Lamentations 4:1-6

The Holy Stones Lie Scattered

1 ¹How the gold has grown dim, how the pure gold is changed! The holy stones lie scattered ²at the head of every street.

2 The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in ³fine gold, how they are regarded as ⁴earthen pots, the work of a potter's hands!

3 Even jackals offer the breast; they nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

4 The tongue of the nursing infant ⁵sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst; ⁶the children beg for food, but no one gives to them.

5 Those who once feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; ⁷those who were brought up in purple embrace ash heaps.

6 ⁸For the chastisement^[a] of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment^[b] of Sodom, ⁹which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were wrung for her.^[c]

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Lamentations 4:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO LAMENTATIONS 4

The prophet begins this chapter with a complaint of the ill usage of the dear children of God, and precious sons of Zion, La 4:1,2; relates the dreadful effects of the famine during the siege of Jerusalem, La 4:3-10; the taking and destruction of that city he imputes to the wrath of God; and represents it as incredible to the kings and inhabitants of the earth, La 4:11,12; the causes of which were the sins of the prophets, priests, and people, La 4:13-16; expresses the vain hopes they once had, but now were given up entirely, their king being taken, La 4:17-20; and the chapter is concluded with a prophecy of the destruction of the Edomites, and of the return of the Jews from captivity, La 4:21,22.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 9

1. [Isaiah 1:22; Jeremiah 6:30]
2. Lamentations 2:19
3. Psalms 19:10
4. See Jeremiah 19:11
5. Psalms 22:15
6. [Lamentations 2:11]
7. [2 Samuel 1:24]
8. Matthew 10:15; Luke 10:12
9. Genesis 19:25; 2 Peter 2:6; Jude 7

Footnotes 3

[a]. Or iniquity
[b]. Or sin
[c]. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.