Lamentations 1:11

All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile. ALL HER PEOPLE SIGH, THEY SEEK BREAD - (; , "There is no more bread in the city;" 52:6, "The famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land"). THEY HAVE GIVEN THEIR PLEASANT THINGS FOR MEAT - (, "There was a great famine in Samaria; and ... they besieged it, until an ass' head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver;" , "Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life"). TO RELIEVE THE SOUL -...

The Prophet here complains that all the citizens of Jerusalem were constantly groaning through want and famine. He first says, that _all were sighing_. The word “people” is collective, and hence he uses the plural number, נאנחיםץ , _nanechim_. Then he says that they were all sighing; but he expresses also the reason, because they were _seeking bread_. To seek bread is indeed common to all; but by this word he intimates extreme want., as though he had said, that they begged their bread. He then compares them to beggars, who go about here and there to seek bread. He says also, that they _gave the most precious things for meat_, to _recover the soul. _Here he refers more clearly to famine, for he says that in a manner they suffered want. Others render the last clause, “to refresh the soul,” which is not unsuitable. But the Prophet no doubt meant to denote a deficiency as to the support of l...

1-11 The prophet sometimes speaks in his own person; at other times Jerusalem, as a distressed female, is the speaker, or some of the Jews. The description shows the miseries of the Jewish nation. Jerusalem became a captive and a slave, by reason of the greatness of her sins; and had no rest from suffering. If we allow sin, our greatest adversary, to have dominion over us, justly will other enemies also be suffered to have dominion. The people endured the extremities of famine and distress. In this sad condition Jerusalem acknowledged her sin, and entreated the Lord to look upon her case. This is the only way to make ourselves easy under our burdens; for it is the just anger of the Lord for man's transgressions, that has filled the earth with sorrows, lamentations, sickness, and death....

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....

SIGH ... SEEK - Are sighing ... are seeking. The words are present participles, describing the condition of the people. After a siege lasting a year and a half the whole country, far and near, would be exhausted. TO RELIEVE THE SOUL - See the margin, i. e. to bring back life to them. They bring out their jewels and precious articles to obtain with them at least a meal....

EXPOSITION LAMENTATIONS 1:1 A WAIL OF DISTRESS FOR JERUSALEM. LAMENTATIONS 1:1, LAMENTATIONS 1:2 The fate of Jerusalem is described in language which resembles here and there that used in Isaiah of fallen Babylon (Isaiah 47:1, Isaiah 47:8). It is probably the finest passage in the whole bock, and has inspired some grand lines in Mr. Swinburne's picture of

ALL HER PEOPLE SIGH,.... Not her priests only, Lamentations 1:4; but all the common people, because of their affliction, particularly for want of bread. So the Targum, "all the people of Jerusalem sigh because of the famine;'' for it follows: THEY SEEK BREAD; to eat, as the Targum; inquire where it is to be had, but in vain: THEY HAVE GIVEN THEIR PLEASANT THINGS FOR MEAT TO RELIEVE THE SOUL: or, "to cause the soul to return" x; to fetch it back when fainting and swooning away through famine; and therefore would give anything for food; part with their rich clothes, jewels, and precious stones; with whatsoever they had that was valuable in their cabinets or coffers, that they might have meat to keep from fainting and dying; to refresh and recruit their spirits spent with hunger: see, O Lord, and consider; f

CHAPTER 1 JERUSALEM'S GREAT DESOLATION AND THE SORROW OF HIS PEOPLE The chapter begins with an outburst of grief over Jerusalem's desolation. Once she was a populous city; now she is solitary. Once she was great among the nations, like a princess among provinces, and now she is widowed. Then in the next verse we hear her weeping; she weeps all night long; none is there to comfort her; her friends have turned against her, they have become her enemies. She was disobedient to her Lord, she rejected His Word, she gave up her holy place as His separated people and now “she findeth no rest.” The Lord's hand is upon her for the multitude of her transgressions. The hopeful note we find in Lamentations 1:8. Here is confession of her guilt and shame; here is humiliation and appeal to the Lord on account of the enemy. “See, O LORD, and behold; for I am become vile.” Such humiliation and

LAMENTATIONS 1. THE FIRST LAMENT. This is an alphabetical acrostic poem in twenty-two stanzas of three lines each, with five Heb. beats in each line. It has two equal parts: Lamentations 1:1 (Aleph to Kaph), the singer's account of Zion's sorrows, and Lamentations 1:12 (Lamedh to Tau), a soliloquy thereon by the city herself. In detail: Lamentations 1:1 tells of a Zion once populous, now widowed; her nights full of weeping, unconsoled by former lovers who are now all faithless. The people have migrated, to escape taxings (note that they are not exiled, as had been the case in 586 B.C.), but even abroad they are harried; no pilgrims are thronging the roads, as they had been wont to do in the day

SOUL. Hebrew. _nephesh._ App-13....