Lamentations 4:1 - Meaning and Application

This chapter opens with a sad lament over the terrible change God’s judgments had brought on Jerusalem. The city that once shone like gold, the finest gold, rich and beautiful, the perfection of beauty and the joy of the whole earth, has lost its brightness and value. It has become like dull metal, no longer what it was. What a change this is.

First, the temple was destroyed, and that temple had been Jerusalem’s glory and protection. It was handed over to the enemy. Some understand the “gold” in verse 1 to mean the gold that covered the temple, the fine gold on it (1 Kings 6:22). When the temple was burned, that gold was blackened and ruined, as if it were worth little. It was thrown into the rubble, turned to common use, and treated as nothing. The stones of the sanctuary, carefully worked stones, were thrown down by the Chaldeans, the Babylonian invaders, when they tore the temple apart, or else they fell when the fire brought them down. They were scattered through the streets, mixed in with ordinary ruins. When the God of the sanctuary had been provoked by sin to withdraw, it is no surprise that the stones of the sanctuary were profaned this way.

Second, the princes and priests, the special sons of Zion, were insulted and crushed. Zion held both the house of God and the house of David. The sons of those two houses were precious because they were heirs of the privileges tied to priesthood and kingship. They were like fine gold, and Israel was richer in them than in silver and gold. But now they are treated like clay jars. They are broken and thrown aside as vessels nobody values. They have become poor and have been taken into captivity, so people treat them as low and worthless. When God’s people are despised, that should move us to sorrow.

Third, little children were starving for lack of bread and water. Their nursing mothers had no food for themselves, so they had no milk for their babies. They were truly compassionate in heart, yet in practice they seemed cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness that leave their eggs in the dust (Job 39:14-15). With no food for their children, they were forced to neglect them and try to forget them, because it hurt too much to think of them while having nothing to give. In this, they were worse than sea creatures that feed their young, because the daughter of my people would not do that. Children cannot help themselves the way adults can, so it was especially painful to see a sucking child’s tongue stick to the roof of his mouth from thirst, with not a drop of water to soften it. It was also heartbreaking to hear little children, who could barely speak, asking bread from parents who had none to give, and no friend who could help. As sad as this is to picture, we should be thankful for the plenty we enjoy, and for the food we have for ourselves, our children, and those in our homes.

Fourth, people of good rank were reduced to deep poverty. Those who had been well-born, well-taught, and used to the best food and clothing, who had lived in luxury every day, were brought down. They had not only worn scarlet, but had been raised in scarlet, living in great comfort from the start. Yet war stripped away everything. Now they are left in the streets, with no house to shelter them, no bed to lie on, no clothes to cover them, and no fire to warm them. They lie on dunghills, glad of any place to rest, and perhaps even searching through refuse for something to eat, like the prodigal son who longed to fill his stomach with husks. Those who live in ease and plenty do not know what hard things may come before they die. Sometimes the needy are lifted up from the dunghill, and sometimes those who were full must hire themselves out for bread (1 Samuel 2:5). It is wise for those with plenty not to make themselves too delicate, because hardship will feel even harder if it comes after softness (Deuteronomy 28:56).

Fifth, people who were known for dignity, and perhaps even holiness, also shared in the common disaster. Her Nazarites were severely affected. Some take this to mean only her honorable young men, who were neat, clean, and well dressed, washed and perfumed. But it may also refer to those devout people who had set themselves apart to the Lord by the Nazarite vow, as in Numbers 6. Such people existed even in very sinful times, as Amos 2:11 shows, where God says, “I raised up some of your young men to be Nazarites.” These Nazarites were not to cut their hair, but because of their careful diet, frequent washings, and especially the joy they had in giving themselves to God and walking with him, their faces likely shone. They were purer than snow and whiter than milk. Since they drank no wine or strong drink, their health and countenance were often better than those who drank freely every day. Or the words may point to the great respect good people had for them. Even if they did not appear impressive outwardly, they were valued as if they were more precious than rubies and polished like sapphire. But now their faces are disfigured, as Christ’s was said to be in Isaiah 52:14. They are blacker than coal and look miserable, partly from hunger and partly from grief and confusion. People do not recognize them in the streets. Those who once respected them now ignore them, and even old friends barely know them because the long siege has changed them so much. Their skin clings to their bones, their flesh has wasted away, and they have become dry and hard like wood. It is deeply sad when even those set apart to God are drawn into the same misery as everyone else during crushing judgments.

Sixth, Jerusalem went down slowly and died a lingering death, because famine did more to destroy her than any other judgment.

Because of this, the destruction of Jerusalem was greater than the destruction of Sodom (Lamentations 4:6). Sodom was overthrown in a moment. One rain of fire and burning sulfur finished it, and no enemy army held it under siege. Jerusalem, by contrast, suffered for many months. It was kept in pain and misery, and it seemed to die by inches.

Jerusalem’s guilt was also greater than Sodom’s, so its punishment was not surprising. Sodom never had the means of grace that Jerusalem had, meaning God’s gifts, his word, and his prophets. So Jerusalem’s judgment would be more severe and harder to bear than Sodom’s (Matthew 11:23-24).

The terrible famine is shown here by two dreadful examples. First, many were killed by hunger and starved to death. Their food was gone, and the public supply was almost gone too, so no relief was left. They were as surely dead as if someone had stabbed them, but their death was far more miserable.

Those who die by the sword are soon put out of their pain. In a moment they go down to the grave (Job 21:13). They do not have to watch death slowly come near, and they hardly feel the blow when it falls. It is only one sharp struggle, and then it is over. If we are ready for the next world, we need not fear a quick passage to it. The faster it comes, the better.

But those who die by famine waste away. Hunger slowly drains their strength and wears out their bodies. It also stirs up their spirits and fills them with deep distress. In that way, it torments the mind as well as the body. There are painful chains in their death (Psalm 73:4).

Second, the famine led to barbaric acts of murder. The kind hands of women boiled their own children after first killing them (Lamentations 4:10). This was already mentioned before (Lamentations 2:20), and it is deeply to be mourned, both because anyone could be driven to such wickedness and because the siege pushed them so far. This awful result of a long siege had been warned about earlier (Leviticus 26:29, Deuteronomy 28:53), and it was also foretold for Jerusalem in the Chaldean siege, that is, the Babylonian attack (Jeremiah 19:9, Ezekiel 5:10).

It was sad enough that they had no food for their children and no way to provide for them (Lamentations 4:4). But it was far worse that they could bring themselves to feed on their own children. I do not know whether this shows the power of necessity or the power of sin. Yet, just as Gentile idolaters were rightly given over to vile passions (Romans 1:26), so these Jewish idolaters, especially the women who had made cakes for the queen of heaven and taught their children to do the same, were stripped of natural love for their own children. Being left to dishonor their own nature was a fair judgment for the dishonor they had shown to God.

Jerusalem fell completely and in a way that amazed everyone. The Lord had finished his anger. He made full and thorough work of it, carrying out everything he had planned in wrath against Jerusalem and leaving nothing of the sentence undone. He poured out the full bowls of his fierce anger, right down to the last drop. He also set a fire in Zion, and that fire did not just burn the houses and level them to the ground. It also consumed the very foundations, as if the city would never be built again (Lamentations 4:11).

This destruction was astonishing to the kings of the earth, who usually knew the state of their neighbors and asked about it. It was astonishing even to everyone in the world who knew Jerusalem or had heard of it. They could not have believed that an enemy would ever enter Jerusalem’s gates (Lamentations 4:12). They knew the city was strongly defended, not only by walls and fortifications, but also by the number and strength of its people. Zion’s stronghold seemed impossible to conquer.

They also knew that Jerusalem was the city of the great King, where the Lord of the whole earth dwelt in a special way. It was the holy city, and they thought it would be under such divine protection that no enemy could take it. They also knew that many attacks against it had already failed, including Sennacherib’s. So when they heard that the Chaldeans had taken it, they were amazed and concluded that this was only because God himself had given the city up. The enemy broke through and entered Jerusalem’s gates by his command.