Lamentations 1:5

Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. HER ADVERSARIES ARE THE CHIEF - rule her (, "The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high, and thou shalt come down very low. He shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail"). HER ENEMIES PROSPER; FOR THE LORD HATH AFFLICTED HER FOR THE MULTITUDE OF HER TRANSGRESSIONS. All the foes' attempts must have failed, had not God delivered His people into their hands (). [Waw (w)]...

He first says that her enemies _had become the head_; and by this expression he doubtless means power; and this way of speaking he borrowed from Moses, for these are his words, “Thou shalt be the head and not the tail, in a high place, not obscure.” (Deuteronomy 28:13.) He then says, that _enemies were the head_, that is, ruled over them. And the opposite of that is to be understood, even that they had become the tail, that is, were under the feet as it were of their enemies. And he says that her enemies had _acted successfully_, even _because Jehovah had afflicted her_. He here laments after the common practice, as ungodly men are wont to do; but he mixes instruction with his mourning, and shews that God, in a state of things so turbulent and confused, appeared as a righteous judge. He then recalled them to the consideration of God’s han

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 Lamentations 1:5. _HER ADVERSARIES ARE THE CHIEF_] They have now _supreme_ _dominion_ over the whole land....

ARE THE CHIEF ... PROSPER - Or, “are become the head”... are at rest. Judaea is so entirely crushed that her enemies did not need to take precautions against resistance on her part. CHILDREN - i. e. “young children,” who are driven before the enemy (literally the adversary), not as a flock of lambs which follow the shepherd, but for sale as slaves....

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

HER ADVERSARIES ARE THE CHIEF,.... Or, "for the head" n; or are the head, as was threatened, Deuteronomy 28:44; and now fulfilled; the Chaldeans having got the dominion over the Jews, and obliged them to be subject to them: HER ENEMIES PROSPER; in wealth and riches, in grandeur and glory; live in ease and tranquillity, enjoying all outward felicity and happiness; while Zion was in distress; which was an aggravation of it; and yet this was but righteous judgment: FOR THE LORD HATH AFFLICTED HER; who is righteous in all his ways: the Chaldeans were but instruments; the evil was from the Lord, according to his will and righteous determination, as appears by what follows: FOR THE MULTITUDE OF HER TRANSGRESSIONS: HER CHILDREN ARE GONE INTO CAPTIVITY BEFORE THE ENEMY; that is, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea were carried c

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

ARE THE CHIEFS ARE THE HEAD. Reference to Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 28:13; Deuteronomy 28:44), the same word. App-92. THE LORD. Hebrew. _Jehovah._ App-4. transgressions. rebellions. Hebrew. _pasha'_. App-44. CHILDREN. young children, as in Lamentations 2:11; Lamentations 2:19; Lamentations 2:20, and Lamentations 4:4. Not "sons"....