Lamentations 4
v.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.
The pathetic scenes of young children begging in vain for food seems to have etched themselves deeply on the mind of the author, who must have witnessed the events described here and in the first two dirges.
v.5
Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets. Those nurtured in purple now lie on ash heaps.
Money has ceased to have meaning; so the rich women have no helpers and only such food as they can find among the garbage.
v.7
Their princes were brighter than snow and whiter than milk, their bodies more ruddy than rubies, their appearance like sapphires.
The nobility cannot be recognized on the streets because famine has reduced all the citizens of Jerusalem to a common level of physical exhaustion.
v.10
With their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food when my people were destroyed.
All this falls on the people because they have provoked the Lord to wrath.
v.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.
Ezekiel 22:1–12 shows that the concept of bloodshed was far wider than murder or homicide, all that cut at the roots of society or that deprived men of their land and livelihood shortened their lives and so was bloodshed. Priest and prophet contributed positively and negatively—positively by advocating or condoning such behavior, negatively by failing to condemn those who wronged their fellow men.
v.14
Now they grope through the streets like men who are blind. They are so defiled with blood that no one dares to touch their garments.
v.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.
The people of Jerusalem regarded Zedekiah as the anointed of the LORD, and hoped that under his shadow we shall live among the nations. The hope was bitterly disappointed. #EnduringWord
v.21-22
Rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of 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. 22O Daughter of Zion, your punishment will end; he will not prolong your exile. But, O Daughter of Edom, he will punish your sin and expose your wickedness.
[Edom’s] nakedness involves shame and revelation of sins, but it also implies slavery (cf. Isaiah 47:2-3). The consolation for Zion is that she has received all the punishment she can (cf Isaiah 40:2); there can be no more exile.