Matthew Henry on Lamentations 4:13-20
We have here,
I. The sins they were charged with, for which God brought this destruction upon them, and which served to justify God in it (Lam 4:13, Lam 4:14): It is for the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests. Not that the people were innocent; no, they loved to have it so (Jer 5:31), and it was to please them that the prophets and priests did as they did; but the fault is chiefly laid upon them, who should have taught them better, should have reproved and admonished them, and told them what would be in the end hereof; of the hands of those watchmen who did not give them warning will their blood be required. Note, Nothing ripens a people more for ruin, nor fills the meas…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Lamentations 4:13
prophets--the false prophets (Jer 23:11, Jer 23:21). Supply the sense thus: "For the sins . . . these calamities have befallen her."
shed the blood of the just-- (Mat 23:31, Mat 23:37). This received its full fulfilment in the slaying of Messiah and the Jews' consequent dispersion (Jam 5:6).
Adam Clarke on Lamentations 4:13
For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests - These most wretched beings, under the pretense of zeal for the true religion, persecuted the genuine prophets, priests, and people of God, and caused their blood to be shed in the midst of the city, in the most open and public manner; exactly as the murderous priests, and blood-thirsty preachers, under the reign of bloody Queen Mary, did in England. However, the profligate priests and idolatrous prophets in Jerusalem, only shed the blood of the saints of God there: but the sanguinary papists, in the above reign, burnt the blood here, for they burnt the people alive; and at the same time, in their worse than Molochean cruelty,…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on Lamentations 4:13
For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests,.... Aben Ezra interprets this of the prophets of Baal, and the priests of the high places; but though false prophets and wicked priests are meant, yet such as were among the Jews, made choice of and approved of by them: see 2 Chronicles 36:14; not that the people were faultless, but these were the principals, who by their examples led on and encouraged the common people in sin:
that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her; not the blood of innocent children, sacrificed to them by Moloch; but of good men in general, whom they persecuted and slew; and of the true prophets of the Lord in particular, whose blood they s…
