Gold Turned to Dust
Study note
The poet uses the image of gold losing its shine to describe how the people of Jerusalem have lost their value and dignity. Once-precious children are now treated like cheap clay pots. The famine during the Babylonian siege was so terrible that even nursing mothers could not feed their babies. People who once ate the finest foods now search through garbage. Their healthy appearance has been replaced by skin stretched over bone. The suffering is described as worse than what happened to Sodom, which was destroyed in a single moment rather than through a long, drawn-out siege.
1 How the gold has faded and lost its glow! How the purest, finest gold has been ruined! The precious stones from the temple lie scattered at the head of every street. 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 beloved children of Zion were once prized like the finest gold. Now they are treated like cheap clay jars made by a common potter! 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 jackals will nurse their young and feed them. But my people have become heartless, like desert ostriches that walk away from their own eggs. 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 Nursing babies' tongues are glued to the roofs of their mouths from thirst. Small children cry out begging for bread, but there is nobody to hand them even a crumb. 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 People who once feasted on gourmet meals are now wasting away in the streets. Those who grew up dressed in the finest clothing are now picking through trash heaps. They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
6 My people's punishment was worse than Sodom's. Sodom was wiped out in a flash. No human hand even touched it. 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 consecrated leaders used to be more pure than fresh snow and whiter than milk. They were healthy and strong, and they shone like polished precious stones. 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 But now their faces are blacker than coal, and nobody can recognize them when they walk down the street. Their skin has shriveled tight against their bones, dried out like a dead twig. 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 The ones who died quickly by the sword are better off than those dying slowly from hunger. The starving ones waste away bit by bit, fading from lack of anything to eat. 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 Gentle, loving mothers used their own hands to cook their own children. Those children became their meals during the destruction of my people. The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
The Sins of the Leaders
Study note
God poured out the full measure of his anger and set fire to the very foundations of Zion. No one in the world believed that an enemy could ever break through the gates of Jerusalem, because it seemed so well protected. But the city fell because of the sins of its prophets and priests, who had shed innocent blood. These leaders wandered through the streets, so stained with guilt that no one would go near them. God himself scattered them among the nations.
11 The Lord unleashed the absolute fullest measure of his fury. He ignited a fire in Zion that burned all the way down to its deepest foundations. 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 No king on earth would have believed it. No person in the world would have thought it. Yet an enemy smashed through Jerusalem's gates. 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.
13 Yet it happened because her prophets sinned and her priests were wicked. They spilled the blood of innocent people right in the heart of the city. 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,
14 They stumbled through the streets like blind men. They were so covered in blood that nobody dared to touch even their clothing. They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.
15 People yelled at them, "Stay back! You are unclean! Stay back! Do not come near us!" When they ran away and wandered among other nations, the people there said, "They are not welcome here. They cannot stay." They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.
16 The Lord himself has scattered them and will no longer look on them with kindness. Nobody respects the priests anymore. Nobody gives any honor to the elders. 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.
No Help and No Escape
Study note
The people had looked to Egypt and other nations for military help, but that help never came. The Babylonian army hunted them through the streets and chased them across mountains and through the wilderness. Even the king, whom the people called 'the breath of our nostrils' and 'the Lord's anointed,' was captured in one of their traps. The king was Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, who was caught trying to flee the city.
17 Our eyes wore out from watching and waiting for rescue that never appeared. We kept straining to see if some ally nation would come to save us, but no nation could help. 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.
18 Our enemies tracked our every footstep so that we could not even walk safely through our own streets. The end was staring us in the face. Our days were running out. Our time was up. They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
19 The ones chasing us were faster than eagles soaring through the sky. They pursued us over the mountains and set ambushes for us out in the wilderness. Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
20 The Lord's anointed king -- the one who was the very breath in our lungs -- was caught in their traps. He was the one we believed would keep us safe and let us live peacefully among the nations. 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.
A Warning to Edom and Hope for Zion
Study note
Edom was a neighboring nation descended from Esau, Jacob's brother. When Jerusalem fell, the Edomites celebrated and even helped the Babylonians capture fleeing refugees. The poet speaks with bitter sarcasm, telling Edom to enjoy the moment because their own cup of judgment is coming. The chapter ends on a note of hope for Zion: her punishment will eventually be complete, and God will not keep her in exile forever. But Edom's sins will be fully exposed.
21 Go ahead, celebrate while you can, people of Edom living in the land of Uz. But the cup of judgment is headed your way too. When it reaches you, you will drink it down and be left exposed and humiliated. 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.
22 O people of Zion, your time of punishment will reach its end. God will not keep you in exile forever. But you, Edom -- he will punish your sin and drag your wickedness out into the open. 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.