Lamentations 4:3-12
v. 3: The famine is so bad that even mothers cannot care for their babies. Even the sea-monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness . Mothers have nothing to give their children and cannot help them, just as ostriches are known for leaving their eggs behind (Job 39:14,15 a). v. 4: Little children are so thirsty that their tongues stick to the roof of their mouths. 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 . Parents cannot help their children, and there is no one to give them food or water. This is a very painful sight. v. 5: People who used to live in luxury are now poor and desperate. They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills . Those who were once rich now lie on trash heaps and search for anything to eat, like the prodigal son (1 Samuel 2:5 b). This shows that anyone can lose everything, so we should not be too proud of what we have (Deuteronomy 28:56 c). v. 6: Jerusalem’s punishment is even worse than Sodom’s. 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 was destroyed quickly, but Jerusalem suffered slowly through a long siege. Because Jerusalem had more spiritual privileges, its judgment is heavier (Matthew 11:23-24 d). v. 7: The Nazarites and honorable people were once healthy and pure. Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire . They lived holy lives and were respected, like Daniel and his friends who ate only vegetables (Numbers 6:2; Amos 2:11 e). v. 8: Now these same people look terrible. 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 . Hunger and sorrow have changed them so much that people hardly recognize them. Even those devoted to God suffer along with everyone else (Isaiah 52:14 f). v. 9: Those who died by the sword were better off than those who died by hunger. They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger . Starvation is a slow and painful death, while the sword brings a quick end (Job 21:13; Psalm 73:4 g). v. 10: The famine was so extreme that some mothers cooked and ate their own children. The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children . This terrible act had been warned by God as a possible result of judgment (Leviticus 26:29; Deuteronomy 28:53 h; Jeremiah 19:9 i). It shows how desperate and sinful the times had become. v. 11: The Lord has finished pouring out His anger. 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 . The city is completely destroyed, down to its very foundation. v. 12: The destruction of Jerusalem is so shocking that nobody believed it could happen. 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 . Jerusalem seemed safe and protected by God, but its fall was proof that God had allowed it to happen.
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