Lamentations 4:1-22--The Holy Stones Lie Scattered

Lamentations 4
English Standard Version

The Holy Stones Lie Scattered
4 How the gold has grown dim,
    how the pure gold is changed!
The holy stones lie scattered
    at the head of every street.

2 The precious sons of Zion,
    worth their weight in fine gold,
how they are regarded as earthen pots,
    the work of a potter's hands!

3 Even jackals offer the breast;
    they nurse their young;
but the daughter of my people has become cruel,
    like the ostriches in the wilderness.

4 The tongue of the nursing infant sticks
    to the roof of its mouth for thirst;
the children beg for food,
    but no one gives to them.

5 Those who once feasted on delicacies
    perish in the streets;
those who were brought up in purple
    embrace ash heaps.

6 For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater
    than the punishment of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment,
    and no hands were wrung for her.

7 Her princes were purer than snow,
    whiter than milk;
their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
    the beauty of their form was like sapphire.

8 Now their face is blacker than soot;
    they are not recognized in the streets;
their skin has shriveled on their bones;
    it has become as dry as wood.

9 Happier were the victims of the sword
    than the victims of hunger,
who wasted away, pierced
    by lack of the fruits of the field.

10 The hands of compassionate women
    have boiled their own children;
they became their food
    during the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11 The LORD gave full vent to his wrath;
    he poured out his hot anger,
and he kindled a fire in Zion
    that consumed its foundations.

12 The kings of the earth did not believe,
    nor any of the inhabitants of the world,
that foe or enemy could enter
    the gates of Jerusalem.

13 This was for the sins of her prophets
    and the iniquities of her priests,
who shed in the midst of her
    the blood of the righteous.

14 They wandered, blind, through the streets;
    they were so defiled with blood
that no one was able to touch
    their garments.

15 “Away! Unclean!” people cried at them.
    “Away! Away! Do not touch!”
So they became fugitives and wanderers;
    people said among the nations,
    “They shall stay with us no longer.”

16 The LORD himself has scattered them;
    he will regard them no more;
no honor was shown to the priests,
    no favor to the elders.

17 Our eyes failed, ever watching
    vainly for help;
in our watching we watched
    for a nation which could not save.

18 They dogged our steps
    so that we could not walk in our streets;
our end drew near; our days were numbered,
    for our end had come.

19 Our pursuers were swifter
    than the eagles in the heavens;
they chased us on the mountains;
    they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

20 The breath of our nostrils, the LORD's anointed,
    was captured in their pits,
of whom we said, “Under his shadow
    we shall live among the nations.”

21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom,
    you who dwell in the land of Uz;
but to you also the cup shall pass;
    you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.

22 The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished;
    he will keep you in exile no longer;
but your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will punish;
    he will uncover your sins.

---

Jeremiah looks at the destruction of the Temple and the splendor that was once there that is all gone now.  More precious than the precious stones or the gold or the silver though are the people who have been taken away.  The physical state of the Temple building is symbolic of the spiritual state of the nation--once great, but now broken and decimated.  It is a heap of ruble that people pass by and laugh and jeer at.

The parents have become more cruel than the unclean animals who desert their young and compete with them for food.  In many cases, the children have become food or even commodities because there is not enough food to feed everyone, so the people of turned to eating their young.

Socio-economic barriers are broken.  Everyone is poor is destitute now.  There is no one left who is rich or powerful.  Jeremiah wishes the punishment of Jerusalem had been like the punishment of Sodom--at least their punishment was over in the blink of an eye.  Instead, there are living left to mourn for the dead, yet not enough left to bury all the dead bodies, so they just lay there.  In many ways, it was better in Jeremiah's opinion to be one of the people who died quickly in war than to be one of the people that died slowly by pestilence or famine.

The LORD Himself did what no king on earth thought was possible--tear down the walls of Jerusalem and allow the Temple to be torn down and destroyed.  Why?  Because of the wickedness of the people that demanded a response.  Though they were once white and pure, they are now black and filthy.  All the life has been taken out of them like a dried piece of wood that will quickly burn when exposed to the heat and flame of His judgment.

He tried to warn the people through the prophets, priests, and kings, but they eventually became part of the problem.  If the LORD was going to do something, He was going to have to do something Himself.  They stopped looking to the LORD for help and looked instead to the gods of other nations and to those other nations to be their saviors.  The LORD showed them time and again they could not count on anyone else other than Him, but they would not listen.  They did not want a relationship with the LORD because that meant binding themselves to the Law, and they did not love the Law, because they did not love the LORD.

The LORD allowed the Gentile nations to attack and pursue the children of Israel and have victory.  The LORD showed favor to the Assyrians and the Chaldeans and Babylonians for a time, but all these kingdoms would come to an end and be replaced by other kingdoms as the LORD's plans for the Messiah to come forth at just the right time marched forward.

The people would one day return to Jerusalem, the Temple would be rebuilt and the people would see their Messiah (though He would not be the kind of Savior they would expect--they would want a military victory over the Gentiles, but they would have victory over their greatest enemies of Sin and the Curse).