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 you shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, which the LORD your God has given you, in the siege, and in the distress, with which your enemies shall distress you:
And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son: Also he told them to teach the children of Judah the use of the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jasher. read more. The beauty of Israel is slain upon your high places: how are the mighty fallen!
The beauty of Israel is slain upon your high places: how are the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. read more. You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been 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 were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, you were slain in your high places. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant have you been unto me: your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!
And the king lamented over Abner, and said, Died Abner as a fool dies? Your hands were not bound, nor your feet put into fetters: as a man falls before wicked men, so fell you. And all the people wept again over him.
Therefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, and bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him. But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with you, you king of Judah? I come not against you this day, but against the house with which I am at war: for God commanded me to make haste: cease from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroys you not. read more. Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho 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, Take me away; for I am badly wounded. His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchers of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and 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 the singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.
And the king of Egypt dethroned him at Jerusalem, and imposed on the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God has hedged in?
I have sinned; what shall I do unto you, O you preserver of men? why have you set me as a mark against you, so that I am a burden to myself?
Does God pervert judgment? or does the Almighty pervert justice?
For it increases. You hunt me as a fierce lion: and again you show yourself awesome against me.
He has fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness in my paths.
Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert justice.
Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.
But you, O LORD, shall endure forever; and your remembrance unto all generations.
They shall perish, but you shall endure: yea, all of them shall grow old like a garment; as a vesture shall you change them, and they shall be changed: But you are the same, and your years shall have no end.
Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.
From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither soothed with ointment.
Comfort you, comfort you my people, says your God.
An appalling and horrible thing is committed in the land; The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their own power; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end?
Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side.
Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am mourning; 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 the 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 a sword after them, till I have consumed them.
For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we plundered! we are greatly ashamed, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.
But, O LORD of hosts, who judges righteously, who tests the mind and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them: for unto you have I revealed my cause.
But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride; and my eye shall weep bitterly, and run down with tears, because the LORD's flock is carried away captive.
Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, the prophets say unto them, You shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place. Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.
Therefore you shall say this word unto them; Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is smitten with a great wound, with a very grievous blow.
For thus says the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury from my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. And they shall drink, and stagger, and go mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. read more. Then took I the cup from the LORD's hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me: Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and its kings, and its princes, 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 princes, and all his people; And all the foreign people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod, Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon,
But the Chaldeans' army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him. Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah. read more. Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.
Why have I seen them dismayed and turned back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled in haste, and look not back: for fear was all around, says the LORD.
For thus says the LORD; Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunk; and are you he that shall altogether go unpunished? you shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink of it.
She weeps bitterly in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she has none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.
The roads to Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Her adversaries have become the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children have gone into captivity before the enemy.
Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.
Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembers not her latter end; therefore she came down awesomely: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy has magnified himself.
Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, which the LORD has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
The Lord has trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he has called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord has trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress. For these things I weep; my eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed. read more. Zion spreads forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the LORD has commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as an unclean thing among them.
They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it: you will bring the day that you have announced, and they shall be like unto me.
They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it: you will bring the day that you have announced, and they shall be like unto me.
And he has violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were a garden: he has destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD has caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and has despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.
And he has violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were a garden: he has destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD has caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and has despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. The Lord has cast off his altar, he has abhorred his sanctuary, he has given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.
Her gates are sunk into the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the nations: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.
Her gates are sunk into the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the nations: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.
Her gates are sunk into the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the nations: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.
My eyes do fail with tears, my soul is troubled, my heart is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the infants faint in the streets of the city.
My eyes do fail with tears, my soul is troubled, my heart is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the infants 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 was poured out into their mothers' bosom. read more. What thing shall I take to witness for you? what thing shall I liken to you, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? for your run is vast as the sea: who can heal you? Your prophets have seen vain and foolish things for you: and they have not uncovered your iniquity, to turn away your captivity; but have given you false oracles and causes of banishment.
Your prophets have seen vain and foolish things for you: and they have not uncovered your iniquity, to turn away your captivity; but have given you false oracles and causes of banishment.
All your enemies have opened their mouth against you: 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. The LORD has done that which he had purposed; he has fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he has thrown down, and has not pitied: and he has caused your enemy to rejoice over you, he has set up the might of your adversaries.
Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom you have done this. Shall the women eat their offspring, the children of their tender care? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword; you have slain them in the day of your anger; you have killed, and not pitied. read more. You have called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have cared for and brought up has my enemy consumed.
He has hedged me in, that I cannot get out: he has made my chain heavy. Also when I cry and shout, he shuts out my prayer.
He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret 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 arrows of his quiver to enter into my heart. I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day. He has filled me with bitterness, he has made me drunk with wormwood. read more. He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he has covered me with ashes. And you have removed my soul far off from peace: I forgot prosperity. And I said, My strength and my hope has perished from the LORD: Remembering my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul has them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is your faithfulness.
They are new every morning: great is your faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
The LORD is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the 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. He sits alone and keeps silence, because he has borne it upon him.
He sits alone and keeps silence, because he has borne it upon him. He puts his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
He puts his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. He gives his cheek to him that strikes him: he is filled full with reproach.
He gives his cheek to him that strikes him: he is filled full with reproach.
He gives his cheek to him that strikes him: he is filled full with reproach. For the Lord will not cast off forever:
For he does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
For he does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. To crush under his feet 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, the Lord approves not.
To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approves not. Who is he that says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord commands it not? read more. Out of the mouth of the most High proceeds not evil and good? Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search and examine our ways, and turn again to the LORD. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. We have transgressed and have rebelled: you have not pardoned.
All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. Fear and a snare has come upon us, desolation and destruction. read more. My eye runs down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
My eye runs down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. My eye flows down, and ceases not, without any intermission,
My eye flows down, and ceases not, without any intermission, Till the LORD looks down, and beholds from heaven. read more. My eye affects my heart because of all the daughters of my city.
Render unto them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. Give them sorrow of heart, your curse unto them. read more. Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.
The tongue of the nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaks it unto them.
They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for lack of the fruits of the field.
The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem. For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,
The anger of the LORD has scattered them; he will no longer regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favored not the elders. As for us, our eyes as yet failed, watching for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.
The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the 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, that dwells in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto you: you shall be drunk, and shall make yourself naked.
Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwells in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto you: you shall be drunk, and shall make yourself naked. The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry you away into captivity: he will punish your iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will uncover your sins.
You, O LORD, remain forever; your throne from generation to generation.
You, O LORD, remain forever; your throne from generation to generation. Why do you forget us forever, and forsake us for so long a time? read more. Turn us back to you, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. But you have utterly rejected us; you are very angry against us.
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spoke unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.