Lamentations 4:1-12. Today we start Jeremiah’s third poem of sorrow. The first 11 or 12 verses describe the personal horror in Jerusalem. Some experts like to include verse 12 with the first eleven verses and some link it to the last twelve. Of Course this is one poem not an essay with paragraphs. I think verse 12 fits with what is before and what is after it. We don’t necessarily think of poems as having sections necessarily but if you have read the “Intro to Lamentations” you know that ancient eastern poetry was more about structure than things like rhyming. The main structure on these first four poems relates to the Hebrew alphabet (for more on this read the “Intro to lamentations”) but there may be another pattern in the first eleven verses of this poem that we can see.

As I was reading through this first part of the poem I notices some similar ideas in certain verses. Hebrew poets like to use parallel language and ideas in their writing, even non-poetic writing. Some times the parallel ideas are direct and sometime they are opposites. Sometimes the parallel ideas are next to each other, two lines in a verse or two verses in a row. But other times the parallel ideas are separated from each other by other verses, but there is still a pattern, the different parallel ideas in different verses reflect each other. Let’s say we give the ideas names: A1, B1, C1, D1. If we give the parallel ideas names we might call them A2, B2, C2, D2. If we use this reflecting pattern they would be arranged like this: A1-B1-C1-D1-D2-C2-B2-A2. It’s like there is a mirror between the two different “D” ideas. Sometimes the idea in the middle doesn’t have a parallel and the pattern looks like this: A1-B1-C1-D-C2-B2-A2. In that case the D idea is often the main point of the verses and the other ideas reflect around it. Cool Huh! Scholars give this arrangement the name “Chiasm” or Chiasmus”. The name comes from the Greek letter Chi which looks like an “X”. Notice that the X mirrors itself.

As I was reading verses 1-11 it occurred to me that there might be a chiasm here, the books I use to help me understand didn’t mention it but I still think it might be there.   Verse 1 Talks about the people of Jerusalem like they are gold and jewels. But the experts cant explain how the gold got dark, thy realize that gold does not tarnish. Notice too that the jewels are poured out on the street corners. An interesting place to find jewels. If verses 1-11 are a chiasm then verse 11 would be the parallel idea. In verse 11 we see a description of Yahweh in anger and wrath (yea, yea, I know, no body likes to think of God that way, read back a few posts for an explanation). In verse 11 we see the wrath described as a fire that burned the city to it’s foundation. It’s interesting when I think of a fire destroying an ancient city. Most of the structures would have been made of stones, at least the walls. I’m not sure all of the walls would fall down in a fire, at least not right away. They probably used wood to hold up window and door openings so there would be quite a bit of mess as the beams as well as the roof or floors burned up. There would also be a big mess from smoke, soot would be everywhere, even on any gold that was out and managed to not melt onto the floor. Anyway I think that could explain the “dark” gold in verse 1.

Verse 2 clearly uses gold to describe the “sons of Zion” (Jerusalem or maybe even a reference to the hill the Temple was on, then we might even see them as “God’s children”) or at least their value. But now they seem like common ordinary pots, like the cheep red ones we find outside. Notice too that the sons of Zion had been “precious” the pots were made by the hands of a potter. In verse 10 we see the “daughter of my people” being destroyed. Notice that it is singular, just one, this may be a reference to Jerusalem (The word translated “daughter” is used 42 times in the Old Testament for a village or town, usually associated with the name of another town. In Isaiah 22:4 though it may be a reference to Jerusalem). Because of the destruction caring women have boiled their own children to use them as food. We don’t know if the child died and was then eaten or if the women killed the children then ate them. Since the women are described as caring they probably killed them to keep them from starving to death but then realized their bodies could be eaten. It’s a very ugly picture of the desperation in the city during the siege. By the way notice the use of the word “hand”. So we have the parallels of “daughter/son” and hands. Also the people were no longer precious in verse 2 and they are clearly very far from that in verse 10.

In verse 3 we see that the daughter has become cruel. Even a mean animal like a jackal nurses it’s young, but the daughter is like ostriches. I know the word daughter is singular here but this time it is probably referring to actual women of the city. The “daughter” is compared to ostriches. The connection here is that ostriches lay eggs in the sand and bury them. They then move on and completely forget where the eggs where and seems to have no concern for them, they are on their own (see Job 39:13-18). In verse 9 we are told that it is better be killed by a sword than to dies slowly of starvation. The parallel is clear people are starving and suffering as they do.

In verse 4 children are starving and dying of thirst. The interesting think is that Jerusalem had a good water supply in the city and water should not have been a problem. Even the women had enough to boil their children. If the children were dying of thirst it was from neglect not because there wasn’t any water. In verse 8 we see a continuation of a description from verse 7 of people described as “consecrated ones”. The word translated “consecrate” means devoted or dedicated, separate, or untrimmed (like a tree or vine). It is used in the Old Testament for a person who wanted to spend some special time in their life honoring God. They would not eat certain things, participate in certain activities, and would not shave their beards or cut their hair. If you know the story of Sampson he was a Nazarite (though not really dedicated to God). One translation uses the word “prince” to translate this word and that may be most accurate here, we might say “special people” or “the rich and famous”. In verse 8 these “special people” the rich and famous are dirty and unrecognized in the street. And they are starving too. The parallel in these verses is that everyone is starving unknown little children and the special people too.

In verse 5 we more special people. The fact that they wore purple tells us that they were either royalty or very rich. Purple dye was extremely expensive in the ancient world and only kings and very rich people wore purple. Also notice what they had been used to eating, delicacies; all the fun expensive really good food. These people were now living on the street not in palaces and were sitting in ashes. This may mean they were digging through the trash for food (in ancient Jerusalem trash was burned). Ashes were also put on clothes to show sorrow and since the ashes are related to their clothes in the verse that is probably what Jeremiah means here. Anyway it is clear that their good and easy life is over. Verse 7 as I mentioned before is about the “special people”. This verse is dedicated to the appearance of these guys and they look better than the most beautiful stars on Oscar night. In verse 8 we see them lose their shine and become black like soot from a fire. Here the parallel is the loss of power and praise.

That leaves one more verse in the chiasm, verse 6. It is all by itself with no parallel verse. Often that means that it is the real focus or point of what has been written. We have seen a lot of personal pain and suffering, both physical and emotional. In this verse we see the “Why”. The people had great iniquity. The word translated “iniquity” means fault or mischief. It’s root means twisted or warped or perverse. The people of Jerusalem were living twisted, warped, perverted lives. We are told that their sins (a word that means to miss the bull’s eye, God perfect target for our lives) were worse than the sins of the people in Sodom. The story of Sodom is told in Genesis 18-19. In those chapters we read the story of a guy named Lot, the nephew of Abraham. He lived in Sodom and one day some angles, who looked like men to the average person, went to Lots house. The men of Sodom heard that Lot had visitors and insisted that he sent them out so they could sexually attack them (we are talking homosexual rape here). Lot would be expected to protect any guests in his house. Lot had little hope of fighting off the mob surround his house so in a totally sick move he offered them his two young daughters instead. The crowd refused and pressed for the men instead. Fortunately for lot these were no ordinary men, they were angles, with the power of God behind them. The angle caused the men of the city to go blind and in a reversal of roles rescued Lot. The next morning the angels instructed Lot and his family to flee the area Sodom and its neighbor Gomorrah would be destroyed. With no warning both cities were wiped off the map by fire from heaven, the area is still desolate to this day. No one lifted a hand to help Sodom and Jerusalem could expect the same.

Verse 12 shows the surprise and horror of the world at the destruction of Jerusalem. It had been centuries since kings and queens had come to Jerusalem to sit at the feet of Solomon and hear the wisdom God had given him. But the world must have remembered. Jerusalem, even at the time of its destruction, was special and now it was destroyed. We saw a lot of ordinary people and some rich and famous in verses 1-11 all suffered and for the same reason, sin. As we saw in a post a couple of days ago, sin is the real enemy, sin is the source of all destruction. God is patient but he will deal with rebellion and disobedience, sometimes right away in an instant, sometimes over the course of many years. His goal is always the same though, to see people return to him. In what is almost the final battle against sin, the Great Tribulation, predicted by the prophets and described in the book of Revelation, God still wants people to turn back to him. Four times in the description of that time of judgment and wrath we are told the people still did not “repent”, turn back to God, it is clearly something God was hoping for. God loves people, but sin is a problem that he must deal with. The penalty of sin is death, physical and spiritual (separation from God for all eternity). We all pay the price of the first, it is appointed for us to die physically (Hebrews 9:27) but Jesus paid the price for the second. It was enough for all but not all will accept his gift of eternity with God. That is a sad situation. God want us to return but still many will keep on walking away. No wonder Jeremiah was so distraught, he had spent his whole life calling people back to God only to see them continue to walk away.

God thank you for calling me to you. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share this message of love with the world. Help many people turn back to you. Help many people enjoy the peace and goodness of your forever kingdom.