Lamentations 4:11-20

II. AN EXPLANATION OF THE JUDGMENT

Lamentations 4:11-20

TRANSLATION

(11) The LORD has given vent to His wrath. He has poured out His fierce anger. He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has consumed her foundations. (12) Neither the kings of the earth nor the inhabitants of the world believed that the adversary and the enemy would enter the gates of Jerusalem. (13) It was because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests who shed the blood of innocent persons in the midst of her. (14) They staggered like blind men in the streets. They were polluted with blood so that none could touch their garments. (15) Turn back! Unclean! men cried to them; Turn back! Turn back! Do not touch! When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, They shall no more sojourn there. (16) The face of the LORD has scattered them, He will no more regard them. They do not respect priests nor do they favor elders. (17) Our eyes failed continuing to look for our help in vain; in our watching we watched for a nation which could not save. (18) They hunted our steps preventing us from walking in our streets. Our end drew near, our days were filled up because our end had come. (19) More swift were our pursuers than the eagles of the heavens. Upon the hills they chased us, in the wilderness they laid in wait for us. (20) The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was captured in their pits, the one of whom we had said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.

COMMENTS

In Lamentations 4:11-20 the poet begins to explain the horrendous calamity which has befallen Judah. The ultimate cause of Zion's downfall was the burning wrath of the Lord (Lamentations 4:11). The leaders of the city, and in fact all the inhabitants of the world, believed that Jerusalem was invulnerable (Lamentations 4:12). The idea that the Lord would not destroy His special abode probably was based upon the miraculous last-minute deliverance of Jerusalem from the armies of the Assyrian Sennacherib in the days of king Hezekiah (Isaiah 37).

In Lamentations 4:13-20 the prophet points out two of the reasons God's anger was stirred up against the inhabitants of Judah. First he mentions the sins of the prophets and priests (Lamentations 4:13-16). Not only were these leaders guilty of perverting the word of the Lord, they were also guilty of murder, perhaps not directly, but indirectly (Lamentations 4:13). Because of their counsel and encouragement many innocent people had been executed by the government. When Jerusalem came under the Chaldean siege and the city eventually fell these leaders who had confidently predicted divine deliverance were thrown into confusion. They were so defiled by blood that men could not touch them (Lamentations 4:14). Their countrymen treated them as though they were unclean lepers. People who met them in the way applied to them the warning cry which lepers were to use if anyone approached them. Shunned by their own countrymen these discredited religious leaders fled to foreign lands. But even there these priests and prophets were not wanted. They were forced to become vagabonds wandering from one land to another (Lamentations 4:15). It is the face of the Lord i.e., His anger, which has scattered these worthless leaders. Because they are not worthy of their office the Lord no longer regards them as prophets, priests, and elders nor do the people show to these leaders the respect and favor which the dignity of their office would normally evoke (Lamentations 4:16).

The poet points to the stubborn and stupid resistance of the inhabitants of Jerusalem as the second explanation of the severity of Jerusalem's judgment. Having committed the fundamental error of disobedience to the word of God the people of Judah stumbled on through those last years trusting confidently in false theological premises and human ingenuity. The poet points out four specific ways in which the nation had been deluded and deceived. (1) To the bitter end they had put their trust in foreign allies, particularly Egypt (Lamentations 4:17). On one occasion Pharaoh had made an attempt to come to the aid of Jerusalem but his forces were driven off by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar, Jerusalem's hope that Pharaoh Hophra could defeat the Babylonians proved vain. The troops of Nebuchadnezzar returned to the siege. (2) The nation had been led to believe that they could successfully resist the might of Babylon. But with each passing day it became ever more obvious that the end had come. Missiles hurled into the city from Chaldean siege towers made any public assembly within the city hazardous. It was stupid to continue to resist (Lamentations 4:18). (3) The inhabitants of Jerusalem also mistakenly thought they could flee the falling city. But flight was in vain. The enemy like eagles swooping down upon the prey pounced upon any who tried to escape the siege (Lamentations 4:19). (4) The inhabitants of Jerusalem were deceived in believing that they could find protection by adhering to Zedekiah the king of Judah. Because the life of a kingdom depends upon having a king, Zedekiah is called by the poet the breath of our nostrils. Zedekiah was the anointed of the Lord and the current representative of the house of David. The people were supremely confident that God would never allow the house of David to be completely overthrown. But Zedekiah was captured by the Chaldeans and deported to Babylon, a blind and broken man (Lamentations 4:20). The people had been misled by their leaders into thinking that Jerusalem was inviolable and the dynasty of David unconquerable. They had placed their trust in man and had persistently refused to heed the word of God. They have no one but themselves to blame for the severity of Jerusalem's sufferings.