Lamentations 4:18-20

Revised Standard Version

¹⁸ Men dogged our steps
    so that we could not walk in our streets;
our end drew near; our days were numbered;
    for our end had come.

¹⁹ Our pursuers were swifter
    than the vultures in the heavens;
they chased us on the mountains,
    they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

²⁰ The breath of our nostrils, the Lord’s anointed,
    was taken in their pits,
he of whom we said, “Under his shadow
    we shall live among the nations.”