Lamentations 4:1-10

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

A RUINED KINGDOM

Lamentations 4:1-22

The fourth poem is an alphabetic acrostic like that found in Chapter s 1 and 2 with the exception that the stanzas here have two lines instead of three. Here also the sixteenth and seventeenth letters of the Hebrew alphabet are reversed, but without any interruption in the thought sequence. No satisfactory explanation of this reversal of letters has yet been suggested. The chapter emphasizes the suffering of the people of Jerusalem during and following the Chaldean siege. The poet uses the technique of contrast as he compares the former glory of the kingdom of Judah to the present wretched condition of the land. The poem falls into three parts. (1) The poet first gives an eyewitness account of the horrors which accompanied and followed the siege of Jerusalem (Lamentations 4:1-10). (2) Then the prophet offers an explanation for this overwhelming calamity (Lamentations 4:11-20). (3) Finally, the poet offers a ray of hope for his people, placing in contrast the future of Edom and the future of Israel (Lamentations 4:21-22).

I. A DESCRIPTION OF THE JUDGMENT Lamentations 4:1-10

TRANSLATION

(1) How sad that the gold has become dim, the best gold changed! Holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street. (2) The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how sad that they are regarded as clay vessels, the work of the potter's hands. (3) Even the jackals draw out the breast to give suck to their young. The daughter of my people has become cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness. (4) The tongue of the suckling child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst; young children ask for bread but no man breaks it for them. (5) They who were accustomed to eating delicacies perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple resort to the dunghill. (6) For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom which was overturned suddenly, untouched by any hand. (7) Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; they were more ruddy in body than coral, as sapphire was their form. (8) Blacker than soot has their appearance become, they are not recognized on the streets. Their skin hugs their bones having become dry like a stick. (9) Those who were slain by the sword were better off than those who were slain by the famine, for these pine away, stricken through for want of the products of the field. (10) The hands of tenderhearted women have boiled their own children; they became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

COMMENTS

The poet begins his lament by contrasting the former brightness of Judah with the present dark days. The golden Temple ornamentation which formerly glistened in the sunlight now is blackened and tarnished. The stones of the Temple lie scattered about at the head of every street leading from the Temple area (Lamentations 4:1). The youth of Zion, the most valuable asset of the nation, lie dead and scattered about like broken bits of pottery (Lamentations 4:2). The remaining portion of the poet's description of the judgment on Jerusalem focuses on the famine which the city experienced while under Babylonian siege. He vividly describes the effects of hunger on four classes of the populace. (1) The children have suffered above all. The tortured and tormented mothers of Judah treat their babies worse than the Wild animals treat their young. Wild and roving jackals (not sea monsters as in KJV) do not forget their offspring. But the famine has made the mothers of Jerusalem cruel like the ostrich (Lamentations 4:3). The ostrich was regarded by the ancients as the symbol of maternal neglect and cruelty (Job 39:13-17). The babes of Jerusalem have no breasts to suckle and hence die from lack of nourishment. Young children ask for bread but no one takes note of their need (Lamentations 4:4). (2) The wealthy also suffer in the famine. What a pitiful sight it must have been to see those who were accustomed to the finest foods and garments perishing in the streets with the poor or scavenging in the city garbage dumps (Lamentations 4:5). The lingering agony of the starving city causes the poet to make a painful comparison. Jerusalem has experienced a more severe fate than ancient Sodom. Sodom's fall was sudden but Jerusalem's agony and suffering was prolonged over a period of several months (Lamentations 4:6). (3) The nobles of the land (or perhaps the Nazarites) also suffered greatly from the famine. Once they were the picture of healthrosy cheeks, fair complexion, stately appearance (Lamentations 4:7). But as a result of the pangs of hunger these nobles have been reduced to skin and bones. Their fair skin is now black and leathery. No one can even recognize these once famous personages on the streets of the city (Lamentations 4:8). How much better off were those Who had died suddenly by the sword in battle than those who wasted away day by day (Lamentations 4:9). (4) Most pitiful of all are the women of Judah. Once tender-hearted and loving mothers, these women have been so crazed by hunger that they have forgotten their maternal affection. In order to preserve their own lives they were boiling and eating their own children! (Lamentations 4:10).