Lamentations 4

Reading Lamentations chapter 4 in the Young's Literal Translation, public-domain text from 1898.

Verses 1–10

1 How is the gold become dim, Changed the best--the pure gold? Poured out are stones of the sanctuary At the head of all out-places.

2 The precious sons of Zion, Who are comparable with fine gold, How have they been reckoned earthen bottles, Work of the hands of a potter.

3 Even dragons have drawn out the breast, They have suckled their young ones, The daughter of my people is become cruel, Like the ostriches in a wilderness.

4 Cleaved hath the tongue of a suckling unto his palate with thirst, Infants asked bread, a dealer out they have none.

5 Those eating of dainties have been desolate in out-places, Those supported on scarlet have embraced dunghills.

6 And greater is the iniquity of the daughter of my people, Than the sin of Sodom, That was overturned as in a moment, And no hands were stayed on her.

7 Purer were her Nazarites than snow, Whiter than milk, ruddier of body than rubies, Of sapphire their form.

8 Darker than blackness hath been their visage, They have not been known in out-places, Cleaved hath their skin unto their bone, It hath withered--it hath been as wood.

9 Better have been the pierced of a sword Than the pierced of famine, For these flow away, pierced through, Without the increase of the field.

10 The hands of merciful women have boiled their own children, They have been for food to them, In the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Lamentations in other translations

• KJV Lamentations
• ASV Lamentations
• Darby Lamentations
• DRC Lamentations
• WEB Lamentations
• Webster Lamentations

About this translation

The Young's Literal Translation (1898) is one of seven public-domain translations available in the OCC Bible Explorer. Use the full app to compare translations side by side, search across all translations, and explore Strong's Hebrew and Greek concordance entries linked to every word.