The Babylonian Exile

You came near when I called to you; you said, "Don't be afraid."

Adonai, you defended my cause; you redeemed my life.

ADONAI, you see how I have been wronged; give judgment in my favor!

You have seen all their vindictiveness and all their plots against me.

You have heard their taunts, ADONAI, and all their plots against me,

the whispered murmurings of my foes against me all day long.

See how, whether they sit or stand, I am the butt of their taunts.

Repay them, ADONAI, as their deeds deserve.

Give them hardheartedness as your curse on them.

Pursue them in anger! Destroy them from under your heavens!

How the gold has lost its luster! How the fine gold has changed! How the stones of the sanctuary lie scattered at every streetcorner!

The precious sons of Tziyon, as precious as fine gold -to think they are now worth no more than clay jars made by a potter!

Even jackals bare their breasts in order to nurse their young, but the daughters of my people have become as cruel as ostriches in the desert.

The tongue of the baby at the breast sticks to the roof of its mouth from thirst; young children are begging for bread, but no one is giving them any.

People who once ate only the best lie dying in the streets; those who were raised wearing purple are clawing at piles of garbage.

For the offense of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of S'dom, which was overthrown in an instant, without a hand to help her.

Her princes were purer than snow; they were whiter than milk, their bodies more ruddy than pink pearls, as beautiful as sapphires.

Now their faces are blacker than coal; in the streets they go unrecognized. Their skin has shriveled over their bones and become as dry as a stick.

Those slain by the sword are better off than those who are dying from hunger; since these waste away as if pierced through, for lack of food from the fields.

With their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children; their children became their food when the daughter of my people was destroyed.

ADONAI has finished with his fury, he has poured out his blazing wrath; he kindled a fire in Tziyon that consumed its very foundations.

The kings of the earth could not believe, neither could anyone living in the world, that enemy or foe would ever enter the gates of Yerushalayim.

It happened because of the sins of her prophets and the offenses of her cohanim, who, within her walls, shed the blood of the righteous.

They wander in the streets like the blind; they are so polluted with blood that nobody is able even to touch their clothing.

"Keep away! Unclean!" people shout at them, "Keep away! Away! Don't touch us!"They flee, to wander here and there; but no nation allows them to stay.