Today is the 31st day of October. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I'm Brian. Of course,

it's awesome to be here with you today. As we prepare to close down the 10th month of the year,

today is the 304th day of the year, which leaves us with 61 steps to go to the finish line.

And also today we will conclude the book of lamentations.

So let's get to that. We are reading from the Good News translation this week.

Lamentations chapter 4, verse 1, through 5, verse 22 today.

Our glittering gold has grown dull. The stones of the temple lie scattered in the streets.

Zion's young people were as precious to us as gold, but now they are treated like common clay pots.

Yes, even a mother wolf will nurse her cubs, but my people are like ostriches, cruel to their young.

They let their babies die of hunger and thirst. Children are begging for food that no one will give them.

People who once ate the finest foods die starving in the streets. Those raised in luxury are

pawing through garbage for food. My people have been punished even more than the inhabitants of

Sodom, which met a sudden downfall at the hands of God. Our princes were undefiled and pure as snow,

vigorous and strong, glowing with health. Now they lie unknown in the streets. Their faces blackened

in death. Their skin, dry as wood, has shriveled on their bones. Those who died in the war were

better off than those who died later, who starved slowly to death with no food to keep them alive.

The disaster that came to my people brought horror, loving mothers boiled their own children for food.

The Lord turned loose the full force of his fury. He lit a fire in Zion that burned it to the ground.

No one, anywhere, not even rulers of foreign nations believed that any invader could enter Jerusalem's gates.

But it happened because her prophets sinned and her priests were guilty of causing the death of innocent people.

Her leaders wandered through the streets as though blind, so stained with blood that no one would touch

them. Get away, people shouted. You're defiled. Don't touch me. So they wandered from nation to nation.

...