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The Punishment of Zion

How the gold has grown dim,

how the pure gold is changed!

The sacred stones lie scattered

at the head of every street.

The precious children of Zion,

worth their weight in fine gold—

how they are reckoned as earthen pots,

the work of a potter’s hands!

Even the jackals offer the breast

and nurse their young,

but my people has become cruel,

like the ostriches in the wilderness.

The tongue of the infant sticks

to the roof of its mouth for thirst;

the children beg for food,

but no one gives them anything.

Those who feasted on delicacies

perish in the streets;

those who were brought up in purple

cling to ash heaps.

For the chastisement of my people has been greater

than the punishment of Sodom,

which was overthrown in a moment,

though no hand was laid on it.

Her princes were purer than snow,

whiter than milk;

their bodies were more ruddy than coral,

their hair like sapphire.

Now their visage is blacker than soot;

they are not recognized in the streets.

Their skin has shriveled on their bones;

it has become as dry as wood.

Happier were those pierced by the sword

than those pierced by hunger,

whose life drains away, deprived

of the produce of the field.

The hands of compassionate women

have boiled their own children;

they became their food

in the destruction of my people.

The L ord gave full vent to his wrath;

he poured out his hot anger,

and kindled a fire in Zion

that consumed its foundations.

The kings of the earth did not believe,

nor did any of the inhabitants of the world,

that foe or enemy could enter

the gates of Jerusalem.

It was for the sins of her prophets

and the iniquities of her priests,

who shed the blood of the righteous

in the midst of her.

Blindly they wandered through the streets,

so defiled with blood

that no one was able

to touch their garments.

“Away! Unclean!” people shouted at them;

“Away! Away! Do not touch!”

So they became fugitives and wanderers;

it was said among the nations,

“They shall stay here no longer.”

The L ord himself has scattered them,

he will regard them no more;

no honor was shown to the priests,

no favor to the elders.

Our eyes failed, ever watching

vainly for help;

we were watching eagerly

for a nation that could not save.

They dogged our steps

so that we could not walk in our streets;

our end drew near; our days were numbered;

for our end had come.

Our pursuers were swifter

than the eagles in the heavens;

they chased us on the mountains,

they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

The L ord’s anointed, the breath of our life,

was taken in their pits—

the one of whom we said, “Under his shadow

we shall live among the nations.”

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter Edom,

you that live in the land of Uz;

but to you also the cup shall pass;

you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.

The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter Zion, is accomplished,

he will keep you in exile no longer;

but your iniquity, O daughter Edom, he will punish,

he will uncover your sins.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Here he goes on farther, and says, that they had perished with famine who had been accustomed to the most delicate food. He had said generally that infants found nothing in their mothers’ breasts, but pined away with thirst, and also that children died through want of bread. But he now amplifies this calamity by saying, that this not only happened to the children of the common people, but also to those who had been brought up delicately, and had been clothed in scarlet and purple.

Then he says that they perished in the streets, and also that they embraced the dunghills, because they had no place to lie down, or because they sought food, as famished men do, on dunghills. ²¹¹²¹¹     The dunghills were collections of cow-dung and other things heaped together for fuel instead of wood. They had been brought up “on scarlet,” i.e., on scarlet couches, they were now glad to lie down anywhere, even on dunghills, and hence they are said to have embraced them, as though they had a love for them, —
   They who had fed on delicacies
Perished in the streets;
They who had been brought up on scarlet
Embraced the dunghills.
    — Ed It seems to be a hyperbolical expression; but if we consider what the Prophet has already narrated and will again repeat, it ought not to appear incredible, that those who had been accustomed to delicacies embraced dunghills; for mothers cooked their own children and devoured them as beef or mutton. There is no doubt but that the siege, of which we have before read, drove the people to acts too degrading to be spoken of, especially when they had become blinded through so great a pertinacity, and had altogether hardened themselves in their madness against God. It follows, —

²¹¹ The dunghills were collections of cow-dung and other things heaped together for fuel instead of wood. They had been brought up “on scarlet,” i.e., on scarlet couches, they were now glad to lie down anywhere, even on dunghills, and hence they are said to have embraced them, as though they had a love for them, — They who had fed on delicacies Perished in the streets; They who had been brought up on scarlet Embraced the dunghills. — Ed