_How doth the city sit solitary_ The short history of the desolations of the Jewish nation, contained in the fifty-second chapter of Jeremiah, formerly stood as a preface to the Lamentations; but, instead of it, the Greek and Latin copies have a short introduction, which may be thus translated: “And... [ Continue Reading ]
_She weepeth sore in the night_ In the Hebrew, according to the idiom of that language, it is, _Weeping she weepeth_, which our old English version renders, _She weepeth continually._ The expression, _in the night_, is interpreted by some to signify her condition was so unhappy that, though oppresse... [ Continue Reading ]
_Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction_, &c. Her miseries have received their finishing stroke in a total captivity among, and bondage to, heathen and infidels, because of the oppression exercised by her rulers and others, and the servitude to which they obliged their subjects and infer... [ Continue Reading ]
_The ways of Zion do mourn_ The highways leading to Zion, which used to be thronged with people going to the solemn feasts before the Lord, now, as it were, mourned on account of no persons travelling in them for that purpose. _All her gates are desolate_ The gates of Jerusalem, or of the temple: fe... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jerusalem remembered in her affliction and misery._ The word מרודים, here rendered _misery_, frequently signifies _banishment_ and _captivity._ The LXX. render it απωσμων, _rejections_, or _expulsions; all her pleasant things_ All her former riches and glory, and the various benefits she enjoyed fr... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jerusalem hath grievously sinned_ Hebrew, חשׂא חשׂאה, _in sinning hath sinned_, or _hath sinned sin:_ that is, sinned wilfully and deliberately; hath sinned that sin which of all others is the abominable thing which the Lord hates, the sin of idolatry. The sins of Jerusalem, which makes such a prof... [ Continue Reading ]
_The adversary hath_ Or rather, _did, spread his hand upon all her pleasant things_ Hebrew, מחמדיה, _her desirable things_, namely, her riches, and what else she most desired to preserve. _She hath seen the heathen entered into her sanctuary_, &c. She saw heathen nations, whom thou hadst forbidden e... [ Continue Reading ]
_Is it nothing to you?_ &c. The Vulgate reads this clause without an interrogation, thus: _O vos omnes qui transitis per viam attendite, videte_, &c. _O all ye, who pass by the way, observe, see_, &c. Lowth also and Blaney prefer reading it in a similar way; the former thus: _O all ye that pass by;_... [ Continue Reading ]
_From above hath he sent fire into my bones_ Calamities as consuming and as afflictive as fire in the bones. _He hath spread a net for my feet_ Hath brought me into a most miserable condition, in which I am so entangled that I cannot extricate myself nor escape from it. Thus the prophet teaches Jeru... [ Continue Reading ]
_Zion spreadeth forth her hands_ She extendeth her hands as a suppliant praying for relief and consolation. _And there is none to comfort her_ None who can, or are even inclined to do it. _The Lord hath commanded_, &c. That is, it came to pass by God's command, that the surrounding nations were the... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled_, &c. He does me no wrong in dealing thus with me, nor can I charge him with any injustice. Observe, reader, whatever the troubles are which God is pleased to inflict upon us, we must own that in them he is righteous: we neither know him nor ourselves, if... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress_ Take cognizance of my case, and use such means for my relief as thou pleasest. It is a matter of comfort to us, that the troubles which oppress our spirits are perfectly known to God, and that his eye is continually upon them. _Abroad the sword bereaveth, at ho... [ Continue Reading ]
_They have heard that I sigh_ The nations contiguous to me, Egypt and others, that before pretended to be my friends and allies, have been no strangers to my bitter afflictions, which have forced sighs from me; _but there is none to comfort me_ None of them can or will relieve my distress, but aband... [ Continue Reading ]