Lamentationschapter 4
22 verses · KJVLamentations book hub →
Key verse
The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
It stands in scene A of the chapter, verses 1 to 11.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The fourth acrostic, starker, contrasting before and after. The gold is become dim; the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in fine gold, are esteemed as earthen pitchers. Nursing animals feed their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel; infants ask bread and no man breaks it to them; those raised in scarlet embrace dunghills. The Nazirites, purer than snow and whiter than milk, are now blacker than a coal. Compassionate women boiled their own children. The city fell because of the sins of her prophets and priests. 'The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Jehovah, was taken in their pits' (4:20). Edom is told to rejoice while she can, the cup will pass to her.
Context
Poetry · Jeremiah · Lamentations overview
Where the chapter sits
Lamentations 4 falls in Five poems over a fallen city (chapters 1–5). Acrostic laments over Jerusalem's desolation (ch. 1–4); a non-acrostic closing prayer (ch. 5). At the centre: the great affirmation of 3:22–23, ‘his compassions fail not; they are new every morning.’
The whole shape of Lamentations→The world behind this chapter
Lamentations 4The history
The chapter opens with metal and stone: the gold has grown dim, the finest gold changed, the sacred stones lie scattered at the head of every street. Gold does not actually tarnish, which is the point, something that should not be possible has happened. The precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in fine gold, are now reckoned as clay pots, the cheapest thing in any house.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The famine is given in ordinary domestic detail. Nursing infants' tongues stick to the roof of their mouths; children beg for bread and no one gives it; people who once ate delicacies lie on ash heaps; those raised in purple embrace rubbish piles. Skin has shrivelled on their bones, dry as a stick. The chapter says those killed by the sword were better off than those who wasted away for lack of the fruits of the field.
Then the line that survivors of ancient sieges reported and that this book will not leave out: the hands of compassionate women boiled their own children. Siege cannibalism is recorded elsewhere in the ancient world, in Assyrian accounts and later in Josephus's description of Jerusalem's siege in AD 70. The Law had warned centuries earlier that this was where a besieged, covenant-breaking city would end.
Two political lines close it. The LORD's anointed, the breath of our nostrils, was taken in their pits, that is King Zedekiah, run down on the plains of Jericho. And Edom, who had cheered from across the border, is told to rejoice while she can, because the cup will come round to her.
What it meant to them
First hearers had personally seen the things in this chapter. Writing them down was not sensationalism; it was refusing to let a nation tidy up its own memory.
The verdict inside it is severe and specific: this happened because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst. The leadership is named. And the chapter still ends with a promise that Zion's punishment is accomplished and her exile will not be prolonged.
Sources cited
- Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews (Whiston translation)
- Walton, Matthews and Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
A. The Gold Grown Dim; Precious Sons as Earthen Pitchers
1. (vv. 1-2)
a.How is the gold become dim!: Lamentations 4 is the third of the book's acrostics, twenty-two verses running the Hebrew alphabet aleph through tav, one line for each letter as chapters 1 and 2 did. The poem opens on a jeweler's grief: the gold has lost its shine and the sanctuary's own stones lie scattered at the top of every street, the temple's ruin measured in stone. The reversal that follows names Zion's sons themselves as the treasure debased, once comparable to fine gold and now esteemed no higher than earthen pitchers, common clay work from a potter's hand.
Lamentations 4:1, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
Lamentations 4:1
“The stones of the sanctuary - Or, the hallowed stones, literally stones of holiness, a metaphor for the people themselves. The actual stones of the temple would not be thus widely thrown about as to be seen everywhere, but the prophet has already affirmed this of the young children dying of hunger (compare Lam 2:19).”
Lamentations 4:1
“He begins by expressing his astonishment, How obscured is the gold! and the precious gold! for ktm, catam, is properly the best gold, though the word good,htvv ethub, is added to it. We may hence conclude that it generally denotes gold only. He mentions, then, gold twice, but they are two different words in Hebrew, zhv, zaeb, and ktm catam.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
Lamentations 4:2, 3 voices
Lamentations 4:2
“The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold,.... This explains what is meant in Lam 4:1; by gold, fine gold, and stones of the sanctuary; not Josiah and his sons, as some Jewish interpreters; but all the sons of Zion, or children of God; not the inhabitants of Zion literally, but spiritually; see Zec 9:”
Lamentations 4:2
“The precious sons of Zion - The Jewish priests and Jewish believers. Comparable to fine gold - Who were of the pure standard of holiness; holy, because God who called them is holy; but now esteemed no better than earthen pitchers - vessels of dishonor in comparison of what they once were.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Lamentations 4:2
“They were comparable to fine gold. Israel was more rich in them than in treasures of gold and silver. But now they are esteemed as earthen pitchers; they are broken as earthen pitchers, thrown by as vessels in which there is no pleasure.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 3-6)
a.Even the sea monsters draw out the breast: The sea monsters of verse 3, read by many of the older writers as jackals, nurse their young while the daughter of my people turns cruel as the ostriches of the wilderness, a bird Job 39 already named for abandoning her own eggs. Thirst cracks the tongue of nursing infants and starving children beg bread that no one breaks for them, while those bred to delicacy now embrace dunghills in the street. Verse 6 states the comparison the scene has been building toward: the punishment of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, which fell in a moment with no hand to prolong it, siege famine judged the slower and heavier judgment.
Lamentations 4:3, 2 voices
Lamentations 4:3
“Sea monsters - Rather, jackals. Their young ones - “Their” whelps. The term is applied only to the young of dogs, lions, and the like.”
Lamentations 4:3
“Cruel - The Jewish women are become cruel to their children, or forced to appear so, having through the famine no milk to give them, nor any thing to relieve them.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Lamentations 4:5, 2 voices
Lamentations 4:5
“They that were brought up in scarlet - literally, “those that were carried upon scarlet;” young children in arms and of the highest birth now lie on the dirt-heaps of the city.”
Lamentations 4:5
“They were brought up upon scarlet (so the word is); their foot-cloths, and the carpets they walked on, were scarlet, yet these, being stripped of all by the war, are desolate in the streets, have not a house to put their head in, nor a bed to lie on, nor clothes to cover them, nor fire to warm them.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Lamentations 4:6, 2 voices
Lamentations 4:6
“For the punishment - He thinks the punishment of Jerusalem far greater than that of Sodom. That was destroyed in a moment while all her inhabitants were in health and strength; Jerusalem fell by the most lingering calamities; her men partly destroyed by the sword, and partly by the famine.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Lamentations 4:6
“And, when the iniquity of Jerusalem is more aggravated than that of Sodom, no wonder that the punishment of it is so. Sodom never had the means of grace the Jerusalem had, the oracles of God and his prophets, and therefore the condemnation of Jerusalem will be more intolerable than that of Sodom, Matt. xi.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
3. (vv. 7-8)
a.Her Nazarites were purer than snow: Her Nazarites, the city's consecrated and noble class rather than the vow-takers of Numbers 6 alone as the bench reads the term here, are painted in the richest terms the poet has, purer than snow, whiter than milk, ruddy as rubies, polished as sapphire. Verse 8 turns the portrait inside out: their visage is blacker than a coal, unknown in the streets, skin cleaving to bone until they are withered like a stick, famine erasing every mark of former rank.
Lamentations 4:7, 3 voices
Lamentations 4:7
“Her Nazarites were purer than snow,.... Such who separated themselves by a vow to the Lord, and abstained from drinking wine and strong drink, and by a moderate diet, and often washing themselves, as well as taking great care of their hair, appeared very neat and comely, like snow, without any spot or blemish.”
Lamentations 4:7
“The Nazarites from their temperance were remarkable for health and personal beauty, besides being held in religious veneration. Rubies - Or, corals. Their polishing was of sapphire - Or, their shape was “a sapphire.” The allusion is no longer to color, but to form. Their shape was exact and faultless as the cutting of a precious stone.”
Lamentations 4:7
“God's blessing formerly caused their body not to be the less fair and ruddy for their abstinence from strong drink. Compare the similar case of Daniel, &c. Type of Messiah (So 5:10). rubies--GESENIUS translates, "corals," from a Hebrew root, "to divide into branches," from the branching form of corals. polishing--They were like exquisitely cut and polished sapphires.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Lamentations 4:8, 1 voice
Lamentations 4:8
“Their visage ... - Their form (their whole person, see 1Sa 28:14)... as in the margin. See Job 30:30. It is withered, it is become like a stick - Or, It has become dry like a piece of wood.”
4. (vv. 9-10)
a.They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: Verse 9 weighs two deaths and finds the quicker one lighter: those slain by the sword are better off than those slain by hunger, who pine away, stricken through for want of the field's fruit, a lingering judgment worse than a sudden one. Verse 10 names the famine's last horror without softening it, the hands of pitiful women who sodden their own children for meat, the very curse Moses had warned would fall on a besieged and covenant-breaking city (Deut 28:56-57, Lev 26:29). The commentators read the verse as that warning arrived at its object rather than explain it away.
Lamentations 4:9, 2 voices
Lamentations 4:9
“They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger,.... Not that they are better with respect to their state after death, but with respect to their manner of dying.”
Lamentations 4:9
“They were stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field; those who were starved were as sure to die as if they had been stabbed and stricken through; only their case was much more miserable. Those who are slain with the sword are soon put out of their pain; in a moment they go down to the grave, Job xxi.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Lamentations 4:10, 1 voice
Lamentations 4:10
“The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children - See on Lam 2:20 (note). But here there is a reference to mothers eating their own children; and this was done, not by mothers cruel and brutal, but by נשים רחמניות nashim rachmaniyoth, the compassionate, the tender-hearted mothers. From these horrible scenes it is well to pass with as hasty a step as possible.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
5. (v. 11)
Lamentations 4:11-12
a.The Lord hath accomplished his fury: Verse 11 names the fire's true source: the Lord hath accomplished his fury, poured out his fierce anger and kindled a fire in Zion that devoured her foundations, the temple's burning read as the Lord's own act and not only Babylon's. Verse 12 records a settled unbelief among the nations, that the kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that any adversary or enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem, a city guarded by its own reputation until it fell.
Lamentations 4:11, 1 voice
Lamentations 4:11
“He has poured out the full vials of his fierce anger, poured them out to the bottom, even the dregs of them. He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has not only consumed the houses, and levelled them with the ground, but, beyond what other fires do, has devoured the foundations thereof, as if they were to be no more built upon. It is an amazing destruction,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
B. The Sins of Her Prophets; the Breath of Our Nostrils Taken
1. (v. 12)
Lamentations 4:12, 1 voice
Lamentations 4:12
“Jerusalem was so fortified that all thought it impregnable. It therefore could only have been the hand of God, not the force of man, which overthrew it.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2. (vv. 13-15)
a.For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests: Verse 13 lays the disaster at a specific door, the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed the blood of the just in the midst of her, false leadership named as the wound behind the famine and the fire. Verses 14 and 15 follow them into exile still marked: they wander blind and blood-polluted so that no one will touch their garments, and the very nations who receive them cry depart, it is unclean, refusing them any lasting home. The bench reads the scene as guilt made visible on the body, a leadership once trusted now avoided on sight.
Lamentations 4:13, 2 voices
Lamentations 4:13
“The blood of the just - Jer. 26:7-24 exhibits priests and prophets as the prime movers in an attempt to silence the word of God by putting Jeremiah to death. Compare the margin reference to Matthew.”
Lamentations 4:13-14
“Note, Nothing ripens a people more for ruin, nor fills the measure faster, than the sins of their priests and prophets. The particular sin charged upon them is persecution; the false prophets and corrupt priests joined their power and interest to shed the blood of the just in the midst of her, the blood of God's prophets and of those that adhered to them.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Lamentations 4:14, 2 voices
Lamentations 4:14
“They have wandered as blind men in the streets - Rather, “They ran frantic through the streets, they were stained with blood.” This was in their pretended zeal for their cause. Bishop Bonner, who was at the head of those sanguinary executions in England, was accustomed to buffet the poor Protestants, when on their examinations they were too powerful for him in argument: - “He proved his doctrine orthodox, By apostolic blows and knocks.” Just as his elder brethren, the false priests and prophets of Jerusalem.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Lamentations 4:14
“They have so polluted themselves with innocent blood, the blood of the saints, that men could not touch their garments; they made themselves odious to all about them, so that good men were as shy of touching them as of touching a dead body, which contracted a ceremonial pollution, or of touching the bloody clothes of one slain, which tender spirits care not to do.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Lamentations 4:15, 1 voice
Lamentations 4:15
“Men cried to these priests, “Away! Unclean! Away! Away! Touch not.” “Unclean” was the cry of the leper whenever he appeared in public: here it is the warning shout of those who meet the murderers. When they fled away and wandered - These priests fled away from the city, but with uncertain steps, not knowing where to find refuge. They find themselves abhorred abroad as well as at home. It is quite possible that this verse records a real occurrence, if not during the siege, at all events during the last years of Zedekiah’s reign.”
3. (vv. 16-17)
a.The anger of the Lord hath divided them: Verse 16 turns the scattering back to its source, the anger of the Lord hath divided them, he will no more regard them, and even the offices once shown deference find none, the persons of the priests not respected nor the elders favoured. Verse 17 confesses the people's own misplaced hope, eyes failing as they watched for a nation that could not save them, read by the older writers as Egypt, the ally sought instead of the Lord and found empty.
Lamentations 4:16, 2 voices
Lamentations 4:16
“Literally, The countenance of Yahweh hath scattered them, has driven these outlawed priests here and there, “and He will no more regard them” with favor.”
Lamentations 4:16
“Ain and Pe are here transposed (La 4:16, 17), as in La 2:16, 17; 3:46-51. anger--literally, "face"; it is the countenance which, by its expression, manifests anger (Ps 34:16). GESENIUS translates, "the person of Jehovah";”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Lamentations 4:17, 1 voice
Lamentations 4:17
“A rapid sketch of the last days of the siege and the capture of the king. Lam 4:17 Rather, “Still do our eyes waste away looking for our vain help.” In our watching - Or, “on our watchtower.” Lam 4:18 Or, They hunted “our steps that we could not go out into the streets. To hunt” means here to lie in ambush, and catch by snares; and the streets are literally “the wide places,” especially at the gates. Toward the end of the siege the towers erected by the enemy would command these places.”
4. (vv. 18-19)
a.They hunt our steps: Verse 18 describes a city with nowhere left to walk, they hunt our steps that we cannot go in our streets, our end is near, our days are fulfilled, siege narrowing into capture. Verse 19 names the pursuit itself, our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven, chasing upon the mountains and lying in wait in the wilderness, language the commentators tie to the king's own flight and capture near Jericho (2 Kings 25:4-5, Jer 39:4-5, 52:7-8).
Lamentations 4:18, 2 voices
Lamentations 4:18
“We cannot go in our streets - Supposed to refer to the darts and other missiles cast from the mounds which they had raised on the outside of the walls, by which those who walked in the streets were grievously annoyed, and could not shield themselves.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Lamentations 4:18
“When the Chaldeans besieged the city they raised their batteries so high above the walls that they could command the town, and shoot at people as they went along the streets. They hunted them with their arrows from place to place. When the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, their persecutors were swifter than the eagles of heaven when they fly upon their prey,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Lamentations 4:19, 3 voices
Lamentations 4:19
“Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heavens,.... That fly in the heavens; and which, as they have a quick sight to discern their prey afar off, are very swift to pursue it; they are the swiftest of birds, and are so to a proverb. Apuleius (i) represents the swift pursuit of their prey, and sudden falling upon it, to be like thunder and lightning.”
Lamentations 4:19
“They pursued us upon the mountains - They hunted down the poor Jews like wild beasts in every part of the country by their marauding parties, whilst the great army besieged Jerusalem. But this may apply to the pursuit of Zedekiah. See what follows.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Lamentations 4:19
“The last times just before the taking of the city. There was no place of escape; the foe intercepted those wishing to escape from the famine-stricken city, "on the mountains and in the wilderness." swifter . . . than . . . eagles--the Chaldean cavalry (Jer 4:13). pursued--literally, "to be hot"; then, "to pursue hotly" (Ge 31:36).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
5. (v. 20)
Lamentations 4:20-22
a.The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord: Verse 20 names the disaster's political center, the breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, king Zedekiah taken in the invaders' pits, the throne in whose shadow the people had hoped to live even in exile among the nations. Verse 21 turns to Edom with bitter irony, rejoice and be glad, for the same cup of wrath is coming to you too, kin who had stood aside or worse at Jerusalem's fall, a charge Obadiah's short book takes up at length. The chapter closes on an asymmetry: Zion's punishment is accomplished and her exile will not be renewed, while Edom's iniquity is still to be visited and her sins still to be uncovered, judgment simply relocated and not cancelled.
Lamentations 4:20, 3 voices
Lamentations 4:20
“The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord - That is, Zedekiah the king, who was as the life or the city, was taken in his flight by the Chaldeans, and his eyes were put out; so that he was wholly unfit to perform any function of government; though they had fondly hoped that if they surrendered and should be led captives, yet they should be permitted to live under their own laws and king in the land of their bondage.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Lamentations 4:20
“The anointed - Zedekiah, who though a bad man yet afforded some protection to the Jews. We said - We promised ourselves that though the land of Judah was encompassed with Pagan nations, yet through Zedekiah's valour and good conduct we should live comfortably.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Lamentations 4:20
“Thus apt are sinking interests not only to catch at every twig, but to think it will recover them. Jerusalem died of a consumption, a flattering distemper. Even when she was ready to expire she formed some hopeful symptoms to herself, and on them grounded a hope that she should recover; but what came of it?”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
C. Rejoice, Daughter of Edom: the Cup Shall Pass to Thee
1. (vv. 21-22)
Lamentations 4:21, 2 voices
Lamentations 4:21
“The prophet ends his elegy with the language of Messianic hope. The earthly king had fallen Lam 4:20; but Israel cannot really perish. First then Edom, the representative of the Church’s foes, is ironically told to rejoice. Rejoice she did at the capture of Jerusalem Jer. 49:7-22; but her punishment is quickly to follow. Lam 4:22 The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished - literally, Thy iniquity is ended. This is the result of Judah having borne her punishment.”
Lamentations 4:21
“This is a prophecy that Edom should exult over the fall of Jerusalem. At the same time it is implied, Edom's joy shall be short-lived. Ironically she is told, Rejoice while thou mayest (Ec 11:9). cup--for this image of the confounding effects of God's wrath, see Jer 13:12;”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Lamentations 4:22, 3 voices
Lamentations 4:22
“The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion,.... In part in the seventy years' captivity in Babylon, and more fully in their present captivity; for, as has been observed, there are some things in the preceding account, which had a further accomplishment in the destruction of Jerusalem, and the distress of the Jews by the Romans.”
Lamentations 4:22
“The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion - On the contrary: Rejoice, O Jerusalem, for thy captivity will soon end; thy sufferings are nearly completed; thou shalt soon return to thy own land: but he will visit thy iniquity, O Edom; he will discover thy sins. When sin is pardoned it is said to be covered: here, God says he will not cover the sins of Edom - he will not pardon them; they shall drink the cup of wrath. The promise in this last verse may refer to Jerusalem under the Gospel.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Lamentations 4:22
“The Romans carried them away subsequently. The full accomplishment of this prophecy must therefore refer to the Jews' final restoration. discover--By the severity of His punishments on thee, God shall let men see how great was thy sin (Jer 49:10). God "covers" sin when He forgives it (Ps 32:1, 5).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Lamentations 4. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, Lamentations; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); John Calvin, Commentaries (1554); John Gill; John Wesley and Matthew Henry.
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