Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Lamentations 4:4

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Lamentations 4:4. The tongue of the sucking child — Lamentations 2:12.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Corrupt leaders disgraced (4:1-22)

Jerusalem’s former glory is contrasted with her present ruin. The once glorious temple, now defiled and shattered, is symbolic of the once glorious people now shamed and broken. Jerusalem’s dead lie in the streets like pieces of broken pottery (4:1-2). The writer recalls again the scene of horror during the siege. Wild beasts provide food for their young, but in Jerusalem mothers are unable to provide food for their children. Rich nobles die on the streets like beggars (3-5).
Sodom’s punishment was great, but Jerusalem’s is greater; for Sodom was destroyed in a day, but Jerusalem is destroyed amid long and bitter agony (6). Even those of the upper classes, who spent much time and money making themselves look beautiful, are now ugly through disease and starvation (7-8). It would be better to be killed in battle than to starve to death or be forced to eat one’s children (9-10). The Jerusalemites thought that because Yahweh was their God, no enemy could conquer their city, but now Yahweh himself has destroyed it (11-12).
Chiefly to blame for Jerusalem’s downfall are its corrupt leaders, especially the prophets and priests. They, more than anyone else, have been responsible for the injustices that have brought God’s judgment on the city (13). Realizing this, the people now treat their former leaders like lepers and drive them out of the city. When the fugitives try to settle in other places, the local people refuse to receive them (14-16).

The writer recalls how Jerusalem expected to be rescued by Egypt, but no deliverance came. Instead the Babylonians came, making the Jerusalemites prisoners in their own city (17-18; cf. Jeremiah 37:6-10). Those who tried to flee to the mountains were caught, including the king Zedekiah, in whom the people had falsely placed their trust (19-20; cf. Jeremiah 39:3-5).

Edom rejoiced to see its ancient enemy Judah overthrown; but Edom too will be overthrown and, unlike Judah, will not rise again. The destruction of Jerusalem is temporary, but Edom’s destruction will be permanent (21-22; cf. Jeremiah 49:7-13; Psalms 137:7; Obadiah 1:10-14).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

A LAMENT OVER WHAT HAPPENED TO JERUSALEM DURING THE TERRIBLE FAMINE SIEGE AND FAMINE

“How is the gold become dim! How is the most pure gold changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold. How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! Even the jackals 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. 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. They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: They that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills. For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, That was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were laid upon her. Her nobles were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk; They were more ruddy in body than rubies, Their polishing was of sapphire. Their visage is blacker than coal; they are not known in the streets: Their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick. They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field. The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children; They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

These terrible lines must rank among the saddest words ever written. They described the horrors of the awful famine that preceded the flight of Zedekiah the king of Israel and the terrible destruction that followed. The actual fall of Jerusalem was an awesome event. The Temple was looted; the houses (all of them) were burned; the walls were thrown down; Zedekiah was captured; his sons were slaughtered in his presence, and then his eyes were gouged out by the Babylonians; many thousands were brutally butchered; other thousands were led away as captives, either to be sold, or to die of starvation and abuse on the journey; but these verses have no word at all concerning all those terrors. What is described here is the unspeakable horrors of the siege that preceded all that.

“How is the gold become dim… changed!” This is metaphor. The following verse identifies the gold as “the precious sons of Zion.” As elaborated a few lines later, the well-dressed, amply supplied nobles of Jerusalem had become skin and bones, dying of starvation, sitting upon dunghills in search of food. We have here Jeremiah’s eyewitness account of all this.

“The stones of the sanctuary” “This refers to the precious gems which decorated the breastplate of the High Priest.”C. F. Keil, Keil-Delitzsch’s Old Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company), Vol. 8, p. 432. Their mention here is metaphorical, and they are parallel with the fine gold.

“The jackals… give suck to their young ones” The wild animals could nurse their young, but Jerusalem’s starving women could not. Nothing, in all the horrors of warfare, ever exceeded the cruel horrors of a siege. The literature of all nations does not provide any better account of what happens in such a siege than this account from Jeremiah.

“Like ostriches in the desert” This creature is often cited as one that had no regard for their offspring. “The ostrich leaves her eggs on the ground, forgetting that her own foot may crush them or a wild beast may break them.”Pulpit Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 1950), Vol. 11b, p. 84.

“The sucking child… the young children” Starving mothers are unable to nurse their babies; the older children cry in vain for something to eat.

“They that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills” As noted above, even the favored heads of their society sought in vain for food.

“The iniquity of… my people is greater than the sin of Sodom” The tragedy of this shocking fact is often overlooked. Ezekiel elaborated the same truth (Ezekiel 16); but the consequences of it reached far beyond Jerusalem. For Sodom’s wickedness, God destroyed them. Why did he not then destroy Israel which had become worse than Sodom? It was only because God had promised Abraham and the patriarchs that he would bring in the Messiah, The Seed Singular, through Abraham’s posterity. In a sense, God was ’stuck with Israel,’ until that promise was fulfilled in the birth of Christ. Israel deserved a worse punishment than Sodom, for their sin was greater, and this verse indicates that their punishment was worse!

“Sodom was overthrown… no hands were laid upon her” This emphasizes the fact that Sodom’s punishment was lighter than Israel’s. They did not endure such a terror as siege. Their overthrow was instantaneous; Israel’s lasted seventy years, beginning with this unspeakably tragic siege.

“Her nobles” These were the “upper crust” of Jerusalem’s society. They were the nobility, dressed in scarlet, living in extravagant luxury, faring sumptuously every day; and now! During the siege, like everyone else, they were starving to death.

“They that are slain with the sword… better than they that are slain with hunger” It is better to die instantly than to suffer for a long time starving to death. Many of the people, no doubt, prayed for a sudden death.

“The pitiful women… have boiled their own children… they were their food” This is the climax of this terrible paragraph. Second Kings, chapter 6 (2 Kings 6:24-30) has the account of a similar disaster suffered by the Northern Israel (Samaria) during the siege of that city by Benhadad king of Syria. Yes, indeed, the punishment of Israel, whose sins were worse than the sins of Sodom, was divinely punished by a destruction that was also far worse than what happened to Sodom.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

He says that sucking children were so thirsty, that the tongue was as it were fixed to the palate; and it was a dreadful thing; for mothers would willingly pour forth their own blood to feed their infants. When, therefore, the tongue of a child clave to his mouth, it seemed to be in a manner beyond nature. Among other calamities, then, the Prophet names this, that infants pined away with thirst, and also that children sought bread in vain. He speaks not in the latter instance of sucklings, but. of children three or four years old. Then he says that they sought or asked for bread, but that there was no one to give. ⁽²¹⁰⁾

He describes here the famine of the city, of which he had predicted, when he declared that it would be better with the slain than with the people remaining alive, for a harder conflict with famine and want would await the living. But this was not believed. Now, then, the Prophet upbraids the Jews with their former perverseness. He afterwards adds, —

(210) The verbs here are in the past tense, and not in the present, as in our version, —

Cleave did the tongue of the suckling
To his palate through thirst;
Children asked bread,
A breaker, none was to them.

— Ed

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 4

The fourth lamentation:

How is the gold become dim! the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, and they give suck to their young ones ( Lamentations 4:1-3 ):

The mammals in the sea nurse their little ones.

the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches of the wilderness ( Lamentations 4:3 ).

Now, the ostrich totally forsakes its eggs. It lays its eggs and leaves them; it has nothing to do with the raising of its kids, just has no concern. Doesn't even know the eggs ever hatched and doesn't really care if the egg ever hatched. It just lays its eggs in the sand and that's it, forgets all about them. If they make it, they make it on their own. The mother ostrich has no mothering instincts. But the mammals in the sea nurse the little ones. But the daughter of my people, the young mothers in Jerusalem had become like ostriches in that they weren't concerned with their offspring anymore.

The tongue of the nursing child cleaves to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask for bread, and no man breaks it unto them. They that did feed delicately ( Lamentations 4:4-5 )

Those that used to dine at Gulliver's

are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills. For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, because at least they were overthrown in a moment [they were destroyed], no hands stayed on her ( Lamentations 4:4-6 ).

Theirs was an instant death. That is much better than death by starvation.

Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire ( Lamentations 4:7 ):

The young men who had made their commitments, the Nazarite vows to God, but now,

Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin is cleaving to their bones ( Lamentations 4:8 );

They're like walking skeletons.

it is withered, it is become like a stick. They that are slain with the sword are really better off than those that are slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for the want of the fruits of the field. The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children: and they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people. The LORD has accomplished his fury, he has poured out his fierce anger, he has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has devoured the foundations thereof. 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 ( Lamentations 4:7-12 ).

It was thought to be impregnable. It sits there on the hill with the walls around it. They thought that the city was impregnable. The inhabitants of the earth would never have believed that Jerusalem could be taken. And yet it is now destroyed.

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, They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments. They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, don't touch: when they fled away and wondered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there. The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favored not the elders. 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. They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in the streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come. Our persecutors are swifter than eagles of heaven: they have pursued us on the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness. 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. Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom [that is their perennial enemy], that dwells in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shall make thyself naked. 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 ( Lamentations 4:13-22 ).

So Edom is rejoicing, but just wait, yours is coming. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

1. The first description of siege conditions 4:1-6

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

A. Conditions during the siege 4:1-11

This section of the poem consists of two parallel parts (Lamentations 4:1-11). The Judahites had become despised (Lamentations 4:1-2; Lamentations 4:7-8), and both children and adults (everyone) suffered (Lamentations 4:3-5; Lamentations 4:9-10). This calamity was the result of Yahweh’s punishment for sin (Lamentations 4:6; Lamentations 4:11).

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Infants in Jerusalem during the siege did not have enough to drink or eat because their parents were looking out for their own needs first (cf. Lamentations 2:11-12; Lamentations 2:19).

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst,.... Through want of the milk of the breast, which is both food and drink unto it:

the young children ask bread; of their parents as usual, not knowing how the case was, that there was a famine in the city; these are such as were more grown, were weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts, and lived on other food, and were capable of asking for it:

[and] no man breaketh [it] unto them: distributes unto them, or gives them a piece of bread; not father, friend, or any other person; it not being in their power to do it, they having none for themselves.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      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 (Lamentations 4:1; Lamentations 4:1) to be the gold of the temple, the fine gold with which it was overlaid (1 Kings 6:22); 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, Lamentations 4:2; Lamentations 4:2. 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, Lamentations 4:3; Lamentations 4:4. 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 (Job 39:14; Job 39:15); 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, Lamentations 4:5; Lamentations 4:5. 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 Samuel 2:5. 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, Deuteronomy 28:56.

      V. Persons who were eminent for dignity, nay, perhaps for sanctity, shared with others in the common calamity, Lamentations 4:7; Lamentations 4:8. 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, Numbers 6:2. That there were such among them in the most degenerate times appears from Amos 2:11, 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, Isaiah 52:14); 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 (Lamentations 4:6; Lamentations 4:6), 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, Judges 8:21. 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, Matthew 11:23; Matthew 11:24. 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 (Lamentations 4:9; Lamentations 4:9); 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 21:13. 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,Psalms 73:4. 2. The barbarous murders that it was the occasion of (Lamentations 4:10; Lamentations 4:10): The hands of the pitiful women have first slain and then sodden their own children. This was lamented before (Lamentations 2:20; Lamentations 2:20); 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 (Leviticus 26:29; Deuteronomy 28:53), and particularly against Jerusalem in the siege of the Chaldeans, Jeremiah 19:9; Ezekiel 5:10. The case was sad enough that they had not wherewithal to feed their children and make meat for them (Lamentations 4:4; Lamentations 4:4), 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 (Romans 1:26), 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 (Lamentations 4:11; Lamentations 4:11): 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, Lamentations 4:12; Lamentations 4:12. 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.