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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
L A M E N T A T I O N S.
CHAP. IV.
This chapter is another single alphabet of Lamentations for the
destruction of Jerusalem, like those in the first two chapters.
I. The prophet here laments the injuries and indignities done to those
to whom respect used to be shown,
II. He laments the direful effects of the famine to which they were
reduced by the siege,
III. He laments the taking and sacking of Jerusalem and its amazing
desolations,
IV. He acknowledges that the sins of their leaders were the cause of
all these calamities,
V. He gives up all as doomed to utter ruin, for their enemies were
every way too hard for them,
VI. He foretels the destruction of the Edomites who triumphed in
Jerusalem’s fall,
VII. He foretels the return of the captivity of Zion at last,
| Desolate Condition of Jerusalem; Effects of Famine in Jerusalem; Destruction of Jerusalem. | B. C. 588. |
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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.
The elegy in this chapter begins with a lamentation of the very sad and
doleful change which the judgments of God had made in Jerusalem. The
city that was formerly as gold, as the most fine gold, so
rich and splendid, the perfection of beauty and the joy of the whole
earth, has become dim, and is changed, has lost its lustre, lost
its value, is not what it was; it has become dross. Alas! what an
alteration is here!
I. The temple was laid waste, which was the glory of Jerusalem and its
protection. It is given up into the hands of the enemy. And some
understand the gold spoken of
(v. 1)
to be the gold of the temple, the fine gold with which it was
overlaid
when the temple was burned the gold of it was smoked and sullied, as if
it had been of little value. It was thrown among the rubbish; it was
changed, converted to common uses and made nothing of. The
stones of the sanctuary, which were curiously wrought, were thrown
down by the Chaldeans, when they demolished it, or were brought down by
the force of the fire, and were poured out, and thrown about
in the top of every street; they lay mingled without distinction
among the common ruins. When the God of the sanctuary was by sin
provoked to withdraw no wonder that the stones of the sanctuary were
thus profaned.
II. The princes and priests, who were in a special manner the sons
of Zion, were trampled upon and abused,
v. 2.
Both the house of God and the house of David were in Zion. The sons of
both those houses were upon this account precious, that they were heirs
to the privileges of those two covenants of priesthood and royalty.
They were comparable to fine gold. Israel was more rich in them
than in treasures of gold and silver. But now they are esteemed as
earthen pitchers; they are broken as earthen pitchers,
thrown by as vessels in which there is no pleasure. They have grown
poor, and are brought into captivity, and thereby are rendered mean and
despicable, and every one treads upon them and insults over them. Note,
The contempt put upon God’s people ought to be matter of lamentation to
us.
III. Little children were starved for want of bread and water,
The nursing-mothers, having no meat for themselves, had no milk for the
babes at their breast, so that, though in disposition they were really
compassionate, yet in fact they seemed to be cruel, like the
ostriches in the wilderness, that leave their eggs in the dust
having no food for their children, they were forced to neglect them and
do what they could to forget them, because it was a pain to them to
think of them when they had nothing for them; in this they were worse
than the seals, or sea-monsters, or whales (as some
render it), for they drew out the breast, and gave suck to their
young, which the daughter of my people will not do. Children
cannot shift for themselves as grown people can; and therefore it was
the more painful to see the tongue of the sucking-child cleave to
the roof of his mouth for thirst, because there was not a drop of
water to moisten it; and to hear the young children, that could but
just speak, ask bread of their parents, who had none to give
them, no, nor any friend that could supply them. As doleful as our
thoughts are of this case, so thankful should our thoughts be of the
great plenty we enjoy, and the food convenient we have for ourselves
and for our children, and for those of our own house.
IV. Persons of good rank were reduced to extreme poverty,
v. 5.
Those who were well-born and well bred, and had been accustomed to the
best, both for food and clothing, who had fed delicately, had
every thing that was curious and nice (they call it eating well,
whereas those only eat well who eat to the glory of God), and fared
sumptuously every day; they had not only been advanced to the
scarlet, but from their beginning were brought up in
scarlet, and were never acquainted with any thing mean or ordinary.
They were brought up upon scarlet (so the word is); their
foot-cloths, and the carpets they walked on, were scarlet, yet these,
being stripped of all by the war, are desolate in the streets,
have not a house to put their head in, nor a bed to lie on, nor clothes
to cover them, nor fire to warm them. They embrace dunghills; on
them they were glad to lie to get a little rest, and perhaps raked in
the dunghills for something to eat, as the prodigal son who would
fain have filled his belly with the husks. Note, Those who live in
the greatest pomp and plenty know not what straits they may be reduced
to before they die; as sometimes the needy are raised out of
the dunghill. Those who were full have hired out themselves for
bread,
1 Sam. ii. 5.
It is therefore the wisdom of those who have abundance not to use
themselves too nicely, for then hardships, when they come, will be
doubly hard,
V. Persons who were eminent for dignity, nay, perhaps for sanctity,
shared with others in the common calamity,
Her Nazarites are extremely charged. Some understand it only of
her honourable ones, the young gentlemen, who were very clean, and
neat, and well-dressed, washed and perfumed; but I see not why we may
not understand it of those devout people among them who separated
themselves to the Lord by the Nazarites’ vow,
That there were such among them in the most degenerate times appears
from
I raised up of your young men for Nazarites. These
Nazarites, though they were not to cut their hair, yet by reason
of their temperate diet, their frequent washings, and especially the
pleasure they had in devoting themselves to God and conversing with
him, which made their faces to shine as Moses’s, were purer
than snow and whiter than milk; drinking no wine nor strong
drink, they had a more healthful complexion and cheerful countenance
than those who regaled themselves daily with the blood of the grape, as
Daniel and his fellows with pulse and water. Or it may
denote the great respect and veneration which all good people had for
them; though perhaps to the eye they had no form nor comeliness,
yet, being separated to the Lord, they were valued as if they had been
more ruddy than rubies and their polishing had been of sapphire.
But now their visage is marred (as is said of Christ,
it is blacker than a coal; they look miserably, partly through
hunger and partly through grief and perplexity. They are not known
in the streets; those who respected them now take no notice of
them, and those who had been intimately acquainted with them now
scarcely knew them, their countenance was so altered by the miseries
that attended the long siege. Their skin cleaves to their bones,
their flesh being quite consumed and wasted away; it is
withered; it has become like a stick, as dry and hard as
a piece of wood. Note, It is a thing to be much lamented that even
those who are separated to God are yet, when desolating judgments are
abroad, often involved with others in the common calamity.
VI. Jerusalem came down slowly, and died a lingering death; for the
famine contributed more to her destruction than any other judgment
whatsoever. Upon this account the destruction of Jerusalem was
greater than that of Sodom
(v. 6),
for that was overthrown in a moment; one shower of fire and
brimstone dispatched it; no hand staid on her; she did not
endure any long siege, as Jerusalem has done; she fell immediately into
the hands of the Lord, who strikes home at a blow, and did not
fall into the hands of man, who, being weak, is long in doing
execution,
Jerusalem is kept many months upon the rack, in pain and misery, and
dies by inches, dies so as to feel herself die. And, when the iniquity
of Jerusalem is more aggravated than that of Sodom, no wonder that the
punishment of it is so. Sodom never had the means of grace the
Jerusalem had, the oracles of God and his prophets, and therefore the
condemnation of Jerusalem will be more intolerable than that of
Sodom,
The extremity of the famine is here set forth by two frightful
instances of it:–
1. The tedious deaths that it was the cause of
(v. 9);
many were slain with hunger, were famished to death, their stores being
spent, and the public stores so nearly spent that they could not have
any relief out of them. They were stricken through, for want of the
fruits of the field; those who were starved were as sure to die as
if they had been stabbed and stricken through; only their case was much
more miserable. Those who are slain with the sword are soon put
out of their pain; in a moment they go down to the grave,
Job xxi. 13.
They have not the terror of seeing death make its advances towards
them, and scarcely feel it when the blow is given; it is but one sharp
struggle, and the work is done. And, if we be ready for another world,
we need not be afraid of a short passage to it; the quicker the better.
But those who die by famine pine away; hunger preys upon their spirits
and wastes them gradually; nay, and it frets their spirits, and fills
them with vexation, and is as great a torture to the mind as to the
body. There are bands in their death,
Ps. lxxiii. 4.
2. The barbarous murders that it was the occasion of
(v. 10):
The hands of the pitiful women have first slain and then
sodden their own children. This was lamented before
(ch. ii. 20);
and it was a thing to be greatly lamented that any should be so wicked
as to do it and that they should be brought to such extremities as to
be tempted to it. But this horrid effect of long sieges had been
threatened in general
(Lev. xxvi. 29, Deut. xxviii. 53),
and particularly against Jerusalem in the siege of the Chaldeans,
The case was sad enough that they had not wherewithal to feed their
children and make meat for them
(v. 4),
but much worse that they could find in their hearts to feed upon their
children and make meat of them. I know not whether to make it an
instance of the power of necessity or of the power of iniquity; but, as
the Gentile idolaters were justly given up to vile affections
(Rom. i. 26),
so these Jewish idolaters, and the women particularly, who had made
cakes to the queen of heaven and taught their children to do so
too, were stripped of natural affection and that to their own
children. Being thus left to dishonour their own nature was a
righteous judgment upon them for the dishonour they had done to
God.
VII. Jerusalem comes down utterly and wonderfully.
1. The destruction of Jerusalem is a complete destruction
(v. 11):
The Lord has accomplished his fury; he has made thorough work of
it, has executed all that he purposed in wrath against Jerusalem, and
has remitted no part of the sentence. He has poured out the full vials
of his fierce anger, poured them out to the bottom, even the dregs of
them. He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has not only consumed
the houses, and levelled them with the ground, but, beyond what other
fires do, has devoured the foundations thereof, as if they were
to be no more built upon.
2. It is an amazing destruction,
It was a surprise to the kings of the earth, who are acquainted with,
and inquisitive about, the state of their neighbours; nay, it was so to
all the inhabitants of the world who knew Jerusalem, or had ever
heard or read of it; they could not have believed that the adversary
and enemy would ever enter into the gates of Jerusalem; for,
(1.) They knew that Jerusalem was strongly fortified, not only by walls
and bulwarks, but by the numbers and strength of its inhabitants; the
strong hold of Zion was thought to be impregnable.
(2.) They knew that it was the city of the great King, where the
Lord of the whole earth had in a more peculiar manner his residence; it
was the holy city, and therefore they thought that it was so much under
the divine protection that it would be in vain for any of its enemies
to make an attack upon it.
(3.) They knew that many an attempt made upon it had been baffled,
witness that of Sennacherib. They were therefore amazed when they heard
of the Chaldeans making themselves masters of it, and concluded that it
was certainly by an immediate hand of God that Jerusalem was given up
to them; it was by a commission from him that the enemy broke through
and entered the gates of Jerusalem.
| Cause of Jerusalem’s Sorrows. | B. C. 588. |
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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.
We have here,
I. The sins they were charged with, for which God brought this
destruction upon them, and which served to justify God in it
(v. 13, 14):
It is for the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her
priests. Not that the people were innocent; no, they loved to
have it so
(Jer. v. 31),
and it was to please them that the prophets and priests did as they
did; but the fault is chiefly laid upon them, who should have taught
them better, should have reproved and admonished them, and told them
what would be in the end hereof; of the hands of those watchmen who did
not give them warning will their blood be required. Note, Nothing
ripens a people more for ruin, nor fills the measure faster, than the
sins of their priests and prophets. The particular sin charged upon
them is persecution; the false prophets and corrupt priests joined
their power and interest to shed the blood of the just in the midst
of her, the blood of God’s prophets and of those that adhered to
them. They not only shed the blood of their innocent children, whom
they sacrificed to Moloch, but the blood of the righteous men that were
among them, whom they sacrificed to that more cruel idol of enmity to
the truth and true religion. This was that sin which the Lord would not
pardon
and which brought the last destruction upon Jerusalem
(Jam. v. 6):
You have condemned and killed the just. And the priests and
prophets were the ringleaders in persecution, as in Christ’s time the
chief priests and scribes were the men that incensed the people against
him, who otherwise would have persisted in their hosannas. Now these
are those that wandered as blind men in the streets,
v. 14.
They strayed from the paths of justice, were blind to every thing that
is good, but to do evil they were quick-sighted. God says of corrupt
judges, They know not, neither do they understand; they walk in
darkness
and Christ says of the corrupt teachers, They are blind leaders of
the blind,
Matt. xv. 14.
They have so polluted themselves with innocent blood, the
blood of the saints, that men could not touch their garments;
they made themselves odious to all about them, so that good men were as
shy of touching them as of touching a dead body, which contracted a
ceremonial pollution, or of touching the bloody clothes of one slain,
which tender spirits care not to do. There is nothing that will make
prophets and priests to be abhorred so much as a spirit of
persecution.
II. The testimony of their neighbours produced in evidence against
them, both to convict them of sin and to show the equity of God’s
proceedings against them. Some that have grown very impudent in sin
boast that they care not what people say of them; but God, by
the prophet, would have the Jews to take notice of what people said of
them and what was the opinion of the standers by concerning them
(v. 15, 16),
what they said, nay, what they cried unto them, especially to
the corrupt priests and prophets, among the heathen.
1. They upbraided them with their pretended purity, while they lived in
all manner of real iniquity. They cried to them, “Depart you; it is
unclean. You were so precise that you would not touch a Gentile, by
cried, Depart, depart; stand by thyself; I am holier than thou,”
Thus the prosecutors of Christ would not go into the judgment-hall,
lest they should be defiled. “But can you now keep the Gentiles
from touching you, when God has delivered you into their hands? When
you flee away and wander you will bid them stand off and not touch you,
because they are unclean. But in vain; these serpents will not be
charmed or enchanted thus; no, they will no respect the persons of
the priests, nor favour the elders; the most venerable
persons will to them be despicable.”
2. They upbraided them with their sins, and the anger of God against
them for their sins, and the direful effects of that anger. They
cried to them, Depart you; it is unclean. They all cried out shame
on them, and could easily foresee that God would not long suffer so
provoking a people to continue in so good a land. They knew their
statutes and judgments were righteous, and expected they should
be a wise and understanding people,
Deut. iv. 6.
But, when they saw them quite otherwise, they cried, Depart,
depart; they soon read their doom, that the land would spue them
out, as it had done their predecessors, and, when they saw the
dispersed of Jacob fleeing and wandering, they told them of it.
They said, Now the anger of the Lord has divided them, has
dispersed them into all countries, because they respected not the
persons of the priests, the pious priests that were among them,
such as Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, Jeremiah, and others; neither
did they favour the elders, but despised them and their
authority when they went about to check them for their vicious courses.
The very heathen foresaw that this would ruin them.
3. They triumphed in their ruin as irrecoverable. They said, when they
saw them expelled out of their own land, “Now they shall no more
sojourn there; they have bidden it a final farewell, never more to
return to it, for God will no more regard them, and how then can
they help themselves?” Herein they were mistaken. God had not cast them
off, for all this. Yet thus much is intimated, that all about them
observed them to be so very provoking to their God that there was not
reason to expect any other than that they should be quite
abandoned.
III. The despair which they themselves were almost brought to under
their calamities. Having heard what they said concerning them among
the heathen, let us now hear what they say concerning themselves
(v. 17):
“As for us, we look upon our case to be in a manner helpless.
Our end is near
(v. 18),
the end both of our church and of our state; we are just at the brink
of the ruin of both; nay, our end has come; we are utterly
undone; a fatal final period is put to all our comforts; the days of
our prosperity are fulfilled; they are numbered and finished.” Thus
their fears concurred with the hopes of their enemies that the Lord
would no more regard them. For,
1. The refuges they fled to disappointed them. They looked for help
from this and the other powerful ally, but to no purpose; it proved
vain help. The succours they expected did not come in, or at least they
had not the success they expected, and their eyes failed with looking
for that which never came
(v. 17);
they watched in watching; they watched long, and with a great
deal of earnestness and impatience, for a nation that promised
them assistance, but failed the, and frustrated their expectation. They
could not save them; they were too weak to contend with the
Chaldean army and therefore retired. Help from creatures is vain help
(Ps. lx. 11),
and we may look for it till our eyes fail, till our hearts fail, and
come short of it at last.
2. The persecutors they fled from overtook them and overcame them
(v. 18):
They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets. When the
Chaldeans besieged the city they raised their batteries so high above
the walls that they could command the town, and shoot at people as they
went along the streets. They hunted them with their arrows from
place to place. When the city was broken up, and all the men of war
fled, their persecutors were swifter than the eagles of heaven
when they fly upon their prey,
There was no escaping them; they pursued them upon the
mountains, and, when they thought they had got clear of them, they
fell into the hands of those that laid wait for them in the
wilderness, to cut off their retreat, and to pick up stragglers.
nay, the king himself, though he may be supposed to have had all the
advantages the exigence of the case would admit to favour his flight,
yet could not escape, for divine vengeance pursued him with them, and
then
(v. 20),
The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in
their pits. Some apply it to Josiah, who was killed in battle by
the king of Egypt; but it is rather to be understood of Zedekiah, who
was the last king of the house of David, and who was pursued by the
Chaldeans and seized in the plains of Jericho,
He was the anointed of the Lord, heir of that family which God
had appointed to the government. He was very much confided in by the
Jewish state: They said, Under his shadow we shall live among the
heathen. They promised themselves that the remnant which were left
after Jeconiah’s captivity should, under the protection of his
government, yet again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
They thought, though they were so reduced that they could not think of
reigning over the heathen, as they had done, yet they might make a
shift to live among them and not be insulted and pulled to pieces by
them. Thus apt are sinking interests not only to catch at every twig,
but to think it will recover them. Jerusalem died of a consumption, a
flattering distemper. Even when she was ready to expire she formed some
hopeful symptoms to herself, and on them grounded a hope that she
should recover; but what came of it? The shadow under which they
thought they should live proved like that of Jonah’s gourd, which
withered in a night. He that was the anointed of the Lord was
taken in their pits, as if he had been but a beast of prey; so
little account did they make of a person deemed sacred and not to be
violated. Note, When we make any creature the breath of our
nostrils, and promise ourselves that we shall live by it, it is
just with God to stop that breath, and deprive us of the life we
expected by it; for God will have the honour of being himself along
our life and the length of our days.
| Comfort for Zion. | B. C. 588. |
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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.
David’s psalms of lamentation commonly conclude with some word of
comfort, which is as life from the dead and light shining out of
darkness; so does this lamentation here in this chapter. The people of
God are now in great distress, their aspects all doleful, their
prospects all frightful, and their ill-natured neighbours the Edomites
insult over them and do all they can to exasperate their destroyers
against them. Such was their violence against their brother Jacob
(Obad. 10),
such their spleen at Jerusalem, of which they cried, Rase it, rase
it,
Ps. cxxxvii. 7.
Now it is here foretold, for the encouragement of God’s people,
I. That an end shall be put to Zion’s troubles
(v. 22):
The punishment of they iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of
Zion! not the fulness of that punishment which it deserves, but of
that which God has designed and determined to inflict, and which was
necessary to answer the end, the glorifying of God’s justice and the
taking away of their sin. The captivity, which is the punishment of
thy iniquity, is accomplished
(Isa. xl. 2),
and he will no longer keep thee in captivity; so it may be read,
as well as, he will no more carry thee into captivity; he will
turn again thy captivity and work a glorious release for thee. Note,
The troubles of God’s people shall be continued no longer than till
they have done their work for which they were sent.
II. That an end shall be put to Edom’s triumphs. It is spoken
ironically
(v. 21):
“Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom! go on to insult over
Zion in distress, till thou hast filled up the measure of thy iniquity.
Do so; rejoice in thy own present exemption from the common fate of thy
neighbours.” This is like Solomon’s upbraiding the young man with his
ungoverned mirth
(Eccl. xi. 9):
“Rejoice, O young man! in thy youth; rejoice, if thou canst,
when God comes to reckon with thee, and that he will do ere long.
The cup of trembling, which it is now Jerusalem’s turn to drink
deeply of, shall pass through unto thee; it shall go round till
it comes to be thy lot to pledge it.” Note, This is a good reason why
we should not insult over any who are in misery, because we ourselves
also are in the body, and we know not how soon their case may be ours.
But those who please themselves in the calamities of God’s church must
expect to have their doom, as aiders and abettors, with those that are
instrumental in those calamities. The destruction of the Edomites was
foretold by this prophet
&c.), and the people of God must encourage themselves against their
present rudeness and insolence with the prospect of it.
1. It will be a shameful destruction: “The cup that shall
pass unto thee shall intoxicate thee” (and that is shame enough to
any man); “thou shalt be drunken, quite infatuated, and at thy
wits’ end, shalt stagger in all thy counsels and stumble in all thy
enterprises, and then, as Noah when he was drunk, thou shalt make
thyself naked and expose thyself to contempt.” Note, Those who
ridicule God’s people will justly be left to themselves to do that,
some time or other, by which they will be made ridiculous.
2. It will be a righteous destruction. God will herein visit thy
iniquity and discover thy sins; he will punish them, and, to
justify himself therein, he will discover them, and make it to appear
that he has just cause thus to proceed against them. Nay, the
punishment of the sin shall so exactly answer the sin that it shall
itself plainly discover it. Sometimes God does so visit the iniquity
that he that runs may read the sin in the punishment. But, sooner or
later, sin will be visited and discovered, and all the hidden works of
darkness brought to light.
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