34 To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, [1]
36 To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not. [2]
37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?
39 Why doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? [3]
40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
42 We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
43 Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.
44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
45 Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
48 My eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 My eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
50 Till the LORD shall look down, and behold from heaven.
51 My eye affecteth my heart because of all the daughters of my city. [4] [5]
52 My enemies chased me hard, like a bird, without cause.
53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
54 Waters flowed over my head; then I said, I am cut off.
55 I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.
56 Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thy ear at my breathing, at my cry.
57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.
58 O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.
59 O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.
60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;
62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and they plot against me all the day.
63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their music.
64 Render to them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse to them. [6]
66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.
CHAP. 4.
How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.
2 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
3 Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they nurse their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. [7]
4 The tongue of the nursing child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it to them.
5 They that fed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
6 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, with no hands laid on her. [8]
7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:
8 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. [9]
9 They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for lack of the fruits of the field. [10]
10 The hands of the tenderhearted women have boiled their own children: they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11 The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured its foundations.
12 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.
13 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,
14 They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments. [11]
15 They cried to 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 . [12]
16 The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no longer regard
- ↑ the most High: or, a superior
- ↑ approveth not: or, seeth not
- ↑ complain: or, murmur
- ↑ mine heart: Heb. my soul
- ↑ because...: or, more than all
- ↑ sorrow...: or, obstinacy of heart
- ↑ sea...: or, sea calves
- ↑ punishment of the iniquity: or, iniquity
- ↑ blacker...: Heb. darker than blackness
- ↑ pine...: Heb. flow out
- ↑ so...: or, in that they could not but touch
- ↑ it...: or, ye polluted
