Lamentations 4

Lamentations 4:1-22 . THE SAD CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM, THE HOPE OF RESTORATION, AND THE RETRIBUTION AWAITING IDUMEA FOR JOINING BABYLON AGAINST JUDEA.

Aleph.

1. gold--the splendid adornment of the temple [CALVIN] ( Lamentations 1:10 , 1 Kings 6:22 , Jeremiah 52:19 ); or, the principal men of Judea [GROTIUS] ( Lamentations 4:2 ).
stones of . . . sanctuary--the gems on the breastplate of the high priest; or, metaphorically, the priests and Levites.

Beth.

2. comparable to . . . gold--( Job 28:16 Job 28:19 ).
earthen pitchers--( Isaiah 30:14 , Jeremiah 19:11 ).

Gimel.

3. sea monsters . . . breast--Whales and other cetaceous monsters are mammalian. Even they suckle their young; but the Jewish women in the siege, so desperate was their misery, ate theirs ( Lamentations 4:10 , Lamentations 2:20 ). Others translate, "jackals."

Daleth.

4. thirst--The mothers have no milk to give through the famine.

He.

5. delicately--on dainties.
are desolate--or, "perish."
in scarlet embrace dunghills--Instead of the scarlet couches on which the grandees were nursed, they must lie on dunghills.
embrace--They who once shrank sensitively from any soil, gladly cling close to heaps of filth as their only resting-place. Compare "embrace the rock" ( Job 24:8 ).

Vau.

6. greater than . . . Sodom--( Matthew 11:23 ). No prophets had been sent to Sodom, as there had been to Judea; therefore the punishment of the latter was heavier than that of the former.
overthrown . . . in a moment--whereas the Jews had to endure the protracted and manifold hardships of a siege.
no hands stayed on her--No hostile force, as the Chaldeans in the case of Jerusalem, continually pressed on her before her overthrow. Jeremiah thus shows the greater severity of Jerusalem's punishment than that of Sodom.

Zain.

7. Nazarites--literally, "separated ones" ( Numbers 6:2 ). They were held once in the highest estimation, but now they are degraded. God's blessing formerly caused their body not to be the less fair and ruddy for their abstinence from strong drink. Compare the similar case of Daniel, &c. ( Daniel 1:8-15 ). Also David ( 1 Samuel 16:12 , 17:42 ). Type of Messiah ( Solomon 5:10 ).
rubies--GESENIUS translates, "corals," from a Hebrew root, "to divide into branches," from the branching form of corals.
polishing--They were like exquisitely cut and polished sapphires. The "sapphires" may represent the blue veins of a healthy person.

Cheth.

8. blacker than . . . coal--or, "than blackness" itself ( Joel 2:6 , Nahum 2:10 ).
like a stick--as withered as a dry stick.

Teth.

9. The speedy death by the sword is better than the lingering death by famine.
pine away--literally, "flow out"; referring to the flow of blood. This expression, and "stricken through," are drawn from death by "the sword."
want of . . . fruits--The words in italics have to be supplied in the original ( Genesis 18:28 , Psalms 109:24 ).

Jod.

10. ( Lamentations 2:20 , Deuteronomy 28:56 Deuteronomy 28:57 ).
pitiful--naturally at other times compassionate ( Isaiah 49:15 ). JOSEPHUS describes the unnatural act as it took place in the siege under Titus.
sodden--boiled.

Caph.