A New Perspective

In perek 4, we hear about the whole destruction in a new perspective. In the past few perakim, we heard about the destruction in an angry way. G-d was angry at the leaders, the people sinned, the enemies betrayed, Yerushalaim is angry with G-d. it was all about pain and destruction and anger. It was a rant on the destruction about how horrible G-d is and how He just released His wrath on the people. So far we have gone through the sadness, the anger and blame, the depression, finally the re-evaluation of the event, and now we are going to get to the new perspective.

In the first section of this perek, 1-10, it compares the before and after of the situation of the people. He starts off by saying the children used to be such golden people and now, look at them and see what they have become. The people who were once glorious are now cruel because the mothers are not feeding their children and they used to be so rich and now they are hunting in the garbage looking for food that they can eat. The narrator does mention the sins of the people. He says that the sins are even greater than the sins of the people in Sedom were. He recognizes that the causes of the starving children are all because of the sins. Things have become so bad to where the hands of the women who had once been so merciful, are now boiling their children to eat. The difference in the description of the starving children now is that he realizes that this is all happening because of the people sinning.

In the next section, 11-22, it talks about G-d's anger. This part of the perek starts strong in describing G-d's anger. it says that G-d's anger was great. People didn't believe that another nation could come and attack Yerushalaim. The sins of the leaders is what caused G-d to have to let the enemies come and attack. People are described as blind people who stumble through the streets. Other nations are calling them impure. The Kohanim allow the people to come into the Beit Hamikdash even when they are spiritually impure. The Neviim were supposed to be helping them see, but they were being false prophets who were not getting them to see. They were looking to other nations instead of G-d. The nations that they looked to for help, attacked them.

The narrator finishes up this section in a very odd way. He ends this section off with a sign of hope, that maybe it will get better in the future. In this section the narrator says  Bat Zion's punishment for sin is drawing to an end and the enemies sins will soon be recognized. This gives hope that it will get better and the enemies will be punished. Many times in the other perakim there is a call out for G-d to punish the enemies and for this destruction to end.

Perek 2 and 4 are very similar in the way that they describe the destruction, but also very different in their view of the destruction. In perek 4 there is a whole new perspective. The perspective is that everything that has happened is all because of the people and the leaders sinning. I think that finally since it was realized and fully said that it is understood that this is all happening because of G-d gave him the hope. I think that maybe the reason he is finally saying that the enemies will soon be punished is because of this new found hope. I think that all he needed was to show that he truly knows that it was his sins that are causing this and to reach out to G-d for the help that will get G-d to answer him and help by punishing the enemies too.