“Bringing someone to his senses is censure, which makes one think. And he does not abstain from this form of instruction either, but says by Jeremiah, "How long shall I cry, and you not hear? So your ears are uncircumcised." O blessed forbearance! And again, by the same: "All the heathen are uncircumcised, but this people is uncircumcised in heart," "for the people are disobedient children," he says, "in whom faith does not exist." … Bewailing one's fate is latent censure and artfully helps to bring salvation, albeit under stealth. He made use of this by Jeremiah: "How did the city sit solitary that was full of people! She that ruled over territories became as a widow; she came under tribute; weeping, she wept in the night." … In the end, the system God pursues to inspire fear is the source of salvation. And it is the prerogative of goodness to save: "The mercy of the Lord is on all flesh, while he reproves, corrects and teaches as a shepherd does his flock. He pities those who receive his instruction and those who eagerly seek union with him." … "For according to the greatness of his mercy, so is his rebuke." For it is indeed noble not to sin, but it is good also for the sinner to repent, just as it is best to be always in good health but well to recover from disease. So he commands by Solomon, "Strike your son with the rod, that you may deliver his soul from death." And again, "Do not abstain from chastising your son but correct him with the rod, for he will not die." For reproof and rebuke, as also the original term implies, are the stripes of the soul, chastising sins, preventing death and leading to self-control for those who are out of control.… And so we, too, who in our lives are sick with shameful lusts and reprehensible excesses and other inflammatory effects of the passions, need the Savior. And he administers not only mild but also stringent medicines. The bitter roots of fear then arrest the eating sores of our sins. This is why fear is also salutary, if bitter. Sick, we truly stand in need of the Savior; having wandered, of one to guide us; blind, of one to lead us to the light; thirsty, "of the fountain of life, of which whoever partakes shall no longer thirst"; dead, we need life; sheep, we need a shepherd; we who are children need a tutor, while universal humanity stands in need of Jesus; so that we may not continue intractable and sinners to the end and thus fall into condemnation but may be separated from the chaff and stored up in the paternal garner.”

“O how...remained lonely Jeremiah wrote the Book of Lamentations. This is the scroll that Jehoiakim burned on the brazier that was on the fire (sic). It [originally] contained three alphabetical acrostics (Lam. ch. 1): “O how...remained,” (ch. 2) “How...brought darkness,” (ch. 4) “How dim...has become,” and he added to it, (ch. 3) “I am the man,” which contains three alphabetical acrostics, as it is said (Jer. 36:32): “and there were yet added to them many words like those,” three corresponding to three. lonely solitary, devoid of her inhabitants. populous Heb. רַבָּתִי עָם, great of people. The “yud” is superfluous, like רַבַּת עָם, for her people were many. There are many Aggadic midrashim [on this verse], but I have come to explain the language of the Scripture according to its literal meaning. She has become like a widow but not really a widow; rather, like a woman whose husband went abroad and intends to return to her.”

“City. David had conquered many. Jerusalem was long considered as the finest city in those parts. — Tributary. It had been so to the Assyrians, Egyptians, and Chaldeans, 4 Kings xxiv. 1. From this and similar passages, it would seem that the city was still existing: yet in others it appears to have been demolished. Here then the prophet declares what it had been: (Calmet) unless he wrote part after the death of Josias. (Haydock) — The beholders are astonished at the change and misery of the city. (Worthington)”

“Doleful consideration and description of the dishonour that has befallen Jerusalem. In these verses the prophet, in the name of the godly, pours out his heart before the Lord. The dreadful turn that things have taken is briefly declared in Lam 1:1 in two clauses, which set forth the fall of Jerusalem from its former glory into the depths of disgrace and misery, in such a way that the verse contains the subject unfolded in the description that follows. We have deviated from the Masoretic pointing, and arranged the verse into three members, as in the succeeding verses, which nearly throughout form tristichs, and have been divided into two halves by means of the Athnach; but we agree with the remark of Gerlach, "that, according to the sense, היתה למס and not היתה כּאלמנה is the proper antithesis to רבּתי בגּוים." איכה is here, as in Lam 2:1; Lam 4:1-2, an expression of complaint mingled with astonishment; so in Jer 48:17; Isa 1:21. "She sits solitary" (cf. Jer 15:17) is intensified by "she has become like a widow." Her sitting alone is a token of deep sorrow (cf. Neh 1:4), and, as applied to a city, is a figure of desolation; cf. Isa 27:10. Here, however, the former reference is the main one; for Jerusalem is personified as a woman, and, with regard to its numerous population, is viewed as the mother of a great multitude of children. רבּתי is a form of the construct state, lengthened by Yod compaginis, found thrice in this verse, and also in Isa 1:21, elegiac composition; such forms are used, in general, only in poetry that preserves and affects the antique style, and reproduces its peculiar ring. (Note: On the different views regarding the origin and meaning of this Yod compaginis, cf. Fr. W. M. Philippi, Wesen u. Ursprung des Status constr. im Hebr. S. 96ff. This writer (S. 152ff.) takes it to be the remnant of a primitive Semitic noun-inflexion, which has been preserved only in a number of composite proper names of ancient origin e.g., מלכּיחדק, etc.]; in the words אב, אח, and חם, in which it has become fused with the third radical into a long vowel; and elsewhere only between two words standing in the construct relation see Ges. 90; Ewald, 211.) According to the twofold meaning of רב (Much and Great), רבּתי in the first clause designates the multiplicity, multitude of the population; in the second, the greatness or dignity of the position that Jerusalem assumed among the nations, corresponding to the שׂרתי במּדינות, "a princess among the provinces." מדינה, from דּין (properly, the circuit of judgment or jurisdiction), is the technical expression for the provinces of the empires in Asia (cf. Est 1:1, Est 1:22, etc.), and hence, after the exile, was sued of Judah, Ezr 2:1; Neh 7:6, and in Kg1 20:17 of the districts in the kingdom of Israel. Here, however, המּדינות are not the circuits or districts of Judah (Thenius), but the provinces of the heathen nations rendered subject to the kingdom of Israel under David and Solomon (corresponding to הגּויים), as in Ecc 2:8. Jerusalem was formerly a princess among the provinces, during the flourishing period of the Jewish kingdom under David and Solomon. The writer keeps this time before his mind, in order to depict the contrast between the past and present. The city that once ruled over nations and provinces has now become but dependent on others. מס (the derivation of which is disputed) does not mean soccage or tribute, but the one who gives soccage service, a soccager; see on Exo 1:11 and Kg1 4:6. The words, "The princess has become a soccager," signify nothing more than, "She who once ruled over peoples and countries has now fallen into abject servitude," and are not (with Thenius) to be held as "referring to the fact that the remnant that has been left behind, or those also of the former inhabitants of the city who have returned home, have been set to harder labour by the conquerors." When we find the same writer inferring from this, that these words presuppose a state of matters in which the country round Jerusalem has been for some time previously under the oppression of Chaldean officers, and moreover holding the opinion that the words "how she sits..." could only have been written by one who had for a considerable period been looking on Jerusalem in its desolate condition, we can only wonder at such an utter want of power to understand poetic language.”

“She weeps, yea, she weeps weeping twice over the two destructions. in the night for the Temple was burned at night, as the master said (Ta’an. 29a): “At eventide, they ignited the fire upon it.” Another explanation: because of the night—the night of the weeping of the Spies on the ninth of Av caused it to happen to them (Lam. Rabbah ms. 1:178, Targum, Sanh. 104b, Ta’an. 29a). Another explanation: in the night—for whoever weeps at night, the one who hears his voice weeps along with him (Lam. Rabbah 1:24, Sanh. ad loc.). and her tears are on her cheek since she weeps constantly. all her friends those who love her.”

“in the night--even in the night, the period of rest and oblivion of griefs (Job 7:3). lovers . . . friends--the heathen states allied to Judah, and their idols. The idols whom she "loved" (Jer 2:20-25) could not comfort her. Her former allies would not: nay, some "treacherously" joined her enemies against her (Kg2 24:2, Kg2 24:7; Psa 137:7).”

“In this sorrow of hers she has not a single comforter, since all her friends from whom she could expect consolation have become faithless to her, and turned enemies. בּכו תבכּה, "weeping she weeps," i.e., she weeps very much, or bitterly, not continually (Meier); the inf. abs. before the verb does not express the continuation, but the intensity of the action Gesenius, 131, 3, a; Ewald, 312]. בּלּילה, "in the night," not "on into the night" (Ewald). The weeping by night does not exclude, but includes, weeping by day; cf. Lam 2:18. Night is mentioned as the time when grief and sorrow are wont to give place to sleep. When tears do not cease to flow even during the night, the sorrow must be overwhelming. The following clause, "and her tears are upon her cheek," serves merely to intensify, and must not be placed (with Thenius) in antithesis to what precedes: "while her sorrow shows itself most violently during the loneliness of the night, her cheeks are yet always wet with tears (even during the day)." But the greatness of this sorrow of heart is due to the fact that she has no comforter, - a thought which is repeated in Lam 1:9, Lam 1:16, Lam 1:17, and Lam 1:21. For her friends are faithless, and have become enemies. "Lovers" and "friends" are the nations with which Jerusalem made alliances, especially Egypt (cf. Jer 2:36.); then the smaller nations round about, - Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, and Phoenicians, with which Zedekiah had conspired against the king of Babylon, Jer 27:3. Testimony is given in Psa 137:7 to the hostile dealing on the part of the Edomites against Judah at the destruction of Jerusalem; and Ezekiel (Eze 25:3, Eze 25:6) charges the Ammonite and Tyrians with having shown malicious delight over the fall of Jerusalem; but the hostility of the Moabites is evident from the inimical behaviour of their King Baalis towards Judah, mentioned in Jer 40:14.”

“Judah went into exile from her land. and great servitude with which the Chaldeans burdened her. she settled among the nations and in the place where she was exiled and settled she found no rest. between the boundaries where there is a high place on either side, and there is no place to flee. the boundaries Heb. הַמְצָרִים, the boundaries of fields and vineyards. The Midrash Aggadah (Lam. Rabbah 1:29) explains: between the seventeenth of Tammuz and the ninth of Av.”

“(Jer 52:27). because of great servitude--that is, in a state "of great servitude," endured from the Chaldeans. "Because" is made by VATABLUS indicative of the cause of her captivity; namely, her having "afflicted" and unjustly brought into "servitude" the manumitted bond-servants (Jer 34:8-22). MAURER explains it, "Judah has left her land (not literally 'gone into captivity') because of the yoke imposed on it by Nebuchadnezzar." no rest-- (Deu 28:64-65). overtook her between . . . straits--image from robbers, who in the East intercept travellers at the narrow passes in hilly regions.”

“With Lam 1:3 begins the specific account of the misery over which Jerusalem sorrows so deeply. Judah has gone into exile, but she does not find any rest there among the nations. "Judah" is the population not merely of Jerusalem, but of the whole kingdom, whose deportation is bewailed by Jerusalem as the mother of the whole country. Although יהוּדה designates the people, and not the country, it is construed as a feminine, because the inhabitants are regarded as the daughter of the land; cf. Ewald, 174, b [and Gesenius, 107, 4, a]. 'מעני וגו has been explained, since J. D. Michaelis, by most modern expositors (Rosenmller, Maurer, Ewald, Thenius, Ngelsbach), and previously by Calvin, as referring to the cause of the emigration, "from (because of) misery and much servitude;" and in harmony with this view, גּלתה יהוּדה has been understood, not of the deportation of Judah into exile, but of the voluntary emigration of the fugitives who sought to escape from the power of the Chaldeans by fleeing into foreign countries, partly before and partly after the destruction of Jerusalem. But this interpretation neither agrees with the meaning of the words nor the context. Those fugitives cannot be designated "Judah," because, however numerous one may think they were, they formed but a fraction of the inhabitants of Judah: the flower of the nation had been carried off to Babylon into exile, for which the usual word is גּלה. The context also requires us to refer the words to involuntary emigration into exile. For, in comparison with this, the emigration of fugitives to different countries was so unimportant a matter that the writer could not possibly have been silent regarding the deportation of the people, and placed this secondary consideration in the foreground as the cause of the sorrow. מעני is not to be taken in a causal sense, for מן simply denotes the coming out of a certain condition, "out of misery," into which Judah had fallen through the occupation of the country, first by Pharaoh-Necho, then by the Chaldeans; and רב עבדה does not mean "much service," but "much labour." For עבדה does not mean "service" (=עבדוּת), but "labour, work, business," e.g., עבדת המּלך, "the service of the king," i.e., the service to be rendered to the king in the shape of work (Ch1 26:30), and the labour connected with public worship (Ch1 9:13; Ch1 28:14, etc.); here, in connection with עני, it means severe labour and toil which the people had to render, partly for the king, that he might get ready the tribute imposed on the country, and partly to defend the country and the capital against those who sought to conquer them. Although Judah had wandered out from a condition of misery and toil into exile, yet even there she found no rest among the nations, just as Moses had already predicted to the faithless nation, Deu 28:65. All her pursuers find her בּין המּצרים, inter angustias (Vulgate). This word denotes "straits," narrow places where escape is impossible (Psa 116:3; Psa 118:5), or circumstances in life from which no escape can be found.”

“In the early days of the church, all was well. The present elaborate, far-fetched and artificial treatment of theology had not made its way into the schools of divinity, but playing with pebbles that deceive the eye by the quickness of their changes or dancing before an audience with varied and effeminate contortions were looked on as all one with speaking or hearing of God in a way unusual or frivolous. But since the Sextuses and Pyrrhos, and the antithetic style, like a dire and malignant disease, have infected our churches, and babbling is reputed culture, and, as the book of the Acts says of the Athenians, we spend our time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. O, what Jeremiah will bewail our confusion and blind madness; he alone could utter lamentations befitting our misfortunes.The beginning of this madness was Arius (whose name is derived from frenzy). He paid the penalty of his unbridled tongue by his death in a profane spot, brought about by prayer not by disease, when he like Judas burst asunder for his similar treachery to the Word. Then others, catching the infection, organized an art of impiety and, confining Deity to the Unbegotten, expelled from Deity not only the Begotten but also the proceeding one, and honored the Trinity with communion in name alone or even refused to retain this for it. Not so that blessed one who was indeed a man of God and a mighty trumpet of truth: but being aware that to contract the three persons to a numerical unity is heretical and the innovation of Sabellius, who first devised a contraction of Deity; and that to sever the three persons by a distinction of nature is an unnatural mutilation of Deity; he both happily preserved the unity, which belongs to the Godhead, and religiously taught the Trinity, which refers to personality, neither confounding the three persons in the unity nor dividing the substance among the three persons but abiding within the bounds of piety by avoiding excessive inclination or opposition to either side.”

“"Call for the mourning women," the prophet Jeremiah says. In no other way can the burning heart cool down, swelling as it is with its affliction, unless it relieves itself by sobs and tears.… You have heard certain mournful and lamenting words of Jeremiah that he used to mourn Jerusalem as a deserted city and how among other expressions of passionate grief he added this, "The ways of Zion do mourn." These words were uttered then, but now they have been realized. For when the news of our calamity shall have been spread abroad, then will the ways be full of mourning crowds and the sheep of his flock will pour themselves forth and like the Ninevites utter the voice of lamentation, or, rather, will lament more bitterly than they. For in their case their mourning released them from the cause of their fear, but with these no hope of release from their distress removes their need of mourning. I know, too, of another utterance of Jeremiah, which is reckoned among the books of the Psalms. It is that which he made over the captivity of Israel. The words run thus: "We hung our harps on the willows and condemned ourselves as well as our harps to silence." I make this song my own. For when I see the confusion of heresy, this confusion is Babylon. And when I see the flood of trials that pours in on us from this confusion, I say that these are "the waters of Babylon by which we sit down and weep" because there is no one to guide us over them. Even if you mention the willows, and the harps that hung there, that part also of the figure shall be mine. For, in truth, our life is among willows, the willow being a fruitless tree, and the sweet fruit of our life having all withered away. Therefore we have become fruitless willows, and the harps of love we hung on those trees are idle and the strings no longer vibrate. "If I forget you, O Jerusalem," he adds, "may my right hand be forgotten." Suffer me to make a slight alteration in that text. It is not we who have forgotten the right hand but the right hand that has forgotten us; and the "tongue has cleaved to the roof of" his own "mouth" and barred the passage of his words, so that we can never again hear that sweet voice. But let me have all tears wiped away, for I feel that I am indulging more than is right in this sorrow for our loss.Our Bridegroom has not been taken from us. He stands in our midst, although we see him not. The Priest is within the holy place. He has entered into that within the veil, where our forerunner Christ has entered for us. He has left behind him the curtain of the flesh. No longer does he pray to the type or shadow of the things in heaven, but he looks on the very embodiment of these realities. No longer through a glass darkly does he intercede with God, but face to face he intercedes with him; and he intercedes for us and for the "negligences and ignorances" of the people. He has put away the coats of skin, no need is there now for the dwellers in paradise to wear such garments as these; but he wears the clothing that the purity of his life has woven into a glorious dress. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death" of such an individual, or rather it is not death but the breaking of bonds, as it is said, "You have broken my bonds asunder." Simeon has been allowed to leave. He has been freed from the bondage of the body. The "snare is broken, and the bird has flown away." He has left Egypt behind, this material life. He has crossed not this Red Sea of ours but the black, gloomy sea of life. He has entered on the land of promise and holds lofty conversations with God on the mountain. He has loosed the sandal of his soul, that with the pure step of thought he may set foot on that holy land where there is the vision of God. Having therefore this consolation, you who are conveying the bones of our Joseph to the place of blessing should listen to the exhortation of Paul: "Do not mourn as others who have no hope."”

“Zion (i.e., Jerusalem, as the holy city) is laid waste; feasts and rejoicing have disappeared from it. "The ways of Zion" are neither the streets of Jerusalem (Rosenmller), which are called חוּצות, nor the highways or main roads leading to Zion from different directions (Thenius, who erroneously assumes that the temple, which was situated on Moriah, together with its fore-courts, could only be reached through Zion), but the roads or highways leading to Jerusalem. These are "mourning," i.e., in plain language, desolate, deserted, because there are no longer any going up to Jerusalem to observe the feasts. For this same reason the gates of Zion (i.e., the city gates) are also in ruins, because there is no longer any one going out and in through them, and men no longer assemble there. The reason why the priests and the virgins are here conjoined as representatives of the inhabitants of Jerusalem is, that lamentation is made over the cessation of the religious feasts. The virgins are here considered as those who enlivened the national festivals by playing, singing, and dancing: Jer 31:13; Psa 68:26; Jdg 21:19, Jdg 21:21; Exo 15:20. נגות (Niphal of יגה) is used here, as in Zep 2:13, of sorrow over the cessation of the festivals. Following the arbitrary rendering, ἀγόμενοι, of the lxx, Ewald would alter the word in the text into נהוּגות, "carried captive." But there is no necessity for this: he does not observe that this rendering does not harmonize with the parallelism of the clauses, and that נהג means to drive away, but not to lead captive. (Note: See, however, Sa1 20:2, with Keil's own rendering, and Isa 20:4, with Delitzsch's translation. - Tr.) והיא, "and she (Zion) herself" is in bitterness (cf. Rut 1:13, Rut 1:20), i.e., she feels bitter sorrow. In Lam 1:6, Lam 1:7, are mentioned the causes of this grief.”

“Her adversaries or oppressors, in relation to her, have become the head (and Judah thus the tail), as was threatened, Deu 28:44; whereas, according to Deu 28:13 in that same address of Moses, the reverse was intended. Her enemies, knowing that their power is supreme, and that Judah has been completely vanquished, are quite at ease, secure (שׁלוּ, cf. Jer 12:1). This unhappy fate Zion has brought on herself through the multitude of her own transgressions. Her children (עוללים, children of tender age) are driven away by the enemy like a flock. The comparison to a flock of lambs is indicated by לפני. But Zion has not merely lost what she loves most (the tender children), but all her glory; so that even her princes, enfeebled by hunger, cannot escape the pursuers, who overtake them and make them prisoners. Like deer that find no pasture, they flee exhausted before the pursuer. כּאיּלים has been rendered ὡς κριοὶ by the lxx, and ut arietes by the Vulgate; hence Kalkschmidt, Bttcher (Aehrenl. S. 94), and Thenius would read כּאילים, against which Rosenmller has remarked: perperam, nam hirci non sunt fugacia animalia, sed cervi. Raschi had already indicated the point of the comparison in the words, quibus nullae vires sunt ad effugiendum, fame eorum robore debilitato. The objections raised against כּאיּלים as the correct reading are founded on the erroneous supposition that the subject treated of is the carrying away of the princes into exile; and that for the princes, in contrast with the young, no more suitable emblem could be chosen than the ram. But רודף does not mean "the driver," him who leads or drives the captives into exile, but "the pursuer," who runs after the fugitive and seeks to catch him. The words treat of the capture of the princes: the flight of the king and his princes at the taking of Jerusalem (Kg2 25:3.) hovered before the writer's mind. For such a subject, the comparison of the fugitive princes to starved or badly fed rams is inappropriate; but it is suitable enough to compare them with harts which had lost all power to run, because they had been unable to find any pasture, and בּלא־כח (without strength, i.e., in weakness) are pursued and caught.”

“like harts who did not find pasture like harts who did not find pasture, who have no strength to flee, for their strength has been weakened by hunger. pursuer Heb. רוֹדֵף. Every רֹדֵף in Scripture is defective (רֹדֵף), but this one is full (רוֹדֵף), for they were pursued with a full pursuit. Therefore the paytan composed “I was fully pursued, but the year of my redemption is missing, (גְאֻלַי).” (Isa. 63: 4): “The year of my redemption (גְאֻלַי) has arrived” is spelled defectively.”

“Jerusalem recalls in her exile. the days of her poverty the days of her destruction, which brought her to poverty. and her miseries Heb. וּמְרוּדֶיהָ. This is an expression of pain, like (Jud. 11:37): “and I wailed (וְיָרַדְתִּי) upon the mountains”; (Ps. 55:3): “I lament (אָרִיד) in my speech, and I moan.” all her precious things And she remembered all the good of her precious things that were from days of old. gloating on her desolation Heb. מִשְּׁבַּתֶיהָ. They rejoiced over the cessation of her festivals, her New Moons, and her Sabbaths; and the Midrash Aggadah (Lam. Rabbah) interprets it as a different expression, that they rested in exile on the Sabbaths and festivals and observed the seventh year, and the heathens ridiculed them and said, “Fools! In your land you did not keep the Sabbatical Year, and now in exile you keep it? In your land, you did not keep the Sabbath, and now in exile you keep it?””

“Of all. She compares her past happiness with her present chastisement. — Sabbaths, or days of rest. The pagans derided them as so much lost time. Ignava et partem vitæ non attigit ullam. (Juvenal v.; Seneca, apud St. Augustine, City of God vi. 11.) — If none of their legislators thought of such an institution, it was because they had not the spirit of Moses: their feasts were dissolute. (Calmet)”

“remembered--rather, "remembers," now, in her afflicted state. In the days of her prosperity she did not appreciate, as she ought, the favors of God to her. Now, awakening out of her past lethargy, she feels from what high privileges she has fallen. when her people fell, &c.--that is, after which days of prosperity "her people fell." mock at her sabbaths--The heathen used to mock at the Jews' Sabbath, as showing their idleness, and term them Sabbatarians [MARTIAL, 4.4]. Now, said they ironically, ye may keep a continuous Sabbath. So God appointed the length of the captivity (seventy years) to be exactly that of the sum of the Sabbaths in the four hundred ninety years in which the land was denied its Sabbaths (Lev 26:33-35). MAURER translates it "ruin." But English Version better expresses the point of their "mocking," namely, their involuntary "Sabbaths," that is, the cessation of all national movements. A fourth line is added in this stanza, whereas in all the others there are but three. So in Lam 2:19.”

“The loss of all her magnificence (Lam 1:7) brings to the remembrance of the sorrowing city, in her trouble, the former days of her now departed glory. "Jerusalem" is not the totality of those who are carried away (Thenius), but the city personified as the daughter of Zion (cf. Lam 1:6). "The days of her affliction," etc., is not the direct object of "remembers," as Pareau and Kalkschmidt assume, with the lxx; the object is "all her pleasant things." If "the days of her affliction" were also intended to be the object, "all her pleasant things" would be preceded by the copula w, which Pareau indeed supplies, but arbitrarily. Moreover, the combination of the days of misery with the glory of bygone days is inappropriate, because Jerusalem feels her present misery directly, and does not need first to call them to remembrance. "The days of her affliction," etc., is the accusative of duration. Living through the times of her adversity, Jerusalem thinks of former happy times, and this remembrance increases her sorrow. מרוּדים occurs only here, in Lam 3:19 and in Isa 58:7 : in meaning it is connected with רוּד, vagari, and signifies roaming, - not voluntary, but compulsory, - rejection, persecution; while the adjective מרוּדים, found in Isaiah, is, as regards its form, taken from מרד, which is cognate with רוּד. מחמדּים or מחמוּדים (Lam 1:11, Kethib) is perhaps used in a more general sense than מחמדּים, Lam 2:4 and Lam 1:11 (Qeri), an signifies what is costly, splendid, viz., gracious gifts, both of a temporal and spiritual kind, which Israel formerly possessed, while מחמדּים signifies costly treasures. "The days of old" are the times of Moses and Joshua, of David and Solomon. In the words, "when her people fell," etc., the days of misery are more exactly specified. The suffix in ראוּה refers to Jerusalem. צרים are the foes into whose power Jerusalem fell helplessly, not specially the escorts of those who were carried away (Thenius). They made a mockery of her משׁבּתּים. This word is ἅπ. λεγ. It is not identical in meaning with ,שׁבּתותsabbata (Vulgate, Luther, etc.), though connected with it; nor does it signify deletiones, destructions (Gesenius), but cessationes. This last rendering, however, is not to be taken according to the explanation of Rosenm׬ller: quod cessasset omnis ille decor, qui nominatus este ante, principatus et prosper rerum status; but rather as L. Cappellus in his nott. crit. expresses it: quod nunc terra ejus deserta jacet nec colitur et quasi cessat et feriatur, though he does not quite exhaust the meaning. As Gerlach rightly remarks, the expression is "evidently used with reference to the threatenings given in the law, Lev 26:34-35, that the land would observe its Sabbaths, - that it will keep them during the whole period of the desolation, when Israel is in the land of his enemies." We must not, however, restrict the reference merely to the uncultivated state of the fields, but extend it so that it shall be applied to cessation from all kinds of employment, even those connected with the worship of God, which were necessary for the hallowing of the Sabbath. The mockery of enemies does not apply to the Jewish celebration of the Sabbath (to which Grotius refers the words), but to the cessation of the public worship of the Lord, inasmuch as the heathen, by destroying Jerusalem and the temple, fancied they had not only put an end to the worship of God of the Jews, but also conquered the God of Israel as a helpless national deity, and made a mock of Israel's faith in Jahveh as the only true God.”

“a wanderer Heb. לְנִידָה, an exile, an expression of moving and wandering (נָע וָנָד), esmo(u) vement in Old French, that which moves on. her shame Heb. עֶרְוָתָה, lit. her nakedness. she herself sighed Heb. נֶאֶנְחָה is in the passive past tense, sospirer in Old French, to sigh, [a verb]. “They heard that I am sighing (נֶאֶנָחָה) (verse 21) is a noun, sospirose in Old French, one who sighs.”

“Unstable. Hebrew also, “removed,” (Haydock) like a woman unclean. (Calmet) — Such were excluded from places of prayer, and were not allowed to touch a sacred book, or to pronounce God’s name. Their husbands could not look at their face, nor give them any thing, but laid it down for them to take. (Buxtorf, Syn. 31.) — No condition could be more distressing. (Calmet)”

“(Kg1 8:46). is removed--as a woman separated from the congregation of God for legal impurity, which is a type of moral impurity. So Lam 1:17; Lev 12:2; Lev 15:19, &c. her nakedness--They have treated her as contumeliously as courtesans from whom their clothes are stripped. turneth backward--as modest women do from shame, that is, she is cast down from all hope of restoration [CALVIN].”

“But Jerusalem has brought this unutterable misery on herself through her grievous sins. חטאה is intensified by the noun חטא, instead of the inf. abs., as in Jer 46:5. Jerusalem has sinned grievously, and therefore has become an object of aversion. נידה does not mean εἰς σάλον (lxx), or instabilis (Vulgate); nor is it, with the Chaldee, Raschi, and most of the ancient expositors, to be derived fromנוּד: we must rather, with modern expositors, regard it as a lengthened form of נדּה, which indeed is the reading given in twenty codices of Kennicott. Regarding these forms, cf. Ewald, 84, a. נדּה (prop. what one should flee from) signifies in particular the uncleanness of the menstrual discharge in women, Lev 12:2, Lev 12:5, etc.; then the uncleanness of a woman in this condition, Lev 15:19, etc.; here it is transferred to Jerusalem, personified as such an unclean woman, and therefore shunned. הזּיל, the Hiphil of זלל (as to the form, cf. Ewald, 114, c), occurs only in this passage, and signifies to esteem lightly, the opposite of כּבּד, to esteem, value highly; hence זולל, "despised," Lam 1:11, as in Jer 15:19. Those who formerly esteemed her - her friends, and those who honoured her, i.e., her allies - now despise her, because they have seen her nakedness. The nakedness of Jerusalem means her sins and vices that have now come to the light. She herself also, through the judgment that has befallen her, has come to see the infamy of her deeds, sighs over them, and turns away for shame, i.e., withdraws from the people so that they may no longer look on her in her shame.”

“Her uncleanliness is in her skirts This is an expression of disgrace. Her menstrual blood is visible in the skirts of her garments, i.e., her sins are conspicuous; she committed them flagrantly. she was not mindful of her end When they would sin, they were not mindful of what their end would be. Therefore, “she fell astonishingly.” Her descent was astonishing, bringing about much bewilderment, for everyone was bewildered that this happened to her, something that did not happen to any other city.”

“Continuation of the image in Lam 1:8. Her ignominy and misery cannot be concealed but are apparent to all, as if a woman were suffering under such a flow as to reach the end of her skirts. remembereth not . . . last end-- (Deu 32:29; Isa 47:7). She forgot how fatal must be the end of her iniquity. Or, as the words following imply: She, in despair, cannot lift herself up to lay hold of God's promises as to her "latter end" [CALVIN]. wonderfully--Hebrew, "wonders," that is, with amazing dejection. O Lord, behold--Judah here breaks in, speaking for herself. for the enemy hath magnified himself--What might seem ground for despair, the elated insulting of the enemy, is rather ground for good hope.”

“In Lam 1:9 the figure if uncleanness is further developed. Her uncleanness sticks to the hems or skirts of her garment. טמאה is the defilement caused by touching a person or thing Levitically unclean, Lev 5:3; Lev 7:21; here, therefore, it means defilement by sins and crimes. This has now been revealed by the judgment, because she did not think of her end. These words point to the warning given in the song of Moses, Deu 32:29 : "If they were wise, they would understand this (that apostasy from the Lord brings heavy punishment after it), they would think of their end," i.e., the evil issue of continued resistance to God's commands. But the words are especially a quotation from Isa 47:7, where they are used of Babylon, that thought she would always remain mistress, and did not think of the end of her pride; therefore on her also came the sentence, "Come down from thy glory, sit in the dust," Isa 47:1, cf. Jer 48:18. Jerusalem has now experienced this also; she has come down wonderfully, or fallen from the height of her glory into the depths of misery and disgrace, where she has none to comfort her, and is constrained to sigh, "O Lord, behold my misery!" These words are to be taken as a sign from the daughter of Zion, deeply humbled through shame and repentance for her sins. This is required by the whole tenor of the words, and confirmed by a comparison with Lam 1:11 and Lam 1:20. פּלאים is used adverbially; cf. Ewald, 204, b [Gesenius, 100, 2, b.] There is no need for supplying anything after הגדּיל, cf. Jer 48:26, Jer 48:42; Dan 8:4, Dan 8:8,Dan 8:11, Dan 8:25, although לעשׂות originally stood with it, e.g., Joe 2:20; cf. Ewald, 122, c [and Gesenius' Lexicon, s.v. גּדל]. The clause כּי הגדּיל, which assigns the reason, refers not merely to the sighing of Jerusalem, but also to the words, "and she came down wonderfully." The boasting of the enemy shows itself in the regardless, arrogant treatment not merely of the people and their property, but also of their holy things.”

“The adversary stretched forth his hand Ammon and Moab. upon all her precious things the Siphrei Torah, which are spoken of as (Ps. 19: 11): “They are to he desired more than gold.” All turned to plunder silver and gold, and they turned upon the Siphrei Torah in order to burn them, because it is written in them, (Deut. 23:4): “An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter, etc.” whom You did command not to enter into Your assembly These are Ammon and Moab.”

“for--surely she hath seen, &c. heathen . . . command . . . not enter . . . congregation--for instance, the Ammonites and Moabites (Deu 23:3; Neh 13:1-2). If the heathen, as such, were not allowed to enter the sanctuary for worship, much less were they allowed to enter in order to rob and destroy.”

“This is specially mentioned in Lam 1:10. The enemy has spread out his hand over all her jewels (מחמדּיה, the costly treasures of Jerusalem which were plundered), and even forced into the sanctuary of the Lord to spoil it of its treasures and vessels. C. B. Michaelis, Thenius, Gerlach, Ngelsbach, etc., would restrict the meaning of מחמדּיה to the precious things of the sanctuary; but not only are there no sufficient reasons for this, but the structure of the clauses is against it. Neither does the expression, "all our precious things," in Isa. 69:10, signify merely the articles used in public worship on which the people had placed their desire; nor are "all her pleasant vessels" merely the sacred vessels of the temple. In the latter passage, the suffix in מחמדּיה refers to Jerusalem; and inasmuch as the burning of all the palaces of the city (ארמנתיה) has been mentioned immediately before, we are so much the less at liberty to restrict "all her precious vessels" to the vessels of the temple, and must rather, under that expression, include all the precious vessels of the city, i.e., of the palaces and the temple. And Delitzsch has already remarked, on Isa 64:10, that "under מחמדּיה may be included favourite spots, beautiful buildings, pleasure gardens; and only the parallelism induces us to think especially of articles used in public worship." But when Thenius, in the passage now before us, brings forward the succeeding words, "for she hath seen," as a proof that by "all her pleasant things" we are to understand especially the vessels and utensils of the temple, he shows that he has not duly considered the contents of the clause introduced by כּי (for). The clause characterizes the enemy's forcing his way into the sanctuary, i.e., the temple of Jerusalem, as an unheard of act of sacrilege, because גּוים were not to enter even into the קהל of Jahveh. The subject treated of is not by any means the robbing of the temple - the plundering of its utensils and vessels. The prohibition against the coming, i.e., the receiving of foreigners into the "congregation," is given, Deu 23:4, with regard to the Ammonites and Moabites: this neither refers to the jus connubii (Grotius, Rosenmller), nor to the civil rights of Jewish citizens (Kalkschmidt), but to reception into religious communion with Israel, the ecclesia of the Old Covenant (קהל יהוה). In Deu 23:8, the restriction is relaxed in favour of the Edomites and Egyptians, but in Eze 44:7, Eze 44:9, in accordance with the ratio legis, extended to all uncircumcised sons of strangers. Hence, in the verse now before us, we must not, with Rosenmller and Thenius, restrict the reference of גּוים to the Ammonites and Moabites as accomplices of the Chaldeans in the capture of Jerusalem and the plundering of the temple (Kg2 24:2); rather the גּוים are identical with those mentioned in the first member of the verse as צר, i.e., the Chaldeans, so called not "because their army was made up of different nationalities, but because the word contains the notice of their being heathens, - profane ones who had forced into the sanctuary" (Gerlach). But if we look at the structure of the clauses, we find that "for she saw," etc., is parallel to "for the enemy hath boasted" of Lam 1:9; and the clause, "for she saw nations coming," etc., contains a further evidence of the deep humiliation of Jerusalem; so that we may take כּי as showing the last step in a climax, since the connection of the thought is this: For the enemy hath boasted, spreading his hand over all her precious things, - he hath even forced his way into the sanctuary of the Lord. If this is mentioned as the greatest disgrace that could befall Jerusalem, then the spreading out of the hands over the precious things of Jerusalem cannot be understood of the plundering of the temple. The construction ראתּה גּוים בּא is in sense exactly similar to the Latin vidit gentes venisse, cf. Ewald, 284, b; and on the construction צוּיתה לא יבאוּ, cf. Ewald, 336, b. בּקהל לך does not stand for בּקהלך (lxx, Pareau, Rosenmller), for הקהל is not the congregation of Judah, but that of Jahveh; and the meaning is: They shall not come to thee, the people of God, into the congregation of the Lord.”

“O. Hebrew of the Masorets, “It is.” (Calmet) — Protestants, “Is it nothing to you, all?” &c. (Haydock) — But the Vulgate is much clearer, and approved by many Protestants, lu being often used as an exclamation, Genesis xvii. 18. (Calmet) — Vintage. He has plundered all, ver. 22. (Haydock) — The king took a great deal, and his general the rest, 4 Kings xxiv., and xxv. (Worthington)”

“Besides this disgrace, famine also comes on her. All her people, i.e., the whole of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, sigh after bread, and part with their jewels for food, merely to prolong their life. The participles נאנחים, מכקשׁים, are not to be translated by preterites; they express a permanent condition of things, and the words are not to be restricted in their reference to the famine during the siege of the city (Jer 37:21; Jer 38:9; Jer 52:6). Even after it was reduced, the want of provisions may have continued; so that the inhabitants of the city, starved into a surrender, delivered up their most valuable things to those who plundered them, for victuals to be obtained from these enemies. Yet it is not correct to refer the words to the present sad condition of those who were left behind, as distinguished from their condition during the siege and immediately after the taking of the city (Gerlach). This cannot be inferred from the participles. The use of these is fully accounted for by the fact that the writer sets forth, as present, the whole of the misery that came on Jerusalem during the siege, and which did not immediately cease with the capture of the city; he describes it as a state of matters that still continues. As to מחמוּדיהם, see on Lam 1:7. השׁיב נפשׁ, "to bring back the soul," the life, i.e., by giving food to revive one who is nearly fainting, to keep in his life (= השׁיב רוּח); cf. Rut 4:15; Sa1 30:12, and in a spiritual sense, Psa 19:8; Psa 23:3. In the third member of the verse, the sigh which is uttered as a prayer (Lam 1:9) is repeated in an intensified form; and the way is thus prepared for the transition to the lamentation and suppliant request of Jerusalem, which forms the second half of the poem.”

“let it not happen to you Such a calamity should no longer happen to all those who transgress the Law. Our Sages said (Sanh. 104b): It is derived from here that “kuvlana” has a basis in Scripture. See what He did to me; behold and see, etc. which has been dealt to me which has been done to me. [with] which the Lord saddened on the day of His fierce anger. This is an expression [denoting] grief, saddening.”

“The pathetic appeal of Jerusalem, not only to her neighbors, but even to the strangers "passing by," as her sorrow is such as should excite the compassion even of those unconnected with her. She here prefigures Christ, whom the language is prophetically made to suit, more than Jerusalem. Compare Israel, that is, Messiah, Isa 49:3. Compare with "pass by," Mat 27:39; Mar 15:29. As to Jerusalem, Dan 9:12. M AURER, from the Arabic idiom, translates, "do not go off on your way," that is, stop, whoever ye are that pass by. English Version is simpler.”

“The lamentation of the city. - Lam 1:12. The first words, לוא אליכם, are difficult to explain. The lxx have οἱ πρὸς ὑμᾶς; but the reading ought certainly to be οἴ π. ὑ.. The Vulgate is, o vos omnes; the Chaldee, adjuro vos omnes. They all seem to have taken לוא as an exclamation. Hence Le Clerc and others would read לוּא; but in this case one would require to supply a verb: thus, Le Clerc renders utinam adspiciatis, or, "O that my cry might reach you!" But these insertions are very suspicious. The same holds true of the explanation offered by J. D. Michaelis in his edition of Lowth on Hebrew Poetry, Lect. xxii.: non vobis, transeuntes in via, haec acclamo (viz., the closing words of Lam 1:11): this is decidedly opposed by the mere fact that passers-by certainly could not regard a call addressed to Jahveh as applying to them. Without supplying something or other, the words, as they stand, remain incomprehensible. Ngelsbach would connect them with what follows: "[Look] not to yourselves...but look and see...." But the antithesis, "Look not upon yourselves, but look on me (or on my sorrow)," has no proper meaning. If we compare the kindred thought presented in Lam 1:18, "Hear, all ye peoples, and behold my sorrow," then לוא seems to express an idea corresponding to שׁמעוּ נא. But we obtain this result only if we take the words as a question, as if לוא = הלוא, though not in the sense of an asseveration (which would be unsuitable here, for which reason also הלוא is not used); the question is shown to be such merely by the tone, as in Exo 8:22; Sa2 23:5. Thus, we might render the sense with Gerlach: Does not (my sighing - or, more generally, my misery - come) to you? The Syriac, Lowth, Ewald, Thenius, and Vaihinger have taken the words as a question; Ewald, following Pro 8:4, would supply אקרא. But such an insertion gives a rendering which is both harsh and unjustifiable, although it lies at the foundation of Luther's "I say unto you." Hence we prefer Gerlach's explanation, and accordingly give the free rendering, "Do ye not observe, sc. what has befallen me, - or, my misery?" The words are, in any case, intended to prepare the way for, and thereby render more impressive, the summons addressed to all those passing by to look on and consider her sorrow. עולל is passive (Poal): "which is done to me." Since הוגה has no object, the second אשׁר does not permit of being taken as parallel with the first, though the Chaldee, Rosenmller, Kalkschmidt, and others have so regarded it, and translate: "with which Jahveh hath afflicted me." With Ewald, Thenius, Gerlach, etc., we must refer it to לי: "me whom Jahveh hath afflicted." The expression, "on the day of the burning of His anger," is pretty often found in Jeremiah; see Jer 4:8, Jer 4:26; Jer 25:37, etc. Lam 1:13-14 In Lam 1:13-15, the misfortunes that have befallen Jerusalem are enumerated in a series of images. "Out from the height (i.e., down from heaven) hath He sent fire into my bones;" ויּרדּנּהּ is rendered by Luther, "and let it have the mastery" (Ger. und dasselbige walten lassen). Thenius explains this as being correct, and accordingly seeks to point the word ויּרדּנּהּ, while Ewald takes רדה to be cognate with רתח, and translates it "made them red-hot;" and Rosenmller, following N. G. Schrder, attributes to רדה, from the Arabic, the meaning collisit, percussit lapide. All these explanations are not only far-fetched and incapable of lexical vindication, but also unnecessary. The change of vowels, so as to make it the Hiphil, is opposed by the fact that רדה, in the Hiphil, does not mean to cause to manage, rule, but to read down, subdue (Isa 41:2). In Kal, it means to tread, tread down, and rule, as in Jer 5:31, where Gesenius and Deitrich erroneously assume the meaning of "striding, going," and accordingly render this passage, "it stalks through them." The lexically substantiated meaning, "subdue, rule, govern, (or, more generally,) overpower," is quite sufficient for the present passage, since רדה is construed not merely with בּ, but also with the accusative: the subject is אשׁ, which is also construed as a masc. in Jer 48:45; and the suffix ־נּה may either be taken as a neuter, or referred to "my bones," without compelling us to explain it as meaning unumquodque os (Rosenmller, etc.). The bones are regarded as bodily organs in which the pain is most felt, and are not to be explained away allegorically to mean urbes meas munitas (Chaldee). While fire from above penetrated the bones, God from beneath placed nets for the feet which thus were caught. On this figure, cf. Jer 50:24; Hos 7:12, etc. The consequence of this was that "He turned me back," ita ut progredi pedemque extricare non possem, sed capta detinerer (C. B. Michaelis), - not, "he threw me down backwards," i.e., made me fall heavily (Thenius). "He hath made me desolate" (שׁוממה), - not obstupescentem, perturbatam, desperatam (Rosenmller); the same word is applied to Tamar, Sa2 13:20, as one whose happiness in life has been destroyed. "The whole day (i.e., constantly, uninterruptedly) sick," or ill. The city is regarded as a person whose happiness in life has been destroyed, and whose health has been broken. This miserable condition is represented in Lam 1:14, under another figure, as a yoke laid by God on this people for their sins. נשׂקד, ἅπ. λεγ., is explained by Kimchi as נקשׁר או נתחבר, compactum vel colligatum, according to which שׂקד would be allied to עקד. This explanation suits the context; on the other hand, neither the interpretation based on the Talmudic סקד, punxit, stimulavit, which is given by Raschi and Aben Ezra, nor the interpretations of the lxx, Syriac, and Vulgate, which are founded on the reading נשׁקד, harmonize with על, which must be retained, as is shown by the words עלוּ על־צוּארי. Ewald supposes that שׂקד was the technical expression for the harnessing on of the yoke. "The yoke of my transgressions" (not "of my chastisements," as Gesenius, Rosenmller, and Ewald think) means the yoke formed of the sins. The notion of punishment is not contained in פּשׁעי, but in the imposition of the yoke upon the neck, by which the misdeeds of sinful Jerusalem are laid on her, as a heavy, depressing burden which she must bear. These sins become interwoven or intertwine themselves (ישׂתּרגוּ), after the manner of intertwined vine-tendrils (שׂריגים, Gen 40:10; cf. remarks on Job 40:17), as the Chaldee paraphrase well shows; and, through this interweaving, form the yoke that has come on the neck of the sinful city. Veluti ex contortis funibus aut complicatis lignis jugum quoddam construitur, ita h. l. praevaricationis tanquam materia insupportabilis jugi considerantur (C. B. Michaelis). עלה is used of the imposition of the yoke, as in Num 19:2; Sa1 6:7. The effect of the imposition of this yoke is: "it hath made my strength to stumble (fail)." Pareau, Thenius, Vaihinger, and Ngelsbach assume God as the subject of the verb הכשׁיל; but this neither accords with the current of the description, nor with the emphatic mention of the subject אדני in the clause succeeding this. Inasmuch as, in the first member of the verse, God is not the subject, but the address takes a passive turn, it is only the leading word על that can be the subject of הכשׁיל: the yoke of sins which, twined together, have come on the neck, has made the strength stumble, i.e., broken it. This effect of the yoke of sins is stated, in the last member, in simple and unfigurative speech: "the Lord hath given me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand," i.e., before whom I cannot maintain my ground. On the construction בּידי לא אוּכל, cf. Ewald, 333, b; Gesenius, 116, 3. קוּם is here viewed in the sense of standing fast, maintaining ground, as in Psa 18:39; and, construed with the accusative, it signifies, to withstand any one; its meaning is not surgere, which Thenius, following the Vulgate, would prefer: the construction here requires the active meaning of the verb. Lam 1:15 In Lam 1:15 this thought is further carried out. סלּה and סלה, "to lift up," is only used in poetry; in Psa 119:118 it takes the Aramaic meaning vilipendere, as if in reference to things that can be lifted easily; here it means tollere, to lift up, take away (lxx ἐξῇρε, Vulgate abstulit), tear away forcibly, just as both meanings are combined in נשׂא: it does not mean to outweigh, or raise with a jerk, - the warriors being regarded as weighty things, that speedily were raised when the Chaldean power was thrown into the scale (Thenius, and Bttcher in his Aehrenl. S. 94). This meaning is not confirmed for the Piel by Job 28:16, Job 28:19. קתא מועד does not mean to summon an assembly, i.e., the multitude of foes (Raschi, Rosenmller, Gesenius, Neumann), but to proclaim a festival (cf. Lam 2:22), because in Lam 1:4 and Lam 2:6 (cf. Lev 23:4) מועד denotes the feast-day, and in Lam 1:21 קתא יום means to proclaim a day. עלי means "against me;" for those invited to the feast are the nations that God has invited to destroy the youths, i.e., the young troops of Jerusalem. These celebrate a feast like that of the vintage, at which Jahveh treads the wine-press for the daughter of Judah, because her young men are cut off like clusters of grapes (Jer 6:9), and thrown into the wine-press (Joe 3:13). The last judgment also is set forth under this figure, Isa 63:2.; Rev 14:19., Rev 19:15. לבּתוּלת יהוּדה, "to (for) the virgin of Judah;" her young men are regarded as a mass of grapes, whose life-sap (blood) is trodden out in the wine-press. As to the expression 'בּתוּלת בּת י, see on Jer 14:17. "The addition of the word 'virgin' brings out the contrast between this fate, brought on through the enemy, at God's command, and the peculiar privilege of Judah as the people of God, in being free from the attacks of enemies" (Gerlach). Lam 1:16 Lam 1:16 concludes this series of thoughts, since the address returns to the idea presented in Lam 1:12, and the unprecedented sorrow (Lam 1:12) gives vent to itself in tears. "Because of these things" refers to the painful realities mentioned in Lam 1:13-15, which Jerusalem has experienced. The form בּוכיּה is like the feminine form פּריּה in Psa 128:3; Isa 17:6; cf. Ges. 75, Rem. 5. The repetition of "my eye" gives greater emphasis, and is quite in the style of Jeremiah; cf. Jer 4:19; Jer 6:14 (Jer 8:11), Jer 22:29; Jer 23:25; the second עיני is not to be expunged (Pareau and Thenius), although it is not found in the lxx, Vulgate, Arabic, and some codices. On ירדה , cf. Jer 9:17; Jer 13:17; Jer 14:17. In these passages stands דמעה, but here מים, as the stronger expression: the eye flows like water, as if it were running to the ground in water. Gesenius, in his Thesaurus, appositely cites the German "sich die Augen aus dem Kopfe weinen" with which the English corresponds: "to weep one's eyes out of his head". Still stronger is the expression in Lam 3:48. But the sorrow becomes thus grievous, because the weeping one has none to comfort her; friends who could comfort her have faithlessly forsaken her (cf. Lam 1:2, Lam 1:9), and her sons are שׁוממים, i.e., destroyed, not "astonished" (Jer 18:16; Jer 19:8), but, as in Lam 1:13, made desolate, i.e., made so unhappy that they cannot bring their mother comfort in her misery. On משׁיב , cf. Lam 1:11. "Because the enemy hath become strong," i.e., prevailed (גּבר as in Jer 9:2).”

“and it broke them Heb. וַיִרְדֶנָה, equivalent to וַיִרֶד אוֹתָה, and it broke it, [referring to each of his bones] through punishment and suffering. Therefore, the “nun” is punctuated with a “dagesh,” so that it is interpreted in the feminine singular, like יַעֲשֶׂנָה, he will do it; יְכַסְמֶנָה, he will gnaw at it; יִרְעֶנָה, will graze upon it; for עֶצֶם, bone, is in the feminine gender, as Scripture states (Ezek. 36:4): הָעֲצָמוֹת הַיְבֵשׁוֹת, the dry bones.” It broke each one. Another explanation: וַיִרְדֶנָה is like (Jud. 14:9): “and he separated it (וַיִרְדֵהוּ) into his hands.” It scrapes and separates the marrow from its midst.”

“bones--a fire which not only consumes the skin and flesh, but penetrates even to my "bones" (that is, my vital powers). prevaileth against--not as ROSENMULLER, "He (Jehovah) hath broken them"; a sense not in the Hebrew. net-- (Eze 12:13); image from hunting wild beasts. He has so entangled me in His judgments that I cannot escape. turned me back--so that I cannot go forward and get free from His meshes.”

“The yoke of my transgressions was marked Heb. נִשְׂקַד. This word has no likeness in Scripture, and in the Aramaic language of the Pesikta (d’Rav Kahana p. 153), they call a goad מַסְקְדָא, an ox goad, and I say that it is equivalent to pointurez in Old French. My transgressions were dotted, spotted, and marked in the hand of the Holy One, blessed be He, for a remembrance. Their number and their recompense were not forgotten. they have become interwoven Heb. יִשְּׂתָּרְגוּ. They became many plaits, and came up on my neck. This is the language of the Mishnah (See M.K. 1:8). We may not girth (מְסָרְגִין) the bedsteads.”

“Watched. This metaphor is not too harsh, chap. xxxi. 28. The Masorets prefer, (Calmet) “is bound by his hand.” (Protestants) But miskad is explained (Haydock) by the Septuagint, &c., in the sense of the Vulgate. God lays the yoke on my neck suddenly. My iniquities are like bands, and Nabuchodonosor has power over me.”

“yoke . . . is bound by his hand-- (Deu 28:48). Metaphor from husbandmen, who, after they have bound the yoke to the neck of oxen, hold the rein firmly twisted round the hand. Thus the translation will be, "in His hand." Or else, "the yoke of my transgressions" (that is, of punishment for my transgressions) is held so fast fixed on me "by" God, that there is no loosening of it; thus English Version, "by His hand." wreathed--My sins are like the withes entwined about the neck to fasten the yoke to. into their hands, from whom--into the hands of those, from whom, &c. MAURER translates, "before whom I am not able o stand."”

“The Lord has trampled Heb. סִלָה. He trampled and trod, an expression of (Isa. 62:10): “pave, pave the highway (סֹלוּ סֹלוּ הַמְסִלָה),” [meaning to beat down the road]. He summoned an assembly against me Heb. מוֹעֵד, a gathering of troops to come against me. And our Sages expounded what they expounded (Pes. 77a, Ta’an. 29a, Sanh. 104b): Tammuz of that year was a full (thirty-day) month; [i. e., the Tammuz] of the second year from the Exodus from Egypt. Therefore, the return of the Spies occurred on the night of the ninth of Av, upon which their weeping was established for generations (Ta’an. ad loc., Sanh. ad loc., Sotah 35a). the Lord has trodden as in a wine press An expression of massacre, like (Isa. 63:3): “A wine press I trod alone.” As one treads grapes to extract their wine, so did He trample the women to extract their blood.”

“trodden, &c.--MAURER, from Syriac root, translates, "cast away"; so Kg2 23:27. But Psa 119:118, supports English Version. in . . . midst of me--They fell not on the battlefield, but in the heart of the city; a sign of the divine wrath. assembly--the collected forces of Babylon; a very different "assembly" from the solemn ones which once met at Jerusalem on the great feasts. The Hebrew means, literally, such a solemn "assembly" or feast (compare Lam 2:22). trodden . . . virgin . . . in a wine-press--hath forced her blood to burst forth, as the red wine from the grapes trodden in the press (Isa 63:3; Rev 14:19-20; Rev 19:15).”

“Repentance came by John, grace by Christ. He, as the Lord, gives the one; the other is proclaimed, as it were, by the servant. The church, then, keeps both that it may attain to grace and not cast away repentance, for grace is the gift of One who confers it; repentance is the remedy of the sinner.Jeremiah knew that penitence was a great remedy, which he in his Lamentations took up for Jerusalem and brings forward Jerusalem itself as repenting when he says, "She wept sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks, nor is there one to comfort her of all who love her. The ways of Zion do mourn." And he says further, "For these things I weep, my eyes have grown dim with weeping, because he who used to comfort me is gone far from me." We notice that he thought this the bitterest addition to his woes, that he who used to comfort the mourner was gone far from him. How, then, can you take away the very comfort by refusing to repentance the hope of forgiveness? But let those who repent learn how they ought to carry it out, with what zeal, with what affection, with what intention of mind, with what shaking of the inmost bowels, with what conversion of heart: "Behold," he says, "O Lord, that I am in distress; my bowels are troubled by my weeping; my heart is turned within me." Here you recognize the intention of the soul, the faithfulness of the mind, the disposition of the body: "The elders of the daughters of Zion sat," he says, "on the ground, they put dust on their heads, they girded themselves with haircloth, the princes hung their heads to the ground, the virgins of Jerusalem fainted with weeping, my eyes grew dim, my bowels were troubled, my glory was poured on the earth." So, too, did the people of Nineveh mourn and escaped the destruction of their city. Such is the remedial power of repentance, that God seems because of it to change his intention. To escape is, then, in your own power; the Lord wants to be asked, he wants people to hope in him, he wants supplication to be made to him. You are a human being, and you want to be asked to forgive, and you think that God will pardon you without asking him? The Lord wept over Jerusalem, that, inasmuch as it would not weep itself, it might obtain forgiveness through the tears of the Lord. He wills that we should weep in order that we may escape, as you find it in the Gospel: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves."”

“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.”

“The complaint regarding the want of comforters is corroborated by the writer, who further developes this thought, and gives some proof of it. By this contemplative digression he breaks in on the lamentation of the city, as if the voice of the weeping one were choked with tears, thus he introduces into the complaint a suitable pause, that both serves to divide the lamentation into two, and also brings a turn in its contents. It is in vain that Zion stretches out her hands (פּרשׁ בּ, to make a spreading out with the hands) for comforters and helpers; there is none she can embrace, for Jahveh has given orders against Jacob, that those round about him should act as oppressors. סביביו are the neighbouring nations round about Israel. These are all of hostile disposition, and strive but to increase his misery; cf. Lam 1:2. Jerusalem has become their abomination (cf. Lam 1:8), since God, in punishment for sins, has exposed her before the heathen nations (cf. Lam 1:8). בּיניהם, "between them," the neighbouring nations, who live round about Judah. The thought that Jahveh has decreed the suffering which has come on Jerusalem, is laid to heart by her who makes complaint, so that, in Lam 1:18, she owns God's justice, and lets herself be roused to ask for pity, Lam 1:19-22. Starting with the acknowledgment that Jahveh is righteous, because Jerusalem has opposed His word, the sorrowing one anew (Lam 1:18, as in Lam 1:12) calls on the nations to regard her sorrow, which attains its climax when her children, in the bloom of youth, are taken captives by the enemy. But she finds no commiseration among men; for some, her former friends, prove faithless, and her counsellors have perished (Lam 1:19); therefore she turns to God, making complaint to Him of her great misery (Lam 1:20), because the rest, her enemies, even rejoice over her misery (Lam 1:21): she prays that God may punish these. Gerlach has properly remarked, that this conclusion of the chapter shows Jerusalem does not set forth her fate as an example for the warning of the nations, nor desires thereby to obtain commiseration from them in her present state (Michaelis, Rosenmller, Thenius, Vaihinger); but that the apostrophe addressed to the nations, as well as that to passers-by (Lam 1:12), is nothing more than a poetic turn, used to express the boundless magnitude of this her sorrow and her suffering. On the confession "Righteous is Jahveh," cf. Jer 12:1; Deu 32:4; Ch2 12:6; Psa 119:37, etc. "Because I have rebelled against His mouth" (i.e., His words and commandments), therefore I am suffering what I have merited. On מרה , cf. Num 20:24; Kg1 13:26. כּל־עמּים (without the article, which the Qeri supplies) is a form of expression used in poetry, which often drops the article; moreover, we must here bear in mind, that it is not by any means the idea of the totality of the nations that predominates, but nations are addressed merely in indefinite generality: the expression in the text means nations of all places and countries. In order to indicate the greatness of her grief, the sorrowing one mentions the carrying into captivity of the young men and virgins, who are a mother's joy and hope.”

“I called to my lovers Heb. לַמְאַהֲבַי, to those who make themselves appear as lovers. [but] they deceived me e.g., the children of Ishmael, who went forth toward the exiles when the captors were leading them on the road nearby, as if they were compassionate toward them. And they brought them various kinds of salty foods and inflated skin flasks. They [the Jews] thought that these were [flasks of] wine, so they ate and became thirsty and wished to drink, and when they untied the flask with their teeth, the air entered their intestines and they died. This is what Scripture says (Isa. 21:13f.): “In the forest in Arabia you shall lodge, etc. Bring water toward the thirsty! The inhabitants of the land of Tema came before the wanderer with bread.” to revive their souls so that they should revive their souls.”

“Lam 1:19 is not a continuation of the direct address to the nations, to whom she complains of her distress, but merely a complaint to God regarding the sorrow she endures. The perfects קראתי, רמּוּני, are not preterites, and thus are not to be referred to the past, as if complaint were made that, in the time of need, the lovers of Jerusalem forsook her; they rather indicate accomplished facts, whose consequences reach down to the present time. It was not merely in former times, during the siege, that Jerusalem called to her friends for help; but even now she still calls, that she may be comforted by them, yet all in vain. Her friends have deceived her, i.e., shamefully disappointed her expectations. From those who are connected with her, too, she can expect neither comfort nor counsel. The priests and the elders, as the helpers and advisers of the city, - the former as representing the community before God, and being the medium of His grace, the latter as being leaders in civil matters, - pined away ( ,גּועexspirare; here, to pine away through hunger, and expire). כּי is a temporal particle: "when they were seeking for bread" to prolong their life ('השׁיב נ as in Lam 1:11). The lxx have added καὶ οὐχ ευ, which Thenius is inclined to regard as a portion of the original text; but it is very evidently a mere conjecture from the context, and becomes superfluous when כּי ne is taken as a particle of time.”

“burn Heb. חֳמַרְמָרוּ, they became shriveled, and there is an expression like this in the language of the Mishnah (Hul. 3:3): “It fell into the fire and its intestines were scorched (וְנֶחְמְרוּ).” in the house it is like death Within the house was fear of demons and destructive beings and angels of death, and from without, the enemy’s sword was bereaving them.”

“bowels . . . troubled-- (Job 30:27; Isa 16:11; Jer 4:19; Jer 31:20). Extreme mental distress affects the bowels and the whole internal frame. heart . . . turned-- (Hos 11:8); is agitated or fluttered. abroad . . . sword . . . at home . . . as death-- (Deu 32:25; Eze 7:15). The "as" does not modify, but intensifies. "Abroad the sword bereaveth, at home as it were death itself" (personified), in the form of famine and pestilence (Kg2 25:3; Jer 14:18; Jer 52:6). So Hab 2:5, "as death" [MICHAELIS].”

“Since neither comfort nor advice is to be found with men, Jerusalem makes her complaint of need to God the Lord. "See, Jahveh, that I am distressed. My bowels glow." חמרמרוּ, the passive enhancing form, from חמר, is found, besides, only in Lam 2:11, where the clause before us is repeated, and in Job 16:16, where it is used of the countenance, and can only mean to be glowing red; it is scarcely legitimate to derive it from חמר, Arab. h[mr, to be made red, and must rather be referred to Arab. chmr, to ferment, rise into froth; for even in Psa 55:9 חמר does not mean to be red, but to rise into froth. מעים, "bowels," are the nobler portions of the internal organs of the body, the seat of the affections; cf. Delitzsch's Biblical Psychology (Clark's translation), p. 314ff. "My heart has turned within me" is an expression used in Hos 11:8 to designate the feeling of compassion; but here it indicates the most severe internal pain, which becomes thus agonizing through the consciousness of its being deserved on account of resistance to God. מרו for מרה, like בּכו ekil, Jer 22:10; Jer 30:19, etc. Both forms occur together in other verbs also; cf. Olshausen, Gram. 245, h [Ewald, 238, e; Gesen., 75, Rem. 2]. But the judgment also is fearful; for "without (מחוּץ, foris, i.e., in the streets and the open country) the sword renders childless," through the slaughter of the troops; "within (בּבּית, in the houses) כּמּות, like death." It is difficult to account for the use of כּ; for neither the כ of comparison nor the so-called כveritatis affords a suitable meaning; and the transposition of the words into sicut mors intus (Rosenm׬ller, after Lצwe and Wolfsohn) is an arbitrary change. Death, mentioned in connection with the sword, does not mean death in general, but special forms of death through maladies and plagues, as in Jer 15:2; Jer 18:21, not merely the fever of hunger, Jer 14:18; on the other hand, cf. Eze 7:15, "the sword without, pestilence and hunger within." But the difficulty connected with כּמּות is not thereby removed. The verb שׁכּל belongs to both clauses; but "the sword" cannot also be the subject of the second clause, of which the nominative must be כּמּות, "all that is like death," i.e., everything besides the sword that kills, all other causes of death, - pestilences, famine, etc. כּ is used as in כּמראה, Dan 10:18. That this is the meaning is shown by a comparison of the present passage with Deu 32:25, which must have been before the writer's mind, so that he took the words of the first clause, viz., "without, the sword bereaves," almost as they stood, but changed וּמחדרים into בּבּית כּמּות, - thus preferring "what is like death," instead of "terror," to describe the cause of destruction. Calvin long ago hit the sense in his paraphrase multae mortes, and the accompanying explanation: utitur nota similitudinis, quasi diceret: nihil domi occurrere nisi mortale (more correctly mortiferum). Much light is thrown on the expression by the parallel adduced by Kalkschmidt from Aeneid, ii. 368, 369: crudelis ubique Luctus, ubique pavor, et plurima mortis imago. From speaking of friends, a transition is made in Lam 1:21 to enemies. Regarding the explanation of Rosenmller, audiverunt quidem amici mei, a me implorati Lam 1:19, quod gemens ego...imo sunt omnes hostes mei, Thenius observes that it introduces too much. This remark is still more applicable to his own interpretation: "People (certainly) hear how I sigh, (yet) I have no comforter." The antithesis introduced by the insertion of "yet" destroys the simplicity of arrangement among the clauses, although C. B. Michaelis and Gerlach also explain the passage in the same manner. The subject of the words, "they have heard," in the first clause, is not the friends who are said in Lam 1:19 to have been called upon for help, nor those designated in the second clause of Lam 1:21 as "all mine enemies," but persons unnamed, who are only characterized in the second clause as enemies, because they rejoice over the calamity which they have heard of as having befallen Jerusalem. The first clause forms the medium of transition from the faithless friends (Lam 1:19) to the open enemies (Lam 1:21); hence the subject is left undefined, so that one may think of friends and enemies. The foes rejoice that God has brought the evil on her. The words 'הבאת וגו, which follow, cannot also be dependent on כּי ("that Thou hast brought the day which Thou hast announced"), inasmuch as the last clause, "and they shall be like me," does not harmonize with them. Indeed, Ngelsbach and Gerlach, who assume that this is the connection of the clause "Thou hast brought," etc., take 'ויהיוּ כ adversatively: "but they shall be like me." If, however, "they shall be," etc., were intended to form an antithesis to "all mine enemies have heard," etc., the former clause would be introduced by והם. The mere change of tense is insufficient to prove the point. It must further be borne in mind, that in such a case there would be introduced by the words "and they shall be," etc., a new series of ideas, the second great division of the prayer; but this is opposed by the arrangement of the clauses. The second portion of the prayer cannot be attached to the end of the verse. The new series of thoughts begins rather with "Thou hast brought," which the Syriac has rendered by the imperative, venire fac. Similarly Luther translates: "then (therefore) let the day come." C. B. Michaelis, Rosenmller, Pareau, etc., also take the words optatively, referring to the Arabic idiom, according to which a wish is expressed in a vivid manner by the perfect. This optative use of the perfect certainly cannot be shown to exist in the Hebrew; but perhaps it may be employed to mark what is viewed as certain to follow, in which case the Germans use the present. The use of the perfect shows that the occurrence expected is regarded as so certain to happen, that it is represented as if it had already taken place. The perfects in Lam 3:56-61 are taken in this sense by nearly all expositors. Similarly we take the clause now before us to mean, "Thou bringest on the day which Thou hast proclaimed (announced)," i.e., the day of judgment on the nations, Jer 25, "so that they become like me," i.e., so that the foes who rejoice over my misfortune suffer the same fate as myself. "The day [which] Thou hast proclaimed" has been to specifically rendered in the Vulgate, adduxisti diem consolationis, probably with a reference of the proclamation to Isa 40:2. - After this expression of certainty regarding the coming of a day of punishment for her enemies, there follows, Lam 1:22, the request that all the evil they have done to Jerusalem may come before the face of God, in order that He may punish it (cf. Psa 109:15 with Lam 1:14), - do to them as He has done to Jerusalem, because of her transgressions. The clause which assigns the reason ("for many are my sighs," etc.) does not refer to that which immediately precedes; for neither the request that retribution should be taken, nor the confession of guilt ("for all my transgressions"), can be accounted fore by pointing to the deep misery of Jerusalem, inasmuch as her sighing and sickness are not brought on her by her enemies, but are the result of the sufferings ordained by God regarding her. The words contain the ground of the request that God would look on the misery (Lam 1:20), and show to the wretched one the compassion which men refuse her. לבּי is exactly the same expression as that in Jer 8:18; cf. also Isa 1:5. The reason thus given for making the entreaty forms an abrupt termination, and with these words the sound of lamentation dies away.”

“that You have done it You caused them to hate me when You separated me from their food and from their drink and from intermarrying with them. Had I intermarried with them, they would have had compassion upon me and upon their daughters’ sons. You had brought the day that You proclaimed If only You had brought upon them the appointed day that You proclaimed upon me. and let them be like me in distress.”

“they are glad that thou hast done it--because they thought that therefore Judah is irretrievably ruined (Jer 40:3). the day . . . called--(but) thou wilt bring on them the day of calamity which thou hast announced, namely, by the prophets (Jer. 50:1-46; Jer 48:27). like . . . me--in calamities (Psa 137:8-9; Jer 51:25, &c.).”

“May all their wickedness come before You May all their iniquities be remembered and counted before You. and deal with them Heb. וְעוֹלֵל, and do, like (Prov. 20:11): “Also a child can disguise himself with his deeds (בְּמַעֲלָלָיו)”; (Jer. 32:19): “and in accordance with the fruit of his deeds (מַעֲלָלָיו).””

“Let. He prays not for their ruin, but predicts it; and wishes rather that they would be converted. (Calmet) Bible Text & Cross-references: And it came to pass, after Israel was carried into captivity, and Jerusalem was desolate, that Jeremias, the prophet, sat weeping, and mourned with this lamentation over Jerusalem; and with a sorrowful mind, sighing and moaning, he said: 1 Aleph . How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people? how is the mistress of nations become as a widow; the princess of provinces made tributary? 2 Beth . *Weeping, she hath wept in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: there is none to comfort her among all them that were dear to her: all her friends have despised her, and are become her enemies. 3 Ghimel . Juda hath removed her dwelling-place, because of her affliction, and the greatness of her bondage; she hath dwelt among the nations, and she hath found no rest; all her persecutors have taken her in the midst of straits. 4 Daleth . The ways of Sion mourn, because there are none that come to the solemn feast: all her gates are broken down; her priests sigh; her virgins are in affliction; and she is oppressed with bitterness. 5 He . Her adversaries are become her lords; her enemies are enriched; because the Lord hath spoken against her for the multitude of her iniquities; her children are led into captivity, before the face of the oppressor. 6 Vau . And from the daughter of Sion, all her beauty is departed; her princes are become like rams, that find no pastures; and they are gone away without strength before the face of the pursuer. 7 Zain . Jerusalem hath remembered the days of her affliction, and prevarication of all her desirable things which she had from the days of old, when her people fell in the enemy’s hand, and there was no helper; the enemies have seen her, and have mocked at her sabbaths. 8 Heth . Jerusalem hath grievously sinned, therefore is she become unstable; all that honoured her, have despised her, because they have seen her shame; but she sighed, and turned backward. 9 Teth . Her filthiness is on her feet, and she hath not remembered her end; she is wonderfully cast down, not having a comforter: behold, O Lord, my affliction, because the enemy is lifted up. 10 Jod . The enemy hath put out his hand to all her desirable things; for she hath seen the Gentiles enter into her sanctuary, of whom thou gavest commandment that they should not enter into thy church. 11 Caph . All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given all their precious things for food to relieve the soul: see, O Lord, and consider, for I am become vile. 12 Lamed . O all ye that pass by the way, attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow; for he hath made a vintage of me, as the Lord spoke in the day of his fierce anger. 13 Mem . From above he hath sent fire into my bones, and hath chastised me; he hath spread a net for my feet; he hath turned me back; he hath made me desolate, wasted with sorrow all the day long. 14 Nun . The yoke of my iniquities hath watched; they are folded together in his hand, and put upon my neck; my strength is weakened; the Lord hath delivered me into a hand, out of which I am not able to rise. 15 Samech . The Lord hath taken away all my mighty men out of the midst of me; he hath called against me the time, to destroy my chosen men; the Lord hath trodden the wine-press for the virgin daughter of Juda. 16 Ain . *Therefore do I weep, and my eyes run down with water, because the comforter, the relief of my soul, is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy hath prevailed. 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. 18 Sade . The Lord is just, for I have provoked his mouth to wrath; hear, I pray you, all ye people, and see my sorrow: my virgins, and my young men are gone into captivity. 19 Coph . I called for my friends, but they deceived me: my priests and my ancients pined away in the city, while they sought their food, to relieve their souls. 20 Res . Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress, my bowels are troubled; my heart is turned within me, for I am full of bitterness: abroad the sword destroyeth, and at home there is death alike. 21 Sin . They have heard that I sigh, and there is none to comfort me; all my enemies have heard of my evil, they have rejoiced that thou hast done it: thou hast brought a day of consolation, and they shall be like unto me. 22 Thau . Let all their evil be present before thee; and make vintage of them, as thou hast made vintage of me for all my iniquities: for my sighs are many, and my heart is sorrowful.”

“Such prayers against foes are lawful, if the foe be an enemy of God, and if our concern be not for our own personal feeling, but for the glory of God and the welfare of His people. come before thee--so Rev 16:19, "Babylon came in remembrance before God" (compare Psa 109:15). Next: Lamentations Chapter 2”