John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Lamentations 4 The prophet begins this chapter with a complaint of the ill usage of the dear children of God, and precious sons of Zion, Lamentations 4:1; relates the dreadful effects of the famine during the siege of Jerusalem, Lamentations 4:3; the taking and destruction of that city he imputes to the wrath of God; and represents it as incredible to the kings and inhabitants of...
John Gill
Their visage is blacker than a coal,.... Or, "darker than blackness"; or, "dark through blackness" (y); by reason of the famine, and because of grief and trouble for themselves and their friends, which changed their complexions, countenances, and skins; they that looked before as pure as snow, as white as milk, as clear as pearls, as polished as sapphire, now as black as charcoal, as blackness...
Matthew Henry
This chapter is another single alphabet of Lamentations for the destruction of Jerusalem, like those in the first two chapters. I. The prophet here laments the injuries and indignities done to those to whom respect used to be shown, ver. 1, 2. II. He laments the direful effects of the famine to which they were reduced by the siege, ver. 3-10. III. He laments the taking and sacking of Jerusalem...