Jeremiah’s name has long been associated with this book. The Alexandrian form of the Greek Septuagint has these words preceding 1:1: “And it came to pass, after Israel had been carried away captive, and Jerusalem became desolate, that Jeremiah sat weeping, and lamented with this lamentation over Jerusalem.” The Latin Vulgate adds this phrase: “and with a sorrowful mind, sighing and moaning, he said.” The Talmud observes that “Jeremiah wrote his own book and the book of Kings and Lamentations.” Given this rich tradition linking Jeremiah to Lamentations, it seems safe to conclude he did indeed write this book.
The sad background for these five poems of lament was the sacking of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple in 587 BC by the Babylonian army. Even though the book lists only one proper name (“Edom,” 4:21-22), the allusions and the historical connections to the events listed so dramatically in 2 Kings 25; 2 Chronicles 36:11-21; and the book of Jeremiah are unmistakable.
Few things contrast religious and humanistic traditions more than their respective responses to suffering. The humanist sees suffering as a bare, impersonal event without ultimate meaning or purpose. For believers, suffering is a personal problem because they believe that all events of history are under the hand of a personal God. And if that is true, then how can God’s love and justice be reconciled with our pain?
Lamentations gives no easy answers to this question, but it helps us meet God in the midst of our suffering and teaches us the language of prayer. Instead of offering a set of techniques, easy answers, or inspiring slogans for facing pain and grief, Lamentations supplies: (1) an orientation, (2) a voice for working through grief from “A” to “Z,” (3) instruction on how and what to pray, and (4) a focal point on the faithfulness of God and the affirmation that he alone is our portion.
The book of Lamentations exhibits a remarkably fine artistic structure. Each of its five chapters (five poems) is a structurally unified text. The fact that there is an uneven number of poems allows the middle poem (chap. 3) to be the midpoint of the book. Thus, there is an ascent (or crescendo) up to a fixed climax for the entire book, thereby making chapter 3 central in its form and the message it imparts. Accordingly, the first two chapters form the steps leading up to the climax of 3:22-24, and from here there is a descent in chapters 4 and 5.
The poems or songs of this book also exhibit the so-called acrostic form (a crisscross inversion such as a-b, b-a). As such, chapters 1 and 5 are overall summaries of the disaster, 2 and 4 are more detailed descriptions of what took place, and chapter 3 occupies the central position.
Lamentations also utilizes the form of the alphabetic acrostic with the twenty-two-letter Hebrew alphabet. In chapter 5, each of its twenty-two stanzas consists of a single line, but this is the only chapter that is not in an alphabetic acrostic. Chapter 3 is the most structured of the five poems.
Jeremiah saw the sorrows of Jerusalem. He beheld that ancient and glorious city besieged by adversaries, invaded by fierce armies, and given over to plunder, murder, fire, and desolation. He beheld the streets running with the blood of its sons and daughters, its houses broken down, and its glorious temple defiled and laid in ashes. Had grape-gatherers gathered grapes, they would have left, here and there, a cluster; but Jerusalem was thoroughly stripped. No fruit remained in it. Its desolation was complete. Is it any wonder Jeremiah wept and called on others to weep with him? The man who is sorrowful for another is sure to invite others to join him in his sympathy. Hence, we have Jeremiah’s lamentations over the fallen Holy City, Jerusalem—and he invites the whole community to join in weeping with him through these laments.
1How A she sits alone,
the city once crowded with people!
She who was great among the nations
has become like a widow.
The princess among the provinces
has been put to forced labor.
2She weeps bitterly during the night,
with tears on her cheeks.
There is no one to offer her comfort,
not one from all her lovers. B
All her friends have betrayed her;
they have become her enemies.
3Judah has gone into exile
following C affliction and harsh slavery;
she lives among the nations
but finds no place to rest.
All her pursuers have overtaken her
in narrow places.
4The roads to Zion mourn,
for no one comes to the appointed festivals.
All her gates are deserted;
her priests groan,
her young women grieve,
and she herself is bitter.
5Her adversaries have become her masters;
her enemies are at ease,
for the LORD has made her suffer
because of her
many transgressions.
Her children have gone away
as captives before the adversary.
6All the splendor has vanished
from Daughter Zion.
Her leaders are like stags
that find no pasture;
they stumble away exhausted
before the hunter.
7During the days of her affliction and homelessness
Jerusalem remembers all her precious belongings
that were hers in days of old.
When her people fell into the adversary’s hand,
she had no one to help.
The adversaries looked at her,
laughing over her downfall.
8Jerusalem has sinned grievously;
therefore, she has become an object of scorn. D
All who honored her now despise her,
for they have seen her nakedness.
She herself groans and turns away.
9Her uncleanness stains her skirts.
She never considered her end.
Her downfall was astonishing;
there was no one to comfort her.
LORD, look on my affliction,
for the enemy boasts.
10The adversary has seized
all her precious belongings.
She has even seen the nations
enter her sanctuary —
those you had forbidden
to enter your assembly.
11All her people groan
while they search for bread.
They have traded their precious belongings
for food
in order to stay alive.
LORD, look and see
how I have become despised.
12Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by?
Look and see!
Is there any pain like mine,
which was dealt out to me,
which the LORD made me suffer
on the day of his burning anger?
13He sent fire from on high into my bones;
he made it descend. A
He spread a net for my feet
and turned me back.
He made me desolate,
sick all day long.
14My transgressions have been formed into a yoke, B,C
fastened together by his hand;
they have been placed on my neck,
and the Lord has broken
my strength.
He has handed me over
to those I cannot withstand.
15The Lord has rejected
all the mighty men within me.
He has summoned an army D against me
to crush my young warriors.
The Lord has trampled Virgin Daughter Judah
like grapes in a winepress.
16I weep because of these things;
my eyes flow E with tears.
For there is no one nearby to comfort me,
no one to keep me alive.
My children are desolate
because the enemy has prevailed.
17Zion stretches out her hands;
there is no one to comfort her.
The LORD has issued a decree against Jacob
that his neighbors should be his adversaries.
Jerusalem has become
something impure among them.
18The LORD is just,
for I have rebelled against his command.
Listen, all you people;
look at my pain.
My young women
and young men
have gone into captivity.
19I called to my lovers,
but they betrayed me.
My priests and elders
perished in the city
while searching for food
to keep themselves alive.
20LORD, see how I am in distress.
I am churning within;
my heart is broken, A
for I have been very rebellious.
Outside, the sword takes the children;
inside, there is death.
21People have heard me groaning,
but there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my misfortune;
they are glad that you have caused it.
Bring on the day you have announced,
so that they may become like me.
22Let all their wickedness come before you,
and deal with them
as you have dealt with me
because of all my transgressions.
For my groans are many,
and I am sick at heart.
1:12 “Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see! Is there any pain like mine, which was dealt out to me, which the LORD made me suffer . . .?” This was the lamentation of Jeremiah. As he saw the desolation of the beloved city, as he marked the cruelties inflicted by the invaders on the Jewish youth, children, and maidens, and as he foresaw the long years of bitterness reserved for the captives in Babylon, he felt as if he were peerless in the realm of misery. At the same time, we may take the words out of the mouth of Jeremiah and put them into the mouth of Jesus and suppose them to be spoken by him as he hung on the cross and bore God’s wrath for us.
A 1:1 The stanzas in Lm 1–4 form an acrostic.
B 1:2 = Jerusalem’s political allies
A 1:13 DSS, LXX; MT reads bones, and it prevailed against them
B 1:14 Some Hb mss, LXX read He kept watch over my transgressions
C 1:14 Or The yoke of my transgressions is bound ; Hb obscure
D 1:15 Or has announced an appointed time
2How the Lord has overshadowed
Daughter Zion with his anger!
He has thrown down Israel’s glory
from heaven to earth.
He did not acknowledge his footstool
in the day of his anger.
2Without compassion the Lord has swallowed up
all the dwellings of Jacob.
In his wrath he has demolished
the fortified cities of Daughter Judah.
He brought them to the ground
and defiled the kingdom and its leaders.
3He has cut off every horn of Israel
in his burning anger
and withdrawn his right hand
in the presence of the enemy.
He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire
that consumes everything.
4He has strung his bow
like an enemy;
his right hand is positioned like an adversary.
He has killed everyone who was the delight to the eye,
pouring out his wrath like fire
on the tent of Daughter Zion.
5The Lord is like an enemy;
he has swallowed up Israel.
He swallowed up all its palaces
and destroyed its fortified cities.
He has multiplied mourning and lamentation
within Daughter Judah.
6He has wrecked his temple B
as if it were merely a shack in a field, C
destroying his place of meeting.
The LORD has abolished
appointed festivals and Sabbaths in Zion.
He has despised king and priest
in his fierce anger.
7The Lord has rejected his altar,
repudiated his sanctuary;
he has handed the walls of her palaces
over to the enemy.
They have raised a shout in the house of the LORD
as on the day of an appointed festival.
8The LORD determined to destroy
the wall of Daughter Zion.
He stretched out a measuring line
and did not restrain himself from destroying.
He made the ramparts and walls grieve;
together they waste away.
9Zion’s gates have fallen to the ground;
he has destroyed and shattered the bars on her gates.
Her king and her leaders live among the nations,
instruction A is no more,
and even her prophets receive
no vision from the LORD.
10The elders of Daughter Zion
sit on the ground in silence.
They have thrown dust on their heads
and put on sackcloth.
The young women of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.
11My eyes are worn out
from weeping;
I am churning within.
My heart is poured out in grief B
because of the destruction of my dear people,
because infants and nursing babies faint
in the streets of the city.
12They cry out to their mothers,
“Where is the grain and wine? ”
as they faint like the wounded
in the streets of the city,
as their life pours out
in the arms of their mothers.
13What can I say on your behalf?
What can I compare you to, Daughter Jerusalem?
What can I liken you to,
so that I may console you, Virgin Daughter Zion?
For your ruin is as vast as the sea.
Who can heal you?
14Your prophets saw visions for you
that were empty and deceptive; C
they did not reveal your iniquity
and so restore your fortunes.
They saw pronouncements for you
that were empty and misleading.
15All who pass by
scornfully clap their hands at you.
They hiss and shake their heads
at Daughter Jerusalem:
Is this the city that was called
the perfection of beauty,
the joy of the whole earth?
16All your enemies
open their mouths against you.
They hiss and gnash their teeth,
saying, “We have swallowed her up.
This is the day we have waited for!
We have lived to see it.”
17The LORD has done
what he planned;
he has accomplished his decree,
which he ordained in days of old.
He has demolished without compassion,
letting the enemy gloat over you
and exalting the horn of your adversaries.
18The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord.
Wall of Daughter Zion,
let your tears run down like a river
day and night.
Give yourself no relief
and your A eyes no rest.
19Arise, cry out in the night
from the first watch of the night.
Pour out your heart like water
before the Lord’s presence.
Lift up your hands to him
for the lives of your children
who are fainting from hunger
at the head of every street.
QUOTE 2:19
It is never too soon to pray. There is no reason you should delay till the morning light.
20LORD, look and consider
to whom you have done this.
Should women eat their own children,
the infants they have nurtured? B
Should priests and prophets
be killed in the Lord’s sanctuary?
21Both young and old
are lying on the ground
in the streets.
My young women and young men
have fallen by the sword.
You have killed them in the day of your anger,
slaughtering without compassion.
22You summon those who terrorize me C on every side,
as if for an appointed festival day;
on the day of the LORD’s anger
no one escaped or survived.
My enemy has destroyed
those I nurtured D and reared.
2:19 “Arise, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water before the Lord’s presence.” Jeremiah spoke these words to Zion in its sad and desolate condition. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, had wept his eyes dry for the slain of the daughters of his people, and when he had done all he could to pour out tears for poor Jerusalem, he then begged Jerusalem to weep for herself. From this text we learn that it is never too soon to pray. There is no reason you should delay till the morning light. How many young persons imagine that religion is a thing for old age, or at least for maturity? Hour after hour and day after day, the malicious fiend whispers in their ear—“It is too soon; it is too soon! Postpone, postpone, postpone! Procrastinate!”
Our text also teaches us that it is not too late to cry to the Lord. Further, we cannot pray too intently, for the text says, “Arise, cry out in the night.” God loves earnest prayers; he loves impetuous prayers; he loves fervent prayers. God loves crying-out prayers. Those who do not cry aloud must not expect to get a blessing. God will hear us if we cry out with all our souls and pour out our hearts before him.
Finally, we cannot pray too simply. Just hear how Jeremiah put it: “Pour out your heart like water before the Lord’s presence.” How does water pour out? The quickest way it can—that’s all; it never thinks much about how it runs. That is the way the Lord loves to have our prayers pour out before him.
B 2:11 Lit My liver is poured out on the ground
A 2:18 Lit and the daughter of your
3I am the man who has seen affliction
under the rod of God’s wrath.
2He has driven me away and forced me to walk
in darkness instead of light.
3Yes, he repeatedly turns his hand
against me all day long.
4He has worn away my flesh
and skin;
he has broken my bones.
5He has laid siege against me,
encircling me with bitterness and hardship.
6He has made me dwell in darkness
like those who have been dead for ages.
7He has walled me in so I cannot get out;
he has weighed me down with chains.
8Even when I cry out and plead for help,
he blocks out my prayer.
QUOTE 3:8
You must not think, because sometimes your prayers seem to be unheard or unheeded and you are allowed to continue in sorrow, that therefore the Lord does not love you.
9He has walled in my ways with blocks of stone;
he has made my paths crooked.
10He is A a bear waiting in ambush,
a lion in hiding.
11He forced me off my way and tore me to pieces;
he left me desolate.
12He strung his bow
and set me as the target for his arrow.
13He pierced my kidneys
with shafts from his quiver.
14I am a laughingstock to all my people, B
mocked by their songs all day long.
15He filled me with bitterness,
satiated me with wormwood.
16He ground my teeth with gravel
and made me cower C in the dust.
17I have been deprived D of peace;
I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18Then I thought, “My future E is lost,
as well as my hope from the LORD.”
19Remember F my affliction and my homelessness,
the wormwood and the poison.
20I continually remember them
and have become depressed. G
21Yet I call this to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
22Because of the LORD’s faithful love
we do not perish, A
for his mercies never end.
23They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness!
24I say, “The LORD is my portion,
therefore I will put my hope in him.”
25The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
to the person who seeks him.
QUOTE 3:25
Even though it is out of the depths of the utmost distress that we seek God, we will find him to be good to us.
26It is good to wait quietly
for salvation from the LORD.
QUOTE 3:26
God’s time is always the best time. To deliver us just now might be to deprive us of the benefit of the trouble. We must bear it until it produces “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Heb 12:11).
27It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is still young.
28Let him sit alone and be silent,
for God has disciplined B him.
29Let him put his mouth in the dust —
perhaps there is still hope.
30Let him offer his cheek
to the one who would strike him;
let him be filled with disgrace.
31For the Lord
will not reject us forever.
32Even if he causes suffering,
he will show compassion
according to the abundance of his faithful love.
33For he does not enjoy bringing affliction
or suffering on mankind.
QUOTE 3:33
“He does not enjoy bringing affliction or suffering on mankind.” That is not God’s way of acting. Tyrants may do so, but the tender, compassionate God—our gracious, loving Father—will never do that. If you lie in the dust before him, he will not tread on you.
34Crushing all the prisoners of the land C
beneath one’s feet,
35denying justice to a man
in the presence of the Most High,
36or subverting a person in his lawsuit —
the Lord does not approve of these things.
37Who is there who speaks and it happens,
unless the Lord has ordained it?
38Do not both adversity and good
come from the mouth of the Most High?
39Why should any living person complain,
any man, because of the punishment for his sins?
40Let us examine and probe our ways,
and turn back to the LORD.
41Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
to God in heaven:
42“We have sinned and rebelled;
you have not forgiven.
43“You have covered yourself in anger and pursued us;
you have killed without compassion.
44You have covered yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can get through.
45You have made us disgusting filth
among the peoples.
46“All our enemies
open their mouths against us.
47We have experienced panic and pitfall,
devastation and destruction.”
48My eyes flow with streams of tears
because of the destruction of my dear people.
49My eyes overflow unceasingly,
without end,
50until the LORD looks down
from heaven and sees.
51My eyes bring me grief
because of the fate of all the women in my city.
52For no reason, my enemies A
hunted me like a bird.
53They smothered my life in B a pit
and threw stones on me.
54Water flooded over my head,
and I thought, “I’m going to die! ”
55I called on your name, LORD,
from the depths of the pit.
56You heard my plea:
Do not ignore my cry for relief.
57You came near whenever I called you;
you said, “Do not be afraid.”
58You championed my cause, Lord;
you redeemed my life.
59LORD, you saw the wrong done to me;
judge my case.
60You saw all their vengefulness,
all their plots against me.
61LORD, you heard their insults,
all their plots against me.
62The slander A and murmuring of my opponents
attack me all day long.
63When they sit and when they rise, look,
I am mocked by their songs.
64You will pay them back what they deserve, LORD,
according to the work of their hands.
65You will give them a heart filled with anguish. B
May your curse be on them!
66You will pursue them in anger and destroy them
under your heavens. C
3:1 “I am the man who has seen affliction.” To suppose no others ever felt as they do is a mistake most people make when in trouble. We should not think no one was ever so broken in pieces as we are. In fact, this chapter is full of sorrow. It is a most graphic portrait of a heart that is awakened and made to feel its lost estate. The first part of this chapter is one of the saddest in the whole book of God. Yet the chapter does not end as it begins. There is daylight for the poor sufferer after all. We must read Jeremiah’s sad utterances in the hope that, if we have ever known experiences similar to his, we may learn where to find comfort even as he did.
3:2 “He has . . . forced me to walk in darkness instead of light.” This seems to be the hardest part of our lot—that God should lead us into darkness. Yet that is the sweetest thing about our trial because, if the darkness is in the place where God has led us, it is best for us to be in the dark.
3:3 “He repeatedly turns his hand against me.” As if when a man is about to strike, he strikes not with his open hand but turns his hand, so the prophet says God did with him. He felt that he was being stricken with the heaviest blows God seemed able to give.
3:4 “He has worn away my flesh and skin.” As people through excessive grief sometimes appear to grow prematurely aged, so the prophet says he had gone through grief.
3:7 “He has weighed me down with chains.” As the convict sometimes drags about his chain and has a ball at his foot, so the prophet felt as if God had shackled him with a heavy chain so he could not move because of its terrible weight.
3:8 “He blocks out my prayer.” What a sorrow is this—to feel that even prayer itself is unavailing! You must not think, because sometimes your prayers seem to be unheard or unheeded and you are allowed to continue in sorrow, that therefore the Lord does not love you.
3:13 “He pierced my kidneys with shafts from his quiver.” Jeremiah felt as if God’s arrows were not merely shot at him but that they had actually hit and wounded him in his vital parts.
3:16 “He ground my teeth with gravel.” People of the East usually baked their cakes on the hearth, and frequently there would be in the cakes pieces of grit, perhaps large lumps of cinder, and sometimes small gravel stones that would break the teeth.
3:21 “Therefore I have hope.” In all his sorrow Jeremiah still had hope. Oh, what a mercy it is that hope can live on when all things else appear to die!
3:23 “They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness!” If every day brings its trouble, every day also brings its mercy. No one can say that so truly as the person who has known what it is to prove God’s great faithfulness in the midst of great affliction.
3:24 “The LORD is my portion.” With his mouth full of gravel stones and made drunk with wormwood, overwhelmed with sorrow, yet Jeremiah says, “The LORD is my portion.” Whatever else we have lost, we have not lost our God.
3:25 “The LORD is good.” Even though it is out of the depths of the utmost distress that we seek God, we will find him to be good to us. “To those who wait for him.” We must not be in a hurry. We should not expect to be delivered out of our trouble the first time we begin to cry out to God. “Wait for him.”
3:26 “Wait quietly for salvation from the LORD.” God’s time is always the best time. To deliver us just now might be to deprive us of the benefit of the trouble. We must bear it until it produces “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Heb 12:11).
3:28 “Let him sit alone and be silent, for God has disciplined him.” When it makes a person get alone to contemplate and meditate, affliction is already doing that person good.
3:29 “Let him put his mouth in the dust—perhaps there is still hope.” That is the way to find it—not lifting our mouths to defy the Lord, or to murmur at him, nor yet opening our mouths in boastfulness, but putting our mouths in the dust. A humble, penitent, resigned, silent, submissive spirit will soon find hope.
3:31 “The Lord will not reject us forever.” We must get a grip of that blessed truth of God. The Lord may, to all appearance, cast us off for a little while, but he will not cast us off forever.
3:33 “He does not enjoy bringing affliction or suffering on mankind.” That is not God’s way of acting. Tyrants may do so, but the tender, compassionate God—our gracious, loving Father—will never do that. If we lie in the dust before him, he will not tread on us.
3:58 “You championed my cause, Lord; you redeemed my life.” What a comfort it is that Christ in heaven is our champion, our great advocate, and that he pleads our cause before the throne of God. Even more, he who is our champion is also our Redeemer; and, therefore, we are doubly safe.
B 3:14 Some Hb mss, LXX, Vg; other Hb mss, Syr read all peoples
D 3:17 Syr, Vg; MT reads You deprived my soul
G 3:20 Alt Hb tradition reads and you cause me to collapse
A 3:22 One Hb mss, Syr, Tg read The LORD’s faithful love, indeed, does not perish
B 3:28 Lit has laid a burden on
A 3:52 Or Those who were my enemies for no reason
B 3:53 Or They ended my life in ; Hb obscure
4How the gold has become tarnished,
the fine gold become dull!
The stones of the temple D lie scattered
at the head of every street.
2Zion’s precious children —
once worth their weight in pure gold —
how they are regarded as clay jars,
the work of a potter’s hands!
3Even jackals offer their breasts
to nurse their young,
but my dear people have become cruel
like ostriches in the wilderness.
4The nursing baby’s tongue
clings to the roof of his mouth from thirst.
Infants beg for food,
but no one gives them any.
5Those who used to eat delicacies
are destitute in the streets;
those who were reared in purple garments
huddle in trash heaps.
6The punishment of my dear people
is greater than that of Sodom,
which was overthrown
in an instant
without a hand laid on it.
7Her dignitaries were brighter than snow,
whiter than milk;
their bodies E were more ruddy than coral,
their appearance like lapis lazuli.
8Now 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.
9Those slain by the sword are better off
than those slain by hunger,
who waste away, pierced with pain
because the fields lack produce.
10The hands
of compassionate women
have cooked their own children;
they became their food
during the destruction of my dear people.
11The LORD has exhausted
his wrath,
poured out his burning anger;
he has ignited a fire in Zion,
and it has consumed her foundations.
12The kings of the earth
and all the world’s inhabitants did not believe
that an enemy or adversary
could enter Jerusalem’s gates.
13Yet it happened because of the sins of her prophets
and the iniquities of her priests,
who shed the blood of the righteous within her.
14Blind, they stumbled
in the streets,
defiled by this blood,
so that no one dared
to touch their garments.
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.”
16The LORD himself
has scattered them;
he no longer watches over them.
The priests are not respected;
the elders find no favor.
17All 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.
18Our steps were closely followed
so that we could not walk in our streets.
Our end approached; our time ran out.
Our end had come!
19Those who chased us were swifter
than eagles in the sky;
they relentlessly pursued us over the mountains
and ambushed us in the wilderness.
20The LORD’s anointed, the breath of our life, A
was captured in their traps.
We had said about him,
“We will live under his protection among the nations.”
21So rejoice and be glad, Daughter Edom,
you resident of the land of Uz!
Yet the cup will pass to you as well;
you will get drunk and expose yourself.
22Daughter Zion, your punishment is complete;
he will not lengthen your exile. A
But he will punish your iniquity, Daughter Edom,
and will expose your sins.
4:22 “Daughter Zion, your punishment is complete.” This verse contains two messages. The first message is one of comfort. This was a joyous fact. In the case of the kingdom of Judah, the people had suffered so much in their captivity that their God, who in his anger had put them from him, considered that they had suffered enough. Sin must be punished. Any theology that offers the pardon of sin without punishment ignores a major part of God’s character. The testimony of the gospel is not that punishment has been mitigated or foregone. The consolation is far more sure and effectual: Christ has, for his people, borne all the punishment they deserved. Now here is a precious promise: “He will not lengthen your exile.” We may be in captivity now, but it is the last we will ever have. We may have troubles, but we will never have punishment. We may know affliction, but we will never know wrath. We may go to the grave, but we will never go to hell. We will descend into the regions of the dead but never into the regions of the damned.
But this passage also contains a burden of woe—“he will punish your iniquity, Daughter Edom, and will expose your sins.” God’s justice tarries, but it is sure; his axe seems rusty, but it is sharp. Who is this “Daughter Edom”? The preceding verse seems to give us some inkling of who she is. Of course it refers to the race of Esau, who inhabited such cities as Bozrah and Petra, which became a desolate wilderness. It seems, according to verse 21, that Daughter Edom was a mirthful one. A holy joy belongs to the people of God; an unholy mirth is a sure sign of a graceless state. The verse ends with a special word of warning. God says, I “will expose your sins.” Let every sinner be afraid because of this. If we have hidden our sin, the all-seeing One will discover it.
5LORD, remember what has happened to us.
Look, and see our disgrace!
2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our houses to foreigners.
3We have become orphans, fatherless;
our mothers are widows.
4We must pay for the water we drink;
our wood comes at a price.
5We are closely pursued;
we are tired, and no one offers us rest.
6We made a treaty with B Egypt
and with Assyria, to get enough food.
7Our fathers sinned; they no longer exist,
but we bear their punishment.
8Slaves rule over us;
no one rescues us from them.
9We secure our food at the risk of our lives
because of the sword in the wilderness.
10Our skin is as hot C as an oven
from the ravages of hunger.
11Women have been raped in Zion,
virgins in the cities of Judah.
12Princes have been hung up by their hands;
elders are shown no respect.
13Young men labor at millstones;
boys stumble under loads of wood.
14The elders have left the city gate,
the young men, their music.
15Joy has left our hearts;
our dancing has turned
to mourning.
16The crown has fallen from our head.
Woe to us, for we have sinned.
17Because of this, our heart is sick;
because of these, our eyes
grow dim:
18because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate
and has jackals prowling in it.
19You, LORD, are enthroned forever;
your throne endures from generation to generation.
20Why do you continually forget us,
abandon us for our entire lives?
21LORD, bring us back to yourself, so we may return;
renew our days as in former times,
22unless you have completely rejected us
and are intensely angry with us.