Lamentations 4:7-9

New Catholic Bible

⁷ Her princes were once brighter than snow
    and whiter than milk.
Their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
    more precious than sapphire.
⁸ Now their faces are blacker than soot,
    and no one recognizes them in the streets.
Their skin has shriveled tightly over their bones,
    as dry as a stick.
⁹ More blessed were those who died by the sword
    than those who died of hunger,
with their limbs wasting away,
    deprived of the produce of the field.