Lamentations 4

How Is the Gold Become Dim

The fourth poem looks back over the siege street by street, from the starving children to the fallen princes, names the prophets and priests as the cause, watches the king taken in the enemy’s pits, and ends by telling Zion that its punishment is finished and Edom’s is not.

Last revised

Lamentations chaptersChapter 4 of 5
After the fall of Jerusalem. The Guide to the Scriptures dates the book “about 586 B.C.”; the Bible Dictionary says only that it was written “some years after the fall of the city.” Read with footnotes in Gospel Library
Start reading

Background

The fall of Jerusalem, “about 586 B.C.,” stands behind all five poems of Lamentations.

The fall of Jerusalem, “about 586 B.C.,” stands behind all five poems of Lamentations. The Bible Dictionary names this chapter when it speaks of “the scenes in the city and the feelings of the people,” and the poem does look back over the siege one street and one class of people at a time. The siege lasted “unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah,” and on the ninth day of the fourth month “the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land” (Jer. 52:5–6). Then the wall was broken, “all the men of war fled” by night, and the Babylonians overtook the king in the plains of Jericho (Jer. 52:7–8). The poem touches each of these: the hunger (verses 3–10), the leaders to blame (13–16), the flight and capture of the king (18–20).

Like chapters 1 and 2, this poem is an acrostic: each of its 22 verses begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The book names no author, and chapter 1 says what is known of that (Lam. 1). What sets this poem apart from the first two is that here “the calamity is set forth as a well-merited punishment by God for the grievous sins of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” It ends with the statement that the punishment will stop.

The thread through the chapter

The poem is a fall in worth. Verse 1 opens with gold gone dim and sacred stones lying in the street, and verse 2 says whom they stand for: the “precious sons of Zion,” now counted…

The poem is a fall in worth. Verse 1 opens with gold gone dim and sacred stones lying in the street, and verse 2 says whom they stand for: the “precious sons of Zion,” now counted as clay pots. Verses 3–8 go down the ranks of the city, from infants to those raised in scarlet to the princes who were “purer than snow” and are now “blacker than a coal.” The poem divides at verse 7: verses 1–6 set out “the sad lot of the several classes of the population,” and in verses 7–11 “a conclusion is drawn therefrom regarding the greatness of their sin.”

Then the poet says why. Verse 11 names the Lord’s part: “The LORD hath accomplished his fury.” The verses after it name what brought that fury, which “is a consequence of the sins of the prophets and priests” (12–16) and of “their vain trust on the help of man” (17–20). The voice changes with the subject, from “they” in verses 13–16 to “we” in verses 17–20, and in the last two verses to “thou,” spoken to Edom and to Zion in turn.

The last turn comes in verses 21–22. Zion’s punishment is finished, and “the guilt of the daughter of Edom will be punished.” The poem says no more of how or when.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–5

The precious made worthless

In plain words

The gold has grown dim, the fine gold is changed, and sacred stones lie scattered at the head of every street. The sons of Zion, once as precious as fine gold, are counted as clay pots, the work of a potter’s hands. Even jackals nurse their young, but my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. The infant’s tongue sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst, and the children beg for bread, and no one breaks it for them. Those who ate rich food are desolate in the streets, and those brought up in scarlet lie on rubbish heaps.

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

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!

3 Even the 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.

4 The 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.

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

Verses 6–11

Greater than Sodom

In plain words

The punishment of my people’s iniquity is greater than the punishment of Sodom’s sin, which was overthrown in a moment with no hands laid on it. Her princes were purer than snow and whiter than milk, ruddy as coral, polished like sapphire. Now their faces are blacker than coal; no one knows them in the streets; their skin clings to their bones and is dry as wood. Those killed by the sword are better off than those killed by hunger, who waste away for lack of the produce of the field. The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children, who became their food in the destruction of my people. The Lord has completed His wrath, poured out His fierce anger, and kindled a fire in Zion that has eaten its foundations.

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

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

8 Their 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.

9 They 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.

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

11 The 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.

Verses 12–16

The prophets and priests

In plain words

The kings of the earth and all the world’s inhabitants did not believe that an enemy and adversary could enter the gates of Jerusalem. It was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst. They wandered blind through the streets, so stained with blood that no one could touch their clothes. People cried to them, “Away! Unclean! Away, away, do not touch!” When they fled and wandered, it was said among the nations, “They may stay here no longer.” The Lord’s anger has scattered them; He will not look on them again. Priests are shown no respect, and elders no favor.

12 The 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.

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

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

15 They 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.

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

Verses 17–20

Help that could not save

In plain words

We still wore out our eyes looking for help that was empty; we watched and watched for a nation that could not save. They hunted our steps so that we could not walk in our streets. Our end was near, our days were full, our end had come. Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky; they chased us over the mountains and lay in wait for us in the wilderness. The breath of our nostrils, the Lord’s anointed, was caught in their pits, the one of whom we said, “Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.”

17 As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for .

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

19 Our persecutors are : they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

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

Verses 21–22

The cup passes to Edom

In plain words

Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, you who live in the land of Uz; the cup will pass to you also; you will be drunk and strip yourself bare. Your iniquity, daughter of Zion, is finished; He will not exile you again. He will punish your iniquity, daughter of Edom, and uncover your sins.

21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; : thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.

22 The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; : he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins.

Seeing Christ in Lamentations 4

The chapter’s hope was in “the anointed of the LORD,” the king under whose shadow the people expected to live, and he was taken in a pit (verse 20). The Hebrew word is mashiach; Messiah is “an Aramaic word meaning ‘the anointed’” and, “used as the title of an office, it denotes the King and Deliverer whose coming the Jews were eagerly expecting”; “Jesus the Messiah is called Jesus the Christ.” In this poem the title is the king of Judah’s (see the note on verse 20). The last verse, where Zion’s punishment is finished and the exile will not come again, has been read as a promise for “the Messianic times,” as an ancient Aramaic paraphrase took it long ago. That is one reading: it “is not indeed implied in the word” for “finished,” and the verse names no deliverer.

Worth exploring next

Sources & further reading