Lamentations 4:7-9

The Message

⁷ The splendid and sacred nobles
    once glowed with health.
Their bodies were robust and ruddy,
    their beards like carved stone.

⁸ But now they are smeared with soot,
    unrecognizable in the street,
Their bones sticking out,
    their skin dried out like old leather.

⁹ Better to have been killed in battle
    than killed by starvation.
Better to have died of battle wounds
    than to slowly starve to death.