4:7–8 These verses continue with the impact on the upper class in
the community: “her princes” (cf. Deut. 33:16). The deterioration is now framed
in terms of shriveling complexion and skin. The healthy colors of complexion
for the elite (white, red, and sapphire, likened to snow and milk, coral, and
sapphire, respectively) are changed to a color blacker than soot. The idea is
that princes in their palaces were protected from the damaging and darkening
effects of the sun compared to the working peasants and begging poor in the
streets. But now, since the princes are thrust into the streets to scavenge for
food like the rest of the people (cf. Lam. 4:5), the elite are exposed to the
same elements and so lose their healthy color and complexion (v. 7). Their
faces become darker than soot, so that they are no longer recognized by the
lower class; while their bodies waste for want of food, their skin shrivels on
their bones until their limbs look like dried wood. How the ruddy have fallen!
“Neither wealth nor health survive the ravages of starvation by siege.” (Jonathan
Gibson, “Lamentations,” in Isaiah-Ezekiel, ed. Iain M. Duguid, James M.
Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar [ESV Expository Commentary 6; Wheaton, Ill.:
Crossway, 2022], 879)
