Lamentations 4:7-9

The Voice

⁷ Eternal One: Glory comes in service for those consecrated to Me;
        they are purer and cleaner than snow and whiter than milk
    Their bodies chiseled and healthy,
        as polished as sapphires and redder than coral.

⁸     How stark the contrast; they have suffered so.
        Now they are sullied with grime,
    Unrecognizable on the streets,
        skeletal and frail, as dry as tender.

⁹     If only they could have died valiantly by the sword—
        rather than doubled over by famine,
    This long-drawn agony of hunger,
        deprived of the yield of the field.