Lamentations 1:13

From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day. FROM ABOVE HATH HE SENT FIRE INTO MY BONES - a fire which not only consumes the skin and flesh, but penetrates even to my bones - i:e., my vital powers. IT PREVAILETH AGAINST THEM - not as Rosenmuller: 'He (Yahweh) hath broken them;' a sense not in the Hebrew. HE HATH SPREAD A NET FOR MY FEET - (Ezra. 12:13 ). Image from hunting wild beasts. He has so entangled me in His judgments that I cannot escape. HE HATH TURNED ME BACK - so that I cannot go forward, and get free from His meshes. [Nun (n)]...

The Prophet proceeds with the same subject, that God’s vengeance had raged most dreadfully agsinst Jerusalem. But employing a metaphor she says, that _fire _had been sent to her _bones_. They who interpret bones of fortified places, weaken the meaning of the Prophet. I take bones in their proper sense, ss though it was said, that God’s fire had penetrated into the inmost parts. This way of speaking often occurs in Scripture. By bones is denoted strength or valor. Hence David sometimes deplored, that his bones were vexed or troubled. (Psalms 6:2.) And Hezekiah said in his song “As a lion he hath broken my bones.” (Isaiah 37:13.) In the same sense the Prophet now says, that _fire _had been _sent by God, which ruled in his bones_, that is, which not only burnt the skin and the flesh, but also consumed the bones....

12-22 Jerusalem, sitting dejected on the ground, calls on those that passed by, to consider whether her example did not concern them. Her outward sufferings were great, but her inward sufferings were harder to bear, through the sense of guilt. Sorrow for sin must be great sorrow, and must affect the soul. Here we see the evil of sin, and may take warning to flee from the wrath to come. Whatever may be learned from the sufferings of Jerusalem, far more may be learned from the sufferings of Christ. Does he not from the cross speak to every one of us? Does he not say, Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Let all our sorrows lead us to the cross of Christ, lead us to mark his example, and cheerfully to follow him....

The lamentation of the city, personified as a woman in grief over her fate. Lamentations 1:13 IT PREVAILETH - Or, hath subdued. HE HATH TURNED ME BACK - Judaea, like a hunted animal, endeavors to escape, but finds every outlet blocked by nets, and recoils from them with terror and a sense of utter hopelessness. Lamentations 1:14 BOUND BY HIS HAND - As the plowman binds the yoke upon the neck of oxen, so God compels Judah to bear the punishment of her sins. THEY ARE WREATHED, AND ... - Or, they are knotted together, “they come up” etc. Judah’s sins are like the cords by which the p

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

FROM ABOVE HATH HE SENT FIRE INTO MY BONES,.... Which the Targum interprets of her fortified cities, towns, or castles; as Jerusalem, more especially the temple, and the palaces of the king and nobles in it; which, though burnt by the fire of the Chaldeans, yet, this being according to the determination and by the direction of the Lord, is said to be sent from above, from heaven; so that they seemed to be as it were struck with lightning from heaven; unless it should be thought rather to be understood of the fire of divine wrath, of which the people of the Jews had a quick sense, and was like a burning fever in them: AND IT PREVAILS AGAINST THEM; or "it" z; that is, the fire prevails against or rules over everyone of the bones, to the consumption of them: or rather, "he rules over it" a; that is, God rules over the fire; directs it, and disposes of it, according to his sovereign will an...

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

See introductory note. Zion, as at the end of the previous _v_., now speaks....

II. A LAMENT BY THE CITY Lamentations 1:12-22 In Lamentations 1:12-22 the lonely, tearful widow takes up her lament. She appeals to passers-by to take note of the incomparable agony of Zion (Lamentations 1:12-16). She appeals to neighboring nations to help her in her hour of need (Lamentations 1:17-19). She then appeals to God to execute His vengeance upon the mocking enemies (Lamentations 1:20-22). A. The Appeal to Passers-by...