For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, and the particular theme, as with studies elsewhere, each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read on the main Bible page.

Passage:    Lam 4:1-10

1 How the gold has lost its luster,
    the fine gold become dull!
The sacred gems are scattered
    at every street corner.

2 How the precious children of Zion,
    once worth their weight in gold,
are now considered as pots of clay,
    the work of a potter’s hands!

3 Even jackals offer their breasts
    to nurse their young,
but my people have become heartless
    like ostriches in the desert.

4 Because of thirst the infant’s tongue
    sticks to the roof of its mouth;
the children beg for bread,
    but no one gives it to them.

5 Those who once ate delicacies
    are destitute in the streets.
Those brought up in royal purple
    now lie on ash heaps.

6 The punishment of my people
    is greater than that of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment
    without a hand turned to help her.

7 Their princes were brighter than snow
    and whiter than milk,
their bodies more ruddy than rubies,
    their appearance like lapis lazuli.

8 But now they are blacker than soot;
    they are not recognized in the streets.
Their skin has shriveled on their bones;
    it has become as dry as a stick.

9 Those killed by the sword are better off
    than those who die of famine;
racked with hunger, they waste away
    for lack of food from the field.

10 With their own hands compassionate women
    have cooked their own children,
who became their food
    when my people were destroyed.

A. Find Out

• 1. What is the first thing identified that has changed? v.1
• 2. Who are next mentioned as changed? v.2
• 3. Whose state is next covered? v.3,4
• 4. Who and what are next contrasted? v.5
• 5. Who next are contrasted? v.7,8
• 6. Who are the final group contrasted? v.10

B. Think:

• 1. How is this like a poetic news documentary film?
• 2. What seems to be the main idea conveyed?

C. Comment:

Having come to a place of repentance, the prophet does not just say, “Oh, it’s all right now!” No, he has to live with the carnage. This isn’t a case of “OK we can move on now” because the nature of what happened means it will take years if not decades to get over it – if ever!

The writer now gives us snap shots of the changes that have taken place. This is like a bird’s-eye view documentary, picking up on specific illustrations of things that have changed, things that have to be coped with now.

The city once was known for its gold, but no longer (v.1). Actually the real gold, the real value of Jerusalem were the people, especially the young men who would be come its future but now they have been dashed and reshaped (v.2).  The children of Jerusalem once knew prosperity but now they are waifs and strays who are hungry and thirsty (v.4) like modern pictures of famine.

Once the affluent people ate well and dressed well, but now the few that are left are penniless in the streets while other bodies are piled in the ashes of pyres (v.5), which remind one of the judgement of Sodom (v.6). The princes in the palace were once well known for good, clean looks, but now the few that are left are dirty, starving, bags of bones (v.7,8). Most terrible of all, the mothers who were once so compassionate, have become cannibals, even killing and eating their own children to survive (v.10). How terrible.

D. Application:

• 1. Judgement has long term effects which do not just go away.
• 2. When judgement comes, late repentance does not avert the effects.

Passage:  Lam 4:11-17

11 The Lord has given full vent to his wrath;
    he has poured out his fierce anger.
He kindled a fire in Zion
    that consumed her foundations.

12 The kings of the earth did not believe,
    nor did any of the peoples of the world,
that enemies and foes could enter
    the gates of Jerusalem.

13 But it happened because of the sins of her prophets
    and the iniquities of her priests,
who shed within her
    the blood of the righteous.

14 Now they grope through the streets
    as if they were blind.
They are so defiled with blood
    that no one dares to touch their garments.

15 “Go away! You are unclean!” people cry to them.
    “Away! Away! Don’t touch us!”
When they flee and wander about,
    people among the nations say,
    “They can stay here no longer.”

16 The Lord himself has scattered them;
    he no longer watches over them.
The priests are shown no honor,
    the elders no favor.

17 Moreover, our eyes failed,
    looking in vain for help;
from our towers we watched
    for a nation that could not save us.

A. Find Out

• 1. What 4 things does he say that the Lord has done? v.11
• 2. Who didn’t believe what could happen? v.12
• 3. Yet why did it happen? v.13
• 4. So how are they described? v.14,15
• 5. What happened to their relationship with the Lord? v.16
• 6. What was it futile to do? v.17

B. Think:

• 1. What had Jerusalem been like previously?
• 2. How do you think the prophets & priests failed?
• 3. So what is their plight now?

C. Comment:

Some things are hard to imagine. The great stronghold of Jerusalem being entered by its enemies had been one such thing that had been difficult to imagine. But there it is now, in places burnt down even to the foundations. And why?  Because those who supposedly represented God to the people had badly failed to do so! Prophets are supposed to call the people back to God with the word from God. Priests are supposed to lead the people to God, and neither group had done their job, so that the people and their leaders went right away from God. Even worse they had encouraged unrighteousness.

These men who had supposed to have been holy, men in contact with the holy God, carrying a sense of the awesomeness of God, now wandered the streets like destitute beggars. They stagger around the streets, groping around like blind men, overwhelmed by what has happened to them. They are the cause of all this, the blood of the people is on them – and the people know it deep down and so they are outcasts and no one will go near them!

Even more than that, the world sees and knows and no one else wants to know them either. They have no honour because they have dishonoured the Lord. They looked and looked for someone to come and save them, but there was no one and so they looked in vain!

D. Application:

• 1. God’s representatives have a high level of accountability.
• 2. God’s children generally have a high level of responsibility.

Passage:  Lam 4:18-22

18 People stalked us at every step,
    so we could not walk in our streets.
Our end was near, our days were numbered,
    for our end had come.

19 Our pursuers were swifter
    than eagles in the sky;
they chased us over the mountains
    and lay in wait for us in the desert.

20 The Lord’s anointed, our very life breath,
    was caught in their traps.
We thought that under his shadow
    we would live among the nations.

21 Rejoice and be glad, Daughter Edom,
    you who live in the land of Uz.
But to you also the cup will be passed;
    you will be drunk and stripped naked.

22 Your punishment will end, Daughter Zion;
    he will not prolong your exile.
But he will punish your sin, Daughter Edom,
    and expose your wickedness.

A. Find Out

• 1. What had happened to them? v.18,19
• 2. What wrong thought had they held onto? v.20
• 3. Who is told to rejoice? v.21a
• 4. Yet what will happen to them? v.21b
• 5. What will eventually happen to Jerusalem? v.22a
• 6. But what will God yet do? v.22b

B. Think:

• 1. What picture of the thoroughness of the judgement is given?
• 2. How had their thinking been false?
• 3. Why will Edom be judged?

C. Comment:

This passage has two distinct halves: first the continuation of the lament over what had happened to them, then a warning to Edom. First the continued lament. No one had come to save them and eventually the siege had come to an end with the enemy breaching the defences and pouring in. They poured through the city cleaning out the inhabitants and even those who hid were stalked (v.18) and so those who could, fled but they were chased across the country (v.19); there was no escape. They had thought that because they were special in God’s eyes they would be saved (v.20) but they weren’t!

Second, the warning. Edom had stood aloof and had refused to join an alliance with Israel and Egypt against Babylon. Edom had always been an enemy and had just looked on with satisfaction and eventually Nebuchadnezzar had rewarded their neutrality with some of Israel’s land.  Your turn will come, says the prophet. Don’t think you will escape. God will deal with your sin and wickedness. The same fate awaits you. You will be stripped by the enemy in the same way!

Now notice in the midst of this a statement of faith: Jerusalem, God will not prolong your exile!  i.e. it will not be for ever, there will be an end to it. There is an end to this punishment. In the light of all the anguish he is feeling this is a remarkable declaration of faith and hope!

D. Application:

• 1. Don’t rejoice over the disciplining of others. Watch yourself!
• 2. Discipline never lasts for ever. There will be an end.