The desolations and A. M. cir: 3416. B. C. cir. 588. O1. XLVIII. 1. Tarquinii Prisci, R. Roman., cir. annum 29. d night, and her tears are on her desolate her priests sigh, her f she hath none to comfort her: in bitterness. A. M. cir. 3416. Ol. XLVIII. 1. Tarquinii Prisci, R. Roman., cir, annum 29. B. C. cir. 588. 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. all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. 3 Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: ishe dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest all her persecutors overtook her be- 6 And from the daughter of Zion all her tween the straits. beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer. 4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are d Job vii. 3; Psa. vi. 6. Jer. iv. 30; xxx. 14; ver. 19. Ver. 9, 16, 17, 21.- Jer. lii. 27. Heb. for the greatness of All these show that it was the ancient opinion that the Book of Lamentations was composed, not over the death of Josiah, but on account of the desolations of Israel and Jerusalem. The Arabic copies the Septuagint. The Syriac does not acknowledge it; and the Chaldee has these words only: "Jeremiah the great priest and prophet said." NOTES ON CHAP. I. Verse 1. How doth the city sit solitary] Sitting down, with the elbow on the knee, and the head supported by the hand, without any company, unless an oppressor near,—all these were signs of mourning and distress. The coin struck by Vespasian on the capture of Jerusalem, on the obverse of which there is a palmtree, the emblem of Judea, and under it a woman, the emblem of Jerusalem, sitting, leaning as before described, with the legend Judea capta, illustrates this expression as well as that in Isa. xlvii. 1. See the note on Isa. iii. 26, where the subject is farther explained. Become as a widow] Having lost her king. Cities are commonly described as the mothers of their inhabitants, the kings as husbands, and the princes as children. When therefore they are bereaved of these, they are represented as widows, and childless. The Hindoo widow, as well as the Jewish, is considered the most destitute and wretched of all human beings. She has her hair cut short, throws off all ornaments, eats the coarsest food, fasts often, and is all but an outcast in the family of her late husband. Is she become tributary!] Having no longer the political form of a nation; and the remnant that is left paying tribute to a foreign and heathen conqueror. Verse 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. Verse 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 two walls? Jer. lii. 7. 402 Verse 4. The ways of Zion do mourn] A fire 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 the Greeks and Romans have recourse to this image. So Moschus, in his Epitaph on Bion, ver. 1-3 Αιλινα μοι στοναχειτε ναπαι, και Δωριον ύδως Και ποταμοι κλαίοτε τον ἱμερόεντα Βιώνα. Νυν φυτά μοι μυρεσθε, και αλσεα νυν γοαοισθε, κ. τ.λ. "Ye winds, with grief your waving summits bow, Ye Dorian fountains, murmur as ye flow; From weeping urns your copious sorrows shed, And bid the rivers mourn for Bion dead. Ye shady groves, in robes of sable hue, Bewail, ye plants, in pearly drops of dew; Ye drooping flowers, diffuse a languid breath, And die with sorrow, at sweet Bion's death." FAWKES. So Virgil, Æn. vii., ver. 759 :— Te nemus Anguitiæ, vitrea te Fucinus unda "For thee, wide echoing, sighed th' Anguitian woods; Non ulli pastos illis egere diebus Frigida, Daphni, boves ad flumina : nulla neque amnem Libavit quadrupes, nec graminis attigit herbam. Daphni, tuum Pœnos etiam ingemuisse leones Interitum, montesque feri, sylvæque loquuntur. "The swains forgot their sheep, nor near the brink Of running waters brought their herds to drink : The thirsty cattle of themselves abstained From water, and their grassy fare disdained. The death of Daphnis woods and hills deplore; The Libyan lions hear, and hearing roar." DRYDEN. Verse 5. Her adversaries are the chief] They have now supreme dominion over the whole land." ( 26* ) B. C. cir. 588. Tarquinii Prisci, R. Roman., cir. annum 29. ་ miseries of Jerusalem. B. C. cir. 588. Ol. XLVIII. 1. Tarquinii Prisci, R. Roman., cir. annum 29. by? behold, and see if there be A. M. cir. 3416. с 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. O. XLVIII. 1. the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths. 8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward. 14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound 9 Her filthiness is in her skirts; she re- by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up membereth not her last end; therefore she upon my neck: he hath made my strength came down wonderfully: she had no com- to fall, the LORD hath delivered me into forter. O LORD, behold my affliction for the their hands, from whom I am not able to enemy hath magnified himself.rise up. t 10 The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her " pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation. W 11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat y to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile. 16 For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me my children are desolate, be 12 Is it nothing to you, all ye that a pass cause the enemy prevailed. Or, desirable; ver. 10.01 Kings viii. 46.- -P Heb. is become a removing, or wandering.- - Jer. xiii. 22, 26; Ezek. xvi. 37; xxiii. 29; Hos. ii. 10. Deut. xxxii. 29; Isa. xlvii. 7. Ver. 2, 17, 21.- - Ver. 7.-u Or, desirable.- - Jer. li. 51. Deut. xxiii. 3; Neh. xiii. 1. - Jer. xxxviii. 9; lii. 6; chap. ii. 12; iv, 4. Verse 7. Did mock at her Sabbaths.] batteha. Some contend that Sabbaths are not intended here. The Septuagint has κατοικεσία αυτής, “ her habitation;" the Chaldee, y al tubaha, "her good things;" the Syriac, 2 Si al toboroh, "her breach." The Vulgate and Arabic agree with the Hebrew. Some of my oldest MSS. have the word in the plural number, ¡nɔwn mishbatleyha, “her Sab--Blayney. baths." A multitude of Kennicott's MSS. have the same reading. The Jews were despised by the heathen for keeping the Sabbath. Juvenal mocks them on that account: Sat. v. cui septima quæque fuit lux Ignava et partem vitæ non attigit ullam. "To whom every seventh day was a blank, and formed not any part of their life." St. Augustine represents Seneca as doing the same :Inutiliter id eos facere affirmans, quod septimani ferme partem ætatis suæ perdent vacando, et multa in tempore urgentia non agendo lædantur. "That they lost the seventh part of their life in keeping their Sabbaths; and injured themselves by abstaining from the performance of many necessary things in such times." He did not consider that the Roman calendar and customs gave them many more idle days than God had pre 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. 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. 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 can loose it. Verse 15. Called an assembly] The Chaldean army, composed of various nations, which God commissioned to destroy Jerusalem. The desolations and A. M. cir. 3416. Ol. XLVIII.1. B. C. cir. 588. Ol. XLVIII. 1. Tarquinii Prisci, R. Roman., cir. annum 29. 17 Zion spreadeth forth her 20 Behold, O LORD; for I am A. M. cir. 3416. hands, and there is none to in distress: my I bowels are comfort her: the LORD hath com-troubled: mine heart is turned cir. annum 29. manded concerning Jacob, that within me; for I have grievously his adversaries should be round about him: Je- rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at rusalem is as a menstruous woman among them. home there is as death. m 18 The LORD is righteous; for I have righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity. 19 I called for my lovers, but they deceived me my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls. * Jer. iv. 31. Ver. 2, 9.- -m Neh. ix. 33; Dan. ix. 7, 14. 1 Sam. xii. 14, 15.- Heb. mouth.- -p Ver. 2; Jer. xxx. 14. 4 Ver. 11.- —Job xxx. 27; Isa. xvi. 11; Jer. iv. 19; xlviii. 36; 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, Lev. xv, 19-27. Verse 19. I called for my lovers] My allies; the Egyptians and others. WAR is Verse 20. Abroad the sword bereaveth] 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 pœnas dant sanguine Teucri ; "Not only Trojans fall; but, in their turn, Tended the sick, busiest from couch to couch; Shook." Jeremiah, chap. ix. 21, uses the same image:— Death is come up into our windows: 404 Mors graditur, vasto pandens cava guttura rictu, "Death stalks along, and opens his hideous throat to Verse 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. Verse 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 of thy righteousness, they are sure. For my sighs are many] My desolations continue; and my heart is faint-my political and physical strength almost totally destroyed. Imprecations in the sacred writings are generally to be understood as declarative of the evils they indicate; or, that such evils will take place. No prophet of God ever wished desolation on those against whom he was directed to prophesy. The enemies of Jerusalem CHAP. II. exult over her affliction. CHAPTER II. The prophet shows the dire effects of the Divine anger in the miseries brought on his country; the unparalleled calamities of which he charges, in a great measure, on the false prophets, 1–14. In this desperate condition, the astonishment and by-word of all who see her, Jerusalem is directed to sue earnestly for mercy and pardon, 15-22. A. cir. 3416. 588. B. C. Cir. 390. Ol. XLVIII. L. Tarquinii Prisci, R. Roman., B. C. cir. 588. cir, annum 29. HOW hath the LORD covered swallowed up Israel, he hath A. M. cir. 3416. the daughter of Zion with a swallowed up all her palaces: O. XLVIII. 1. cloud in his anger, and cast he hath destroyed his strong a R. Roman., Tarquinii Prisci, cir. annum 29. down from heaven unto the earth holds, and hath increased in the the beauty of Israel, and remembered not daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. his footstool in the day of his anger! 6 And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, a as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. d 2 The LORD hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof. 3 He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about. k h 4 He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all1 that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire. 5 m The LORD was as an enemy: he hath languished together. -c 1 Chron. xxviii. 2; chap. iii. 43.-e Heb. Psa. lxxiv. 11. 1 Ezek. xxiv. 25.- Ver. 4; Jer. xxx. 14.—n 2 Kings xxv. 9; Jer. lii. 13.—— Psa. lxxx. 12; lxxxix. 40; Isa. v. 5.— -p Or, Psa. hedge.- Isa. i. 8.- Chap. i. 4; Zeph. iii. 18.- Heb. Heb. all the desirable shut up.- Psa. lxxiv. 4.- u2 Kings xxi. 13; Isa. xxxiv. 11. v Heb. swallowing up. NOTES ON CHAP. II. Verse 1. How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud] The women in the eastern countries wear veils, and often very costly ones. Here, Zion is represented as being veiled by the hand of God's judgment. And what is the veil? A dark cloud, by which she is entirely obscured: Instead of Adonai, lord, twenty-four of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., and some of the most ancient of my own, read Yehovah, LORD, as in ver. 2. The beauty of Israel] His Temple. His footstool] The ark of the covenant, often so called. The rendering of my old MS. Bible is curious-And record not of his litil steging-stole of his feet, in the dai of his woodnesse. To be wood signifies, in our ancient language, to be mad. Verse 2. The Lord hath swallowed up] It is a strange figure when thus applied: but Jehovah is here represented as having swallowed down Jerusalem and all the cities and fortifications in the land: that is, he has permitted them to be destroyed. See ver. 5. strength. It is a metaphor taken from cattle, whose Verse 4. He hath bent his bow-he stood with his right hand] This is the attitude of the archer. 'He first bends his bow; then sets his arrow upon the string; and, lastly, placing his right hand on the lower end of the arrow, in connexion with the string, takes his aim, and prepares to let fly. "As it were Verse 6. As if it were of a garden] The Lord hath caused the solemn feasts] By delivering us up into the hands of the enemy our religious worship is not only suspended, but all Divine ordinances are destroyed. Verse 7. They have made a noise in the house of the Lord] Instead of the silver trumpets of the sanctuary, nothing but the sounds of warlike instruments are to be heard. Verse 8. He hatched out a line] The line of devastation; marking Verse 3. The horn of Israel] His power and demolished. was to be pulled down and The enemies of Jerusalem A. M. cir. 3416. Ol. XLVIII. 1. is great like the sea who can B. C. cir. 588. OL. XLVIII. 1. Tarquinii Prisci, 9 Her gates are sunk into the daughter of Zion? for thy breach A. M. cir. 3416. ground; he hath destroyed and w broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD. b 10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have • girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. с d h f e 11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. 12 They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom. 13 What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin i w Jer. li. 30.- - Deut. xxviii. 36; 2 Kings xxiv. 15; xxv. 7; chap. i. 3; iv. 20. -y 2 Chron. xv. 3. Psa. lxxiv. 9; Ezek. vii. 26.—— Job ii. 13; Isa. iii. 26; chap. iii. 28.—— Job ii. Isa. xv. 3; Ezek. vii. 18; xxvii. 31.-d Psa. vi. 7; chap. iii. 48, &c.- Chap i. 20.- Job xvi. 13; Psa. xxii. Ver. 19; chap. iv. 4.- hOr, faint.— Chap. i. 12; Dan. ix. 12. 12. 14. Verse 9. Her gates are sunk into the ground] The consequence of their being long thrown down and neglected. From this it appears that the captivity had already lasted a considerable time. Her king and her princes are among the Gentiles] Zedekiah and many of the princes were then prisoners in Babylon, another proof that the captivity had endured some time; unless all this be spoken prophetically, of what should be done. Verse 10. Sit upon the ground] See the note on chap. i. 1. Keep silence] No words can express their sorrows: small griefs are eloquent, great ones dumb. Verse 11. Swoon in the streets of the city.] Through the excess of the famine. R. Roman., cir. annum 29. 14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment. 16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it. 17 The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.. 18 Their heart cried unto the LORD, O * Jer. ii. 8; v. 31; xiv. 14; xxiii. 16; xxvii. 14; xxix. 8, 9; Ezek. xiii. 2.- Isa. lviii. 1.- in 1 Kings ix. 8; Jer. xviii. 16; Nah. iii. 19; Ecclus. xii. 18.- Heb. by the way. o Ezek. xxv. 6.-P2 Kings xix. 21; Psa. xliv. 14.9 Psa. W They did not reprove for sin; they flattered them in their transgressions; and instead of turning away thy captivity, by turning thee from thy sins, they have pretended visions of good in thy favour, and false burdens for thy enemies. Verse 15. The perfection of beauty] This probably only applied to the temple. Jerusalem never was a fine or splendid city; but the temple was most assuredly the most splendid building in the world. Verse 16. This is the day that we looked for] Jerusalem was the envy of the surrounding nations: they longed for its destruction, and rejoiced when it took place. Verse 17. The Lord hath done that] This and the sixteenth verse should be interchanged, to follow the Verse 12. When their soul was poured out into their order of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet; as the sixmothers' bosom.] When, in endeavouring to draw nou-teenth has phe for its acrostic letter, and the sevenrishment from the breasts of their exhausted mothers, they breathed their last in their bosoms! How dreadfully afflicting was this! |