Lamentations 4

Berean Standard Bible

Chapter summary

Lamentations 4 describes the severe famine and devastation in Jerusalem, where precious treasures are lost, children beg for bread, and once-wealthy citizens huddle in ash heaps due to siege conditions. The text recounts how mothers resort to cooking their own children for food, while the city's leaders and priests wander the streets defiled and shunned by others. The Lord has poured out His fierce anger and burned Zion's foundations because of the sins of her prophets and priests. Foreign enemies have successfully breached Jerusalem's gates, capturing the Lord's anointed king and pursuing survivors relentlessly across mountains and in the wilderness. Finally, the chapter addresses the Daughter of Edom, warning that the cup of judgment will pass to her as well, while announcing that the punishment and exile of the Daughter of Zion are now complete.

Summary automatically generated from the Bible text.

Words of Jesus in red

¹How the gold has become tarnished, the pure gold has become dull! The gems of the temple lie scattered on every street corner. 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! ³Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness. 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. ⁵Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps. 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. ⁷Her dignitaries were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than rubies, their appearance like sapphires. 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. 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. ¹⁰The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people. ¹¹The LORD has exhausted His wrath; He has poured out His fierce anger; He has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has consumed her foundations. 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. 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. ¹⁴They wandered blind in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments. 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.” ¹⁶The presence of the LORD has scattered them; He regards them no more. The priests are shown no honor; the elders find no favor. 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. 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! ¹⁹Those who chased us were swifter than the eagles in the sky; they pursued us over the mountains and ambushed us in the wilderness. ²⁰The LORD’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.” 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. 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.

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Louis Segond 1910 and Berean Standard Bible: public domain. Cross references: open-cross-ref, Creative Commons BY 4.0.