The Tanach, with the evidence built in
This is the complete Hebrew Bible in the Jewish Publication Society translation. Wherever a real archaeological find bears on the text, those words are underlined in gold✦. Hover over them or tap them to see the artifact and what it confirms. From there, Next find takes you to the next underline, so you can tour a whole book’s evidence, and the share button turns the verse into an image.
Each chapter lists its finds under its title, and the chapter picker shows how many finds every book and chapter has. The AA button sets the text size, light or dark, and English, Hebrew, or the two together.
Chapter 4
1Alas!The gold is dulled,Debased the finest gold!The sacred gems are spilledAt every street corner.
2The precious children of Zion;Once valued as gold—Alas, they are accounted as earthen pots,Work of a potter’s hands!
3Even jackals offer the breastAnd suckle their young;But my poor people has turned cruel,Like ostriches of the desert.
4The tongue of the suckling cleavesTo its palate for thirst.Little children beg for bread;None gives them a morsel.
5Those who feasted on daintiesLie famished in the streets;Those who were reared in purpleHave embraced refuse heaps.
6The guilt of my poor peopleExceeded the iniquity of Sodom,Which was overthrown in a moment,Without a hand striking it.
7Her elect were purer than snow,Whiter than milk;Their limbs were ruddier than coral,Their bodies were like sapphire.
8Now their faces are blacker than soot,They are not recognized in the streets;Their skin has shriveled on their bones,It has become dry as wood.
9Better off were the slain of the swordThan those slain by famine,Who pined away, [as though] wounded,For lack of the fruits of the field.
10With their own hands, tenderhearted womenHave cooked their children;Such became their fare,In the disaster of my poor people.
11The LORD vented all His fury,Poured out His blazing wrath;He kindled a fire in ZionWhich consumed its foundations.
12The kings of the earth did not believe,Nor any of the inhabitants of the world,That foe or adversary could enterThe gates of Jerusalem.
13It was for the sins of her prophets,The iniquities of her priests,Who had shed in her midstThe blood of the just.
14They wandered blindly through the streets,Defiled with blood,So that no one was ableTo touch their garments.
15“Away! Unclean!” people shouted at them,“Away! Away! Touch not!”So they wandered and wandered again;For the nations had resolved:“They shall stay here no longer.”
16The LORD’s countenance has turned away from them,He will look on them no more.They showed no regard for priests,No favor to elders.
17Even now our eyes pine awayIn vain for deliverance.As we waited, still we waitFor a nation that cannot help.
18Our steps were checked,We could not walk in our squares.Our doom is near, our days are done—Alas, our doom has come!
19Our pursuers were swifterThan the eagles in the sky;They chased us in the mountains,Lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
20The breath of our life, the LORD’s anointed,Was captured in their traps—He in whose shade we had thoughtTo live among the nations.
21Rejoice and exult, Fair Edom,Who dwell in the land of Uz!To you, too, the cup shall pass,You shall get drunk and expose your nakedness.
22Your iniquity, Fair Zion, is expiated;He will exile you no longer.Your iniquity, Fair Edom, He will note;He will uncover your sins.
Translation: Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures (Jewish Publication Society, 1985), via Sefaria, used under CC BY-NC.
Paragraph divisions follow the Masoretic text (Miqra according to the Masorah, CC BY-SA).