Lamentations 4:14-22

14 NUN. her watchmen staggered in the streets, they were defiled with blood in their weakness, they touched their raiment .

15 SAMECH. Depart ye from the unclean ones: call ye them: depart, depart, touch not: for they are on fire, yea, they stagger: say ye among the nations, They shall no more sojourn .

16 AIN. The presence of the Lord their portion; he will not again look upon them: they regarded not the person of the priests, they pitied not the prophets.

17 PHE. While we yet lived our eyes failed, while we looked in vain for our help. TSADE. We looked to a nation that could not save.

18 We have hunted our little ones, that they should not walk in our streets. KOPH. Our time has drawn nigh, our days are fulfilled, our time is come.

19 Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky, they flew on the mountains, in the wilderness they laid wait for us.

20 RECHS. The breath of our nostrils, anointed Lord, was taken in their destructive snares, of whom we said, In his shadow we shall live among the Gentiles.

21 CHSEN. Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Idumea, that dwellest in the land: yet the cup of the Lord shall pass through to thee: thou shalt be drunken, and pour forth.

22 THAU. O daughter of Sion, thine iniquity has come to an end; he shall no more carry thee captive: he has visited thine iniquities, O daughter of Edom; he has discovered thy sins.

Lamentations 4:14-22 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.