God’s repeated warnings to repent had been ignored and destruction of the land follows with terror and deaths as he now joins the captives driven from Jerusalem.
From Terror to Elegy
After the terrors of Jerusalem at the hand of its enemies are complete Jeremiah shares four sad songs as acrostic elegies.
Elegy
An Elegy is a type of poem that typically expresses a lament for the dead. source … Elegies carried an emotional weight due to this subject matter, and their endings would normally be a type of consolation to give closure to those impacted by the death.
We began by outlining Jeremiah’s Lament over Jerusalem and continued with Judgment on Jerusalem and Hope through God’s Mercy, where he pleas for mercy based on his own suffering. Many have died, as described in his fourth elegy in Lamentations 4.
Terrors of the Besieged City
א Aleph
How the gold has become tarnished,
the fine gold become dull!
The stones of the temple lie scattered
at the head of every street.
ב Beth
2 Zion’s precious children—
once worth their weight in pure gold—
how they are regarded as clay jars,
the work of a potter’s hands!
ג Gimel
… but my dear people have become cruel…
Lamentations 4:3b
ד Daleth
The nursing baby’s tongue
clings to the roof of his mouth from thirst.
Infants beg for food,
but no one gives them any.
ה He
5 Those who used to eat delicacies
are destitute in the streets;
those who were reared in purple garments
huddle in trash heaps.
Punishment
We resist the conviction that sin and evil cause God to act against us. Though we show little fear of the Lord in our daily lives, a single act of violence brings fear of others to the forefront.
In every century throughout the world man commits evil and we war against each other with hateful violence. The result may not seen like just punishment, but the Lord of eternity rules over the brief lives and places of dust on this troublesome earth.
All are guilty of sin and perhaps later we feel remorse and repent, but in the meantime other evil men punish the innocent as well as the guilty.
ו Waw
The punishment of my dear people
is greater than that of Sodom,
which was overthrown in an instant
without a hand laid on it.
ז Zayin
7 Her dignitaries were brighter than snow,
whiter than milk;
their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
their appearance like lapis lazuli.
ח Cheth
8 Now they appear darker than soot;
they are not recognized in the streets.
Their skin has shriveled on their bones;
it has become dry like wood.
ט Teth
9 Those slain by the sword are better off
than those slain by hunger,
who waste away, pierced with pain
because the fields lack produce.
י Yod
10 The hands of compassionate women
have cooked their own children;
they became their food
during the destruction of my dear people.
Wrath of the Lord
This would not be the last destruction of Jerusalem, but Jeremiah continues his lament
כ Kaph
The Lord has exhausted his wrath,
poured out his burning anger;
he has ignited a fire in Zion,
and it has consumed her foundations.
ל Lamed
The kings of the earth
and all the world’s inhabitants did not believe
that an enemy or adversary
could enter Jerusalem’s gates.
Why?
מ Mem
Lamentations 4:13 CSB
Yet it happened because of the sins of her prophets
and the iniquities of her priests,
who shed the blood of the righteous within her.
Jeremiah then follows with a familiar illustration you may recognize from Jesus’ admonishment of the Pharisees, certainly applicable to the brief time between the Cross and the next destruction of Jerusalem in AD70.
נ Nun
Lamentations 4:14 CSB
Blind, they stumbled in the streets,
defiled by this blood,
so that no one dared
to touch their garments.
ס Samek
15 “Stay away! Unclean!” people shouted at them.
“Away, away! Don’t touch us!”
So they wandered aimlessly.
It was said among the nations,
“They can stay here no longer.”
The punishment of God’s chosen for their unfaithfulness has surely been banishment – diaspora until the last days are fulfilled.
No help without the Lord
פ Pe
16 The Lord himself has scattered them;
he no longer watches over them.
The priests are not respected;
the elders find no favor.
ע Ayin
17 All the while our eyes were failing
as we looked in vain for help;
we watched from our towers
for a nation that would not save us.
צ Tsade
18 Our steps were closely followed
so that we could not walk in our streets.
Our end approached; our time ran out.
Our end had come!
ק Qoph
19 Those who chased us were swifter
than eagles in the sky;
they relentlessly pursued us over the mountains
and ambushed us in the wilderness.
Imagine the terror and hopelessness of those fleeing their destroyed cities, homes and devastated landscape with who and what little they could save.
Yet their warning to those who think this never could happen to them follows.
Listen, you scoffers
ר Resh
20 The Lord’s anointed, the breath of our life,
was captured in their traps.
They lament of the defeat of their King.
We had said about him,
Lamentations 4:3:20b
“We will live under his protection among the nations.”
שׂ Sin
21 So rejoice and be glad, Daughter Edom,
you resident of the land of Uz!
Yes, their neighbors rejoiced in their terror and defeat, but the warning to these revelers resounds a haunting prophesy of their terror to come.
Yet the cup will pass to you as well;
Lamentations 4:3:21b
you will get drunk and expose” yourself.
ת Taw
22 Daughter Zion, your punishment is complete;
he will not lengthen your exile.
But he will punish your iniquity, Daughter Edom,
and will expose your sins.
God’s justice is served Judah’s exile will end But others will have their sins exposed.
To be continued...
