| The Holy Bible: King James Version. 2000. |
The |
| Lamentations of Jeremiah | | 4 |
The Punishment of Zion Accomplished |
| 1 |
How is the gold become dim!
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How is the most fine gold changed! |
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The stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. |
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| 2 |
The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold,
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how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, |
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the work of the hands of the potter! |
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| 3 |
Even the sea monsters draw out the breast,
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they give suck to their young ones: |
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the daughter of my people is become cruel, |
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like the ostriches in the wilderness. |
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| 4 |
The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst:
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the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them. |
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| 5 |
They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets:
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they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills. |
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| 6 |
For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people
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is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, Gen. 19.24 |
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that was overthrown as in a moment, |
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and no hands stayed on her. |
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| 7 |
Her Nazarites were purer than snow,
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they were whiter than milk, |
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they were more ruddy in body than rubies, |
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their polishing was of sapphire: |
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| 8 |
their visage is blacker than a coal;
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they are not known in the streets: |
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their skin cleaveth to their bones; |
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it is withered, it is become like a stick. |
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| 9 |
They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger:
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for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field. |
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| 10 |
The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: Deut. 28.57 · Ezek. 5.10
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they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people. |
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| 11 |
The LORD hath accomplished his fury;
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he hath poured out his fierce anger, |
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and hath kindled a fire in Zion, |
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and it hath devoured the foundations thereof. |
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| 12 |
The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world,
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would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem. |
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| 13 |
For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests,
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that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her, |
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| 14 |
they have wandered as blind men in the streets,
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they have polluted themselves with blood, |
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so that men could not touch their garments. |
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| 15 |
They cried unto them, Depart ye;
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it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: |
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when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, |
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They shall no more sojourn there. |
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| 16 |
The anger of the LORD hath divided them;
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he will no more regard them: |
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they respected not the persons of the priests, |
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they favored not the elders. |
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| 17 |
As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help:
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in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us. |
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| 18 |
They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets:
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our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come. |
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| 19 |
Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven:
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they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness. |
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| 20 |
The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD,
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was taken in their pits, of whom we said, |
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Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen. |
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| 21 |
Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom,
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that dwellest in the land of Uz; |
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the cup also shall pass through unto thee: |
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thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked. |
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| 22 |
The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion;
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he will no more carry thee away into captivity: |
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he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; |
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he will discover thy sins. |
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