Immerse: Poets Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 190
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IMMERSE
•
POETS
Our princes once glowed with health—
brighter than snow, whiter than milk.
Their faces were as ruddy as rubies,
their appearance like fine jewels.
But now their faces are blacker than soot.
No one recognizes them in the streets.
Their skin sticks to their bones;
it is as dry and hard as wood.
Those killed by the sword are better off
than those who die of hunger.
Starving, they waste away
for lack of food from the fields.
Tenderhearted women
have cooked their own children.
They have eaten them
to survive the siege.
But now the anger of the Lord is satisfied.
His fierce anger has been poured out.
He started a fire in Jerusalem
that burned the city to its foundations.
Not a king in all the earth—
no one in all the world—
would have believed that an enemy
could march through the gates of Jerusalem.
Yet it happened because of the sins of her prophets
and the sins of her priests,
who defiled the city
by shedding innocent blood.
They wandered blindly
through the streets,
so defiled by blood
that no one dared touch them.
“Get away!” the people shouted at them.
“You’re defiled! Don’t touch us!”
So they fled to distant lands
and wandered among foreign nations,
but none would let them stay.
4:7-15
