Charles Ellicott Commentary


Charles Ellicott Commentary
"For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were laid upon her." — Lamentations 4:6 (ASV)
The punishment of the iniquity. —Better, The iniquity of the daughter of my people was greater than the sin of Sodom. The words in both cases point to guilt rather than its penalty, though, as the context shows, the greatness of the former is inferred from that of the latter. The point of comparison was that Sodom was not doomed to a protracted misery, like that which had been the lot of Jerusalem.
No hands stayed on her ... —Literally, no hands went round about her: i.e., her destruction was the direct work of God, and not of human agents, with their more merciless tortures. (Compare to 2 Samuel 24:14.) This main thought is also reflected in Matthew 10:15; Matthew 11:24.