Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, July 31st, 2025
the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
Attention!
Tired of seeing ads while studying? Now you can enjoy an "Ads Free" version of the site for as little as 10¢ a day and support a great cause!
Click here to learn more!

Read the Bible

Bahasa Indonesia Sehari-hari

Ratapan 4:1

Ah, sungguh pudar emas itu, emas murni itu berubah; batu-batu suci itu terbuang di pojok tiap jalan.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Church;   Gold;   Temple;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Gold;  

Dictionaries:

- Fausset Bible Dictionary - Gold;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Acrostic;   Lamentations, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Acrostic;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Messiah;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Dim;   Old - golden;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Fine;   Gold;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Essenes;   Gold;   Jeremiah;   Metals;  

Parallel Translations

Alkitab Terjemahan Baru
Ah, sungguh pudar emas itu, emas murni itu berubah; batu-batu suci itu terbuang di pojok tiap jalan.
Alkitab Terjemahan Lama
Wah! bagaimana sudah suramlah emas, serta berubahlah emas yang amat baik adanya! batu-batu tempat sucipun berkaparanlah pada siku segala lorong-lorong!

Contextual Overview

1 O howe is the golde become so dimme? howe is the most fine golde so sore chaunged? and the stones of the sanctuarie thus scattered in the corner of euery streete? 2 The chyldren of Sion that were alway in honour, and clothed with the most precious golde: howe are they nowe become lyke the earthen vessels, whiche be made with the potters hande? 3 The dragons geue their young ones sucke with bare brestes: but the daughter of my people is cruel, like the Estriches in the wildernesse. 4 The tongues of the sucking chyldren cleaue to the roofe of their mouthes for very thyrst: the young chyldren aske bread, but there is no man that geueth it them. 5 They that were wont to fare delicatelye perishe in the streetes: they that afore were brought vp in purple, make nowe muche of doung. 6 The sinne of the daughter of my people, is become greater then the wickednesse of Sodome, that sodaynely was destroyed, and not taken with handes. 7 Her abstayners were whyter then the snowe or milke, their colour was freshe, red as corall, their beautie like the Saphire. 8 But nowe their faces be very blacke, insomuche that thou shouldest not knowe them in the streetes: their skinne cleaueth to their bones, it is withered and become like a drye stocke. 9 They that be slayne with the sworde, are happier then such as dye of hunger, and perishe away famishing for the fruites of the fielde. 10 The women (whiche of nature are pitifull) haue sodden their owne chyldren with their hands, that they might be their meate in the miserable destruction of the daughter of my people.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

How is the gold: 2 Kings 25:9, 2 Kings 25:10, Isaiah 1:21, Isaiah 14:12, Ezekiel 7:19-22

the stones: Lamentations 2:19, Jeremiah 52:13, Matthew 24:2, Mark 13:2, Luke 21:5, Luke 21:6

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 28:16 - in the city 1 Kings 14:27 - made 2 Chronicles 12:10 - shields of brass 2 Chronicles 36:19 - they burnt Psalms 42:4 - When Psalms 89:44 - Thou Isaiah 1:22 - silver Isaiah 14:4 - golden city Isaiah 63:18 - our Jeremiah 2:21 - into the degenerate Jeremiah 7:14 - as Jeremiah 48:39 - How is it Lamentations 1:1 - How doth Lamentations 1:9 - came Lamentations 2:4 - he poured Lamentations 4:8 - they Ezekiel 22:18 - brass Micah 1:6 - and I will pour Nahum 3:10 - at Haggai 1:4 - and

Cross-References

Genesis 3:15
I wyll also put enmitie betweene thee & the woman, betweene thy seede and her seede: and it shall treade downe thy head, and thou shalt treade vpon his heele.
Genesis 4:25
Adam knewe his wyfe agayne, and she bare a sonne, and called his name Seth: For God [sayde she] hath appoynted me another seede in steade of Habel whom Cain slewe.
Genesis 5:29
And called his name Noah, saying: This same shall comfort vs as concerning our worke, & sorowe of our handes about the earth, which God cursed.
Numbers 31:17
Nowe therfore, slay all the men children, and kyl the women that haue lien with men fleshly.
1 John 3:12
Not as Cain, which was of that wicked, and slewe his brother: And wherfore slewe he hym? Because his owne workes were euyll, and his brothers good.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

How is the gold become dim!.... Or "covered" b; or hid with rust, dust, or dirt; so that it can scarcely be discerned:

[how] is the most fine gold changed! this may be literally true of the gold of the temple; and so the Targum calls it

"the gold of the house of the sanctuary;''

with which that was overlaid, and many things in it, 1 Kings 6:21; and was sadly sullied and tarnished with the burning of the temple, and the rubbish of it: its brightness was lost, and its colour changed; but though there may be an allusion to that, it is to be figuratively understood of the people of God; for what is here expressed in parabolical phrases, as Aben Ezra observes, is in Lamentations 4:2 explained in proper and literal ones: godly and gracious men, there called the precious sons of Zion, are comparable to gold, even the most fine gold; partly because of their habit and dress; gold of Ophir; clothing of wrought gold; the rich robe of Christ's righteousness; which, for its brightness and splendour, is like the finest gold; and is as lasting and durable as that; and in which the saints look like a mass of pure gold, Psalms 45:9; and partly because of the graces of the Spirit in them, which are like gold for their purity, especially when tried; for their value, and the enriching nature of them, and their duration; particularly the graces of faith, hope, love, humility, which are like rows of jewels, and chains of gold, and as ornamental as they; see Song of Solomon 1:10; as also because of the doctrines of grace received by them, which are more to be desired than gold, than fine gold; and are better than thousands of gold and silver, by reason of their intrinsic worth and value; for their purity and brightness, being tried and purified, and because of their duration,

Psalms 19:10; as well as on account of the riches of grace and glory they are possessed of, and entitled to: now this, in either of the senses of it, cannot be lost as to substance, only become dim; may lose its brightness and glory, and like gold change its colour, but not its nature; and; this may be the case of good men, comparable to it; when there is a decline in them, with respect to the exercise of grace; faith in Christ and his righteousness is low, hope not lively, and love waxen cold; when there is a veil drawn over the Gospel, a great opposition to it, and a departure from it; or the doctrines of it are not so clearly and consistently preached; and when there is a failure in a holy walk, and conversation becoming it; all which is matter of lamentation:

the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street; in the literal sense it may regard the costly stones of the temple, which, when that was destroyed, not only lay in heaps; but many of them, at least, were separated and scattered about, and carried into every corner of the city, and the streets of it, and there lay exposed, neglected, and trampled upon; see 1 Kings 5:17; but, in the figurative sense, it designs the people of God; who, though they are taken out of the common quarry and pit of mankind, and are by nature as common stones; yet by the Spirit and grace of God are made living and lively ones, and are hewn and fitted for the spiritual building the church; where they are laid, and are as the stones of a crown, as jewels and precious stones; but when there are animosities, contentions, and divisions among them, so that they disunite, and are scattered from one another, their case is like these stones of the sanctuary; and which is to be lamented. It is by some Jewish writers c interpreted of great personages, as princes, and great men of the earth.

b יועם "rubigine obducetur", Montanus; "obtectum [vel] absconditum", Vatablus. So Ben Melech. c Vid. R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 50. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The stones of the sanctuary - Or, the hallowed stones, literally stones of holiness, a metaphor for the people themselves. The actual stones of the temple would not be thus widely thrown about as to be seen everywhere, but the prophet has already affirmed this of the young children dying of hunger (compare Lamentations 2:19).

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER IV

The present deplorable sate of the nation is now contrasted

with its ancient prosperity, 1-12;

and the unhappy change ascribed, in a great degree, to the

profligacy of the priests and prophets, 13-16.

The national calamities are tenderly lamented, 17-20.

The ruin of the Edomites also, who had insulted the Jews in

their distress, is ironically predicted, 21.

See Psalms 137:7, and Obadiah 1:10-12.

The chapter closes with a gracious promise of deliverance from

the Babylonish captivity, 22.

NOTES ON CHAP. IV

Verse Lamentations 4:1. How is the gold become dim — The prophet contrasts, in various affecting instances, the wretched circumstances of the Jewish nation, with the flourishing state of their affairs in former times. Here they are compared to gold, זהב zahab, native gold from the mine, which, contrary to its nature, is become dim, is tarnished; and even the fine, the sterling gold, כתם kethem, that which was stamped to make it current, is changed or adulterated, so as to be no longer passable. This might be applied to the temple, but particularly to the fallen priests and apostate prophets.

The stones of the sanctuary — אבני קדש abney kodesh, the holy stones; the Jewish godly men, who were even then the living stones of which God built his Church.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile