Lamentations 2:11-12

כ (Kaf)

2:11 My eyes are worn out from weeping;

my stomach is in knots.

My heart is poured out on the ground

due to the destruction of my helpless people;

children and infants faint

in the town squares.

ל (Lamed)

2:12 Children say to their mothers,

“Where are food and drink?”

They faint like a wounded warrior

in the city squares.

They die slowly

in their mothers’ arms.

Lamentations 4:1-9

The Prophet Speaks:

א (Alef)

4:1 Alas! Gold has lost its luster;

pure gold loses value.

Jewels are scattered

on every street corner.

ב (Bet)

4:2 The precious sons of Zion

were worth their weight in gold –

Alas! – but now they are treated like broken clay pots,

made by a potter.

ג (Gimel)

4:3 Even the jackals nurse their young

at their breast,

but my people are cruel,

like ostriches in the desert.

ד (Dalet)

4:4 The infant’s tongue sticks

to the roof of its mouth due to thirst;

little children beg for bread,

but no one gives them even a morsel.

ה (He)

4:5 Those who once feasted on delicacies

are now starving to death in the streets.

Those who grew up wearing expensive clothes

are now dying amid garbage.

ו (Vav)

4:6 The punishment of my people

exceeded that of of Sodom,

which was overthrown in a moment

with no one to help her.

ז (Zayin)

4:7 Her consecrated ones were brighter than snow,

whiter than milk;

their bodies more ruddy than corals,

their hair like lapis lazuli.

ח (Khet)

4:8 Now their appearance is darker than soot;

they are not recognized in the streets.

Their skin has shriveled on their bones;

it is dried up, like tree bark.

ט (Tet)

4:9 Those who died by the sword are better off

than those who die of hunger,

those who waste away,

struck down from lack of food.

Isaiah 51:20

51:20 Your children faint;

they lie at the head of every street

like an antelope in a snare.

They are left in a stupor by the Lord’s anger,

by the battle cry of your God.

Ezekiel 5:10

5:10 Therefore fathers will eat their sons within you, Jerusalem, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you, and I will scatter any survivors to the winds.

Ezekiel 5:16

5:16 I will shoot against them deadly, destructive arrows of famine, which I will shoot to destroy you. I will prolong a famine on you and will remove the bread supply.

Nahum 3:10

3:10 Yet she went into captivity as an exile;

even her infants were smashed to pieces at the head of every street.

They cast lots for her nobility;

all her dignitaries were bound with chains.