L
A M E N T A T I O N S
CHAP. IV.
This
chapter is another single alphabet of Lamentations for the destruction of Jerusalem, like those in the first two chapters. I. The
prophet here laments the injuries and indignities done to those to whom
respect used to be shown, ver. 1, 2. II. He laments the direful effects of the
famine to which they were reduced by the siege, ver. 3-10. III. He laments the
taking and sacking of
Jerusalem and its amazing desolations, ver. 11, 12. IV.
He acknowledges that the sins of their leaders were the cause of all these
calamities, ver. 13-16. V. He gives up all as doomed to utter ruin, for their
enemies were every way too hard for them, ver. 17-20. VI. He foretels the
destruction of the Edomites who triumphed in Jerusalem's fall, ver. 21. VII.
He foretels the return of the captivity of Zion at last, ver. 22.
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Desolate
Condition of Jerusalem; Effects of Famine in Jerusalem;
Destruction of Jerusalem.
B. C. 588.
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1 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.
The elegy in this chapter begins with a lamentation of the very sad and
doleful change which the judgments of God had made in Jerusalem. The city that
was formerly as gold, as the most fine gold, so rich and
splendid, the perfection of beauty and the joy of the whole earth, has
become dim, and is changed, has lost its lustre, lost its value, is not what
it was; it has become dross. Alas! what an alteration is here!
I. The temple was laid waste, which was the glory of Jerusalem and its
protection. It is given up into the hands of the enemy. And some understand
the gold spoken of (v. 1) to be the gold of the temple, the fine
gold with which it was overlaid (1 Kings vi. 22); when the temple was burned
the gold of it was smoked and sullied, as if it had been of little value. It
was thrown among the rubbish; it was changed, converted to common uses
and made nothing of. The stones of the sanctuary, which were curiously
wrought, were thrown down by the Chaldeans, when they demolished it, or were
brought down by the force of the fire, and were poured out, and thrown
about in the top of every street; they lay mingled without distinction
among the common ruins. When the God of the sanctuary was by sin provoked to
withdraw no wonder that the stones of the sanctuary were thus profaned.
II. The princes and priests, who were in a special manner the sons of Zion,
were trampled upon and abused, v. 2. Both the house of God and the
house of David were in Zion. The sons of both those houses were upon this
account precious, that they were heirs to the privileges of those two
covenants of priesthood and royalty. They were comparable to fine gold.
Israel was more rich in them than in treasures of gold and silver. But now
they are esteemed as earthen pitchers; they are broken as earthen
pitchers, thrown by as vessels in which there is no pleasure. They have
grown poor, and are brought into captivity, and thereby are rendered mean and
despicable, and every one treads upon them and insults over them. Note, The
contempt put upon God's people ought to be matter of lamentation to us.
III. Little children were starved for want of bread and water, v. 3, 4.
The nursing-mothers, having no meat for themselves, had no milk for the babes
at their breast, so that, though in disposition they were really
compassionate, yet in fact they seemed to be cruel, like the ostriches in
the wilderness, that leave their eggs in the dust (Job xxxix. 14, 15);
having no food for their children, they were forced to neglect them and do
what they could to forget them, because it was a pain to them to think of them
when they had nothing for them; in this they were worse than the seals, or sea-monsters,
or whales (as some render it), for they drew out the breast, and
gave suck to their young, which the daughter of my people will not
do. Children cannot shift for themselves as grown people can; and therefore it
was the more painful to see the tongue of the sucking-child cleave to the
roof of his mouth for thirst, because there was not a drop of water to
moisten it; and to hear the young children, that could but just speak, ask
bread of their parents, who had none to give them, no, nor any friend that
could supply them. As doleful as our thoughts are of this case, so thankful
should our thoughts be of the great plenty we enjoy, and the food convenient
we have for ourselves and for our children, and for those of our own house.
IV. Persons of good rank were reduced to extreme poverty, v. 5. Those
who were well-born and well bred, and had been accustomed to the best, both
for food and clothing, who had fed delicately, had every thing that was
curious and nice (they call it eating well, whereas those only eat well
who eat to the glory of God), and fared sumptuously every day; they had
not only been advanced to the scarlet, but from their beginning were brought
up in scarlet, and were never acquainted with any thing mean or ordinary.
They were brought up upon scarlet (so the word is); their foot-cloths,
and the carpets they walked on, were scarlet, yet these, being stripped of all
by the war, are desolate in the streets, have not a house to put their
head in, nor a bed to lie on, nor clothes to cover them, nor fire to warm
them. They embrace dunghills; on them they were glad to lie to get a
little rest, and perhaps raked in the dunghills for something to eat, as the
prodigal son who would fain have filled his belly with the husks. Note,
Those who live in the greatest pomp and plenty know not what straits they may
be reduced to before they die; as sometimes the needy are raised out
of the dunghill. Those who were full have hired out themselves for bread,
1 Sam. ii. 5. It is therefore the wisdom of those who have abundance not to
use themselves too nicely, for then hardships, when they come, will be doubly
hard, Deut. xxviii. 56.
V. Persons who were eminent for dignity, nay, perhaps for sanctity, shared
with others in the common calamity, v. 7, 8. Her Nazarites are
extremely charged. Some understand it only of her honourable ones, the young
gentlemen, who were very clean, and neat, and well-dressed, washed and
perfumed; but I see not why we may not understand it of those devout people
among them who separated themselves to the Lord by the Nazarites'
vow, Num. vi. 2. That there were such among them in the most degenerate times
appears from Amos ii. 11, I raised up of your young men for Nazarites.
These Nazarites, though they were not to cut their hair, yet by reason
of their temperate diet, their frequent washings, and especially the pleasure
they had in devoting themselves to God and conversing with him, which made
their faces to shine as Moses's, were purer than snow and whiter
than milk; drinking no wine nor strong drink, they had a more healthful
complexion and cheerful countenance than those who regaled themselves daily
with the blood of the grape, as Daniel and his fellows with pulse
and water. Or it may denote the great respect and veneration which all
good people had for them; though perhaps to the eye they had no form nor
comeliness, yet, being separated to the Lord, they were valued as if they
had been more ruddy than rubies and their polishing had been of sapphire.
But now their visage is marred (as is said of Christ, Isa. lii. 14); it
is blacker than a coal; they look miserably, partly through hunger and
partly through grief and perplexity. They are not known in the streets;
those who respected them now take no notice of them, and those who had been
intimately acquainted with them now scarcely knew them, their countenance was
so altered by the miseries that attended the long siege. Their skin cleaves
to their bones, their flesh being quite consumed and wasted away; it is withered;
it has become like a stick, as dry and hard as a piece of wood. Note,
It is a thing to be much lamented that even those who are separated to God are
yet, when desolating judgments are abroad, often involved with others in the
common calamity.
VI. Jerusalem came down slowly, and died a lingering death; for the famine
contributed more to her destruction than any other judgment whatsoever. Upon
this account the destruction of Jerusalem was greater than that of Sodom
(v. 6), for that was overthrown in a moment; one shower of fire
and brimstone dispatched it; no hand staid on her; she did not endure
any long siege, as Jerusalem has done; she fell immediately into the hands
of the Lord, who strikes home at a blow, and did not fall into the
hands of man, who, being weak, is long in doing execution, Judg. viii. 21.
Jerusalem is kept many months upon the rack, in pain and misery, and dies by
inches, dies so as to feel herself die. And, when the iniquity of Jerusalem is
more aggravated than that of Sodom, no wonder that the punishment of it is so.
Sodom never had the means of grace the Jerusalem had, the oracles of God and
his prophets, and therefore the condemnation of Jerusalem will be more
intolerable than that of Sodom, Matt. xi. 23, 24. The extremity of the
famine is here set forth by two frightful instances of it:-- 1. The tedious
deaths that it was the cause of (v. 9); many were slain with hunger,
were famished to death, their stores being spent, and the public stores so
nearly spent that they could not have any relief out of them. They were stricken
through, for want of the fruits of the field; those who were starved were
as sure to die as if they had been stabbed and stricken through; only their
case was much more miserable. Those who are slain with the sword are
soon put out of their pain; in a moment they go down to the grave, Job
xxi. 13. They have not the terror of seeing death make its advances towards
them, and scarcely feel it when the blow is given; it is but one sharp
struggle, and the work is done. And, if we be ready for another world, we need
not be afraid of a short passage to it; the quicker the better. But those who
die by famine pine away; hunger preys upon their spirits and wastes them
gradually; nay, and it frets their spirits, and fills them with vexation, and
is as great a torture to the mind as to the body. There are bands in their
death, Ps. lxxiii. 4. 2. The barbarous murders that it was the occasion of
(v. 10): The hands of the pitiful women have first slain and
then sodden their own children. This was lamented before (ch.
ii. 20); and it was a thing to be greatly lamented that any should be so
wicked as to do it and that they should be brought to such extremities as to
be tempted to it. But this horrid effect of long sieges had been threatened in
general (Lev. xxvi. 29, Deut. xxviii. 53), and particularly against Jerusalem
in the siege of the Chaldeans, Jer. xix. 9; Ezek. v. 10. The case was sad
enough that they had not wherewithal to feed their children and make meat for
them (v. 4), but much worse that they could find in their hearts to
feed upon their children and make meat of them. I know not whether to make it
an instance of the power of necessity or of the power of iniquity; but, as the
Gentile idolaters were justly given up to vile affections (Rom. i. 26),
so these Jewish idolaters, and the women particularly, who had made cakes
to the queen of heaven and taught their children to do so too, were stripped
of natural affection and that to their own children. Being thus left to dishonour
their own nature was a righteous judgment upon them for the dishonour they
had done to God.
VII. Jerusalem comes down utterly and wonderfully. 1. The destruction of
Jerusalem is a complete destruction (v. 11): The Lord has
accomplished his fury; he has made thorough work of it, has executed all
that he purposed in wrath against Jerusalem, and has remitted no part of the
sentence. He has poured out the full vials of his fierce anger, poured them
out to the bottom, even the dregs of them. He has kindled a fire in Zion,
which has not only consumed the houses, and levelled them with the ground,
but, beyond what other fires do, has devoured the foundations thereof,
as if they were to be no more built upon. 2. It is an amazing destruction, v.
12. It was a surprise to the kings of the earth, who are acquainted with, and
inquisitive about, the state of their neighbours; nay, it was so to all the
inhabitants of the world who knew Jerusalem, or had ever heard or read of
it; they could not have believed that the adversary and enemy would ever
enter into the gates of Jerusalem; for, (1.) They knew that Jerusalem was
strongly fortified, not only by walls and bulwarks, but by the numbers and
strength of its inhabitants; the strong hold of Zion was thought to be
impregnable. (2.) They knew that it was the city of the great King,
where the Lord of the whole earth had in a more peculiar manner his residence;
it was the holy city, and therefore they thought that it was so much under the
divine protection that it would be in vain for any of its enemies to make an
attack upon it. (3.) They knew that many an attempt made upon it had been
baffled, witness that of Sennacherib. They were therefore amazed when they
heard of the Chaldeans making themselves masters of it, and concluded that it
was certainly by an immediate hand of God that Jerusalem was given up to them;
it was by a commission from him that the enemy broke through and entered the
gates of Jerusalem.
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Cause
of Jerusalem's Sorrows.
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B.
C. 588.
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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. 17 As for us, our
eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a
nation that could not save us. 18 They hunt our
steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are
fulfilled; for our end is come. 19 Our persecutors are swifter
than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid
wait for us in the wilderness. 20 The breath of our nostrils, the
anointed of the LORD,
was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among
the heathen.
We have here,
I. The sins they were charged with, for which God brought this destruction
upon them, and which served to justify God in it (v. 13, 14): It is for
the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests. Not
that the people were innocent; no, they loved to have it so (Jer. v.
31), and it was to please them that the prophets and priests did as they did;
but the fault is chiefly laid upon them, who should have taught them better,
should have reproved and admonished them, and told them what would be in the
end hereof; of the hands of those watchmen who did not give them warning will
their blood be required. Note, Nothing ripens a people more for ruin, nor
fills the measure faster, than the sins of their priests and prophets. The
particular sin charged upon them is persecution; the false prophets and
corrupt priests joined their power and interest to shed the blood of the
just in the midst of her, the blood of God's prophets and of those that
adhered to them. They not only shed the blood of their innocent children, whom
they sacrificed to Moloch, but the blood of the righteous men that were among
them, whom they sacrificed to that more cruel idol of enmity to the truth and
true religion. This was that sin which the Lord would not pardon (2 Kings xxiv.
4) and which brought the last destruction upon Jerusalem (Jam. v. 6): You
have condemned and killed the just. And the priests and prophets were the
ringleaders in persecution, as in Christ's time the chief priests and scribes
were the men that incensed the people against him, who otherwise would have
persisted in their hosannas. Now these are those that wandered as blind men
in the streets, v. 14. They strayed from the paths of justice, were
blind to every thing that is good, but to do evil they were quick-sighted. God
says of corrupt judges, They know not, neither do they understand; they
walk in darkness (Ps. lxxxii. 5); and Christ says of the corrupt teachers,
They are blind leaders of the blind, Matt. xv. 14. They have so polluted
themselves with innocent blood, the blood of the saints, that men
could not touch their garments; they made themselves odious to all about
them, so that good men were as shy of touching them as of touching a dead
body, which contracted a ceremonial pollution, or of touching the bloody
clothes of one slain, which tender spirits care not to do. There is nothing
that will make prophets and priests to be abhorred so much as a spirit of
persecution.
II. The testimony of their neighbours produced in evidence against them, both
to convict them of sin and to show the equity of God's proceedings against
them. Some that have grown very impudent in sin boast that they care not
what people say of them; but God, by the prophet, would have the Jews to
take notice of what people said of them and what was the opinion of the
standers by concerning them (v. 15, 16), what they said, nay, what they
cried unto them, especially to the corrupt priests and prophets, among
the heathen. 1. They upbraided them with their pretended purity, while
they lived in all manner of real iniquity. They cried to them, "Depart
you; it is unclean. You were so precise that you would not touch a
Gentile, by cried, Depart, depart; stand by thyself; I am holier than thou,"
Isa. lxv. 5. Thus the prosecutors of Christ would not go into the
judgment-hall, lest they should be defiled. "But can you now keep the
Gentiles from touching you, when God has delivered you into their hands? When
you flee away and wander you will bid them stand off and not touch you,
because they are unclean. But in vain; these serpents will not be charmed or
enchanted thus; no, they will no respect the persons of the priests,
nor favour the elders; the most venerable persons will to them be
despicable." 2. They upbraided them with their sins, and the anger of God
against them for their sins, and the direful effects of that anger. They
cried to them, Depart you; it is unclean. They all cried out shame on
them, and could easily foresee that God would not long suffer so provoking a
people to continue in so good a land. They knew their statutes and
judgments were righteous, and expected they should be a wise and
understanding people, Deut. iv. 6. But, when they saw them quite
otherwise, they cried, Depart, depart; they soon read their doom, that
the land would spue them out, as it had done their predecessors, and, when
they saw the dispersed of Jacob fleeing and wandering, they told them
of it. They said, Now the anger of the Lord has divided them, has
dispersed them into all countries, because they respected not the persons
of the priests, the pious priests that were among them, such as Zechariah
the son of Jehoiada, Jeremiah, and others; neither did they favour the
elders, but despised them and their authority when they went about to
check them for their vicious courses. The very heathen foresaw that this would
ruin them. 3. They triumphed in their ruin as irrecoverable. They said, when
they saw them expelled out of their own land, "Now they shall no more
sojourn there; they have bidden it a final farewell, never more to return
to it, for God will no more regard them, and how then can they help
themselves?" Herein they were mistaken. God had not cast them off, for
all this. Yet thus much is intimated, that all about them observed them to be
so very provoking to their God that there was not reason to expect any other
than that they should be quite abandoned.
III. The despair which they themselves were almost brought to under their
calamities. Having heard what they said concerning them among the heathen,
let us now hear what they say concerning themselves (v. 17): "As
for us, we look upon our case to be in a manner helpless. Our end is
near (v. 18), the end both of our church and of our state; we are
just at the brink of the ruin of both; nay, our end has come; we are
utterly undone; a fatal final period is put to all our comforts; the days of
our prosperity are fulfilled; they are numbered and finished." Thus their
fears concurred with the hopes of their enemies that the Lord would no more
regard them. For, 1. The refuges they fled to disappointed them. They
looked for help from this and the other powerful ally, but to no purpose; it
proved vain help. The succours they expected did not come in, or at least they
had not the success they expected, and their eyes failed with looking for that
which never came (v. 17); they watched in watching; they watched
long, and with a great deal of earnestness and impatience, for a nation
that promised them assistance, but failed the, and frustrated their
expectation. They could not save them; they were too weak to contend
with the Chaldean army and therefore retired. Help from creatures is vain help
(Ps. lx. 11), and we may look for it till our eyes fail, till our hearts fail,
and come short of it at last. 2. The persecutors they fled from overtook them
and overcame them (v. 18): They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in
our streets. When the Chaldeans besieged the city they raised their
batteries so high above the walls that they could command the town, and shoot
at people as they went along the streets. They hunted them with their
arrows from place to place. When the city was broken up, and all the men of
war fled, their persecutors were swifter than the eagles of heaven when
they fly upon their prey, v. 19. There was no escaping them; they pursued
them upon the mountains, and, when they thought they had got clear of
them, they fell into the hands of those that laid wait for them in the
wilderness, to cut off their retreat, and to pick up stragglers. nay, the
king himself, though he may be supposed to have had all the advantages the
exigence of the case would admit to favour his flight, yet could not escape,
for divine vengeance pursued him with them, and then (v. 20), The
breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits.
Some apply it to Josiah, who was killed in battle by the king of Egypt; but it
is rather to be understood of Zedekiah, who was the last king of the house of
David, and who was pursued by the Chaldeans and seized in the plains of
Jericho, Jer. xxxix. 5. He was the anointed of the Lord, heir of that
family which God had appointed to the government. He was very much confided in
by the Jewish state: They said, Under his shadow we shall live among the
heathen. They promised themselves that the remnant which were left after
Jeconiah's captivity should, under the protection of his government, yet again
take root downward and bear fruit upward. They thought, though they
were so reduced that they could not think of reigning over the heathen, as
they had done, yet they might make a shift to live among them and not be
insulted and pulled to pieces by them. Thus apt are sinking interests not only
to catch at every twig, but to think it will recover them. Jerusalem died of a
consumption, a flattering distemper. Even when she was ready to expire she
formed some hopeful symptoms to herself, and on them grounded a hope that she
should recover; but what came of it? The shadow under which they thought they
should live proved like that of Jonah's gourd, which withered in a night.
He that was the anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits, as if he
had been but a beast of prey; so little account did they make of a person
deemed sacred and not to be violated. Note, When we make any creature the
breath of our nostrils, and promise ourselves that we shall live by it, it
is just with God to stop that breath, and deprive us of the life we expected
by it; for God will have the honour of being himself along our life and the
length of our days.
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Comfort
for Zion.
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B.
C. 588.
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21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom,
that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee:
thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked. 22 The
punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no
more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter
of Edom; he will discover thy sins.
David's psalms of lamentation commonly conclude with some word of comfort,
which is as life from the dead and light shining out of darkness; so does this
lamentation here in this chapter. The people of God are now in great distress,
their aspects all doleful, their prospects all frightful, and their
ill-natured neighbours the Edomites insult over them and do all they can to
exasperate their destroyers against them. Such was their violence against
their brother Jacob (Obad. 10), such their spleen at Jerusalem, of which they
cried, Rase it, rase it, Ps. cxxxvii. 7. Now it is here foretold, for
the encouragement of God's people,
I. That an end shall be put to Zion's troubles (v. 22): The
punishment of they iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion! not the
fulness of that punishment which it deserves, but of that which God has
designed and determined to inflict, and which was necessary to answer the end,
the glorifying of God's justice and the taking away of their sin. The
captivity, which is the punishment of thy iniquity, is accomplished (Isa.
xl. 2), and he will no longer keep thee in captivity; so it may be
read, as well as, he will no more carry thee into captivity; he will
turn again thy captivity and work a glorious release for thee. Note, The
troubles of God's people shall be continued no longer than till they have done
their work for which they were sent.
II. That an end shall be put to
Edom
's triumphs. It is spoken ironically (v. 21): "Rejoice and be
glad, O daughter of
Edom
! go on to insult over
Zion
in distress, till thou hast filled up the measure of thy iniquity. Do so;
rejoice in thy own present exemption from the common fate of thy
neighbours." This is like Solomon's upbraiding the young man with his
ungoverned mirth (Eccl. xi. 9): "Rejoice, O young man! in thy youth;
rejoice, if thou canst, when God comes to reckon with thee, and that he will
do ere long. The cup of trembling, which it is now Jerusalem's turn to
drink deeply of, shall pass through unto thee; it shall go round till
it comes to be thy lot to pledge it." Note, This is a good reason why we
should not insult over any who are in misery, because we ourselves also are in
the body, and we know not how soon their case may be ours. But those who
please themselves in the calamities of God's church must expect to have their
doom, as aiders and abettors, with those that are instrumental in those
calamities. The destruction of the Edomites was foretold by this prophet (Jer.
xlix. 7. &c.), and the people of God must encourage themselves against
their present rudeness and insolence with the prospect of it. 1. It will be a
shameful destruction: "The cup that shall pass unto thee
shall intoxicate thee" (and that is shame enough to any man); "thou
shalt be drunken, quite infatuated, and at thy wits' end, shalt stagger in
all thy counsels and stumble in all thy enterprises, and then, as Noah when he
was drunk, thou shalt make thyself naked and expose thyself to
contempt." Note, Those who ridicule God's people will justly be left to
themselves to do that, some time or other, by which they will be made
ridiculous. 2. It will be a righteous destruction. God will herein visit
thy iniquity and discover thy sins; he will punish them, and, to
justify himself therein, he will discover them, and make it to appear that he
has just cause thus to proceed against them. Nay, the punishment of the sin
shall so exactly answer the sin that it shall itself plainly discover it.
Sometimes God does so visit the iniquity that he that runs may read the sin in
the punishment. But, sooner or later, sin will be visited and discovered, and
all the hidden works of darkness brought to light.
Contents
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Next
Section
