NOTES for Lam 4:1-22
Repentance is not confined to turning to God, although turning to Him with a request that He intervene in the situation is its spiritual foundation. An equally important element of repentance, however, is recognizing the sin that led to the present situation. This is what the author of the book does, for example, when he recognizes that the exile is the consequence of crimes committed long before it, particularly the killing of the righteous mentioned in the book.
This may refer to the persecution that befell the followers of Isaiah of Jerusalem, and perhaps the prophet himself, during the reign of Manasseh. At that time the priestly elite did indeed take an active part in persecuting these people, and many of them were executed or simply killed without trial.
Yet before the exile no one had reflected on the persecution and bloodshed of that time as a crime; no one had recognized them as a sin requiring repentance. Of course, one cannot repent of a sin one has not personally committed; in this sense, descendants cannot repent before God for the sins of their ancestors, and God expects no such thing of them. But it is absolutely necessary to reflect on what happened and recognize it as sin, even for generations that had no part in those events. Yet in pre-exilic Jerusalem, no one gave serious thought to that persecution.
It seemed to belong to the distant past and was viewed simply as part of national history. Even the widespread conversion during Josiah's reign did not lead to recognition of Manasseh's persecutions as sin and crime. Living with unacknowledged sin does not necessarily mean repeating it, but it does mean inevitably committing new sins no better than the old ones. That is what happened during the reigns of Judah's last kings: the religious revival of Josiah's time gave way to widespread apostasy and national pride.
The overwhelming majority were certain that the people to whom they belonged were chosen, that God would protect His Temple, that Jerusalem was a holy city no enemy could enter, and that God's people were invincible by definition. It is hardly surprising that all this ended in a national catastrophe, both spiritual and military-political. God does not punish for sin: He simply steps aside wherever and whenever the sin people freely choose no longer leaves room for Him. The consequences of the sin being committed become the punishment, and they usually prove more than sufficient.