Reference: Lamentations
Fausets
Hebrew eechah called from the first word "How," etc., the formula in beginning a lamentation (2Sa 1:19). These "Lamentations" (we get the title from Septuagint, Greek threnoi, Hebrew kinot) or five elegies in the Hebrew Bible stand between Ruth and Ecclesiastes, among the Cherubim, or Hagiographa (holy writings), designated from the principal one, the Psalms," by our Lord (Lu 24:44). No "word of Jehovah "or divine message to the sinful and suffering people occurs in Lamentations. Jeremiah is in it the sufferer, not the prophet and teacher, but a sufferer speaking under the Holy Spirit. Josephus (c. Apion) enumerated the prophetic books as thirteen, reckoning Jeremiah and Lamentations as one book, as Judges and Ruth, Ezra and Nehemiah. Jeremiah wrote "lamentations" on the death of Josiah, and it was made "an ordinance in Israel" that "singing women" should "speak" of that king in lamentation.
So here he writes "lamentations" on the overthrow of the Jewish city and people, as Septuagint expressly state in a prefatory verse, embodying probably much of the language of his original elegy on Josiah (2Ch 35:25), and passing now to the more universal calamity, of which Josiah's sad death was the presage and forerunner. Thus, the words originally applied to Josiah (La 4:20) Jeremiah now applies to the throne of Judah in general, the last representative of which, Zedekiah, had just been blinded and carried to Babylon (compare Jer 39:5-7): "the breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Jehovah, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the (live securely in spite of the surrounding) pagan." The language, true of good Josiah, is too favorable to apply to Zedekiah personally; it is as royal David's representative, and type of Messiah, and Judah's head, that he is viewed.
The young children fainting for hunger (La 2:6,11-12,20-21; 4:4,9; 2Ki 25:3), the city stormed (La 2:7; 4:12; 2Ch 36:17,19), the priests slain in the sanctuary, the citizens carried captive (La 1:5; 2:9; 2Ki 25:11) with the king and princes, the feasts, sabbaths, and the law no more (La 1:4; 2:6), all point to Jerusalem's capture by Nebuchadnezzar. The subject is the Jerusalem citizens' sufferings throughout the siege, the penalty of national sin. The events probably are included under Manasseh and Josiah (2Ch 33:11; 35:20-25), Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah (2Ch 36:3, etc.). "Every letter is written with a tear, every word is the sound of a broken heart" (Lowth). Terse conciseness marks the style which Jeremiah suits to his theme, whereas he is diffuse in his prophecies.
The elegies are grouped in stanzas, but without artificial arrangement of the thoughts. The five are acrostic, and each elegy divided into 22 stanzas. The first three elegies have stanzas with triplets of lines, excepting elegy La 1:7 and La 2:9 containing four lines each. The 22 stanzas begin severally with the 22 Hebrew letters in alphabetical order. In three instances two letters are transposed: elegy La 2:16-17; 3:46-51; 4:16-17. In the third elegy each line of the three forming every stanza begins with the same letter. The fourth and fifth elegies have their stanzas of two lines each. The fifth elegy has 22 stanzas, but not beginning alphabetically, the earnestness of prayer with which the whole closes breaking through the trammels of form. Its lines are shorter than the rest, which are longer than is usual in Hebrew poems, and contain 12 syllables marked by a caesura about the middle, dividing each line into two not always equal parts.
The alphabetical arrangement suited didactic poems, to be recited or sung by great numbers; Psalm 25; Psalm 34; Psalm 37; Psalm 111; Psalm 112; Psalm 145; especially Psalm 119; Pr 31:31, are examples. It was adopted to help the memory, and is used to string together reflections not closely bound in unity, save by the general reference to a common subject. David's lament over Jonathan and Saul, also that over Abner, are the earliest specimens of sacred elegy (2Sa 1:17-27; 3:33-34). Jeremiah in his prophecies (Jer 9:9,16,19; 7:29) has much of an elegiac character. The author of Lamentations was evidently an eye witness who vividly and intensely realizes the sufferings which he mourns over. This strong feeling, combined with almost entirely uncomplaining (La 3:26-27,33-42) resignation under God's stroke, and with turning to Him that smote Jerusalem, is just what characterizes Jeremiah's acknowledged writings.
The writer's distress for "the virgin daughter of his people" is common to Jeremiah (Jer 14:17; 8:21; 9:1) and Lamentations (La 1:15; 2:13). The same pathos, his "eyes running down with water" (La 1:16; 2:11; 3:48-49) for Zion, appears in both (Jer 13:17), and the same feeling of terror on every side (La 2:22; Jer 6:25; 46:5). What most affects the author of each is the iniquity of her prophets and priests (La 2:14; 4:13; Jer 5:30-31; 14:13-14). His appeal in both is to Jehovah for judgment (La 3:64-66; Jer 11:20); Edom, exulting in Zion's fall, is warned that God's winecup of wrath shall pass away from Zion and be drunk by Edom (La 4:21; Jer 25:15-21; 49:12). As a prophet Jeremiah had foretold Zion's coming doom, and had urged submission to Babylon which was God's instrument, as the only means of mitigating judgment.
But now that the stroke has fallen, so far from exulting at the fulfillment of his predictions on the Jewish rulers who had persecuted him, all other feelings are swallowed up in intense sorrow. To express this in a form suitable for use by his fellow countrymen was a relief by affording vent to his own deep sorrow; at the same time it was edifying to them to have an inspired form for giving legitimate expression to theirs. The first elegy (Lamentations 1) strikes the keynote, the solitude of the city once so full! Her grievous sin is the cause. At one time he speaks of her, then introduces her personified, and uttering the pathetic appeal (antitypically descriptive of her Antitype Messiah), "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold ... if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow," etc. (La 1:12). Justifying the Lord as "righteous," she condemns herself, and looks forward to His one day making her foe like unto her.
The second elegy (Lamentations 2) dwells on the city's destruction, her breach through which like a sea the foe poured in, the famine, the women eating their little children (fulfilling De 28:53), the priest and prophet slain in the sanctuary, the king and princes among the Gentiles, the law no more, the past vanity of the prophets forbearing to discover Zion's iniquity, retributively punished by the present absence of vision from Jehovah (La 2:9,14). The third elegy dwells on his own affliction (La 3:1, etc.), his past derision on the part of all the people; the mercies of the Lord new every morning, his hope; his sanctified conviction that it was good for him to have borne the yoke in youth, and now to wait for Jehovah's salvation. Here he uses language typical of Messiah (La 3:8,14,30,54; Ps 69:22; Isa 1:6).
He also indirectly teaches his fellow countrymen that "searching our ways and turning again to the Lord," instead of complaining against what is the punishment due for sins, is the true way of obtaining deliverance from Him who "doth not afflict willingly the children of men." The fourth elegy recapitulates the woes of Zion, contrasting the past preciousness of Zion's sons, and her pure Nazarites, with the worthlessness of their present estimation. It is "the Lord who hath accomplished His fury" in all this; for the kings of the earth regarded Zion as impregnable, but now recognize that it is because of "uncleanness" the Jews are wanderers. But Edom, now exulting in her fall, shall soon be visited in wrath, while Zion's captivity shall cease.
The fifth elegy (Lamentations 5) is prayer to Jehovah to consider "our reproach," slaves ruling His people, women ravished, young men grinding, children sinking under burdens of wood, "the crown" of the kingdom and priesthood "fallen," and Zion desolate. But one grand source of consolation is Jehovah's eternal rule (La 5:19), which, though suffering His people's affliction for a
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And thou shall eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, whom LORD thy God has given thee, in the siege and in the distress with which thine enemies shall distress thee.
And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son (and he bade them teach the sons of Judah [the song of] the bow; behold, it is written in the book of Jashar): read more. Thy glory, O Israel, is slain upon thy high places! How are the mighty fallen!
Thy glory, O Israel, is slain upon thy high places! How are the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. read more. Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew nor rain upon you, neither fields of offerings, for there the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, not anointed with oil. From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty. Saul and Jonathan, men who were loved and pleasant, undivided; comely in their lives, and undivided in their death; swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you delicately in scarlet, who put ornaments of gold upon your apparel. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan is slain upon thy high places. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant thou have been to me. Thy love to me was wonderful, exceeding the love of women. How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!
And the king lamented for Abner, and said, Should Abner die as a fool dies? Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters. As a man falls before the sons of iniquity, so did thou fall. And all the people wept again over him.
Therefore LORD brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah went out against him. But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? [I come] not against thee this day, but against the house with which I have war, and God has commanded me to make haste. Cease thee from [medd read more. Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself that he might fight with him. And he did not hearken to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot at king Josiah. And the king said to his servants, Remove me, for I am severely wounded. So his servants took him out of the chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem. And he died, and was buried in the sepulchers of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah. And all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day. And they made them an ordinance in Israel, and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.
And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah. And all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day. And they made them an ordinance in Israel, and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.
And the king of Egypt deposed him at Jerusalem, and fined the land a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
If I have sinned, what do I do to thee, O thou watcher of men? Why have thou set me as a mark for thee, so that I am a burden to myself?
Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?
And if [my head] exalts itself, thou hunt me as a lion. And again thou show thyself marvelous upon me.
He has walled up my way that I cannot pass, and has set darkness in my paths.
And now I have become their song, Yea, I am a byword to them.
Yea, certainly God will not do wrong. Neither will the Almighty pervert justice.
Let their table before them become a snare, and when they are in peace, a trap, {and for a stumbling block, and for a retribution to them (LXX/NT)}.
But thou, O LORD, will abide forever, and thy memorial to all generations.
They shall perish, but thou shall endure. Yea, all of them shall grow old like a garment. As a vesture thou shall change them, and they shall be changed, but thou are the same, and thy years shall have no end.
Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.
From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it, [but] wounds, and bruises, and fresh stripes. They have not been closed nor bound up nor soothed with oil.
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, says your God.
An astonishing and horrible thing has come to pass in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means. And my people love to have it so. And what will ye do in the end thereof?
Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way, for the sword of the enemy, [and] terror, are on every side.
Cut off thy hair, [O Jerusalem], and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights. For LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt. I mourn. Dismay has taken hold on me.
Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
Shall I not visit them for these things? says LORD. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them.
For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How we are ruined! We are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.
But, O LORD of hosts, who judges righteously, who tries the heart and the mind, I shall see thy vengeance on them, for to thee I have revealed my case.
But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret for [your] pride. And my eye shall weep greatly, and run down with tears, because LORD's flock is taken captive.
Then I said, Ah, lord LORD! Behold, the prophets say to them, Ye shall not see the sword, nor shall ye have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place. Then LORD said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I did not send them, nor have I commanded them, nor did I speak to them. They prophesy to you a lying vision, and divination, and a thing of naught, and the deceit of the
And thou shall say this word to them: Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease. For the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous wound.
For thus says LORD, the God of Israel, to me: Take this cup of the wine of wrath at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and reel to and fro, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. read more. Then I took the cup at LORD's hand, and made all the nations to drink, to whom LORD had sent me: Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings of it, and the rulers of it, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day, Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his rulers, and all his people, and all the mixed people, and all the kings of the land of the Uz, and all the kings of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod, Edom, and Moab, and the sons of Ammon,
But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he gave judgm Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes. Also the king of Babylon killed all the nobles of Judah. read more. Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon.
Why have I seen it? They are dismayed and have turned backward. And their mighty ones are beaten down, and have fled apace, and do not look back. Terror is on every side, says LORD.
For thus says LORD: Behold, those to whom it did not pertain to drink of the cup shall assuredly drink. And are thou he who shall go altogether unpunished? Thou shall not go unpunished, but thou shall surely drink.
And he has taken away his tabernacle violently, as a garden. He has destroyed his place of assembly. LORD has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion. And in the indignation of his anger has despised the king and
And he has taken away his tabernacle violently, as a garden. He has destroyed his place of assembly. LORD has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion. And in the indignation of his anger has despised the king and LORD has cast off his altar. He has abhorred his sanctuary. He has given up the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in the house of LORD, as in the day of a solemn assembly.
Her gates are sunk into the ground. He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her rulers are among the nations where the law is not. Yea, her prophets find no vision from LORD.
Her gates are sunk into the ground. He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her rulers are among the nations where the law is not. Yea, her prophets find no vision from LORD.
Her gates are sunk into the ground. He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her rulers are among the nations where the law is not. Yea, her prophets find no vision from LORD.
My eyes fail with tears, my heart is troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young sons and the sucklings faint in the streets of the city.
My eyes fail with tears, my heart is troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young sons and the sucklings faint in the streets of the city. They say to their mothers, Where is grain and wine? when they faint as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul is poured out into their mothers' bosom. read more. What shall I testify to thee? What shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? For thy breach is great like the sea; who can heal thee? Thy prophets have seen FALSE and foolish visions for thee. And they have not uncovered thine iniquity, to bring back thy captivity, but have seen for thee FALSE oracles and causes of banishment.
Thy prophets have seen FALSE and foolish visions for thee. And they have not uncovered thine iniquity, to bring back thy captivity, but have seen for thee FALSE oracles and causes of banishment.
All thine enemies have opened their mouth wide against thee. They hiss and gnash the teeth. They say, We have swallowed her up. Certainly this is the day that we looked for. We have found, we have seen it. LORD has done that which he purposed. He has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old. He has thrown down, and has not pitied. And he has caused the enemy to rejoice over thee. He has exalted the horn of thine advers
See, O LORD, and behold to whom thou have done thus! Shall the women eat their fruit, the sons who are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of LORD? The youth and the old man lay on the ground in the streets. My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword. Thou have slain them in the day of thine anger. Thou have slaughtered, [and] not pitied. read more. Thou have called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side. And there was none who escaped or remained in the day of LORD's anger. My enemy has consumed those whom I have dandled and brought up.
He has walled me around, that I cannot go forth. He has made my chain heavy. Yea, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
He is to me as a bear laying in wait, as a lion in concealed places. He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate. read more. He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my reins. I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.
I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.
I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day. He has filled me with bitterness. He has sated me with wormwood. read more. He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones. He has covered me with ashes. And thou have removed my soul far off from peace. I forgot prosperity. And I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from LORD. Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul still has them in remembrance, and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope: [It is of] LORD's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassions do not fail.
[It is of] LORD's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassions do not fail. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.
They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. LORD is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him.
LORD is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him. LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of LORD.
It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of LORD.
It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of LORD. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it upon him.
Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it upon him. Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.
Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope. Let him give his cheek to him who smites him. Let him be filled full with reproach.
Let him give his cheek to him who smites him. Let him be filled full with reproach.
Let him give his cheek to him who smites him. Let him be filled full with reproach. For LORD will not cast off forever.
For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the sons of men.
For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the sons of men. To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth, read more. to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High, to subvert a man in his cause, LORD does not approve.
to subvert a man in his cause, LORD does not approve. Who is he that says, and it comes to pass, when LORD does not command it? read more. Out of the mouth of the Most High does there not come evil and good. Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to LORD. Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens. We have transgressed and have rebelled. Thou have not pardoned.
All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us. Fear and the pit have come upon us, devastation and destruction. read more. My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. My eye pours down, and does not cease, without any intermission,
My eye pours down, and does not cease, without any intermission, till LORD looks down, and beholds from heaven. read more. My eye stirs my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
Thou will render to them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. Thou will give them hardness of heart, thy curse to them. read more. Thou will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of LORD.
The tongue of the sucking child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The young sons ask bread, and no man breaks it to them.
Those who are slain with the sword are better than those who are slain with hunger, for these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.
The kings of the earth did not believe, nor all the inhabitants of the world, that the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem. [It is] because of the sins of her prophets, [and] the iniquities of her priests, who have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.
The anger of LORD has scattered them. He will no more regard them. They did not respect the persons of the priests. They did not favor the elders. Our eyes do yet fail [in looking] for our vain help. In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.
The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations. Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, who dwells in the land of Uz. [Yet] the cup shall pass through to thee also. Thou shall be drunken, and shall make thyself naked.
Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, who dwells in the land of Uz. [Yet] the cup shall pass through to thee also. Thou shall be drunken, and shall make thyself naked. The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion. He will no more carry thee away into captivity. He will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom. He will uncover thy sins.
Thou, O LORD, abide forever. Thy throne is from generation to generation.
Thou, O LORD, abide forever. Thy throne is from generation to generation. Why do thou forget us forever, [and] forsake us so long time? read more. Turn thou us back to thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned back. Renew our days as of old. But thou have utterly rejected us. Thou are very angry against us.
And he said to them, These are the words that I spoke to you while still being with you, that it is necessary for all things that are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms about me to be fulfulled.