Tyndale Open Study NotesLamentations 4

Although God’s people still experience his judgment, they will soon experience restoration.

like an ostrich: See also Job 39:13–16.

their appearance like sapphires: (literally like lapis lazuli): Lapis lazuli is a beautiful blue stone. It is soft enough to carve and is often used in decorations and mosaics.

Skin sticking to bones is symptomatic of the final stages of starvation, just before death.

Long sieges result in a serious lack of food. Even if people could get to the fields, they would find the crops destroyed or harvested to feed the soldiers.

The kings of the earth … could enter the gates of Jerusalem: Since God had saved Jerusalem from Sennacherib of Assyria over a century earlier (2 Kings 19:36–37), the Judeans firmly believed that even the powerful king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon could not conquer the city.

It appears that these leaders fled from Jerusalem as refugees to other lands.

The LORD’s anointed … was captured: This refers to King Zedekiah. He tried to escape from Jerusalem, but the Babylonian army captured him. King Nebuchadnezzar treated him cruelly after his capture (2 Kings 25:4–7; Jeremiah 39:4–7; 52:9–11).

The people of Edom felt safe and took pleasure in Jerusalem's troubles. However, they would also face punishment for their sins (see Obadiah 1; Jeremiah 49:7–22).

Uz was a region east of the Jordan River. It extended south to Edom. Uz was the homeland of Job (Job 1:1).

The first return from exile took place in 538 BC. This happened after Cyrus, king of Persia, defeated Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:22–23; Ezra 1:1–4).