Naravist

The Prophets · Old Testament

Lamentations 4

Lamentations 4: gold grown dim, famine in the streets, and a cup for Edom

General context

The poem opens by asking how the gold has become dim and the sanctuary's stones lie poured out in every street. The sons of Zion, once like fine gold, are esteemed as earthen pitchers. Even sea monsters suckle their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel like ostriches. The sucking child's tongue cleaves to its mouth for thirst; children ask for bread and no one breaks it to them. Those raised in scarlet embrace dunghills. Her punishment is called greater than Sodom's. Her Nazarites were purer than snow; now their faces are blacker than coal and their skin cleaves to their bones. Those slain by the sword are called better off than those slain by hunger. The hands of pitiful women have boiled their own children for food. The Lord has accomplished his fury and kindled a fire in Zion. No king would have believed an enemy could enter Jerusalem's gates. Because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed the blood of the just, they wander as blind men, polluted with blood, and people cry to them, depart, it is unclean. A plural voice then speaks: our eyes failed watching for a nation that could not save us; they hunt our steps and our end is come; the anointed of the Lord, the breath of our nostrils, was taken in their pits, under whose shadow we hoped to live. The daughter of Edom in the land of Uz is told to rejoice, for the cup will pass to her. The punishment of the daughter of Zion is accomplished and she will no more be carried captive; Edom's iniquity will be visited and her sins uncovered.

Cited passages: Lamentations 4:1, Lamentations 4:2, Lamentations 4:3, Lamentations 4:4, Lamentations 4:5, Lamentations 4:6, Lamentations 4:7, Lamentations 4:8, Lamentations 4:9, Lamentations 4:10, Lamentations 4:11, Lamentations 4:12, Lamentations 4:13, Lamentations 4:14, Lamentations 4:15, Lamentations 4:16, Lamentations 4:17, Lamentations 4:18, Lamentations 4:19, Lamentations 4:20, Lamentations 4:21, Lamentations 4:22

Lamentations 4 (KJV)

1How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.

2The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

3Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

4The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.

5They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

6For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.

7Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:

8Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

9They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.

10The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11The Lord hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.

12The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

13For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,

14They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

15They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.

16The anger of the Lord hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.

17As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.

18They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

19Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

20The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.

21Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.

22The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins.

This page shows the King James Version. In the app, reading opens in the Berean Standard Bible unless you have chosen another translation. The reader includes five translations: the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), the King James Version (KJV), the World English Bible (WEB), the Bible in Basic English (BBE), and the American Standard Version (ASV). Search covers three of them: Berean Standard, King James, and World English. Basic English and American Standard readers search the King James words.

Historical context

The chapter has twenty-two verses and names no author. The speaker is marked only by the phrase the daughter of my people, used three times, which places the voice among the people, and from verse 17 the voice becomes we and our. The anointed of the Lord who was taken in their pits is not named; the text says only that he was the breath of our nostrils and that the people had hoped to live under his shadow among the heathen. The nation that could not save is not named, and the enemy who entered the gates of Jerusalem is not named; the only foreign people addressed is Edom, at the end, as the daughter of Edom that dwellest in the land of Uz; Sodom is named only as a comparison. The famine is stated as fact, not figure: children thirsting and asking bread, skin cleaving to bones, death by hunger worse than by sword, and women who have boiled and eaten their own children, which chapter 2 had raised as a question. The cause the chapter gives is the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed the blood of the just; their being cried at as unclean and driven off is stated in the words of those who cried. The closing verse says Zion's punishment is accomplished and that she will no more be carried into captivity, while Edom's is still to come; no date or agent for either is given.

Cited passages: Lamentations 4:3, Lamentations 4:6, Lamentations 4:17, Lamentations 4:20, Lamentations 4:21, Lamentations 4:4, Lamentations 4:10, Lamentations 2:20, Lamentations 4:13, Lamentations 4:15, Lamentations 4:22

Literary context

The poem opens on how, as chapters 1 and 2 do, and its first half works by contrast between what was and what is: fine gold against earthen pitchers, delicate food against desolate streets, scarlet against dunghills, Nazarites purer than snow against faces blacker than coal. Animals measure the people: sea monsters that suckle their young shame the cruel daughter of my people, and eagles measure the persecutors' speed. Two comparisons rank suffering, greater than Sodom and better slain with the sword than with hunger, and the catalogue of famine reaches its end in the women's act at verse 10, after which the Lord's fury is named once and the poem turns outward to the unbelieving kings of the earth. The prophets and priests are shown wandering blind and driven off with a quoted cry, depart, depart, touch not. At verse 17 the voice widens to we, and the lines shorten into a sequence of ends, our end is near, our days are fulfilled, our end is come. The close reverses the direction of the cup: rejoice now, daughter of Edom, but it shall pass to thee, and Zion's accomplished punishment is set against Edom's coming one. The skin black like an oven in chapter 5 repeats the coal-black faces here.

Cited passages: Lamentations 4:1, Lamentations 4:2, Lamentations 4:5, Lamentations 4:7, Lamentations 4:8, Lamentations 4:3, Lamentations 4:19, Lamentations 4:9, Lamentations 4:10, Lamentations 4:11, Lamentations 4:15, Lamentations 4:18, Lamentations 4:21, Lamentations 5:10

Key moments

  1. The gold become dim (Lamentations 4:1). The poem opens with dimmed gold and the sanctuary's stones scattered in the streets.
  2. Children ask bread (Lamentations 4:4). Infants thirst and children ask for bread that no one breaks for them.
  3. Skin cleaves to bones (Lamentations 4:8). The once-pure Nazarites are blackened and withered by hunger.
  4. Women have boiled their children (Lamentations 4:10). The chapter states that pitiful women have cooked and eaten their own children.
  5. The sins of prophets and priests (Lamentations 4:13). The ruin is traced to prophets and priests who shed the blood of the just.
  6. A nation that could not save (Lamentations 4:17). The people say their eyes failed watching for help that could not save them.
  7. The anointed taken in their pits (Lamentations 4:20). The anointed of the Lord, under whose shadow they hoped to live, is captured.
  8. The cup passes to Edom (Lamentations 4:22). Zion's punishment is called accomplished, and Edom's is announced.

For reflection

The poem ranks death by the sword above death by hunger and describes the famine down to the women's own children. What does it ask of a reader to keep those details in view, rather than only the fact that the city fell?