Lamentations 4:7-9

International Children’s Bible

⁷ Our princes were purer than snow.
    They were whiter than milk.
Their bodies were redder than rubies.
    Their faces shined like sapphires.

⁸ But now they are blacker than coal.
    No one even recognizes them in the streets.
Their skin is stretched over their bones.
    It is as dry as wood.

⁹ Those people who were killed by the sword had it better
    than those killed by hunger.
They starved in pain and died
    because there was no food from the field.