Lamentations 4:2

The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

Ver. 2. The precious a sons of Zion.] Those porphyrogeniti, as the Greek emperor's children were called, because born and bred up in a room made up of precious stones. Understand it of the Jews in general - God's peculiar people, precious in his sight, and therefore honourable; Isa 43:4 of Zedekiah's sons in particular, who - as did also the rest of the Jewish nobility, if Josephus b may be believed - powdered their hair with gold dust, to the end that they might glitter and sparkle against the beams of the sun. The precious children of the Church are all glorious within by means of the graces of the Spirit, that golden oil, Zec 4:12 and the blessings of God "out of Zion," Psa 134:3 which are far beyond all other the blessings of heaven and of earth.

As earthen pitchers.] Weak and worthless.

a πιμιοι. - Sept.

b Antiq., lib. viii. cap. 7.