The Babylonian Exile

Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou saidst, Fear not.

O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

O Jehovah, thou hast seen my wrong; judge thou my cause.

Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me.

Thou hast heard their reproach, O Jehovah, and all their devices against me,

The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

Behold thou their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song.

Thou wilt render unto them a recompense, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands.

Thou wilt give them hardness of heart, thy curse unto them.

Thou wilt pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Jehovah.

How is the gold become dim! how is the most pure gold changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.

The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

Even the jackals draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: The daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: The young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.

They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: They that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were laid upon her.

Her nobles were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk; They were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was as of sapphire.

Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: Their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.

The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children; They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Jehovah hath accomplished his wrath, he hath poured out his fierce anger; And he hath kindled a fire in Zion, which hath devoured the foundations thereof.

The kings of the earth believed not, neither all the inhabitants of the world, That the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.

It isbecause of the sins of her prophets, andthe iniquities of her priests, That have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.

They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, So that men cannot touch their garments.

Depart ye, they cried unto them, Unclean! depart, depart, touch not! When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, They shall no more sojourn here.