Bible Strands
Lamentations 4:22
O Daughter of Zion, your punishment is complete; He will not prolong your exile. But He will punish your iniquity, O Daughter of Edom; He will expose your sins.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses the Daughter of Zion and the Daughter of Edom immediately following the fall of Jerusalem. The declaration marks the termination of Zion’s exile and the commencement of judgment against Edom.
The words — תַּם (tam) literally means "it will finish" or "is complete," while פָּקַד (pa.Kad) translates to "he will punish" or "visit." These terms structurally separate Zion’s finished penalty from Edom’s unexpiated guilt.
The thread — The announcement of completed punishment for Zion parallels Isaiah 40:2, while the warning to Edom corresponds to the historical account in Psalms 137:7. Jeremiah 50:20 contrasts this by noting that Israel’s guilt will be searched for but found none, highlighting the distinction between Judah’s forgiveness and Edom’s condemnation.
Why it lands — The text establishes that divine justice operates on a fixed timeline: Zion’s suffering ends precisely when Edom’s iniquity is exposed. A reader must acknowledge that historical judgment follows a deliberate sequence rather than arbitrary reversal.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 40:2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned. For she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.”
- Psalms 137:7 Remember, O LORD, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!”
- Jeremiah 50:20 In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, a search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for Judah’s sins, but they will not be found; for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.
- Isaiah 52:1 Awake, awake, clothe yourself with strength, O Zion! Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, holy city! For the uncircumcised and unclean will no longer enter you.
- Isaiah 60:18 No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders. But you will name your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.
- Jeremiah 32:40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put My fear in their hearts, so that they will never turn away from Me.
- Jeremiah 33:8 And I will cleanse them from all the iniquity they have committed against Me, and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against Me.
- Jeremiah 46:27 But you, O Jacob My servant, do not be afraid, and do not be dismayed, O Israel. For I will surely save you out of a distant place, your descendants from the land of their captivity! Jacob will return to quiet and ease, with no one to make him afraid.
- Lamentations 4:6 The punishment of the daughter of my people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in an instant without a hand turned to help her.
- Lamentations 4:21 So rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz. Yet the cup will pass to you as well; you will get drunk and expose yourself.