Lamentations 4:1-2

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.

Lamentations 4:4-5

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.

Lamentations 4:7

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.

Lamentations 4:9-11

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.

י (Yod)

4:10 The hands of tenderhearted women

cooked their own children,

who became their food,

when my people were destroyed.

כ (Kaf)

4:11 The Lord fully vented his wrath;

he poured out his fierce anger.

He started a fire in Zion;

it consumed her foundations.

Lamentations 4:14

נ (Nun)

4:14 They wander blindly through the streets,

defiled by the blood they shed,

while no one dares

to touch their garments.

Lamentations 4:18-20

צ (Tsade)

4:18 Our enemies hunted us down at every step

so that we could not walk about in our streets.

Our end drew near, our days were numbered,

for our end had come!

ק (Qof)

4:19 Those who pursued us were swifter

than eagles in the sky.

They chased us over the mountains;

they ambushed us in the wilderness.

ר (Resh)

4:20 Our very life breath – the Lord’s anointed king –

was caught in their traps,

of whom we thought,

“Under his protection we will survive among the nations.”