AN IDEAL REPRESENTATION OF NATIONAL SORROW The middle elegy is, not only in structure but also in tone, readily distinguished from the other four. An element of personality is manifest in it which is not in them. The poet concentrates in himself all forms of the calamities which he laments. Some of... [ Continue Reading ]
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— (א) Lamentations 3:1. The author writes as if his own person was the object on which all the troubles had been inflicted. I AM THE MAN THAT HATH SEEN AFFLICTION BY THE ROD OF HIS WRATH. The repression of the name of the wielder of the rod is remarkable in view of its reiteration i... [ Continue Reading ]
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— (ב) Lamentations 3:4. Details as to how the writer suffered. MY FLESH AND MY SKIN HE HAS WORN OUT, HE HAS BROKEN MY BONES. Bodily exhaustion and racking pains consume the vital forces. Lamentations 3:5. Obstruction is placed so that I may not find a change. HE HAS BUILDED AGAINS... [ Continue Reading ]
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— (ד) Lamentations 3:10. Difficulties had been embarrassing, but dangers were also added. In the crooked paths THE BEAR AND THE LION lurked, and he is there, like them, LYING IN WAIT for me. Lamentations 3:11. I wandered aimlessly. He has led me astray and then HE HAS TORN ME IN P... [ Continue Reading ]
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— Lamentations 3:14. The figure is hardly changed. Perhaps A LAUGHING-STOCK TO ALL MY PEOPLE, THEIR SONG ALL THE DAY, may be regarded as the shaft which went to the quick. Jeremiah calls a deceiving tongue _a deadly arrow_ (Jeremiah 9:8). They who should have stood by him, as parta... [ Continue Reading ]
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— Lamentations 3:18. This reads like an account of the climax to the trials undergone. I SAID, as if talking to myself, MY STRENGTH IS PERISHED, AND MY EXPECTATION FROM JEHOVAH. The future is void of good. I am unable to look for anything from Him. _In Jah Jehovah is everlasting st... [ Continue Reading ]
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— (ח) Lamentations 3:22. The hopefulness which had begun to lift a desponding soul points to the ground on which it may become secure. Its hazy outlook is seeming to clear, and, as in all true ideas of human relationship to God, that which is felt as a privilege for the individual... [ Continue Reading ]
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— (ט) Lamentations 3:25. Such an acceptance suggests more knowledge. GOOD IS JEHOVAH TO THEM THAT WAIT FOR HIM, TO A SOUL THAT SEEKS HIM. He is ready to respond to those who feel need of Him and foster longings after Himself. Lamentations 3:26. So when the graciousness of the Lord... [ Continue Reading ]
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— (י) Lamentations 3:28. A yoke is not of itself beneficial; it must be borne along with desires and efforts to reach to its purpose. “Since it is good for man that he should learn to endure suffering, let him sit still and bear it patiently; … let him sit solitary, as becomes thos... [ Continue Reading ]
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— (כ) Lamentations 3:31. For this silent waiting on the Lord, amid humiliations and scorn, there is all-sufficient strength. It is in the Lord Himself, in the belief that He is at work; that, whatever our tribulations are, however bitter ingredients we must drain out of our cup, wh... [ Continue Reading ]
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— (ל) Lamentations 3:34. The Lord does not afflict willingly, yet He is not indifferent to the injustice of man to man. All the details of human procedure are regarded by Him, and he would have men to know that He _is on the throne judging right,_ that they may trust Him entirely, a... [ Continue Reading ]
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— (מ) Lamentations 3:37. The reason for not mentioning any name of God, as in Lamentations 3:1, is now wholly dispensed with, and He is presented as conditionating all events. He observes man’s dealings with his neighbours. He provides that _every transgression and disobedience rec... [ Continue Reading ]
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— (נ) Lamentations 3:40. The remnant, who were referred to in Lamentations 3:22, carry out here the suggestion just made, that sighing, not over sufferings but over sins, is the becoming utterance for every one. The sorrows and pains endured were resultants from the sins of all the... [ Continue Reading ]
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— (ס) Lamentations 3:43. THOU HAST COVERED WITH ANGER, whether Himself or us is not clear, but as the next clause, AND PURSUED US, mentions the latter, it may be preferable to regard the people as wrapped round with a garment woven in the loom of wrath, and which marked them out as... [ Continue Reading ]
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— (פ) Lamentations 3:46 present significant intimations of their base condition. ENEMIES making sport of them FEAR AND PITFALLS surrounding them, and the oft-recurring feeling of utter DESTRUCTION instigating tears shed as copiously as RIVERS OF WATER. (ע) Lamentations 3:49. The e... [ Continue Reading ]
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— (צ) Lamentations 3:52. THEY HAVE HUNTED ME DOWN LIKE A BIRD is hunted when pursued with the eagerness of THOSE WHO ARE MY ENEMIES WITHOUT CAUSE, and who will not relax efforts till they catch the quarry. Lamentations 3:53. He was haled to prison by them. THEY HAVE CUT OFF MY LIFE... [ Continue Reading ]
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— Lamentations 3:59. Trials are not things of the past only. Under their continuous pressure endurance is sought for in the truth that the eye and ear of the Lord are ever open for all sights and sounds. THOU, O JEHOVAH, HAST SEEN MY WRONG, that which is done to me, and that sight... [ Continue Reading ]