Lamentations 4:7-9

International Standard Version

⁷ Her princes^[a] were purer than snow,
    whiter than milk.
Their bodies were more ruddy^[b] than rubies,
    their beards like the color of precious stones.

⁸ Now their faces are blacker than coal;
    they are unrecognized in the streets.
Their skin clings to their bones;
    it has become dry like a stick.

⁹ Those who die by the sword are better off
    than those who die from starvation,
who slowly waste away like those pierced through
    for lack of food from the fields.