Lamentations 4:8-18

8 Now their visage is blacker than coal; they are not known in the streets; their skin cleaveth to their bones, it is withered, it has become like a stick.
9 They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger; for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.
10 The hands of the pitying 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, it was 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 favored 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 has come.

Lamentations 4:8-18 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.

Third Millennium Bible (TMB), New Authorized Version, Copyright 1998 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc., Gary, SD 57237. All rights reserved.