Lamentations 4
Summary for Lam 4:1-22: 4:1-22 a Although God’s people still experience his judgment, they will soon experience restoration.4:3 b like ostriches: See also Job 39:13-16 c.
4:7 d like fine jewels: (literally like lapis lazuli): Lapis lazuli is a beautiful blue stone that is soft enough to carve. It is often used in decorations and mosaics.
4:8 e Skin sticking to bones is symptomatic of the final stages of starvation, just before death.
4:9 f Long sieges result in a serious lack of food. Even if people could get to the fields, they would find the crops destroyed or harvested to feed the soldiers.
4:12 g Not a king ... could march through the gates of Jerusalem: Since God had delivered Jerusalem from Sennacherib of Assyria more than a century earlier (2 Kgs 19:36-37 h), Judeans had strongly believed that not even the mightiest king, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, could defeat the city.
4:15 i It appears that these leaders fled from Jerusalem as refugees to other lands.
4:20 j Our king ... was caught: A reference to Zedekiah, who tried to flee but was caught and treated cruelly by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kgs 25:4-7 k; Jer 39:4-7 l; 52:9-11 m).
Summary for Lam 4:21-22: 4:21-22 n The people of Edom were feeling secure and gloating over Jerusalem’s misfortune, but they, too, would experience punishment for their sins (see Obad 1 o; Jer 49:7-22 p). 4:21 q Uz was an area east of the Jordan River that extended south to Edom. It was Job’s home (Job 1:1 r).
4:22 s The first return from exile occurred in 538 BC, after Cyrus of Persia defeated Babylon (2 Chr 36:22-23 t; Ezra 1:1-4 u).
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