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4. Zion's Past and Present

¹ This chapter is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.How the gold has lost its luster,
the fine gold become dull!
The sacred gems are scattered
at every street corner.

    ² How the precious children of Zion,
   once worth their weight in gold,
are now considered as pots of clay,
   the work of a potter’s hands!

    ³ Even jackals offer their breasts
   to nurse their young,
but my people have become heartless
   like ostriches in the desert.

    ⁴ Because of thirst the infant’s tongue
   sticks to the roof of its mouth;
the children beg for bread,
   but no one gives it to them.

    ⁵ Those who once ate delicacies
   are destitute in the streets.
Those brought up in royal purple
   now lie on ash heaps.

    ⁶ The punishment of my people
   is greater than that of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment
   without a hand turned to help her.

    ⁷ Their princes were brighter than snow
   and whiter than milk,
their bodies more ruddy than rubies,
   their appearance like lapis lazuli.

    ⁸ But now they are blacker than soot;
   they are not recognized in the streets.
Their skin has shriveled on their bones;
   it has become as dry as a stick.

    ⁹ Those killed by the sword are better off
   than those who die of famine;
racked with hunger, they waste away
   for lack of food from the field.

    ¹⁰ With their own hands compassionate women
   have cooked their own children,
who became their food
   when my people were destroyed.

    ¹¹ The LORD has given full vent to his wrath;
   he has poured out his fierce anger.
He kindled a fire in Zion
   that consumed her foundations.

    ¹² The kings of the earth did not believe,
   nor did any of the peoples of the world,
that enemies and foes could enter
   the gates of Jerusalem.

    ¹³ But it happened because of the sins of her prophets
   and the iniquities of her priests,
who shed within her
   the blood of the righteous.

    ¹⁴ Now they grope through the streets
   as if they were blind.
They are so defiled with blood
   that no one dares to touch their garments.

    ¹⁵ “Go away! You are unclean!” people cry to them.
   “Away! Away! Don’t touch us!”
When they flee and wander about,
   people among the nations say,
   “They can stay here no longer.”

    ¹⁶ The LORD himself has scattered them;
   he no longer watches over them.
The priests are shown no honor,
   the elders no favor.

    ¹⁷ Moreover, our eyes failed,
   looking in vain for help;
from our towers we watched
   for a nation that could not save us.

    ¹⁸ People stalked us at every step,
   so we could not walk in our streets.
Our end was near, our days were numbered,
   for our end had come.

    ¹⁹ Our pursuers were swifter
   than eagles in the sky;
they chased us over the mountains
   and lay in wait for us in the desert.

    ²⁰ The LORD’s anointed, our very life breath,
   was caught in their traps.
We thought that under his shadow
   we would live among the nations.

    ²¹ Rejoice and be glad, Daughter Edom,
   you who live in the land of Uz.
But to you also the cup will be passed;
   you will be drunk and stripped naked.

    ²² Your punishment will end, Daughter Zion;
   he will not prolong your exile.
But he will punish your sin, Daughter Edom,
   and expose your wickedness.

Here the Prophet charges the people with another crime, that neglecting God, and even despising his favor, they had always attached themselves to vain and false hopes. And this was a sacrilege not to be endured, because they thus robbed God of his rights: and what does he demand more than that we should depend on him, and that our minds should acquiesce in him alone? When, therefore, salvation is expected from others rather than from God alone, he is, in a manner, reduced to nothing. The Prophet, then, accuses the Jews of this great, sacrilege, that they never betook themselves to God, nor had any hope in him, but on the contrary wandered here and there for help.

As yet for us, he says, that, is, while we were yet standing. ²¹⁷²¹⁷     The true reading is no doubt עדינו; and Blayney thinks that there is a ו wanting before the next verb, as it is in other in other instances; 1 Kings 1:14, 22; Job 1:16, 17, 18. It is supplied in the Sept., Syr., and Vulg.
   Yet we were, and fail did our eyes
As to our assistance;
In vain by looking out did we look out
To a nation that could not save.
   The Syr. connect “in vain,” more properly, with the third line. — Ed. And this circumstance deserves to be noticed; for after the Jews had been overthrown, they at length began to know how they had been previously deceived, when they placed confidence in the Egyptians. Prosperity inebriates men, so that they take delight ill their own vanities: and while we seem to ourselves to stand, or while we remain alive, God is disregarded, and we seek help here and there, and think our safety beyond all danger. The Prophet then says, that the Jews had been inebriated with false confidence, so that they disregarded God, and in the meantime fled to the Egyptians. When, he says, we were standing, our eyes failed, etc. We have before seen what this phrase means: the eyes are said to fail, when with unwearied perseverance we pursue a hope to the last, as it is said in the Psalms,

“Our eyes have failed for the living God,” (Psalm 69:3;)

that is, We have persevered, and though many trials may have wearied us, yet we have been constant in our hope in God. So now the Prophet says, that the eyes of the people had failed; but he adds, for a vain help, or a help of vanity, by which term he designates the Egyptians: and there is an implied contrast between empty and fallacious help and the help of God, which the people rejected when they preferred the Egyptians. Our eyes, he says, failed, that is, we were unwearied in hoping vainly, for we always thought that the Egyptians would be a sufficient, defense to us. This is one thing.

He afterwards adds, In our looking out, we looked out to a nation which could not save us. He. repeats the same thing in other words. Some consider a relative to be understood, “In our expectation with which we have expected,” etc.; but it seems not necessary. I, then, so connect the words of the Prophet, that the meaning is, that the Jews always turned their eyes to Egypt, as long as they stood as a state and kingdom and thus they willfully deceived themselves, because they took delight in their own vanity. The other clause which follows has the same meaning, In our expectation we expected a nation, etc.; and this clause is added as an explanation; for the Prophet explains how their eyes failed for a vain hope, or for a vain help, even because the people did not look to God, but only to the Egyptians.

Now the words, to look out and looking out, are not unsuitable, for they refer to those vain imaginations to which the unbelieving give heed; for God called them, but turning away from him they transferred their hope to the Egyptians. It was, then, their own looking out or speculation, when, through a foolish conceit, they imagined that safety would be secured to them by the Egyptians.

He says that they were a nation which could not save; and there is no doubt but that the Prophet here puts them in mind of the many warnings which had not been received by the Jews, for God had tried to call them back from that ruinous confidence, but without any success; for we know how much the Prophets labored in this respect, but they were never believed until at length experience proved how vain was the help of Egypt, as God had testified by his servants.