Lamentations 4:1-22. The sufferings of the people are consequent on sin This ch. differs from the earlier ones, (_a_) in dwelling more on the sufferings of _various classes_of people, (_b_) in bringing out more clearly that these sufferings were the consequences of the national sin. Lamentations 4:... [ Continue Reading ]
_changed_ The verb in the MT. has not a pure Heb. form. By the change of a diacritic mark Löhr, following Nöldeke, gets the sense _are become hateful_. A somewhat greater change (the omission of a consonant) would produce the adjective _old_(yâshân for _yishne_"). In that case we should render, _How... [ Continue Reading ]
_gold most pure gold fine gold_ used metaphorically for the citizens, the choicest of whom are also called _the stones of the sanctuary_. Cp. Zechariah 9:16 ("stones of a crown").... [ Continue Reading ]
_work of the hands of the potter_ as helpless as the earth which is moulded by him.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the jackals_ See on Jeremiah 9:11; Jeremiah 51:34. _like the ostriches in the wilderness_ Cp. C.B. (Davidson) on Job 39:15 f. for "the popular belief that the ostrich did not brood but left her eggs to be hatched in the sun.… The belief is not sustained by observation, except to this extent, that... [ Continue Reading ]
_delicately_ luxuriously. Children are still the subject, and not, as has been suggested, rich persons. In the latter case we should have to render _carried on scarlet_(i.e. litters or couches furnished with costly stuffs of that colour), unduly forcing the sense of the Heb. verb. _desolate_ See on... [ Continue Reading ]
_the iniquity the sin_ rather than as mg. and A.V. _the punishment of the iniquity the punishment of the sin_. There is no assertion in this part of the _v_. as to the comparative amount of punishment, but from the admitted fact that the sufferings of Jerusalem exceeded those of Sodom, it is inferre... [ Continue Reading ]
_nobles_ probably right, as in Genesis 49:26; Deuteronomy 33:16 (in which places mg. renders "princes") as against the more frequent sense _Nazirites_(as mg. here). _rubies_ mg. _corals_. _their polishing_(lit. _casting) was as of sapphire_ Not only their bright, glowing appearance, but also their... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Lamentations 4:1. The emaciation produced by famine and hardship is vividly pourtrayed. Cp. Job 19:20; Job 30:30.... [ Continue Reading ]
_blacker than a coal_ lit. as mg. _darker than blackness_. _Their skin cleaveth to their bones_ Cp. Job 19:20.... [ Continue Reading ]
The two modes of death experienced in the siege are contrasted. _pine away_ lit. as mg. _flow away_. _stricken through_ See on Jeremiah 37:10, where (mg.) "thrust through" is the same word in the Heb. As the expression seems scarcely applicable to those dying of hunger, the Heb. text is somewhat s... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. ch. Lamentations 2:20, and Jeremiah 19:9. _pitiful_ (hitherto) compassionate. For this meaning, as opposed to its modern sense, pitiable, cp. Latimer, _Sermons_, p. 391. "Because I speak here of orphans, I shall exhort you to be _pitiful_unto them." _Bible Word Book_. _sodden boiled_(cp. Exodu... [ Continue Reading ]
_hath kindled a fire_ metaphorical, as in Lamentations 1:13; Lamentations 2:3.... [ Continue Reading ]
_all the inhabitants of the world_ an ordinary form of Eastern hyperbole, suggesting to their minds only the same notion as our _every body_, the obvious limitations being given by the sense in each case. The preaching of Isaiah, supported as it was by the overthrow of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:34 f.)... [ Continue Reading ]
_the sins of her prophets_, and _the iniquities of her priests_ Cp. Jeremiah 5:31; Jeremiah 6:13; Jeremiah 8:10; Jeremiah 23:11 f.... [ Continue Reading ]
_They_ these prophets and priests. _wander, etc_.] in perplexity and helplessness, stamped with the mark of Cain.... [ Continue Reading ]
Those who met these blood-stained priests and prophets in the street abhorred them, and warned them off with the cry which the leper was himself to raise, _Unclean, unclean!_(Leviticus 13:45). Theirs was a moral leprosy. The _v_., as it stands, is too long from the metrical point of view and so prob... [ Continue Reading ]
_hath divided them hath scattered them_(among the nations). _they_ MEN, as in the previous _v_. _elders_ with LXX read _prophets_, which is more in harmony with the preceding context. Pe. suggests that "elders" may have been substituted through the influence of Lamentations 5:12.... [ Continue Reading ]
The expectation that Egypt or some other nation might come to the rescue, was cherished throughout the year and a half of the siege, and here is set forth the heart-sickness caused by this hope deferred, together with a vivid description of the last thrilling scenes before the capture of the city. T... [ Continue Reading ]
_They hunt our steps_ This expresses the danger which existed in the "streets" (lit. broad places, and therefore exposed) from the towers which were gradually advanced nearer to the walls by the besiegers. Eastern _streets_are too narrow to expose their occupants to the weapons of a besieging force.... [ Continue Reading ]
_swifter than the eagles_ Cp. Deuteronomy 28:49, and see on Jeremiah 4:13. _They chased us upon the mountains_ The metaphor in this and the following _v_. is taken from hunting. The reference is either to the circumstances attendant on the capture of Zedekiah (Jeremiah 39:5 f., Jeremiah 52:8) who i... [ Continue Reading ]
_The breath of our nostrils_ Pe. remarks that the phrase is an ancient one, being found in the Tell el Amarna letters (fifteenth century b.c.). Cp. Seneca (_ad Neronem de Clementia_, I. 4) "He (the Emperor) is the breath of life, which these many thousand (subjects) draw." As regards its application... [ Continue Reading ]
_Rejoice and be glad_ Enjoy thy shortlived triumph, while thou mayest. _that dwellest in the land of Uz_ See on Jeremiah 25:20. _The cup_ For this, as a figure for Jehovah's wrath, cp. Jeremiah 25:15 ff. _thou shalt be drunken, etc_.] a figurative way of saying, thou shalt be exposed in the eyes... [ Continue Reading ]
For the fierce vengeance which is to come on Edom cp. Jeremiah 49:7-22; Psalms 137:7; Isaiah 34 specially Lamentations 4:5; Ezekiel 25:12 f., 35; Obadiah 1:10-15.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished_ (better than mg. _Thine iniquity hath an end_) the prophetic perfect. Cp. Isaiah 40:1 f. _discover_ uncover, lay bare. Cp. (in A.V.) Psalms 29:9; Isaiah 22:8, and (in A.V. and R.V.) Micah 1:6.... [ Continue Reading ]