This poem Lamentations 2 also divides itself like Lamentations 1 into two nearly equal portions; in Lamentations 2:1, the prophet describes the punishment which has fallen upon Zion; Lamentations 2:11 are a lamentation and a prayer.... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW ... - Or, “How” doth “אדני _'ădonāy_ cover.” He hath east down etc. By God’s footstool seems to be meant the ark. See Psalms 99:5 note.... [ Continue Reading ]
HABITATIONS - The dwellings of the shepherds in the pastures Jeremiah 49:19. These are described as swallowed up by an earthquake, while the storm itself throws down the fortified cities of Judah. POLLUTED - i. e. profaned it, made common or unclean what before was holy.... [ Continue Reading ]
Since the horn is the symbol of power, the cutting off of every horn means the depriving Israel of all power of resistance. The drawing back of God’s right hand signifies the withdrawal of that special Providence which used to protect the chosen people. AND HE BURNED ... - Or, “and” he kindled a fi... [ Continue Reading ]
HE STOOD WITH HIS RIGHT HAND ... - i. e. that right hand so often stretched out to help now grasped a weapon ready for Judah’s destruction. WERE PLEASANT - Or, was “pleasant.” Put full stop after “eye.” Begin the third distich thus: IN THE TABERNACLE - (or, tent) of the daughter of Zion.... [ Continue Reading ]
Literally, אדני _'ădonāy_ has become “as an enemy.”... [ Continue Reading ]
TABERNACLE - Or, covert Jeremiah 25:38, i. e. such a tent of boughs as was put up at the Feast of Tabernacles. The words mean, “the Lord hath (as) violently destroyed His booth. as a man might tear down a shed in “a garden.”” Compare Isaiah 1:8. HIS PLACES OF THE ASSEMBLY - Or, “His great festivals”... [ Continue Reading ]
SANCTUARY - The holy of holies; “the walls of her palaces” are those of the sacred buildings.... [ Continue Reading ]
A LINE - Compare Isaiah 34:11. The destruction is systematic and thorough.... [ Continue Reading ]
HER GATES ARE SUNK INTO THE GROUND - So completely destroyed, that one might suppose they had been swallowed up in an abyss. HER KING - The prophet’s lamentation, occupied before chiefly with the buildings of the city and temple, now turns to the people, beginning with their temporal rulers. THE L... [ Continue Reading ]
TROUBLED - See the margin reference note. LIVER - As the heart was regarded by the Jews as the seat of the intellect, so the liver (or bowels) was supposed to be the seat of the emotions. The pouring out of the liver upon the ground meant that feelings had entirely given way under the acuteness of... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SAY - Or, “They keep saying:” it was an oft-repeated cry, even while expiring upon their mother’s bosom.... [ Continue Reading ]
EQUAL - i. e. “compare.” Zion’s breach, i. e. her destruction, is measureless, like the ocean.... [ Continue Reading ]
THY PROPHETS HAVE SEEN VAIN AND FOOLISH THINGS FOR THEE - The Septuagint and Vulgate give the true meaning, “stupidity” (see Jeremiah 23:13 note). TO TURN AWAY THY CAPTIVITY - The right sense is, “They have not disclosed to thee thy sins, that so thou mightest repent, and I might have turned away t... [ Continue Reading ]
Compare the scene round the cross of the Redeemer Matthew 27:39.... [ Continue Reading ]
SEEN IT - Omit “it.” The intensity of the enemy’s exultation is shown by the heaping up of unconnected words. We have found what we sought, have seen what we looked for.... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT WHICH HE HAD DEVISED - Or, what he purposed. Zion’s ruin was the fulfillment of God’s determination, of which they had been forwarned from the days of old (see the margin reference). FULFILLED - Or, finished.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR HEART - That of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The prophet bids the wall, as the representative of the people who had dwelt secure under its protection, shed floods of tears on their behalf. Broken up by the enemy, it could be their guardian no longer, but by its ruins it might still cry unto t... [ Continue Reading ]
IN - (or at) the beginning of the watches “At the beginning of each night-watch” means all the night through. The Hebrews divided the night into three watches.... [ Continue Reading ]
The sense is: “See, Yahweh, and look! whom hast Thou treated thus? Shall women eat their fruit - children whom they must still carry?” the swaddled child being one still needing to be nursed and borne in their arms.... [ Continue Reading ]
Omit “them” and “and,” which weaken the intensity of the passage.... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST CALLED AS IN A SOLEMN DAY - i. e. “Thou” callest “like a feast day,” i. e. like the proclaiming of a festival. MY TERRORS ROUND ABOUT - The prophet’s watch-word (Jeremiah 6:25 note). God now proclaims what Jeremiah had so often called out before, “Magor-missabib.” On every side were conqu... [ Continue Reading ]