The Pulpit Commentary · Lamentations 第1章

Verse 1. - How. The characteristic introductory word of an elegy (comp. Isaiah 1:21; Isaiah 14:4, 12), and adopted by the early Jewish divines as the title of the Book of Lamentations. It is repeated at the opening of ch. 2 and ch. 4. Sit solitary. Jerusalem is poetically personified and distinguished from the persons who accidentally compose her population. She is "solitary," not as having retired into solitude, but as deserted by her inhabitants (same word as in first clause of Isaiah 27:10). How is she become as a widow! etc. Rather, She is become a widow that was great among the nations; a princess among the provinces, she is become a vassal. The alteration greatly conduces to the effect of the verse, which consists of three parallel lines, like almost all the rest of the chapter. We are not to press the phrase, "a widow," as if some. earthly or heavenly husband were alluded to; it is a kind of symbol of desolation and misery (comp. Isaiah 47:8). "The provinces" at once suggests the period of the writer, who must have been a subject of the Babylonian empire. The term is also frequently used of the countries under the Persian rule (e.g. Esther 1:1, 22), and in Ezra 2:1 and Nehemiah 7:6 is used of Judah itself. Here, however, the "provinces," like the "nations," must be the countries formerly subject to David and Solomon (comp. Ecclesiastes 2:8).

Verse 2. - In the night. Not only by day, but even in the season of rest and unconsciousness. Her lovers... her friends; i.e. the neighbouring peoples, with which Judah had formed alliances, such as Egypt (Jeremiah 2:36), Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon (Jeremiah 27:3). This is a favourite phrase of Jeremiah's (comp. Jeremiah 3:1; Jeremiah 4:30; Jeremiah 22:20, 22; Jeremiah 30:14), but also of Hosea (Hosea 2:5, 7, 10, 12, 13; Hosea 8:9) and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 16:33, 36, 37; 23:5, 9, 22). The national God was conceived of as the Husband of the nation; and the prophets retained this idea and elevated it, just as they did circumcision and many other Eastern traditions.

Verse 3. - Is gone into captivity because of affliction; rather, is gone into exile, etc. The poet is not thinking of the deportation of the captives, but of those Jews who sought refuge for themselves in foreign lands (comp. Jeremiah 40:11). An objection has been raised to this view that the number of fugitive Jews would not be large enough to warrant their being called "Judah." But we might almost as well object on a similar ground to the application of the term "Judah" to the Jews who were carried to Babylon. The truth may, perhaps, be that, after the fall of Jerusalem, the Jewish nation became split up into three parts:

(1) the Jews who succeeded in escaping into Egypt or elsewhere;

(2) those who were carried captive;

(3) the mass of the common people, who remained on their native soil, Keil, however, retains the view of the Authorized Version, only substituting "out of" for "because of." "Out of" the misery into which the Jews had been brought by the invasions of Necho and Nebuchadnezzar they passed into the new misery of captivity. Among the heathen; rather, among the nations. Between the straits. The phrase is peculiar, and reminds us of Psalm 118:5, "Out of the strait I called unto thee." "A strait," or narrow place, clearly means adversity, just as "a large place" (Psalm 118:5) means prosperity.

Verse 4. - The ways of Zion do mourn. The reads leading to Jerusalem, usually so thronged with pilgrims, are desolate and "mourn" (comp. ch. 2:8 and Isaiah 3:26; Isaiah 14:31). All her gates are desolate. No one goes in or out of Jerusalem, and there is no concourse of citizens in the shady recess of the gates. The virgins are afflicted. So Zephaniah 3:18. The sorrow was on account of the cessation of the festival, in the music of which they took a leading part (comp. Psalm 68:25).

Verse 5. - Are the chief; rather, are become the head. Comp. Deuteronomy 28:44, where, as a part of the curse of Israel's rebellion, it is foretold that "he [the stranger] shall become the head, and thou shalt become the tail." Before the enemy. Like a herd of cattle.

Verse 6. - Beauty; rather, glory. Like harts that find no pasture; and therefore have no strength left to flee. An allusion to the attempted flight of Zedekiah and his companions (Jeremiah 39:4, 5).

Verse 7. - Remembered; rather, remembereth. Miseries. The Hebrew is difficult, and perhaps means wanderings. At her sabbaths; rather, at her extinguishment. The word has nothing to do with the sabbaths; indeed, a reference to these would have been rather misplaced; it was no subject of wonder to the Babylonians that the Jews celebrated a weekly day of rest, as they had one of their own (sabattu).

Verse 8. - Therefore she is removed; rather, she is become an abomination (literally, an impurity; comp. Leviticus 15:19). The poet leaves out the preliminary clause, "therefore she is grievously punished." It was the humiliation of Jerusalem, rather than her sin, which brought upon her the contempt of her neighbours. The destruction of a city is often compared to the ill treatment of a defenceless woman (Isaiah 47:3; Nahum 3:5).

Verse 9. - She remembereth not, etc.; rather, she thought not upon, etc. An allusion to Isaiah 47:7. O Lord, behold, etc. This is the language in which the "sigh" (ver. 8) finds expression.

Verse 10. - Her pleasant things; or, her precious things; that is, the treasures of the palaces of Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 36:19), and still more those of the temple (2 Chronicles 36:10); comp. Isaiah 64:11). For she hath seen; rather, yea, she hath seen. The heathen entered, etc. In Deuteronomy 23:3 only the Ammonites and Moabites are excluded from religious privileges; but in Ezekiel 44:9 the prohibition is extended to all foreigners.

Verse 11. - All her people sigh, etc. The sufferings of Jerusalem did not come to an end at the capture of the city. Some think that this verse relates solely to the miserable survivors. This is possible; at any rate, it includes the contemporaries of the writer. "Sigh" and "seek" are participles in the Hebrew. To relieve the soul; literally, to bring back the soul. The "soul," i.e. the principle of life, is conceived of as having for a time deserted the fainting frame. See, O Lord, etc. Another piteous cry of Jerusalem, preparing the way for the second half of the elegy.

Verses 12-22. - The same subject; Jerusalem the speaker. Verse 12. - Is it nothing to you? The Hebrew is very difficult, and the translation therefore insecure. Keil, however, adopts a rendering very near that of the Authorized Version "(Cometh it) not unto you?" i.e. "Do ye not heed it?" Ewald supposes the phrase to be abbreviated from "Do I not call unto you?" (comp. Proverbs 8:4); but this would be a very harsh construction. The Septuagint has Οἱ πρὸς ὑμᾶς; the Targum, "I adjure you;" the Vulgate, O vos; - all apparently pronouncing lu instead of lo. At any rate, the object of the words is to heighten the force of the appeal which follows.

Verse 13. - Three figures - fire, a net, sickness, for the calamities which have come upon Jerusalem. From above; i.e. from heaven. Spread a net for my feet, as though I were a wild beast (comp. Jeremiah 18:22). Turned me back. The consequence of being entangled in the net was that he could go no further, but fell into the hands of his pursuers.

Verse 14. - Is bound...are wreathed. The transgressions of Jerusalem are likened to a heavy yoke. So numerous are they that they are said to be "wreathed," or twisted together, like ropes. Into their hands. The Hebrew has simply "into hands;" following a suggestion of the Septuagint. Budde would read, "Into the hands of adversaries."

Verse 15. - Hath trodden under foot; rather, hath rejected; i.e. hath punished. Comp. Psalm 119:118, 119, where "thou rejectest [same verb as here] all them that wander from thy statutes" is followed by "thou puttest away all the ungodly of the earth like dross," Hath called an assembly; rather, hath proclaimed a festival. When Jehovah summons the instruments of his vengeance, the prophets describe it as the "proclaiming a festival." The Persians or Chaldeans, as the case may be, obey the summons with a holy glee, and destroy the enemies of the true God (comp. Isaiah 13:3). Hath trodden, etc.; rather, hath trodden the winepress for (i.e. to the ruin of) the virgin daughter of Zion. The poet. carries on the figure of the festival. It is a vintage which is to be celebrated, such a vintage as is described in Isaiah 63:3 (comp. Joel 3:13). The choicest youth of Judah are to be cut off like grapes from the vine. "Virgin daughter" is a frequent figure to express inviolate security (so Jeremiah 14:17).

Verse 16. - For these things, etc. After the reflections of vers. 13-15, the poet gives vent anew to his bitter grief. Mine eye, mine eye. A repetition quite in Jeremiah's manner; comp. Jeremiah 4:19; Jeremiah 6:14 (repeated Jeremiah 8:11); Jeremiah 22:29; 23:25. The Septuagint and Vulgate, however, have "mine eye" only once. Relieve my soul (see on ver. 11).

Verse 17. - Again the poet passes into the tone of reflection, thus relieving the strain upon the feelings of the reader. Spreadeth forth her hands. The gesture of supplication and entreaty (comp. Psalm 28:2; Psalm 63:4; Isaiah 65:2). That his adversaries, etc.; rather, those who are about him are his adversaries. The neighbouring peoples, who ought to be sympathetic and friendly, gloat over the spectacle of his calamities. They both hate and (comp. ver. 8) despise the fallen city.

Verse 18. - People; render, peoples.

Verse 19. - For my lovers; render, to my lovers (see on ver. 2).

Verse 20. - My bowels. The vital parts, especially the heart, as the seat of the affections, like σπλάγχνα. Are troubled; literally, are made to boil. So Job 30:27, "My bowels boil" (a different word, however). Is turned; or, turns itself; i.e. palpitates violently. At home there is as death. So Jeremiah 9:21, "For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces." By "death," when distinguished, as here, from "the sword," pestilence is meant; so e.g. in Jeremiah 15:2; Jeremiah 43:11. But the poet says here, not that "there is death," but merely "as death," i.e. a mild form of pestilence, not the famine typhus itself. Or, perhaps, he means "every form of death" (Virgil's "plurima mortis imago").

Verse 21. - Thou wilt bring. The Hebrew has, "Thou hast brought;" it is the perfect of prophetic certitude, which represents an event certainly foreseen as if it had already taken place. Ewald, however, takes this to be the precative, a variety of the perfect which certainly exists in Arabic, but has not been quite satisfactorily shown to exist in Hebrew (see Driver, 'Hebrew Tenses,' § 20 [13]. The day that thou hast called; i.e. foretold by the prophets (comp. Jeremiah 25:17-26). But very probably we should read, with the Septuagint," Thou wilt bring the day; thou wilt call the fit time."

Verse 22. - For my sighs are many. This is not mentioned as the reason why God should punish Jerusalem's enemies; we ought rather to understand, either from ver. 20, "Behold, my distress;" or simply, "Deliver me."