Lamentations 4:2
What does Lamentations 4:2 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 4:2 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 4:2 means
Those who belonged to Zion, once valued like “fine gold,” are now treated as cheap, fragile clay jars. The people’s worth has been trampled by siege, famine, and defeat. They were made in God’s image and set apart as His covenant people, but their dignity is no longer recognized by enemies or neighbors. The image of the potter’s work underscores human frailty and the reversal of status—precious sons now cracked vessels. The degradation is not only social but moral; sin has eroded what grace had adorned. This verse laments how far a God-honored nation can fall when it turns from the One who gave it glory.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
KJV
King James Version · 1611The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949The valued sons of Zion, whose price was the best gold, are looked on as vessels of earth, the work of the hands of the potter!
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862The precious sons of Zion, Who are comparable with fine gold, How have they been reckoned earthen bottles, Work of the hands of a potter.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Beth. The noble sons of Sion, and they that were clothed with the best gold: how are they esteemed as earthen vessels, the work of the potter's hands?
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890The sons of Zion, so precious, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
Context
After mourning the temple’s ruin, the lament turns to the people themselves. Verse 2 extends the metaphor of lost splendor from gold to clay, from sacred stones to human lives. The shift prepares the reader for the graphic scenes that follow (verses 3–5): hunger, maternal desperation, and the humbling of those raised in luxury. The movement is from the destroyed sanctuary to the broken community, highlighting that the catastrophe touched every layer of society. Soon the prophet will name the moral cause (verses 6 and 13), but first he lingers over the human wreckage the fall has produced.
v.1How is the gold become dim! how is the most pure gold changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.
v.2This passage
v.3Even the jackals draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: The daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Lamentations 5:12
Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored.
- Jeremiah 22:28
Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? is he a vessel wherein none delighteth? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they know not?
- 2 Corinthians 4:7
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves;
- Romans 9:21
Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?
- Jeremiah 19:11
and shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury in Topheth, till there be no place to bury.
- Isaiah 51:18
There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand among all the sons that she hath brought up.
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