Lamentations 4:2

Zion

¹ How the gold has become tarnished, the pure gold has become dull! The gems of the temple lie scattered on every street corner.

How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in pure gold, are now esteemed as jars of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!

³ Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.

⁴ The nursing infant’s tongue clings in thirst to the roof of his mouth. Little children beg for bread, but no one gives them any.

Here the Bible tells a story about someone else. Ask yourself what it can say to us today. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in pure gold, are now esteemed as jars of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!
KJV: The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
WEB: The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how they are esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
ASV: The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
DARBY: The sons of Zion, so precious, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
BLB: The precious sons of Zion were weighed with fine gold. How they are esteemed as pots of clay, the work of the hands of a potter!

ÅB: Sions barn, de dyrebare, like i verd med det fineste gull, hvor de er blitt aktet som lerkrukker, et verk av en pottemakers hender!
OTB: Sions dyrebare barn, som før ble regnet som rent gull, blir nå ansett som leirkar, verk av en pottemakers hender.
B1930: Sions barn, de dyrebare, like i verd med det fineste gull, hvor de er blitt aktet som lerkrukker, et verk av en pottemakers hender!

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

Isaiah 30:14
It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar, shattered so that no fragment can be found. Not a shard will be found in the dust large enough to scoop the coals from a hearth or to skim the water from a cistern.”
Read in context
Romans 9:21–23
Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?
Read in context
Jeremiah 19:11
and you are to proclaim to them that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: I will shatter this nation and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.
Read in context
2 Timothy 2:20
A large house contains not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some indeed are for honorable use, but others are for common use.
Read in context
2 Corinthians 4:7
Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us.
Read in context
Zechariah 9:13
For I will bend Judah as My bow and fit it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons, O Zion, against the sons of Greece. I will make you like the sword of a mighty man.
Read in context
Isaiah 51:18
Among all the sons she bore, there is no one to guide her; among all the sons she brought up, there is no one to take her hand.
Read in context
Lamentations 5:12
Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders receive no respect.
Read in context