Lamentations 4

Lamentations 4 is the fourth of the five chapters of Lamentations. Following chapter 3, which voices an individual's suffering and hope, it returns to the horrors of the city's fall. It is understood to be one of the acrostic poems of chapters 1–4, in which each verse begins with a successive letter of the twenty-two-letter Hebrew alphabet.

Structure

• Verses 1–11 The chapter opens with gold that has lost its luster and the stones of the sanctuary poured out in the streets. It then depicts starving infants and children, the people's sin as greater than that of Sodom, and nobles so wasted that they can no longer be recognized. It declares that those slain by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger, and it tells of mothers who boiled their own children for food. All of this is attributed to the wrath of the LORD.
• Verses 12–16 The enemy's entry through the city gates is traced to the sins of the prophets and priests. Having shed the blood of the just, they are driven out and wander like the unclean.
• Verses 17–20 The speaker shifts to "we." The people looked in vain to a nation that could not save them, and they could not escape pursuers swifter than eagles. At last "the anointed of the LORD" is taken in their pits.
• Verses 21–22 The cup of wrath is said to pass to Edom, dwelling in the land of Uz, and Zion's punishment is declared complete.

Key Verses

• Lamentations 4:6 "For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom" – The fall of Jerusalem is viewed as judgment on the people's sin.
• Lamentations 4:20 "The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits" – This verse shows the collapse of the hopes placed in the king.
• Lamentations 4:22 "The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished" – In a chapter filled with lament, this verse offers a first glimmer of hope for restoration.

People and Places

• Zion and Jerusalem: the fallen city.
• Sodom and Gomorrah: cities overthrown in a moment, to which Jerusalem is compared.
• The prophets and priests: identified as responsible for the destruction.
• The anointed of the LORD: not named in the text. He is commonly identified as King Zedekiah, who was captured by the Babylonian army while fleeing (2 Kings 25:4–7).
• Edom: a neighboring people of Judah, portrayed as rejoicing over Jerusalem's fall.
• Uz: a place name associated with Edom, also the name of the homeland of Job.

Points for Reflection

• The "nation that could not save us" in verse 17 is not named in the text. It is commonly interpreted as Egypt, from which Judah hoped for help during the siege (Jeremiah 37:5–7).
• The horrors of verse 10 are sometimes read as the fulfillment of the covenant curses in Deuteronomy 28 (Deuteronomy 28:53–57).
• Some early Church Fathers are said to have read "the anointed" in verse 20 as a reference to Christ. In context, however, many interpreters hold that it refers to the king of Judah.
• Jeremiah's authorship of the book is the traditional view; the text itself does not name its author.
• Judgment on Edom also appears in Obadiah and Psalm 137:7. The image of the cup of wrath is sometimes read alongside Revelation 14:9–11.