Rashi, on Lam 1:17

“Phe. Sion hath spread forth her hands, there is none to comfort her: the Lord hath commanded against Jacob, his enemies are round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them.”

“Zion spreads out her hands Heb. פֵּרְשָּׂה. Like (Isa. 25:11): “And he shall spread out (וּפֵרַשּׂ) his hands in his midst,” like a person who moves his hands to and fro and demonstrates his pain with them. Another explanation is: Zion broke, an expression of breaking, like (Lam. 4:4): “no one breaks it for them”; (Jer. 16:7): “and they shall not break [bread] (יִפְרְסוּ) for them in mourning,” to console him for his dead [kinsman]. So did Menachem classify it (Machbereth Menachem p. 146). And in the language of the Mishnah (Ber. 37a), the broken piece of bread (פְּרוּסָה) is intact. And it means that Zion was in pain like a person who clasps his hands and breaks them. I found an addendum. the Lord has commanded concerning Jacob that his adversaries shall be round about him He commanded concerning Jacob that his adversaries would surround him. Even when they were exiled to Babylon and to Assyria, Sennacherib exiled their enemies, Ammon and Moab, and settled them beside them, and they taunted them, as is stated in Tractate Kiddushin (72a): Humania was in Babylon, entirely occupied by Ammonites. an outcast Heb. לְנִדָה, for an outcast and a disgrace.”

Hebrew and Aramaic words are the commentator’s citations of the sacred text; the English translation that follows each is the translator’s.

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.