Lamentations 4:7-9

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

⁷ Her princes were purer than snow,
    whiter than milk;
their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
    their hair^[a] like sapphire.^[b]

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.