Lamentations 4
Lamentations 4 is the fourth chapter of the Book of Lamentations in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, part of the Ketuvim ("Writings"). This book contains the elegies of the prophet Jeremiah. In this chapter, Zion mourns her misery and confesses her sins (); great miseries are recorded: women killed their own children (), the sins of the false prophets and priests (); the king was taken prisoner (). In the final verses, Edom is threatened, but is Zion comforted (). Text. The original text was written in Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 22 verses. The  chapter is acrostic, divided into 22 stanzas or verses. The stanzas consist of triplets of lines, each beginning with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in regular order (twenty-two in number). Textual versions. Some early witnesses for the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes Codex Leningradensis (1008). Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls including 5Q6 (5QLam; 50 CE) with extant verses 5‑8, 11‑16, 19‑22; and 5Q7 (5QLam; 30 BCE‑50 CE) with extant verses 17‑20. There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the  Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B; formula_1; 4th century), Codex Alexandrinus (A; formula_1; 5th century) and Codex Marchalianus (Q; formula_1; 6th century). Verse 3. "Daughter" in the Hebrew text but "daughters" in the Septuagint. Verses 16–17. In , two initial letters, "Ayin" and "Pe", are transposed. This is found is three instances in the whole book (Lamentations 2:16–17; 3:46–51; and here). Grotius thinks the reason for the inversion of two of the Hebrew letters, is that the Chaldeans, like the Arabians, used a different order from the Hebrews ; in the first Elegy (chapter), Jeremiah speaks as a Hebrew, in the following ones, as one subject to the Chaldeans, but Fausset thinks it is doubtful.