THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH _Chronological notes relative to the Book of the Lamentations_ - Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3416. - Year of the Jewish era of the world, 3173. - Year from the Deluge, 1760. - First year of the _forty-eighth_ Olympiad. - Year from the bui... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Lamentations 1:2. _AMONG ALL HER LOVERS_] Her allies; her _friends_, instead of helping her, have helped her enemies. Several who sought her friendship when she was in prosperity, in the time of David and Solomon, are now among her enemies.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Lamentations 1:3. _BETWEEN THE STRAITS._] She has been brought into such difficulties, that it was impossible for her to escape. Has this any reference to the circumstances in which Zedekiah and the princes of Judah endeavoured to escape from Jerusalem, _by the way_ _of the gates between the t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Lamentations 1:4. _THE WAYS OF ZION DO MOURN_] A fine prosopopoeia. The ways in which the people trod coming to the sacred solemnities, being now no longer frequented, are represented as _shedding tears_; and the _gates_ themselves partake of the general distress. All poets of eminence among t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Lamentations 1:5. _HER ADVERSARIES ARE THE CHIEF_] They have now _supreme_ _dominion_ over the whole land.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 7. _DID MOCK AT HER SABBATHS._] משבתה _mishbatteha_. Some contend that _Sabbaths_ are not intended here. The _Septuagint_ has κατοικεσια αυτης, "her habitation;" the _Chaldee_, על טובהא al _tubaha_, "her good things;" the _Syriac_, [Syriac] _al toboroh_, "her breach." The _Vulgate_ and _Arabic... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 9. _SHE REMEMBERETH NOT HER LAST END_] Although evident marks of her pollution appeared about her, and the land was defiled by her sinfulness even to its utmost borders, she had no thought or consideration of what must be the consequence of all this at the last. - _Blayney_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 11. _THEY HAVE GIVEN THEIR PLEASANT THINGS_] Jerusalem is compared to a woman brought into great straits, who parts with her jewels and trinkets in order to purchase by them the necessaries of life.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 12. Is it _NOTHING TO YOU, ALL YE THAT PASS BY?_] The desolations and distress brought upon this city and its inhabitants had scarcely any parallel. Excessive abuse of God's accumulated mercies calls for singular and exemplary punishment.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 14. _THE YOKE OF MY TRANSGRESSIONS_] I am now tied and bound by the chain of my sins; and it is so _wreathed_, so _doubled_ and _twisted_ round me, that I cannot free myself. A fine representation of the miseries of a penitent soul, which feels that nothing but the pitifulness of God's mercy c... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 15. _CALLED AN ASSEMBLY_] The Chaldean army, composed of various nations, which God commissioned to destroy Jerusalem.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 17. _ZION SPREADETH FORTH HER HANDS_] Extending the hands is the form in supplication. _JERUSALEM IS AS A MENSTRUOUS WOMAN_] To whom none dared to approach, either to help or comfort, because of the law, Leviticus 15:19-3.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 19. _I CALLED FOR MY LOVERS_] My allies; the _Egyptians_ and others.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 20. _ABROAD THE SWORD BEREAVETH_] WAR is through the _country; and at home death_; the pestilence and famine rage in the city; calamity in every shape is fallen upon me. _Virgil_ represents the calamities of Troy under the same image: - ______ Nec soli poenas dant sanguine Teucri: Quondam e... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Lamentations 1:21. _THEY HAVE HEARD THAT I SIGH_] My affliction is public enough; but no one comes to comfort me. _THEY ARE GLAD THAT THOU HAST DONE_ it] On the contrary, they exult in my misery; and they see that THOU hast done what _they_ were incapable of performing. _THOU WILT BRING THE... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Lamentations 1:22. _LET ALL THEIR WICKEDNESS COME BEFORE THEE_] That is, Thou wilt call their crimes also into remembrance; and thou wilt do unto them by siege, sword, famine, and captivity, what thou hast done to me. Though thy judgments, because of thy long-suffering, are slow; yet, because... [ Continue Reading ]