no one dares
to touch their garments.
ס (Samek)
4:15 People cry to them, “Turn away! You are unclean!
Turn away! Turn away! Don’t touch us!”
So they have fled and wander about;
but the nations say, “They may not stay here any longer.”
פ (Pe)
4:16 The Lord himself has scattered them;
he no longer watches over them.
They did not honor the priests;
they did not show favor to the elders.