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.
The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion - (Isaiah 40:2). Thou hast been punished enough; the end of thy punishment is at hand.
He will no more carry thee away into captivity - i:e., by the Chaldeans. The Romans carried them away subsequently. The full accomplishment of this prophecy must therefore refer to the Jews' final restoration. He will discover thy sins - by the severity of His punishments on thee.
O daughter of Edom - God shall let men see how great was thy sin (Jeremiah 49:10). God 'covers' sin when he forgives it (Psalms 32:1; Psalms 32:5). He "discovers" or 'reveals' it when he punishes it (Job 20:27). Jeremiah 49:10 shows that the margin is wrong, 'carry captive' (this rendering is as in Nahum 2:7, cf. margin, 'discovered').
Remarks:
(1) How sin can tarnish and dim the luster of "the most fine gold!" (Lamentations 4:1.) Even "the stones of the sanctuary" are not exempt from the ruinous powers of corruption. The most exalted powers of intellect, the most excellent gifts, personal and external, and even the greatest spiritual privileges, such as Judah and Jerusalem possessed, give no immunity from God's blasting wrath, when their favoured owners desecrate them in carnality instead of consecrating them to God. Since "the precious sons of Zion," designed to be vessels of the Lord, defile their "gold" in earthliness, it is but just that God should treat them as "earthen pitchers," and dash them to pieces as a potter's vessel (Lamentations 4:2).
(2) Men will not believe it possible that such judgments shall overtake the apostate world as the Scripture foretells, just as they "would not have believed that the adversary should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem" (Lamentations 4:12). Yet, as the latter has come to pass, and "a fire has devoured the foundations of Zion" (Lamentations 4:11), "for the sins of her prophets and her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her" (Lamentations 4:13), so shall the material sky "pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up" in the coming "day of the Lord;" for "the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men" (2 Peter 3:7; 2 Peter 3:10).
(3) When Israel polluted herself, she sunk to a depth of degradation below that of the very pagan. How humiliating it must have been to the religious pride of the Jews when even the Gentiles, from whose touch they had once shrunk as calculated to pollute them, now, in their turn, shrunk from the touch of the Jews, as from persons who had polluted themselves with blood (Lamentations 4:14). Wherever they went, the same repelling cry was addressed to them, "Depart, depart;" so that they wandered as the "blind" grope in the darkness (Lamentations 4:14), and could find no place of peaceful sojourn (Lamentations 4:15), no rest for the weary soles of their feet in their exile among the pagan (Lamentations 4:15). So when the Christian Church, or individual professors, debase themselves with spiritual uncleanness, the very world, whose favour they have courted at the cost of losing the favour of God, despise them.
(4) But an end is appointed by God's grace to the afflictions of Zion, when the punishment determined by God has been accomplished (Lamentations 4:22). Her enemies' rejoicing over her downfall shall soon cease, and their own lasting punishment shall ensue. Let us not be numbered among the latter, whose sins shall be 'discovered,' but rather with those whose transgression is forgiven, and whose sin is covered (Lamentations 4:22; Psalms 32:1). Let us grieve over Jerusalem in her present fallen state, and pray for her restoration; and let us see that, as the believing Israel of God spiritually, we minister to her the bread of life which God in Christ hath given so graciously to ourselves.