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The Punishment of Zion4 How the gold has grown dim, how the pure gold is changed! The sacred stones lie scattered at the head of every street.
2 The precious children of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold— how they are reckoned as earthen pots, the work of a potter’s hands!
3 Even the jackals offer the breast and nurse their young, but my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
4 The tongue of the infant sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but no one gives them anything.
5 Those who feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple cling to ash heaps.
6 For the chastisement of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, though no hand was laid on it.
7 Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, their hair like sapphire.
8 Now their visage is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as wood.
9 Happier were those pierced by the sword than those pierced by hunger, whose life drains away, deprived of the produce of the field.
10 The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food in the destruction of my people.
11 The L ord gave full vent to his wrath; he poured out his hot anger, and kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations.
12 The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the inhabitants of the world, that foe or enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.
13 It was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in the midst of her.
14 Blindly they wandered through the streets, so defiled with blood that no one was able to touch their garments.
15 “Away! Unclean!” people shouted at them; “Away! Away! Do not touch!” So they became fugitives and wanderers; it was said among the nations, “They shall stay here no longer.”
16 The L ord himself has scattered them, he will regard them no more; no honor was shown to the priests, no favor to the elders.
17 Our eyes failed, ever watching vainly for help; we were watching eagerly for a nation that could not save.
18 They dogged our steps so that we could not walk in our streets; our end drew near; our days were numbered; for our end had come.
19 Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles in the heavens; they chased us on the mountains, they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
20 The L ord’s anointed, the breath of our life, was taken in their pits— the one of whom we said, “Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.”
21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter Edom, you that live in the land of Uz; but to you also the cup shall pass; you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.
22 The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter Zion, is accomplished, he will keep you in exile no longer; but your iniquity, O daughter Edom, he will punish, he will uncover your sins.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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The beginning of the verse is without any difficulty; for the Prophet says that it happened better to those who immediately perished by the sword than to others who had to struggle with famine, according to what he had lately said, that the punishment of Sodom was more tolerable, because it was suddenly executed. Sudden death is the easiest And the Prophet, when complaining that the ungodly prospered, so that the faithful sometimes envied them, says that they die as it were in a moment, and are taken away from the world; but he says that the faithful are held, as it were, captive by the snares of death, and protract life in perpetual languor. For this reason the Prophet now says that the punishment of death would have been light to the Jews. And yet we know that. a violent death is regarded by us with horror. For he who dies on his bed is said to yield to his fate, as he seems to pay what he owes to nature; but, he who is slain by the sword is violently snatched away, and, as it were, contrary to nature. Violent death, then, is always horrible. But the comparison used by the Prophet amplifies the atrocity of their punishment, because it would have been more desirable to have been killed at once than to remain alive to struggle with famine. And he expresses himself more clearly by saying that they pined away, having been pierced through by the fruits of the earth There is here some obscurity, but by the fruits of the earth, we
are no doubt to understand all kinds of food. Some consider that “defect,” or failure, is to be understood. But the Prophet speaks much more emphatically, even that all the productions of the earth took vengeance on this wicked people, by refusing the usual supply. The earth is the servant of God’s bounty and kindness; for it is the same as though he with his hand extended food to us, when the earth opens its bowels; so also the productions of the earth are evidences of God’s paternal love
towards us. Now, when the fruits of the earth withdraw themselves from us, they are as it were the weapons to execute God’s vengeance. So, then, the Prophet means that the Jews had been pierced through by the fruits of the earth, and thus had pined away; as though he had said, that they had not been pierced by the sword, but had been wounded by famine, for the productions of the
earth became, as it were, swords, while yet they sustain, as we have said, the life of men.
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Houbigant and Blayney have given the following version of this clause, which has been approved by Horsley, —
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