Lamentations 4-5
King James Version (KJV)
4Â How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.
2Â The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
3Â Even the sea monsters 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.
4Â 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.
5Â They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
6Â For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.
7Â Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:
8Â 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.
9Â They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.
10Â The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11Â The Lord hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.
12Â The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.
13Â For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,
14Â They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.
15Â They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.
16Â The anger of the Lord hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.
17Â As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.
18Â They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
19Â Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
20Â The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.
21Â Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.
22Â The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins.
5Â Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
2Â Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
3Â We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
4Â We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
5Â Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.
6Â We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
7Â Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.
8Â Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.
9Â We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
10Â Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
11Â They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.
12Â Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.
13Â They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
14Â The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.
15Â The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
16Â The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
17Â For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
18Â Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
19Â Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.
20Â Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
21Â Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
22Â But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
Obadiah
1Â The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.
2Â Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.
3Â The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?
4Â Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.
5Â If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, (how art thou cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes?
6Â How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!
7Â All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him.
8Â Shall I not in that day, saith the Lord, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?
9Â And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.
10Â For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.
11Â In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.
12Â But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.
13Â Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity;
14Â Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress.
15Â For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.
16Â For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.
17Â But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
18Â And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the Lord hath spoken it.
19Â And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau; and they of the plain the Philistines: and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
20Â And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south.
21Â And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord‘s.