4:21–22 Amid the seeming hopelessness of Judah’s pitiful situation the prophet provides a ray of hope as he closes out this poem with a dramatic shift. Returning to the first-person singular, the prophet addresses both Edom and Zion in his own voice, juxtaposing the destiny of both nations. The vocative address to the “daughter of Edom” forms an inclusio, with the vocative address to the “daughter of Zion” assuming the center. Verse 21 begins in sarcasm, as the prophet issues a command to Edom to “rejoice and be glad.” The words grate on the ears and strain the eyes, given that the book is otherwise full of lament. Thus far the calls for divine retribution have remained general and unspecific (1:21–22; 3:60–66), but now the prophet singles out a particular nation. Although Babylon is the unnamed but obvious aggressor in the book, Edom is chosen here presumably because she represents the epitome of betrayal that Judah had experienced. Of all the nations that Judah looked to in vain for help to save it (4:17), Edom represented its best hope, given Edom’s fraternal relation to Judah (cf. Genesis 36). The nations were, in effect, “twins.” And yet Esau-Edom did violence against his brother, Jacob-Judah, betraying it into the hands of the Babylonians (Obad. 10).

Lamentations 4:21 is thus one of the main retributive texts in the OT. The “cup” stands as a metaphor for the wrath of God (cf. Pss. 60:3; 75:8; Isa. 51:17; Jer. 25:15–17; Ezek. 23:32–34; Obad. 16). The imagery here is that of the cup’s being passed from one lady nation to another. The “drinking” leads to drunkenness and “bare” nakedness, the same root word for Judah’s nakedness in Lamentations 1:8. In 4:22 the “punishment” of Zion’s “iniquity” is matched with Edom’s “iniquity” that God will “punish,” and God’s promise to keep Zion “in exile” (Hb. galah) no longer is matched by his “uncovering” (galah) Edom’s sins. The exact juxtaposing of the terms reveals the final divine reversal in the chapter.

The ray of hope for Judah, however, does not simply arise from Edom’s receiving what it inflicted. If that were the case, there would be no real hope, since the people of Zion would remain in exile. Rather, the hope arises not only in the promise of Edom’s future punishment but also in the fact that Judah’s punishment is “accomplished.” The verb tamam may also be translated “complete, finish” or “come to end, cease.”106 The point is clear: Judah’s punishment is finished, done, completed, ended. As the parallel line in the bicolon states, God will keep the nation in exile no longer. The verse correlates with the beautiful words that open the second half of Isaiah’s magnificent prophecy of hope to exiled Israel:

    Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

    Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

    and cry to her

    that her warfare is ended,

    that her iniquity is pardoned,

    that she has received from the Lord’s hand

    double for all her sins. (Isa. 40:1–2)