The Lamentations of Jeremiah
Lamentations 4
Chapter IV · Vol. III, p. 1309
1 Zion bewaileth her pitiful estate. 13 She confesseth her sins. 21 Edom is threatened, and Zion comforted.
1 How is athe gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the bstones of the sanctuary care poured out in the top of every street.1
a 1 Ki.6.22. Mat.23.16,17. ch.5.18, or ch.2.20; ver.16.
b 2 Ki.25.9,10.
c Je.52.13. Mat.24.2. ch.5.18.
1 Here and there, ch.2.19.
2 Thed precious sons2 of Zion, comparable to fine egold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
3 Even the sea-monsters3 draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: gthe daughter of my people is become cruel, hlike the ostriches in the wilderness.
3 Or, sea-calves, Is.27.1. Ge.1.21. Job xl.xli.
g ver.4,10; ch.2.20. Je.19.9. Eze.5.10. Le.26.29. De.28.53-57.
h Job 39.13-16. Ro.1.31.
4 Thei tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst; the young children ask bread, and jno man breaketh it unto them.
i ch.2.11,12; 1.11. Am.8.11,12. Ps.22.15; 137.6.
j De.32.24.
5 They that did feed delicately are kdesolate in the streets; they that were brought up in scarlet lembrace dunghills.4
6 For the punishment of the iniquity5 of the daughter of my people nis greater6 than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment,7 and no hands stayed on her.
7 Her Nazarites8 were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:
8 Theiro visage is blacker than a coal;9 they are not known in the streets:1 theirp skin cleaveth to their bones; qit is withered, it is become like a stick.
o Na.2.2. ch.5.10; ver.4. Job 30.27-30. Je.14.2.
9 Heb. darker than blackness, by reason of famine, care, and fear.
1 The effect of the famine, toils, and dangers of a protracted siege, in changing the complexion and appearance, has often been noticed by the historians of such calamities.—C.
9 They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away,2 stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.
2 Heb. flow out, Le.26.39. As mortally wounded as if stabbed through the heart.
10 Ther hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
r Is.49.15. 1 Ki.3.26. De.28.53-57. 2 Ki.6.28,29. ch.2.20. See on ver.3. Eze.5.10.
11 Thes 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.
12 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have 3believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.4
3 De.29.24-28. 1 Ki.9.8. Je.22.8. They could never have thought a city so fortified, and protected of God, could have been ruined.
4 Jerusalem was not only fortified by art, but by nature, which, thus combined, rendered its capture most improbable; but it was defended by a people so warlike and determined, that it seemed absolutely impossible. Yet it fell, for sin was in it, and the judgment of God was upon it.—C.
13 Fort the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that uhave shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,
t Zep.3.3,4. Je.5.31; 6.13; 23.11. Eze.22.26,28. ch.2.14. Is.9.16.
u Mat.23.31,37.
14 They have vwandered as blind5 men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that xmen could not touch6 their garments.
15 They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean;7 depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, yThey shall no more sojourn there.8
7 Or, ye polluted.
y Mi.3.5,7. De.29.25-28. Je.15.4; 17.4; 22.8,9. Ho.9.3.
8 'Depart, ye unclean, men cried to them; depart, depart, touch (us) not. When they fled and wandered, men said among the nations (Gentiles), They shall not sojourn' (Boothroyd). They had been so guilty of shedding blood that even heathens refused them an asylum.—C.
16 The anger9 of the LORD zhath divided them; he will no more regard them: athey respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.
9 Or, face.
z Le.26.33-39. De.28.25,64-68. Je.24.9; 15.4.
a ch.5.12; 2.9,10. 2 Ki.25.18-21. 2 Ch.36.17.
17 As for us, bour eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.1
* Allusion is here made to the fact that during the time when the Babylonians were besieging Jerusalem the Jews were looking for help and deliverance from Egypt. Instead of trusting in and praying to their Omnipotent God, they sought assistance from a weak earthly monarch.—P.
b Je.4.14; 2.18,36; 8.20; 37.5-7; 22.20. Is.20.5,6;30.1-7;31.1-3. Eze.29.6,7,16.
1 See note * in first column.
18 They2 hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: cour end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
2 i.e. the Chaldeans, Je.16.16;39.4,5; 52.7-9. 2 Ki.25.4,5. Ps.140.11.
c Eze.7.2-12; 12.28. Am.8.2. Je.xxxix.
19 Our persecutors are dswifter than the eagles3 of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.4
20 The breath of our nostrils, ethe anointed of the LORD, gwas taken in their pits, 5of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.
21 Rejoiceh and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz: ithe cup also shall pass through unto thee; thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.
h Ec.11.9. Ps.137.7. Ob.10. Je.49.7;25.26.
i Je.25.15,16,21,27; 49.7-27. Eze.25.12-14; xxxv. Ob.1,10,15.
Notes
Ver. 13-15. Their priests and prophets have persecuted the Lord's prophets, and have ruined the nation by flattering them in their sins. They formerly wandered from God's law in acts of violence and murder, and now they cannot walk in the streets without polluting themselves by dead bodies.—Yea, every one, even the heathens, abhor them as unclean lepers, or persons too despicable to live on the earth.
Ver. 3. Sea-monsters. The word so translated is a general name for all large and cruel animals, whether of the land or water. Among sea-animals the phocæ are remarkable for maternal tenderness; amongst land-animals, the bear. So wonderfully has God distributed these preservative instincts amongst the lower creatures; which here serve as a lesson of reproof to man their appointed ruler.—Cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. On the least noise (says Dr. Shaw) or trivial occasion, the ostrich forsakes her eggs or her young ones, to which, perhaps, she never returns; or if she does, it may be too late to restore life to the one, or preserve it to the others. The Arabs often meet with a few of the little ones, half-starved, straggling and moaning about, like so many distressed orphans, for their mother. C.
Ver. 7. Nazarites. The word either applies to those who were separated to God by a religious vow, Nu. 6. 2-20, or who are separated from their brethren by providential occurrences, Ge. 49. 26. The tenor of the description here would seem to refer it to those who were separated from their brethren by elevated rank. C.
Ver. 13. Iniquities of her priests. The priests, who should have been the ministers of mercy and justice, were the principal persecutors of Jeremiah, Je. 20. 1. Their successors were afterwards the chief persecutors of Christ, Mat. 27. 1. Again, the heathen priests and their satellites were the persecutors of the apostles and the primitive church, Ac. 4. 1-3. And finally, the priests of Rome were, and have been, the persecutors of the fathers and continuators of the blessed Reformation. C.
Ver. 16. The Lord hath divided them: he will no more regard them. How does this consist with the opinion of a Jewish restoration to Canaan? Perfectly. Jehovah 'will no more regard them' as a people—the restoration will be of the 'remnant according to the election of grace,' from whom the nation will be reconstructed, 2 Ki. 19. 31; 2 Ch. 30. 6; Ezr. 9. 8; Is. 11. 11-16; Je. 23. 3; Eze. 6. 8; Ro. 9. 27; 11. 5.—They respected not, &c. Who? Either the false prophets and their partisans, who respected not the true prophets and elders, ver. 13, 14, or the heathen nations among whom the people were scattered, ver. 15, who despised their persons, office, and religion. C.
Ver. 20. Under his shadow, &c. Either among the heathen that were now, to a considerable extent, commingled with them in the land, and most probably in possession of their principal garrisons; or among the surrounding heathen nations, from whose aggressions they expected Zedekiah's policy, and conformity with heathenism, 2 Ch. 36. 14, would preserve them, or from whose power they expected his arm might deliver them, 2 Ch. 36. 13. C.
Ver. 21. Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom. This is commonly interpreted as an irony; but such a figure seems very inconsistent with the serious and melancholy mood of the prophet's mind. Is it not rather a call to the representative of the 'widows' and 'fatherless children' of Edom, whom God promised to 'preserve' amidst the ruin of their country, Je. 49. 11, to 'rejoice' sympathetically and sincerely at the accomplished punishment of Zion, ver. 21, and that blessed restoration from which she will never more be carried into captivity, see ver. 22; intimating, that though Edom will never be restored as a nation, her 'daughter' will rejoice as a participator in the blessings of Zion? C.
Reflections.—When God forsakes a people, their honour leaves them. And if rulers will not act for God, it is but just that he should make them contemptible. They who live in the greatest plenty and pomp know not to what straits they may be reduced before they die. And delicate and high living renders hardships doubly grievous when they come to be experienced. God's judgment on his own people often astonishes his and their enemies. And scarcely ever does the judgment of God light upon nations and churches without clerical wickedness having a distinguished share in procuring it. No wonder then that the very monsters of wickedness at last contemn and abhor unfaithful ministers. There is no escaping from the judgment of God appointed for us. If we make creatures our trust, or the breath of our nostrils, God, who is our life, will confound them, and disappoint us. Yet the troubles of the godly will continue no longer than till they have accomplished the purification intended by them. But such as ridicule and insult Jesus Christ and his people or ordinances, will at last render themselves ridiculous and miserable. And in the end their sin shall be discovered and punished, however secret and hidden.