Lamentations 4:13

Submission under the Judgment of God, and Hope 1 How the gold becomes dim, - the fine gold changeth, - Sacred stones are scattered about at the top of every street! 2 The dear sons of Zion, who are precious as fine gold, - How they are esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of a potters hands! 3 [But] the daughter of my people [hath become] cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. 4 The tongue of the suckling cleaveth to his palate for thirst; Young children ask for bread, [but] there is none breaking [it] for them. 5 Those who ate dainties [before] are desolate in the streets; Those who were carried on scarlet embrace dunghills. 6 The iniquity of the daughter of my people became greater than the sin of Sodom, Which was overthrown as in a moment, though no hands were laid on her. 7 Her princes were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, They were redder in body than corals, their form was [that of] a sapphire. 8 `Their form is darker than blackness, - they are not recognised in the streets; Their skin adhereth closely to their bones, - it hath become dry, like wood. 9 Better are those slain with the sword than those slain with hunger; For these pine away, pierced through from [want of] the fruits of the field. 10 The hands of women [who were once] tender-hearted, have boiled their own children; They became food to them in the destruction of the daughter of my people. 11 Jahveh accomplished His wrath: He poured out the burning of His anger; And kindled a fire in Zion, and it devoured her foundations. 12 Would the kinds of the earth, all the inhabitants of the world; not believe That an adversary and an enemy would enter in at the gates of Jerusalem. 13 Because of the sins of her prophets, the iniquities of her priests, Who shed blood of righteous ones in her mi…

We have here, I. The sins they were charged with, for which God brought this destruction upon them, and which served to justify God in it (Lam 4:13, Lam 4:14): It is for the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests. Not that the people were innocent; no, they loved to have it so (Jer 5:31), and it was to please them that the prophets and priests did as they did; but the fault is chiefly laid upon them, who should have taught them better, should have reproved and admonished them, and told them what would be in the end hereof; of the hands of those watchmen who did not give them warning will their blood be required. Note, Nothing ripens a people more for ruin, nor fills the measure faster, than the sins of their priests and prophets. The particular sin charged upon them is persecution; the false prophets and corrupt priests joined their power and interest to shed the blood of the just in the midst of her, the blood of God's prophets and of those that adhered to them. They not only shed the blood of their innocent children, whom they sacrificed to Moloch, but the blood of the righteous men that were among them, whom they sacrificed to that more cruel idol of enmity to the truth and true religion. This was that sin which the Lord would not pardon (Kg2 24:4) and which brought the last destruction upon Jerusalem (Jam 5:6): You have condemned and killed the just. And the priests and prophets were the ringleaders in persecution, as in Christ's time the chief priests and scribes were the men that incensed the people against him, who otherwise would have persisted in their hosannas. Now these are those that wandered as blind men in the streets, Lam 4:14. They strayed from the paths of justice, were blind to every thing that is good, but to do evil they were quick-s…