Lamentations 4

¹ How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.

² The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

³ Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

⁴ 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.

⁵ They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

⁶ 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.

⁷ Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:

⁸ 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.

⁹ They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.

¹⁰ The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

¹¹ 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.

¹² 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.

¹³ For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,

¹⁴ They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

¹⁵ They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.

¹⁶ The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.

¹⁷ As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.

¹⁸ They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

¹⁹ Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

²⁰ The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.

²¹ Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.

²² The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins.

World Behind This Chapter

Explore the people, places, language, history, and material world connected to Lamentations 4.

QUESTIONS WORTH EXPLORING

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How closely does Lamentations 4 reflect siege conditions?

The poem describes famine, social reversal, ruined streets, and fleeing leaders. These are historically plausible siege experiences, but poetry should not be treated as a line-by-line archaeological report.

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Why does Lamentations 4 compare people to gold, stones, pottery, and animals?

Material and animal comparisons make social reversal visible: what was valued becomes discarded, while ordinary survival becomes difficult.

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Who is the “anointed of the LORD” captured in verse 20?

SCHOLARLY DEBATE

Many scholars connect the language with Judah’s final monarchy, often Zedekiah, but the poem does not name the figure directly.

WORTH A CLOSER LOOK

Artifacts

See household pottery from Judah’s final Iron Age

A real Levantine storage jar and dipper from Iron Age IIC (roughly 720–586 BCE) makes the household material world behind Lamentations’ pottery, food, and siege imagery tangible. It is comparative material culture, not an object excavated from the poem’s Jerusalem streets.

View the object →

⌘ Research PathsCurated links for exploring this chapter 3

Language & Literature2

• Lamentations 4 Hebrew Text and Word AnalysisSTEP Bible, Tyndale House

  Interactive Hebrew passage tool for studying the chapter’s acrostic structure and stark reversals involving gold, precious stones, children, famine, ritual impurity, priests, prophets, foreign help, pursuit, Edom, and Daughter Zion. It supports close analysis of simile, metaphor, contrast, and siege vocabulary.

• Why Lamentations Was Attributed to JeremiahTheTorah.com

  Examines the linguistic, poetic, thematic, and historical connections that led later readers to associate Lamentations with Jeremiah. Its discussion of Lamentations 4 addresses corrupt prophets and priests, failed hopes for foreign assistance, Daughter Zion language, and similarities with Jeremiah while distinguishing later attribution from certain authorship.

Artifacts & Manuscripts1

• Burned Ivories from Jerusalem’s Babylonian DestructionCity of David

  Describes more than 1,500 burned ivory fragments recovered from an elite Jerusalem building destroyed in the early sixth century BCE. The restored furniture inlays illuminate the wealth and luxury that existed before the city’s fall and provide a material comparison for Lamentations 4’s contrast between former splendor and present degradation.