Lamentations 4

The Distress of Zion

א ALEPH

¹How the gold has become tarnished,

the pure gold has become dull!

The gems of the temple lie scattered

on every street corner.

ב BETH

²How the precious sons of Zion,

once worth their weight in pure gold,

are now esteemed as jars of clay,

the work of a potter’s hands!

ג GIMEL

³Even jackals offer their breasts

to nurse their young,

but the daughter of my people has become cruel,

like an ostrich in the wilderness.

• LAM 4:3[NOTE]LIKE AN OSTRICH. People thought the ostrich did not care for its eggs, Job 39:14 to 16. In the siege, hunger made people forget even their own children.

ד DALETH

⁴The nursing infant’s tongue

clings in thirst to the roof of his mouth.

Little children beg for bread,

but no one gives them any.

ה HE

⁵Those who once ate delicacies

are destitute in the streets;

those brought up in crimson

huddle in ash heaps.

ו WAW

⁶The punishment of the daughter of my people

is greater than that of Sodom,

which was overthrown in an instant

without a hand turned to help her.

• LAM 4:6[NOTE]WORSE THAN SODOM. Sodom fell in a moment, Genesis 19:24 to 25. Jerusalem suffered slowly, through a long siege.

ז ZAYIN

⁷Her dignitaries were brighter than snow,

whiter than milk;

their bodies were more ruddy than rubies,

their appearance like sapphires.

ח HETH

⁸But now their appearance is blacker than soot;

they are not recognized in the streets.

Their skin has shriveled on their bones;

it has become as dry as a stick.

ט TETH

⁹Those slain by the sword are better off

than those who die of hunger,

who waste away, pierced with pain

because the fields lack produce.

י YODH

¹⁰The hands of compassionate women

have cooked their own children,

who became their food

in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

• LAM 4:10[FULFILLS]In siege, people would eat their own children ← LEV 26:29
• LAM 4:10[NOTE]THE HUNGER OF THE SIEGE. Babylon surrounded the city for about a year and a half, 2 Kings 25:1 to 3, until there was no food at all. Moses had warned of this, Leviticus 26:29. The poet tells it as a broken heart, not as a story to linger on.

כ KAPH

¹¹Yahweh has exhausted His wrath;

He has poured out His fierce anger;

He has kindled a fire in Zion,

and it has consumed her foundations.

• LAM 4:11[ARCHAEOLOGY]Burned houses, ash and arrowheads in the City of David from Babylon's attack on Jerusalem, see The Fire of 586 BC Field Notes box

ל LAMEDH

¹²The kings of the earth did not believe,

nor any people of the world,

that an enemy or a foe

could enter the gates of Jerusalem.

• LAM 4:12[NOTE]NO ONE BELIEVED IT. Jerusalem had stood for centuries. When Assyria came, God saved the city, 2 Kings 19:35 to 36. People thought it could never fall.

מ MEM

¹³But this was for the sins of her prophets

and the guilt of her priests,

who shed the blood of the righteous

in her midst.

• LAM 4:13[NOTE]THE PROPHETS AND PRIESTS. The leaders who should have warned the people led them wrong instead. Jeremiah said the same, Jeremiah 23:11.

נ NUN

¹⁴They wandered blind in the streets,

defiled by this blood,

so that no one dared

to touch their garments.

ס SAMEKH

¹⁵“Go away! Unclean!”

men shouted at them.

“Away, away! Do not touch us!”

So they fled and wandered.

Among the nations it was said,

“They can stay here no longer.”

פ PE

¹⁶The presence of Yahweh has scattered them;

He regards them no more.

The priests are shown no honor;

the elders find no favor.

ע AYIN

¹⁷All the while our eyes were failing

as we looked in vain for help.

We watched from our towers

for a nation that could not save us.

צ TZADE

¹⁸They stalked our every step,

so that we could not walk in our streets.

Our end drew near, our time ran out,

for our end had come!

ק KOPH

¹⁹Those who chased us were swifter

than the eagles in the sky;

they pursued us over the mountains

and ambushed us in the wilderness.

ר RESH

²⁰Yahweh’s anointed, the breath of our life,

was captured in their pits.

We had said of him,

“Under his shadow we will live among the nations.”

• LAM 4:20[NOTE]YAHWEH'S ANOINTED. King Zedekiah, the last king of Judah. He ran at night and was caught near Jericho, 2 Kings 25:4 to 7. See The Nebo Sarsekim Tablet in Jeremiah.

ש SIN

²¹So rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom,

you who dwell in the land of Uz.

Yet the cup will pass to you as well;

you will get drunk and expose yourself.

• LAM 4:21[PROPHECY]The cup of judgment would pass to Edom too → MAL 1:3-4MEDIUM

ת TAW

²²O Daughter of Zion, your punishment is complete;

He will not prolong your exile.

But He will punish your iniquity, O Daughter of Edom;

He will expose your sins.

• LAM 4:22[PROPHECY]Zion's punishment was complete and her exile would not be prolonged → EZR 1:1-3MEDIUM