The Babylonian Exile

You drew near when I called on You; You said, “Do not be afraid.”

You defend my cause, O Lord; You redeem my life.

You have seen, O LORD, the wrong done to me; vindicate my cause!

You have seen all their malice, all their plots against me.

O LORD, You have heard their insults, all their plots against me—

the slander and murmuring of my assailants against me all day long.

When they sit and when they rise, see how they mock me in song.

You will pay them back what they deserve, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.

Put a veil of anguish over their hearts; may Your curse be upon them!

You will pursue them in anger and exterminate them from under Your heavens, O LORD.

How the gold has become tarnished, the pure gold has become dull! The gems of the temple lie scattered on every street corner.

How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in pure gold, are now esteemed as jars of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!

Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.

The nursing infant’s tongue clings in thirst to the roof of his mouth. Little children beg for bread, but no one gives them any.

Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps.

The punishment of the daughter of my people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in an instant without a hand turned to help her.

Her dignitaries were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than rubies, their appearance like sapphires.

But now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.

Those slain by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger, who waste away, pierced with pain because the fields lack produce.

The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

The LORD has exhausted His wrath; He has poured out His fierce anger; He has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has consumed her foundations.

The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any people of the world, that an enemy or a foe could enter the gates of Jerusalem.

But this was for the sins of her prophets and the guilt of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst.

They wandered blind in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments.

“Go away! Unclean!” men shouted at them. “Away, away! Do not touch us!” So they fled and wandered. Among the nations it was said, “They can stay here no longer.”