Part 589

3:55 I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.

3:56 Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.

3:57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.

3:58 O LORD, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

3:59 O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.

3:60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.

3:61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me; 3:62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

3:63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.

3:64 Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.

3:65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.

3:66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.

4:1 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.

4:2 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! 4:3 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.

4:4 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.

4:5 They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

4:6 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, and no hands stayed on her.

4:7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire: 4:8 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.

4:9 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.

4:10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

4:11 The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.

4:12 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.

4:13 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, 4:14 They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

4:15 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.

4:16 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.

4:17 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.

4:18 They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

4:19 Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

4:20 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.