Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, Ver. 1. _Moreover take thou up a lamentation._] A _threnodia,_ a doleful ditty. In all ages things joyful and sorrowful were made up in songs and ballads for popular use. _ For the princes of Israel._] Those four last kings - princes r... [ Continue Reading ]
And say, What [is] thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions. Ver. 2. _What is thy mother?_] Whereby is meant thy city of Jerusalem and people of the Jews, who took these four for their kings, and soon had enough of them. _ A lioness._] So called f... [ Continue Reading ]
And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men. Ver. 3. _And she brought up one of her whelps._] This was Jehoahaz. _ It became a young llon._] Cunning and cruel, and having never a good property, though the son of good Josiah; who m... [ Continue Reading ]
The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt. Ver. 4. _The nations also heard of him._] His lion-like disposition and practices were soon noised and noticed. _ He was taken in their pit._] As lions are taken by their hunters. Tyr... [ Continue Reading ]
Now when she saw that she had waited, [and] her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, [and] made him a young lion. Ver. 5. _Now when she saw that she had waited and her hope was lost._] She looked for Jehoahaz's return out of Egypt, as Sisera's mother did for his safe and victorious r... [ Continue Reading ]
And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, [and] devoured men. Ver. 6. _He went up and down, &c._] Of whom he learned to king it, and to lionise it. See Ezekiel 19:2,3 . _ Learned to catch the prey._] To pull his subjects, and to make havoc, as... [ Continue Reading ]
And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by the noise of his roaring. Ver. 7. _And he knew their desolate places._] He had made them desolate, and bereft them of their right owners, whom he had devoured, and then seized... [ Continue Reading ]
Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit. Ver. 8. _Then the nations set against him on every side._] Nebuchadnezzar, with the neighbour nations his auxiliaries. _ They spread their net over him._] As they did also o... [ Continue Reading ]
_And they put him in ward in chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel._ Ver. 9. _And they put him in ward in chains._] Or, Hooks. As lions are not looked upon, but through a grate. _In claustrum.... [ Continue Reading ]
Thy mother [is] like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters. Ver. 10. _Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood._] The same lamentation is here continued, though under another parable - viz., of a wasted vine. Jerusalem was once a ge... [ Continue Reading ]
And she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches. Ver. 11. _And she had strong rods for sceptres._] So firm were the branches of this vine, so many and likely to s... [ Continue Reading ]
But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them. Ver. 12. _But she was plucked up in fury._] And so thrown with a force to the ground, as a man doth a dry or barren plant. _ The... [ Continue Reading ]
And now she [is] planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground. Ver. 13. _And now she is planted in a wilderness._] Babylon was no wilderness, but fruitful beyond credulity, _a_ But the poor captive Jews had little joy from it, for some time at least. _ In a dry and thirsty ground._] _In... [ Continue Reading ]
And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, [which] hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod [to be] a sceptre to rule. This [is] a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation. Ver. 14. _And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches,_] _i.e., _ Zedekiah, by his perjury and rebelli... [ Continue Reading ]