Lamentations 1:14

is bound The manifold sins of the people are likened to a complication of cords, attaching a yoke to the neck of a beast of burden, and keeping it secure in its place. Cp. note on "bands and bars" of Jeremiah 27:2. The Heb. verb, however, occurs here only, and the reading may be corrupt. The LXX (and so Vulg.), by the slightest possible change in reading the Heb. verb (involving only the transference of a diacritical mark), render "watch has been kept over mine iniquities," obtaining the latter part of their rendering by taking the word pointed in MT. to mean yoke(- ol) as though it were the preposition upon(- al). We must then, for the sake of metrical division, take "by his hand" in connexion with "they are knit together," and, as this leaves the next line (in the MT.) too short, Budde there inserts "a yoke" before "upon," rendering, "They have come up as a yoke upon my neck; they have made my strength to fail."