Lamentations 4:21 - Meaning and Application

David’s psalms of lament often end with comfort, and this lament does the same. It is as if light breaks through darkness. God’s people are in great distress. Their faces are sad, their future looks terrible, and their hostile neighbors, the Edomites, mock them and do all they can to stir up their destroyers against them.

That violence against their brother Jacob, and that bitter hatred for Jerusalem, were long remembered (Obadiah 1:10; Psalm 137:7). But for the encouragement of God’s people, this passage says two things. First, Zion’s troubles will end. “The punishment of your sin is finished, O daughter of Zion” (Lamentations 4:22). This does not mean the people have suffered all the punishment their sins deserve. It means they have suffered all that God appointed for this time, enough to show his justice and to remove their sin.

The captivity, which was the punishment for their sin, will end (Isaiah 40:2). God will no longer keep them there, and he will turn their captivity back. He will bring them out in a glorious release. The troubles of God’s people last no longer than the work God sent them to do. When that work is done, he will end their grief.

Second, Edom’s triumphs will end. The words in verse 21 are spoken with irony: “Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom.” Go on mocking Zion in her distress until you have filled up the measure of your guilt. Rejoice in your present escape from the same disaster that has struck your neighbors, if you can. But the time is coming when God will call you to account, and it will come soon enough (Ecclesiastes 11:9).

The cup of trembling, which Jerusalem is now drinking deeply, will pass on to you. It will go around until it becomes your turn to drink. This is a good warning against mocking anyone in misery, because we also live in fragile bodies, and we do not know how soon their trouble could become ours. Those who enjoy the suffering of God’s church should expect the same judgment as those who helped bring that suffering about.

The destruction of the Edomites was already foretold by this prophet (Jeremiah 49:7 and following), and God’s people could take courage from that. Their destruction would be shameful. The cup that comes to them will make them drunk. That is shame enough for anyone. They will be so confused and foolish that they will stagger in every decision and fail in every plan. Then, like Noah in his drunkenness, they will make themselves naked and expose themselves to shame.

This is also a righteous destruction. God will visit their sin and expose their guilt. He will punish them, and in doing so he will show that he has good reason to act against them. In fact, their punishment will fit their sin so closely that it will reveal the sin itself. Sometimes God punishes in such a way that anyone can see the crime in the punishment. In time, sin will be punished and uncovered, and every hidden evil will be brought into the light.