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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Lamentations 4 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/lamentations/4.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/lamentations/4.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/lamentations/4-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../lamentations/">Lamentations</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../lamentations/3.htm" title="Lamentations 3">◄</a> Lamentations 4 <a href="../lamentations/5.htm" title="Lamentations 5">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-1.htm">Lamentations 4:1</a></div><div class="verse">How is the gold become dim! <i>how</i> is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.</div>IV.</span><p>(1) <span class= "bld">How is the gold . . .</span>—The chapter, considered as a distinct poem, reproduces in its general character that of Lamentations 1, 2, differing from them, however, in tracing more fully the connection between the sufferings and the sins of Judah. The “gold” and the <span class= "ital">stones of holiness </span>are none other than the material treasures of palace or temple, and the repetition of the phrase “in the top of every street,” used in <a href="/lamentations/2-19.htm" title="Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out your heart like water before the face of the LORD: lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.">Lamentations 2:19</a> of children, seems intended to indicate that the words include all that was most precious among the possessions of Jerusalem.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-2.htm">Lamentations 4:2</a></div><div class="verse">The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!</div>(2) <span class= "bld">The precious sons of Zion . . .</span>—The adjective is applied not to a special class, priests, nobles, or the like, but to all the <span class= "ital">“</span>sons of Zion” in their ideal character as a “kingdom of priests” (<a href="/exodus/19-6.htm" title="And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.">Exodus 19:6</a>). They had been “comparable to” (literally, <span class= "ital">weighed with</span>)<span class= "ital">, i.e., </span>equal to their weight in, fine gold, the work of God. Now they had became as “earthen pitchers,” the work of the potter. We note the comparison as characteristic of the writer (<a href="/context/jeremiah/18-1.htm" title="The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,">Jeremiah 18:1-6</a>; <a href="/context/jeremiah/19-1.htm" title="Thus said the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;">Jeremiah 19:1-10</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-3.htm">Lamentations 4:3</a></div><div class="verse">Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people <i>is become</i> cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Even the sea monsters . . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">jackals. </span>The Authorised Version is intended apparently to apply to cetaceous mammals; elsewhere (<a href="/jeremiah/14-6.htm" title="And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.">Jeremiah 14:6</a>) the word is rendered “dragons.” “Jackals,” it may be noted, are combined with “owls” or <span class= "ital">“</span>ostriches,” as they are here, in <a href="/job/30-29.htm" title="I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.">Job 30:29</a>; <a href="/isaiah/13-21.htm" title="But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.">Isaiah 13:21</a>. A like reference to the seeming want of maternal instinct in the ostrich is found in <a href="/job/39-16.htm" title="She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not her's: her labor is in vain without fear;">Job 39:16</a>. The comparison was obviously suggested by facts like those referred to in <a href="/lamentations/2-20.htm" title="Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom you have done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?">Lamentations 2:20</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-5.htm">Lamentations 4:5</a></div><div class="verse">They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">They that were brought up . . .</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">that were carried </span>(as children are carried). “Scarlet” as in <a href="/2_samuel/1-24.htm" title="You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold on your apparel.">2Samuel 1:24</a>, stands for the shawls or garments of the rich, dyed, as they were, in the Tyrian purple or crimson. Those that had been once wrapped in such shawls now threw themselves, “embracing” them as their only refuge, on dunghills.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-6.htm">Lamentations 4:6</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">The punishment of the iniquity.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">The iniquity of the daughter of my people was greater than the sin of Sodom. </span>The words in both cases point to guilt rather than its penalty, though, as the context shows, the greatness of the former is inferred from that of the latter. The point of comparison was that Sodom was not doomed to a protracted misery, like that which had been the lot of Jerusalem.<p><span class= "bld">No hands stayed on her . . .</span>—Literally, no <span class= "ital">hands went round about her: i.e., </span>her destruction was the direct work of God, and not of human agents, with their more merciless tortures. (Comp. <a href="/2_samuel/24-14.htm" title="And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.">2Samuel 24:14</a>.) The main thought may be noticed as reproduced in <a href="/matthew/10-15.htm" title="Truly I say to you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.">Matthew 10:15</a>; <a href="/matthew/11-24.htm" title="But I say to you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.">Matthew 11:24</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-7.htm">Lamentations 4:7</a></div><div class="verse">Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing <i>was</i> of sapphire:</div>(7) <span class= "bld">Her Nazarites . . .</span>—The word has been rendered “princes” by some commentators, on the ground that it means literally those who are “separated” from their brethren (<a href="/genesis/49-26.htm" title="The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brothers.">Genesis 49:26</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/33-16.htm" title="And for the precious things of the earth and fullness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelled in the bush: let the blessing come on the head of Joseph, and on the top of the head of him that was separated from his brothers.">Deuteronomy 33:16</a>), whether by rank or by the vows of consecration. There is no reason, however, for abandoning the rendering of the Authorised version. The reference to the Nazarites in <a href="/context/amos/2-11.htm" title="And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O you children of Israel? said the LORD.">Amos 2:11-12</a> shows that they were prominent as a body during the history of the monarchy, and the drift of Jeremiah’s mind, as seen in his admiration of the Rechabites (Jeremiah 35), shows that he was likely to think of them with reverence. The temperance, purity, cleanliness of such a body seem to have made them conspicuous among their fellows for an almost angelic beauty. (Comp. the interesting parallel of <a href="/daniel/1-15.htm" title="And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat.">Daniel 1:15</a>.) They had the red and white complexion which was in the East the ideal of comeliness (<a href="/1_samuel/17-42.htm" title="And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance.">1Samuel 17:42</a>; Song <a href="/songs/5-10.htm" title="My beloved is white and ruddy, the most chief among ten thousand.">Song of Solomon 5:10</a>). Their “polishing” (better, <span class= "ital">their form</span>) was faultless, like that of a well cut sapphire. For “rubies” read <span class= "ital">coral.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-8.htm">Lamentations 4:8</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Their visage is blacker . . .</span>—We look, as it were, on the two pictures: the bloom and beauty of health, the wan, worn, spectral looks of starvation.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-9.htm">Lamentations 4:9</a></div><div class="verse"><i>They that be</i> slain with the sword are better than <i>they that be</i> slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for <i>want of</i> the fruits of the field.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">For want of . . .</span>—The italics indicate the difficulty of the sentence. Literally the clause stands, <span class= "ital">from the fruits of the field, </span>and it has been explained by some as referring to those that died in battle, <span class= "ital">stricken through while yet there were fruits, i.e., </span>not doomed to perish slowly from hunger. The construction of <a href="/psalms/109-24.htm" title="My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh fails of fatness.">Psalm 109:24</a>, however, “faileth of fatness”—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>for want of fatness—gives a sufficient support to the Authorised version.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-10.htm">Lamentations 4:10</a></div><div class="verse">The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">The hands of the pitiful women</span>.—See Note on <a href="/lamentations/2-20.htm" title="Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom you have done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?">Lamentations 2:20</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-11.htm">Lamentations 4:11</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">And hath kindled a fire . . .</span>—The phrase is partly literal (<a href="/2_chronicles/36-19.htm" title="And they burnt the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.">2Chronicles 36:19</a>), partly figurative, for the complete destruction of Jerusalem by the wrath of Jehovah.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-12.htm">Lamentations 4:12</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">Would not have believed.</span>—In. looking to the fact that Jerusalem had been taken by Shishak (<a href="/1_kings/14-26.htm" title="And he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house; he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.">1Kings 14:26</a>), Joash (<a href="/2_kings/14-13.htm" title="And Jehoash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, at Bethshemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits.">2Kings 14:13</a>), the statement seems at first hyperbolical. It has to be remembered, however, that since the latter of these two the city had been strongly fortified by Uzziah, Hezekiah, and Manasseh, and the failure of Sennacherib’s attempt had probably led to the impression that it was impregnable.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-13.htm">Lamentations 4:13</a></div><div class="verse">For the sins of her prophets, <i>and</i> the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,</div>(13) <span class= "bld">That have shed the blood of the just . . .</span>—The words point to incidents like the death of Zechariah the son of Jehoiada (<a href="/2_chronicles/24-21.htm" title="And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD.">2Chronicles 24:21</a>); the “innocent blood” shed by Manasseh (<a href="/2_kings/21-16.htm" title="Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin with which he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.">2Kings 21:16</a>); the attempts on Jeremiah’s own life (<a href="/jeremiah/26-7.htm" title="So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD.">Jeremiah 26:7</a>); possibly to some unrecorded atrocities during the siege on the part of the priests and false prophets, who looked on the true prophets as traitors (<a href="/jeremiah/26-23.htm" title="And they fetched forth Urijah out of Egypt, and brought him to Jehoiakim the king; who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.">Jeremiah 26:23</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-14.htm">Lamentations 4:14</a></div><div class="verse">They have wandered <i>as</i> blind <i>men</i> in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">They have wandered . . .</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">reeled. </span>The blindness, <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>either that of the insatiable lust of blood, or of hopeless despair, or both. (Comp. <a href="/deuteronomy/28-28.htm" title="The LORD shall smite you with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:">Deuteronomy 28:28</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/23-12.htm" title="Why their way shall be to them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil on them, even the year of their visitation, said the LORD.">Jeremiah 23:12</a>; <a href="/isaiah/29-10.htm" title="For the LORD has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers has he covered.">Isaiah 29:10</a>.) The horror of the picture is heightened by the fact that the very garments of the priests were so dripping with blood that men shrank from touching them.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-15.htm">Lamentations 4:15</a></div><div class="verse">They cried unto them, Depart ye; <i>it is</i> unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn <i>there</i>.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">They cried unto them</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> these, as they passed, cried to the blood-stained priests. The cry “unclean” was that uttered by the leper as a warning to those he met (<a href="/leviticus/13-45.htm" title="And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bore, and he shall put a covering on his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean.">Leviticus 13:45</a>). Here it comes from those whom they meet, and who start back in their fear of defilement.<p><span class= "bld">When they fled away.</span>—The words seem to refer to some lost facts, like those suggested by <a href="/lamentations/4-14.htm" title="They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.">Lamentations 4:14</a> : the murderers fleeing from their own countrymen, and finding themselves equally abhorred among the heathen.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-16.htm">Lamentations 4:16</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">The anger of the Lord.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">the face, </span>as the symbol of wrath.<p><span class= "bld">They respected not.</span>—The subject of the verbs has to be supplied. The enemies, or the heathen, or men in general, ceased to feel any reverence for the fugitive priests and elders.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-17.htm">Lamentations 4:17</a></div><div class="verse">As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation <i>that</i> could not save <i>us</i>.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">As for us . . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">Still do our eyes waste away, looking for our vain help.</span><p><span class= "bld">In our watching.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">upon our watch-tower. </span>(Comp. <a href="/habakkuk/2-1.htm" title="I will stand on my watch, and set me on the tower, and will watch to see what he will say to me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.">Habakkuk 2:1</a>.) The people of Judah are represented as looking out for the approach of an ally, probably Egypt (<a href="/jeremiah/37-7.htm" title="Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel; Thus shall you say to the king of Judah, that sent you to me to inquire of me; Behold, Pharaoh's army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land.">Jeremiah 37:7</a>), and looking in vain.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-18.htm">Lamentations 4:18</a></div><div class="verse">They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">They hunt our steps.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">They lie in wait. </span>The words probably point to the posts occupied here and there near the wide places of the city, which led people to avoid them through fear of being attacked. The only cry possible at such a time was that “all was over.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-19.htm">Lamentations 4:19</a></div><div class="verse">Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">Our persecutors.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">Our pursuers, </span>the words referring to the Chaldæan enemies rather than to persecutors in the modern sense of the word. The comparison with eagles has a parallel in <a href="/deuteronomy/28-49.htm" title="The LORD shall bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies; a nation whose tongue you shall not understand;">Deuteronomy 28:49</a>. If we take the second clause as referring to the flight of Zedekiah, mentioned in the next verse, the mountains would be the heights east of Jerusalem, beginning with the Mount of Olives, and the wilderness that of the <span class= "ital">Ghor, </span>or Jordan Valley (<a href="/jeremiah/39-5.htm" title="But the Chaldeans' army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment on him.">Jeremiah 39:5</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-20.htm">Lamentations 4:20</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">The breath of our nostrils.</span>—The “breath of life” of <a href="/genesis/2-7.htm" title="And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.">Genesis 2:7</a>. The phrase emphasises the ideal character of the king as the centre of the nation’s life. So Seneca (<span class= "ital">Clement. </span>i. 4) speaks of a ruler as the <span class= "ital">spiritus vitalis </span>of his people.<p><span class= "bld">Of whom we said.—</span>The words that follow point to the scheme which was rendered abortive by Zedekiah’s capture. Those who followed him had hoped to find a refuge among some friendly neighbouring nation, where they might at least have maintained the continuity of their national existence, and waited for better days.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-21.htm">Lamentations 4:21</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">O daughter of Edom.</span>—The triumph of Edom in the downfall of Zion was, as in Psalms 137, the crowning sorrow of the mourner. But with this sorrow there is a vision of judgment, which is also a vision of hope; the prophet returning to his favourite image of the wine-cup (<a href="/jeremiah/25-17.htm" title="Then took I the cup at the LORD's hand, and made all the nations to drink, to whom the LORD had sent me:">Jeremiah 25:17</a>). On the “Land of Uz” see Notes on <a href="/job/1-1.htm" title="There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.">Job 1:1</a>, <a href="/jeremiah/25-20.htm" title="And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod,">Jeremiah 25:20</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Shalt make thyself naked.</span>—See Note on <a href="/lamentations/1-8.htm" title="Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yes, she sighs, and turns backward.">Lamentations 1:8</a>, and comp. <a href="/nahum/3-5.htm" title="Behold, I am against you, said the LORD of hosts; and I will discover your skirts on your face, and I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame.">Nahum 3:5</a> for a bolder form of the same image.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/4-22.htm">Lamentations 4:22</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">Is accomplished.</span>—The mourner shares in the Messianic hopes of <a href="/isaiah/40-2.htm" title="Speak you comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry to her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she has received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins.">Isaiah 40:2</a>, and expresses it nearly in the same words.<p><span class= "bld">He will no more carry thee away.</span>—Interpreted by later history, the words take their place in the list of unfulfilled prophecies, for, like all promises, they were dependent upon implied conditions, and in the rejection of the Christ by the Jews of His time there was a sin which involved a forfeiture of the blessing, and made the chastisement of a prolonged guilt necessary. For five centuries, however, the prophet’s words held good, and there was no thorough “dispersion” of the Jews till after the Roman conquest.<p><span class= "bld">He will discover thy sins.</span>—To cover sins is to forgive them (<a href="/psalms/32-1.htm" title="Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.">Psalm 32:1</a>; <a href="/psalms/32-5.htm" title="I acknowledge my sin to you, and my iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD; and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.">Psalm 32:5</a>; <a href="/psalms/85-2.htm" title="You have forgiven the iniquity of your people, you have covered all their sin. Selah.">Psalm 85:2</a>; so to <span class= "ital">dis </span>or<span class= "ital"> un-</span>cover sins is, therefore, to punish them.<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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