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Lamentations 4:1-16
The Voice
Lamentations 4:1-16
The Voice
4 Aaghh! The gold no longer shines;
even our finest gold is changed,
And precious gems from the holy place
are scattered and spilled in the street.
2 But worse yet, the people themselves, the precious children of Zion,
are treated like clay pots formed by a potter—
Now debased and devalued,
but they were once worth their weight in gold.
3 Cruelty marks our young women.
Even jackals nourish their young,
But like the stupid ostrich in the desert,
my people don’t care a whit for their own.
4 Desperate infants thirst for milk,
their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.
Hungry children beg for food,
and no one responds.
5 Even those raised with a silver spoon,
swaddled in the richest fabrics,
Are starving, perishing in the streets.
They swarm through rubbish like flies.
6 Forever, without relief, it seems my city will suffer
more for their wrongdoing than cruel Sodom did;
With their instant and violent overthrow,
no one wrung hands in despair for that city.
7 Eternal One: Glory comes in service for those consecrated to Me;
they are purer and cleaner than snow and whiter than milk
Their bodies chiseled and healthy,
as polished as sapphires and redder than coral.
8 How stark the contrast; they have suffered so.
Now they are sullied with grime,
Unrecognizable on the streets,
skeletal and frail, as dry as tender.
9 If only they could have died valiantly by the sword—
rather than doubled over by famine,
This long-drawn agony of hunger,
deprived of the yield of the field.
10 Just imagine the injustice: loving mothers
are forced to cook their babies’ flesh.
Children have become their food!
All because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Is this poetic hyperbole, or could such a horror really have happened? Even today, famine and disease cause devastation in developing nations reminiscent of what this poet describes happening in Jerusalem. Suffering will always exist because sin—rebellion against God—affects every aspect of a culture at every level of society. When Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem in the early sixth century b.c., he did not allow any food or provision to enter the city; he literally waited for God’s people in Jerusalem to starve to death. As the executioner of God’s judgment, Nebuchadnezzar punished everyone equally, regardless of the severity of his or her sins, because all sin is worthy of death. The people in Jerusalem really experienced God’s dark cloud and His frowning countenance.
11 Kindling a fire, the Eternal attacked Zion
until nothing was left—not even the foundations.
His anger was poured out
as that angry fire consuming all.
12 Little did they know, thinking Jerusalem could not be breached—
not by kings, not by ordinary people, and not by anyone on the earth—
Absolutely no one imagined
Jerusalem’s enemies would get in.
13 Many and terrible were the crimes that her leaders,
the ones who should be most righteous of all, committed.
Prophets and priests shed the blood of the upstanding
and also the just in her midst.
14 Never had leaders wandered blindly,
polluted by the blood they spilled,
Untouchable even by their garments.
15 “Out! Get away from us. We’re impure. Do not touch us!”
the priests and prophets yelled.
So they wandered like fugitives, rejected wherever they went.
Even the foreign nations wouldn’t take them.
16 Presence of the Eternal is overwhelming.
God has scattered them to the winds.
He no longer held them in esteem:
the priests received no honor, the elders no respect.
Lamentations 4:1-16
New International Version
Lamentations 4:1-16
New International Version
4 [a]How the gold has lost its luster,
the fine gold become dull!
The sacred gems are scattered
at every street corner.(A)
2 How the precious children of Zion,(B)
once worth their weight in gold,
are now considered as pots of clay,
the work of a potter’s hands!
3 Even jackals offer their breasts
to nurse their young,
but my people have become heartless
like ostriches in the desert.(C)
4 Because of thirst(D) the infant’s tongue
sticks to the roof of its mouth;(E)
the children beg for bread,
but no one gives it to them.(F)
5 Those who once ate delicacies
are destitute in the streets.
Those brought up in royal purple(G)
now lie on ash heaps.(H)
6 The punishment of my people
is greater than that of Sodom,(I)
which was overthrown in a moment
without a hand turned to help her.
7 Their princes were brighter than snow
and whiter than milk,
their bodies more ruddy than rubies,
their appearance like lapis lazuli.
8 But now they are blacker(J) than soot;
they are not recognized in the streets.
Their skin has shriveled on their bones;(K)
it has become as dry as a stick.
9 Those killed by the sword are better off
than those who die of famine;(L)
racked with hunger, they waste away
for lack of food from the field.(M)
10 With their own hands compassionate women
have cooked their own children,(N)
who became their food
when my people were destroyed.
11 The Lord has given full vent to his wrath;(O)
he has poured out(P) his fierce anger.(Q)
He kindled a fire(R) in Zion
that consumed her foundations.(S)
12 The kings of the earth did not believe,
nor did any of the peoples of the world,
that enemies and foes could enter
the gates of Jerusalem.(T)
13 But it happened because of the sins of her prophets
and the iniquities of her priests,(U)
who shed within her
the blood(V) of the righteous.
14 Now they grope through the streets
as if they were blind.(W)
They are so defiled with blood(X)
that no one dares to touch their garments.
Footnotes
- Lamentations 4:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
Lamentations 4:1-16
King James Version
Lamentations 4:1-16
King James Version
4 How is the gold become dim! 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 sea monsters 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.
6 For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.
7 Her Nazarites 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 The hands of the pitiful women 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.
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 the sins of her prophets, 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 The anger of the Lord hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.
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