Lamentations 4:10-11

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Lamentations 4:1-12

The elegy in this chapter begins with a lamentation of the very sad and doleful change which the judgments of God had made in Jerusalem. The city that was formerly as gold, as the most fine gold, so rich and splendid, the perfection of beauty and the joy of the whole earth, has become dim, and is changed, has lost its lustre, lost its value, is not what it was; it has become dross. Alas! what an alteration is here! I. The temple was laid waste, which was the glory of Jerusalem and its... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Lamentations 4:10

The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children ,.... Such as were naturally, and agreeably to their sex, pitiful and compassionate; merciful to the poor, as the Targum; and especially tenderhearted to their own offspring; yet, by reason of the soreness of the famine, became so cruel and hardhearted, as to take their own children, and slay them with their own hands, cut them to pieces, put them into a pot of water, and make a fire and boil them, and then eat them, as follows: ... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Lamentations 4:11

The Lord hath accomplished his fury ,.... Which rose up in his mind, and which he purposed in himself to bring upon the sinful people of the Jews: he hath poured out his fierce anger ; the vials of his wrath in great abundance, even all he meant to pour out upon them: and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof : not in the strong hold of Zion only, but in the whole city of Jerusalem, which was set on fire by the Chaldeans, as instruments, according... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Lamentations 4:10

The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children - See on Lamentations 2:20 ; (note). But here there is a reference to mothers eating their own children; and this was done, not by mothers cruel and brutal, but by רחמניות נשים nashim rachmaniyoth , the compassionate, the tender-hearted mothers. From these horrible scenes it is well to pass with as hasty a step as possible. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Lamentations 4:10

Verse 10 Here Jeremiah refers to that disgraceful and abominable deed mentioned yesterday; for it was not only a barbarity, but a beastly savageness, when mothers boiled their own children. That it was done is evident from other writers; but the Prophet is to us a sufficient witness, who had seen it with his own eyes. He then says that the mothers were merciful, that no one might think that they were divested of every natural feeling; but he meant thus to set forth the blindness which proceeds... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Lamentations 4:11

Verse 11 He at length concludes that nothing was wanting to complete the extreme vengeance of God; for had the Jews been chastised in an ordinary way, they would have still extenuated their sins, as we know that they were not easily led to repentance. Hence the Prophet, to shew that their offenses had not been slight, but that they had been extremely wicked before God, says that the whole of God’s wrath had been executed: Jehovah has completed his wrath The expression is indeed harsh to Latin... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Lamentations 4:10

The pitiful women. Strange contrast between the compassionate nature of woman (comp. Isaiah 49:15 ) and the dread horrors of this moral as well as physical catastrophe (comp. note on Lamentations 2:20 ). read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Lamentations 4:11

Hath accomplished means here, not "hath finished," but "hath poured out in full measure," as in the song of Moses Jehovah declares that he will "spend his arrows upon them"—the Hebrew verb is the same as here ( Deuteronomy 32:23 ). To show the completeness of Zion's ruin it is compared to a fire which hath devoured the (very) foundations thereof. read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Lamentations 4:10

Pitiful - i. e. tender-hearted, compassionate. meat is used for food Psalms 69:21. What is here stated actually occurred during the siege of Jerusalem by Titus. read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Lamentations 4:10-11

Lamentations 4:10-11. The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children The affection of a mother toward her children is the strongest of all natural affections, and yet the famine hath forced that tender sex to divest themselves of it, and to boil and eat their own children. Thus was the prophecy of Moses, Deuteronomy 28:53; Deuteronomy 28:57, most awfully fulfilled; where see the notes, and on chap. Lamentations 2:20. The Lord hath accomplished his fury, &c. God’s anger... read more

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