Lamentations 4:8 - Exposition

Their visage is blacker than a coal; rather, their appearance is darker than blackness —one of the hyperboles which seem to indicate that the poem was not written at the very moment of the calamity described (comp. Job 30:30 ). Not known in the streets. Another point of contact with the Book of Job ( Job 2:12 ). Their skin, etc. Again we must compare the lamentations of Job ( Job 19:20 ; Job 30:30 ). Psalms 102:5 may also be quoted; for the second half of the verse is toe short unless we insert "to my skin" before "to my flesh."