Lamentations 4:12

all the inhabitants of the world an ordinary form of Eastern hyperbole, suggesting to their minds only the same notion as our every body, the obvious limitations being given by the sense in each case. The preaching of Isaiah, supported as it was by the overthrow of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:34 f.), led to the belief, in spite of Jeremiah's warnings, that Jerusalem could not be absolutely overthrown, a belief which the writer here evidently had shared. This circumstance of itself throws doubt upon Jeremiah's authorship of this book. Jerusalem's fortifications, in fact, had been much strengthened by Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:9), Jotham (ib. 2 Chronicles 27:3), and Manasseh (ib. 2 Chronicles 33:14).