Jeremiæ 4:1

Jerome's Latin Vulgate

[Quomodo obscuratum est aurum,
mutatus est color optimus!
dispersi sunt lapides sanctuarii
in capite omnium platearum!

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
Si reverteris, Isra�l, ait Dominus, ad me convertere : si abstuleris offendicula tua a facie mea, non commoveberis.

Nova Vulgata (1979)
ALEPH. Quomodo obscuratum est aurum, mutatum est obryzum optimum! Dispersi sunt lapides sancti in capite omnium platearum.

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

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.