Lamentations 1:21

They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me. THEY ARE GLAD THAT THOU HAST DONE IT - because they thought that therefore Judah is irretrievably ruined (, where Nebuzaradan says, "Now the Lord hath brought it, and done according as he hath said"). THOU WILT BRING THE DAY THAT THOU HAST CALLED - (but) thou wilt bring on them the day of calamity which thou hast announced-namely, by the prophets (Jeremiah 50:1; ). THEY SHALL BE LIKE UNTO ME - in calamities,...

The verb שמעו, _shemou_, is put down twice, but at the beginning without a nominative case: hence the sentence is defective, until in the second clause the word איבי _aibi_, is expressed. Jeremiah evidently says, that enemies had _heard _of the evils under which the people labored, even that they were _sighing_, and that no one showed them any kindness; for it is commonly the case that sympathy is manifested towards the miserable. By this circumstance he amplifies the grievousness of their punishment, there being no one, as before said, to administer any consolation. But it is repeated, that _enemies _had _heard_; for as there is nothing more bitter than reproaches, we seek in adversities to withdraw ourselves in a manner from the observation of men; but our evil is especially doubled, when we become a spectacle to enemies; for they derive joy from our adversities, and then exult over

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....

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 DAY_ THAT _THOU HAST CALLED, AND THEY SHALL BE_ _LIKE UNTO ME._] Babylon shall be visited in her turn; and thy judgments poured out upon her shall equal her state with my own. See the last six chapters of the preceding prophecy for the accomplishment of this prediction....

THEY HAVE HEARD ... - Or, “They heard that I sigh,” that I have “no comforter.” THOU WILT BRING THE DAY ... - literally, thou hast brought “the day thou hast proclaimed, and they shall be like unto me.” The day of Judah’s punishment was the proof that the nations now triumphing over Jerusalem’s fall would certainly be visited....

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

THEY HAVE HEARD THAT I SIGH: [THERE IS] NONE TO COMFORT ME,.... That is, the nations, as the Targum; the neighbouring ones, those that were her confederates and allies; the same with her lovers, as before, as Aben Ezra observes; these being near her, knew full well her sorrowful and distressed condition, being as it were within the hearing of her sighs and groans; and yet none of them offered to help her, or so much as to speak a comfortable word to her: ALL MINE ENEMIES HAVE HEARD OF MY TROUBLE; not only her friends, but foes; meaning the Tyrians, Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites, and as the following description of them shows; for it must design others from the Chaldeans, that were the immediate cause of it: THEY ARE GLAD THAT THOU HAST DONE [IT]; brought all this ruin and destruction on Jerusalem, which could never have been done, if the Lord had not willed it; and at this the abov...

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

THE DAY: i.e. the day of vengeance of Jeremiah 25:17....