The Fourth Lament. 

        In most respects this poem stands in close relationship to the second. Here, too, there are clear reminiscences of the siege. Its theme is the contrast between Zion past and present.

        The first eleven verses present the contrast itself. In ver. 6 the A.V. has missed the point. It is not the punishment of Jerusalem and of Sodom that are being compared, but their iniquity. In ver. 7 the R.V. is probably correct in rendering “nobles” rather than “Nazirites.”

        The change in Zion’s fortunes is then attributed to the sins of the priests and prophets (vers. 12-16) which left no hope of a refuge once the storm broke (vers. 17-20). The “nation that could not save” (ver. 17) is, of course, Egypt. The poet then looks forward to a similar reversal of fate that will come to Zion’s foes as personified by Edom (ver. 21ff). The Fifth Lament.

        Fittingly the book closes with an appeal to Jehovah. In the first eighteen verses the poet describes the afflictions of Jehovah’s people, and then ends with the abiding power of 6od. The closing verse should be rendered as in the R.V. margin:

        Unless thou hast utterly rejected us

        And art very wroth against us.

It is the note of hope, but of subdued hope. To avoid ending the reading of the book on even a qualified minor key, the Synagogue has ver. 21 repeated after ver. 22. Since the generation of the destruction could not plead personal inno­cence, it looks as though ver. 7 implies a date some time on in the exile for this the last of the poems.