The Lamentations of Jeremiah
Lamentations 1
Chapter I · Vol. III, pp. 1305–1306
1 The miserable estate of Jerusalem by reason of her sin. 12 She complaineth of her grief, 18 and confesseth God's judgments to be righteous.
1 How doth the city asit solitary, that bwas full of people! how is she become cas a widow! she that was dgreat1 among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become etributary!
2 She gweepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; hamong all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.
3 Judahi is gone into captivity, because of affliction, and because of great2 servitude; jshe dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all kher persecutors overtook her between the straits.3
i Je.39.9; 52.15,27-30.
2 Heb. for the greatness of.
j ch.2.9. Le.26.36-39. De.28.64-67. Is.48.22.
3 The sense is that the invading armies penetrated all the mountain fastnesses—the ravines and glens which lead up to Jerusalem, and there attacked and overcame the poor affrighted Jews. When Zedekiah and a few of his troops attempted to escape from the besieged city, they were pursued down the ravine of the Kidron, and captured in the plain of Jericho. Thus 'her persecutors overtook her between the straits.—P.
4 Thel ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate; nher priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
l Je.14.2. Mi.3.12. ch.5.18;2.6,7. Eze.7.20-22.
n ver.11,12,16,18-20; ch.2.10,11,18,19,21; 3.1-19.
5 Hero adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper: for pthe LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: qher children are gone into captivity before the enemy.
o De.28.43,44. Je.xxxix.lii.; 12.1. Job 12.6. ch.2.17.
p Le.26.14-39. De.28.15-68. Is.i.-v.ix.lix. Je.ii.-xxiii. Eze.iii.-xxiv. Mi.i.-iii.vi.vii. Zep.i.-iii. Je.23.14. Da.9.7,11,12,16. Je.30.14,15;52.28.
q Je.52.27-30;39.9.
6 And from the daughter of Zion rall her beauty is departed: sher princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
7 Jerusalem tremembered, in the days of her affliction and of her miseries, all her pleasant4 things that she had in the days of old, when heru people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries vsaw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.
4 Or, desirable, ver.10. Ex.xii. to Jos.xxiv. 1 Ch.xii. to 2 Ch.xxxv.
8 Jerusalemx hath grievously sinned; ytherefore she is removed:5 all that honoured her, despise her, because zthey have seen her nakedness; yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.
9 Hera filthiness is in her skirts; she bremembereth not her last end; therefore she ccame down wonderfully: dshe had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction; for the enemy hath magnifiede himself.
10 The adversary ghath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant6 things: for she hath seen that hthe heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that ithey should not enter into thy congregation.
11 All her people sigh, jthey seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul:7 see,k O LORD, and consider; for I am lbecome vile.
A.M. cir. 3416. B.C. cir. 588.
j ver.19; ch.2.12; 4.4-10. Je.38.9; 52.6; 10.9. De.28.52-57. 2 Ki.6.25.
7 Or, make the soul to come again.
k Ps.25.15-19. ver.20; ch.2.20; 3.45-54. 1 Co.4.13.
l Job 40.4.
12 Is it8 nothing to you, all ye that pass by?9 behold, and see if nthere be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
13 From oabove hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: phe hath spread a net for my feet; he hath turned me back; qhe hath made me desolate and faint all the day.
14 Ther yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand; they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck; he hath made my strength to fall; the Lord shath delivered me into their hands, from whom tI am not able to rise up.
15 The Lord uhath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me; he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord vhath trodden the 1virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a wine-press.2
u Ps.119.118. Is.28.18. 2 Ki.24.14-16; 25.4,18-21. Je.4.11;25.9. Ho.9.13. Zep.1.7,8.
v Is.63.3. Re.14.19,20; 19.15, with Je.13.14;18.17.
1 Or, the winepress of the virgin, &c.
2 Every metaphor calculated to impress the eastern mind with the idea of utter subjection, intense suffering, and humiliating punishment, is here employed by the prophet, to show how fully the divine judgments had been poured out on Israel. In ver. 13 inflammation of the bone is the emblem of the extreme mental anguish; in ver. 14 the yoke on the neck indicates slavery; in ver. 15 the treading in the wine-press shows the crushing tyranny to which the people were exposed by their triumphant oppressors.—P.
16 Forx these things I weep: mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve3 my soul is far from me: ymy children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.
17 Zionz spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: athe LORD hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be bround about him: Jerusalem is cas a menstruous woman among them.
z Je.4.31. ver.2,9,19,21.
a ver.5,10; ch.2.1,8,17,22. 2 Ki.24.2-4. Am.3.6. Je.6.3-6;16.16.
b Ho.8.8.
c Le.15.19-27. Eze.36.17. Je.50.7.
18 Thed LORD is righteous; for eI have rebelled against his commandment:4 hear,g I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: hmy virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
d Da.9.7,14. Ne.9.33. Ps.119.75,137; 145.17.
e Ps.107.11. Da.9.5-11. Is.59.1-15;24.5; 5.1-25. Eze.xvi.xxii.xxiii.
4 Heb. mouth.
g ver.12. De.29.22-28. Je.22.8,9. ch.4.12.
h ver.5,6. De.28.41.
19 Ii called for my lovers, but they deceived me; jmy priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls.5
i Je.2.28;30.14; 14.13-16. ver.2. Job 19.13-19.
j ver.11. Je.15.2,3;16.4. ch.4.1.
5 Reference is here made to the great straits to which all classes of the people, high and low, rich and poor alike, were exposed during the siege. History establishes the facts here and elsewhere mentioned in the sacred writings.—P.
20 Behold,k O LORD, for I am in distress; lmy bowels are troubled: mine heart is turned within me: nfor I have ogrievously rebelled: pabroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.
21 Theyq have heard that I sigh; there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they rare glad that thou hast done it: sthou wilt bring the day6 that thou hast called,7 and they shall be tlike unto me.
q ver.12,18,16,17,19,9.
A.M. cir. 3416. B.C. cir. 588.
r Ps.38.16; 40.15; 35.15. Eze.25.3,6. ch.2.15?.
s Is.xiii.-xxi.xxiii.xlvi.xlvii. Je.xlvi.-li. Eze.xxv.-xxxii., &c. Ps.37.13. Pr.24.16.
6 The day of retribution upon the enemies of Jerusalem, who rejoice in her overthrow.—C.
7 Or, proclaimed.
t ch.4.21,22. Ps.137.8,9. Je.51.24,49. Mi.7.9,10.
Notes
Ver. 13, 14. By his devouring judgments he has consumed all our strength. He has entangled us so that we cannot escape. He has most furiously debased and destroyed us and all that we had. The punishment and bondage which we undergo for our sins, are bound so fast on us that we cannot shake them off: and our sufferings are so twisted together that we cannot break through them and escape.
Ver. 1. How doth the city sit solitary! When Jerusalem was taken by Titus Vespasian, the Roman emperor had a coin struck, upon which is a palm-tree, the emblem of Judea, and beneath it a solitary woman, the emblem of Jerusalem, sitting with her head leaning sadly upon her hand, with the legend, 'Judea capta.'—How is she become as a widow! Deprived of her earthly king, who is a captive, and rejected, and outcast from her God,—a widow indeed; for 'her Maker was her husband,' Is. 54. 5.—How hath she become tributary! First to Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt, and now to the emperor of Babylon. C.
Ver. 3. Because of great servitude. As a punishment for her sins in not emancipating her slaves. See Je. 34. 17; Ne. 5. 1-13. And O that slave-holding nations, called Christian, would take warning from the recorded judgments of the slave-holding Jews! C.
Ver. 7. Did mock at her sabbaths. The offence of the Sabbath is not its existence;—for all nations are willing to keep days of rest and festival. Its offence is its strictness, and its religious separation from all unnecessary secular employments and vain amusements. And it is well worthy of remark, that in every effort made for the 'better observance of the Lord's-day,' which is the 'Christian Sabbath,' a system of 'mocking' similar to that of the days of Jeremiah has uniformly been employed as one of the chief weapons of libertine opposition. C.
Ver. 11. Their pleasant things. Their jewels, to which the civilized nations of the East are strongly attached, either as personal ornaments or family relics, and with which they will not part unless in the last extremity of hunger. C.
Ver. 12. All ye that pass by. An appeal to all travellers, whether those who originally visited, or continue to visit, the actual ruins of Jerusalem and Judea, or to those who read at a distance the account of these ruins, either as matter of curiosity, historic research, or prophetical illustration. The parable of the traveller, Lu. 10. 30, who lay plundered, wounded, and half-dead, while the priest, the chief official of mercy, only glances at him, and 'passes by on the other side;' and the Levite, the priest's subordinate agent, 'comes and looks upon him,' and then, like his superior, also 'passes by on the other side,' forms an apt illustration of the grounds of this complaint; and, alas! too true a picture of the cold-blooded charity of the world—a charity which Christianity has done much to vitalize; but which still comes far short of the glory of the living God. C.
Ver. 21. They are glad, &c. To be indifferent to the calamity of strangers, careless about relieving friends, and joyous at the fall and distress of enemies, are some of the most common and most decided symptoms of the 'desperate wickedness' of the carnal and unrenewed heart. C.
Reflections.—Alas! how great is the desolation when God withdraws and we are deprived of a magistracy or ministry. Great is the slavery, the sorrow, the contempt, the poverty to which sin brings men. And what neglect, profanation, and derision of everything sacred it occasions! If we wilfully depart from God, the rest of our soul, we must not hope to find rest in anything else. And all afflictions are doubly heavy when we apprehend them coming from an incensed God. Affluence abused is the ready way to pining want: and cruel oppression of others prepares the like misery for ourselves. When sins become numerous and notorious, it is proper that God should rise to punish them. And amidst desolating judgments, nothing is more painful to gracious souls than the violation and contempt of God's ordinances, and the loss of those comforts which they once enjoyed in him and his favours. But it is a mercy that we may apply to him in hope, when all our friends forsake us, and our enemies abuse us. And it is doubly bitter if he then keeps himself at a distance.—But if comforts be withdrawn, children murdered, friends turn enemies or be buried in death, if sword, famine, and pestilence devour, or if enemies insult, it is but the just punishment of our iniquities. No fiery judgments devour, no entangling providences befall, no servitude or misery crushes, but what are all framed out of our own transgressions. Let us therefore always justify God, and blame ourselves: and the more that created friends, confidences, and comforts disappoint us, let us the more earnestly supplicate his favour. A praying heart and a prayer-hearing God will quickly produce the destruction of our enemies and our own deliverance. And after he has glorified himself in our corrections, he will magnify himself in the tremendous ruin of our destroyers.