_How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, [and] cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!_ Ver. 1. _How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion witha cloud!_] Heb., With a thick cloud: not... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought [them] down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof._ Ver. 2. _The Lord hath swallowed up all the ha... [ Continue Reading ]
He hath cut off in [his] fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, [which] devoureth round about. Ver. 3. _He hath cut off in his anger all the horn of Israel,_] _i.e., _ All the strength and beauty... [ Continue Reading ]
He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all [that were] pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire. Ver. 4. _He hath bent his bow like an enemy._] He doth not only help the enemies, but himself f... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation._ Ver. 5. _The Lord was an enemy._] This the secure and foolish people would not be drawn to believe... [ Continue Reading ]
_And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as [if it were of] a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest._ Ver. 6. _And he hath... [ Continue Reading ]
The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath 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. Ver. 7. _The Lord hath cast off his altar._] She goeth over it again, as the main... [ Continue Reading ]
The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together. Ver. 8. _The Lord hath purposed to destroy._] _Non casu, non subito, non... [ Continue Reading ]
Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes [are] among the Gentiles: the law [is] no [more]; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD. Ver. 9. _Her gates are sunk into the ground._] So they seem to be, because laid on the ground, and co... [ Continue Reading ]
The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, [and] keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. Ver. 10. _The elders of the daughters of Zion._] Who sat once aloft passing... [ Continue Reading ]
Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. Ver. 11. _Mine eyes do fail with tears._] Those fountains (as the Hebrew word signifiet... [ Continue Reading ]
They say to their mothers, Where [is] corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom. Ver. 12. _They say to their mothers._] _Lege et luge._ Gather and mourne. “ _Tu quibus ista leges incertum est, Lector, ocelli... [ Continue Reading ]
What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach [is] great like the sea: who can heal thee? Ver. 13. _What thing shall I take to witness for thee?_]... [ Continue Reading ]
Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment. Ver. 14. _Thy prophets._] Thine, and not mine; for thou art miserable by thine own election, accessary to... [ Continue Reading ]
All that pass by clap [their] hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, [saying, Is] this the city that [men] call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth? Ver. 15. _All that pass by thee clap._] See Lamentations 1:17 . _ Is this the city?_] God's palac... [ Continue Reading ]
All thine enemies have opened their mouth 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]. Ver. 16. _All thine enemies opened their mouths against thee._] They speak largely and freel... [ Continue Reading ]
The LORD hath done [that] which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused [thine] enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries. Ver. 17. _The Lord hath done that which... [ Continue Reading ]
Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease. Ver. 18. _Their herd cried unto the Lord,_] _i.e., _ They cried seriously at least, if not sincerely. Some think it was not a c... [ Continue Reading ]
Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street. Ver. 19. _Arise, cry in the night._] A fit time for meditation... [ Continue Reading ]
Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, [and] children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? Ver. 20. _Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this._] Even to thine own inheritances, who... [ Continue Reading ]
_The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain [them] in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, [and] not pitied._ Ver. 21. _The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets._] Oh, the woe of war! oh, the bloody... [ Continue Reading ]
Thou hast 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 swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed. Ver. 22. _Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors,_] _i.e., _ My terrible enemies the Chaldees, be... [ Continue Reading ]