Lamentations 4:15-17

The Voice

¹⁵ “Out! Get away from us. We’re impure. Do not touch us!”
    the priests and prophets yelled.
So they wandered like fugitives, rejected wherever they went.
    Even the foreign nations wouldn’t take them.

¹⁶ Presence of the Eternal is overwhelming.
    God has scattered them to the winds.
He no longer held them in esteem:
    the priests received no honor, the elders no respect.

¹⁷ Quietly we waited for help until our eyes failed.
    We hoped and watched for a nation to rescue us.
But we waited in vain: no rescue came.