LAMENTATIONS 4

Lamentations 4:1-22 (KJV)

 1 How is the gold become dim! [how] is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.

 

Solomon used fine gold for the temple of God.  Now the fine Gold lie in the street where it is visible.  People were in so much pain the finest gold meant nothing.

2 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! 

The leaders were treated like fine gold.  People look to them like water from a pitcher.

3 Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people [is become] cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. 

The biggest sea animal made sure to feed their young, but my people cared little for their young like the ostriches who leaves their young in the sand to run with the runners.

4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, [and] no man breaketh [it] unto them. 

The children starve.

5 They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills. 

Those that fed their young made sure they were never hungry. But now they are in so much trouble that they run and the young are not on their minds. Once they lived in nice houses, now they search for the garbage field.

6 For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her. 

Sodom did not experience what we are going through.  Our punishment is greater because we knew better because we were warned by the prophets.

7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing [was] of sapphire: 

8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick. 

The  Nazarites were dressed as pure as a sailor in a white suit, but now they are blacker than coal and nobody recognizes them in the street;  their skin is stuck to their bones and dried; they look like sticks.

9 [They that be] slain with the sword are better than [they that be] slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for [want of] the fruits of the field. 

Death looked better than life because they were so hungry.

10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people. 

The weak, poor, and starving women boiled their own children for food.

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. 

God’s Word fully came to pass for the anger had against Israel.

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. 

Nobody could fathom what happened to the people of God.  Never had an outsider entered 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, 

The leaders shed blood in the Holy place.

14 They have wandered [as] blind [men] in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments. 

The leader shed so much blood no one was able to come near them.  They roamed as blind men in the streets.

15 They cried unto them, Depart ye; [it is] unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn [there]

The people told the priest don’t touch me, getaway and the prophets and priest said we cannot go there anymore.

16 The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders. 

God separated the people from the prophets and priests.

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]. 

The people searched for other nations to save them but none did.

18 They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

 

They watched our every move.  We are doomed.

19 Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness. 

Our enemies were skilled.  Even if we were on the mountain they found us.  They hid out and watched every move we made.

20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen. 

We can not believe the anointed ones who breathe are captivated by the enemy and we live among those who never knew God and His ways.

21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked. 

One day your day of wrath will come.  So have fun today Edom! 

22 The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins. 

Our punishment has been forgiven.  God will visit Edom for the wrong they did.