1Jeremiah lamenteth the misery of Jerusalem: 20he complaineth thereof to God.
1HOW1 hath the Lord 2covered 3the daughter of Zion with a cloud 4in his anger, and cast down 5from heaven unto the earth 6the beauty of Israel, and remembered not 7his footstool 8in the day of his anger!
1 See Lam. 1:1.
2 Or, covered with a cloud. The sense is: Whereas God formerly covered His people with a cloud for their good, now He covers them with a thick cloud of manifold miseries.
3 That is, the people of Jerusalem, who were wont to be as dear and precious unto God as a daughter is to her parents. See Psalm 87:2.
4 Being provoked against her by reason of her sins and manifold transgressions.
5 That is, from the highest degree of excellent glory unto the lowest state of misery. Compare Psalm 102:10; Obadiah verse 4; Mat. 11:23.
6 That is, the glorious state, wherein He had planted His people. Or, understand here by the beauty of Israel, the ark of the covenant, as 1 Sam. 4:21, 22.
7 That is, the temple and the Divine worship that was performed therein; or, understand by the footstool, the ark of the covenant. See 1 Chron. 28:2. See also Exod. 25:18, 19, 20; 2 Sam. 6:2; 2 Kings 19:15; Psalm 99:5; 132:7.
8 Namely, when in His anger He caused Jerusalem to be destroyed by the Chaldeans.
2The Lord hath 9swallowed up 10all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he 11hath thrown down 12in his wrath the strong holds 13of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: 14he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.
9 That is, suddenly confounded, so that they seem to be swallowed up or devoured.
10 That is, all the fair dwellings wherein He had placed His people, namely, the posterity of Jacob.
11 That is, all the bulwarks, castles, towers, which were reared up in the land of Judah for the defense of the land. Compare Luke 19:44.
12 Being provoked against His people, because of their manifold transgressions.
13 That is, of Jacob’s posterity.
14 That is, He has rejected as unclean the entire nation of the Jews, persons of high and low estate, and has delivered them into the hands of wicked nations, to be misused by them, and to be deprived by them of all glory and beauty. Compare Isa. 47:6.
3He hath cut off 15in his fierce anger 16all the horn of Israel: 17he hath drawn back his right hand from 18before the enemy, and he burned 19against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
15 That is, in His great wrath, as Deut. 29:24.
16 That is, all the power and glory of the people of the Jews. See Deut. 33 on verse 17; 1 Sam. 2:1; Jer. 48:25.
17 That is, He has withdrawn from us His power, assistance and glorious help.
18 Hebr. from or before the face of the enemy. The meaning is: that He would not help the Israelites when they fled from the enemy.
19 Against the posterity of Jacob, but especially against the tribe of Judah.
4He hath 20bent his bow 21like an enemy: he 22stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew 23all that were pleasant to the eye 24in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he 25poured out his fury like fire.
20 Hebr. trodden. See Psalm 7 on verse 12.
21 The meaning is: The Lord makes His weapons yet ready, to spoil as yet more than the enemies do, who seek to hurt one another.
22 Namely, against Zion.
23 See 1 Kings 20 on verse 6. Compare Ezek. 24:16, 21, 25. Understand here by pleasant to the eye, young men, the choice of the people, likewise the priests and the princes, and all that was pleasant and acceptable.
24 That is, in the midst of His people, or in the city of Jerusalem.
25 That is, caused to come very plentifully. See the annotation on Psalm 79 on verse 6.
526The Lord was as an enemy: he hath 27swallowed up Israel, he hath 28swallowed up all 29her palaces: he hath destroyed 30his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah 31mourning and lamentation.
26 Men may be resisted, but God cannot be resisted.
27 See verse 2.
28 See verse 2.
29 Namely, the palaces of the daughter of Zion, that is, Jerusalem.
30 Namely, of the Israelites. The meaning is: The Lord has razed and leveled to the ground all the strongholds and fortresses which were built for the defense of the Israelites.
31 Or, wailing and sorrow, as Isa. 29:2.
6And he hath 32violently taken away his 33tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed 34his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused 35the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger 36the king and the priest.
32 Or, with outrage. The Hebrew word signifies to pull something away with rage or boisterousness. Compare Psalm 80:12; 89:40, etc.; Isa. 5:5.
33 Or, booth, that is, tabernacle or temple, see Psalm 76 on verse 2; 80:12; 89:40; Isa. 5:5.
34 Or, his assembling-place, where His people were wont to gather together to perform the public worship of God, namely, the temple and the synagogues.
35 That is, the keeping of the usual ordinary feasts every year and the sabbath every week.
36 That is, the governors of lands and cities, as also the teachers and ministers of the church. The meaning is: He has turned both the ecclesiastical and political state upside down.
7The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath 37abhorred 38his sanctuary, he hath 39given up into the hand of the enemy the walls 40of her palaces; 41they have 42made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.
37 Other, abolished, as if it had been a cursed place, worthy to be abhorred. The meaning is: He cannot at present abide or endure that place wherein He had pleasure and delight. Compare Psalm 89:39.
38 That is, His temple.
39 Or, shut up.
40 Namely, the daughter of Zion, that is, of Jerusalem.
41 Namely, their enemies, and in particular the Chaldeans, when they had taken and destroyed the city and the temple, (they) have shouted, cried and called with great triumph, as the people of God were wont to do on their feasts days, especially on their solemn high festivals, praising God with songs of joy in the temple. See Psalm 74:4.
42 Or, lifted up. Hebr. given.
8The LORD 43hath purposed to destroy 44the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out 45a line, he hath 46not withdrawn his hand 47from destroying: therefore he made 48the ramparta and the wall 49to lament; they 50languished together.
43 That is, He has decreed and ordained.
44 That is, the defense of Jerusalem.
45 That is, He has designed the certainty of the ruin of the city of Jerusalem. See 2 Kings 21:13; Isa. 34:11. It is a phrase borrowed from bricklayers and carpenters.
46 That is, not kept back.
47 That is, He has not ceased till He had utterly destroyed it.
48 Or, outwork, fortification, bulwark, fortress, stronghold, wall, fort. See Psalm 122:7.
a raised bank of earth around a fort as a defense
49 That is, He has given the very insensible creatures the occasion of mourning.
50 Namely, by a violent destruction. Other, destroyed, ruined.
9Her gates are sunk 51into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken 52her bars: 53her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: 54the law is no more; her prophets also 55find no vision from the LORD.
51 In order that the enemies have thereby gotten a free passage to come into the city.
52 That is, all strongholds and castles, so that they are not able at present to resist any power.
53 That is, they must now live and converse among the nations that are enemies to true religion.
54 Other, there is no law, that is, they have no ordinary exercise of their religion by the ministry of the priests and Levites; for, the prophets are immediately hereafter spoken of.
55 That is, they also have not such abundant revelations as they were used to have. See Psalm 74 on verse 9.
1056The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and 57keep silence: 58they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with 59sackcloth: 60the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
56 That is, the most wise and most worthy among the people, who were wont formerly to ride and travel through city and country in chariots or on elegant horses.
57 As being astonished and dismayed by reason of their great misery.
58 They show great signs of dejection and sorrow. See Job 2:12.
59 That is, mourning garments, as Joel 1:8, 13; Jonah 3:5, 6. See the annotation at Gen. 37 on verse 34.
60 The virgins of Jerusalem who commonly were wont to look on high (Isa. 3:16) and to be proud of their beauty, they now look downward towards the ground, and are ashamed of themselves.
1161Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are 62troubled, 63my liver is poured upon the earth, for 64the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings 65swoon in the streets of the city.
61 That is, I weep so much that mine eyes are almost gone by weeping. We would say: I do even cry mine eyes out. See Psalm 6:6, 7, and the annotations there.
62 See Lam. 1 on verse 20.
63 That is, my inward parts are melted, and they fail me, or the blood flows away from my liver. See Job 16 on verse 13.
64 That is, when I consider the miseries and breaches which the church of God suffers. See Jer. 4:6.
65 Or, fail, faint, namely, for hunger and thirst, and want of all necessities. See Isa. 57:16.
1266They say to their mothers, Where is 67corn and 68wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, 69when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.
66 Namely, the little babes.
67 That is, bread, necessary food.
68 To cheer us in our weakness.
69 The sense is: When they surrender their lives again unto their mothers, because they give them no food to preserve them alive.
1370What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken 71to thee, 72O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for 73thy breach is great like the sea: 74who can heal thee?
70 Or, What testimony, as if he said: What example shall I propound unto thee, whereby I might be able to comfort thee? I find nowhere any nation that was ever so sorely punished as thou art punished. Others take it in this sense: What thing shall I take to witness that thou hast no great cause to cry and roar as such? See the annotation at Isa. 51 on verse 19.
71 Namely, in this thy misery.
72 That is, the people of God.
73 That is, thy miseries are broad, deep, mighty and almost incomprehensible, as the rents or breaches that the sea makes into the land; thou art such a spectacle of God’s anger, as never was the like before in the world.
74 What means are there to be found in the world to deliver thee? In every man’s judgment thy condition is desperate; there is no remedy to be had for thee.
14Thy 75prophets have 76seen 77vain and 78foolish things for thee: and 79they have not discovered thine iniquity, 80to turn away thy captivity; but 81have seen for thee false 82burdens and 83causes of banishment.
75 Understand this of the false prophets, which the wicked Jews had chosen for themselves, or, who pretended to be guides or leaders and teachers, but were not sent by God, neither were true prophets. See Jer. 2:8; 5:31; 14:14; 23:16; 27:10; 29:8, 9; Ezek. 13:2.
76 That is, prophesied; for, prophecies are Divine visions revealed unto the prophets.
77 That is, such things which did not at all tend to good nor to godliness; as for example: They have prophesied unto you peace and plenty of all things when God threatened the clean contrary. See Jer. 28:2, 3, 15; 29:8.
78 Hebr. unsavory things. See Job 1 on verse 22; Jer. 23:13.
79 That is, they have not sincerely laid thy sins and transgressions open before thee, to convince thy conscience of them.
80 That is, that they might thereby have brought thee to true sorrow and repentance, that thou mightest thereby have prevented the judgments of God.
81 That is, they have, as it were in the name of God, taught thee things which were false, and profitable or serviceable for nothing.
82 That is, prophecies. See Isa. 13 on verse 1.
83 The sense is: To hearken unto which was the most ready way to banish you out of your own land; for, to teach and believe errors is the fountain of all sins for which God commonly punishes the children of men.
1584All that pass by 85clap their hands at thee; 86they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city 87that men call The perfection of beauty, The 88joy of the whole earth?
84 Namely, of what rank or quality soever they be; but understand those who are strangers from the true religion.
85 Unto your scorn. Hebr. with the palms. See the annotation at Job 27 on verse 23.
86 See 1 Kings 9:8; 2 Kings 19:21; Job 16:9; Jer. 18:16.
87 That is, which men called the perfect in beauty.
88 Compare Psalm 48:2; 50:2.
16All thine enemies have 89opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and 90gnash the teeth: they say, 91We have swallowed her up: certainly 92this is the day that we looked for; we have found, 93we have seen it.
89 See Psalm 22:13. Other, open their mouth wide.
90 Or, they bite upon their teeth.
91 That is, we have brought them to such a condition that they shall not rise again.
92 The sense is: We have wished a long time to see this day, which we now see and experience.
93 Or, we see it now, namely, with delight and with joy.
1794The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath 95fulfilled his word that he had 96commanded 97in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and 98he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, 99he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.
94 The Lord has caused to come upon thee all that He had decreed to bring upon thee. Compare Lev. 26:17; Deut. 28:15.
95 As such the Hebrew word is also taken in Isa. 10:12; Zech. 4:9.
96 That is, which He previously had declared and threatened by His prophets. See Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28.
97 As Lam. 1:7.
98 Giving him strength and victory over thee.
99 That is, He has given them, who hate thee, strength and power. See of the word horn verse 3.
18Their heart cried 100unto the Lord, 101O wallb of the daughter of Zion, 102let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not 103the applec of thine eye 104cease.
100 Namely, they, namely the people of God, when they were thus plagued by the Chaldeans. Other, against the Lord. The sense is: They, namely, the wicked Chaldeans, who did not reproach, but the Lord. See 2 Kings 19:22; Isa. 36:4.
101 These are word of the prophet; as if he said: O ye people, who dwell within the walls of Zion or Jerusalem, whereon Judah relied, as on a strong wall.
b Jer. 14:17; Lam. 1:16.
102 Compare Lam. 1:2, 16.
103 Hebr. let not the daughter of thine eye hold her peace, that is, the apple of thine eye. See Psalm 17 on verse 8.
c pupil of the eye
104 Namely, from shedding of tears.
19105Arise, 106cry out in the night: 107in the beginning of the watches 108pour out 109thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy 110hands toward him 111for the life of thy young children, 112that faint for hunger 113in the top of every street.
105 A commandment to the godly to pray.
106 That is, complain unto the Lord openly and boldly of your trouble.
107 Hebr. at the head of the night watches, that is, at that time when the night begins.
108 Compare Psalm 22:14; 42:4; 62:8; See Psalm 102 in the title.
109 That is, all the grief which thou hast in thine heart.
110 Hebr. palms. Thus in verses 20 and 22.
111 That is, for the soul, as Psalm 6:4. The meaning is: to pray that God would pity your little children.
112 Or, that swoon.
113 Hebr. at the head of all the streets, that is, at all the corners, streets, passages of the city. Compare Isa. 51:20; Lam. 4:1.
20¶Behold, O LORD, and consider 114to whom thou hast done this. Shalld the women eat 115their fruit, and children 116of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain 117in the sanctuary of the Lord?
114 Namely, not to the Gentiles, but to Thy firstborn son, Exod. 4:22, to Thy chosen people of Israel, Exod. 19:6; Deut. 4:7; 7:6.
d Lam. 4:10.
115 That is, their children, the fruit of their womb. The prophet complains here of the cruelty which happened among God’s own people. Compare Lam. 4:10.
116 So likewise verse 22. Other, that are led by the palm. We read twice that the mothers in the land of the Jews did eat their own children, namely, in the siege of Samaria, 2 Kings 6:26, and in the siege of Jerusalem by Vespasianus and Titus. Josephus.
117 That is, in the temple, in that place, Lord, which Thou hast set apart for an holy use.
21The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: 118my virgins and my young men 119are fallen by the sword; 120thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.
118 Whom even the very cruel soldiers are wont to spare.
119 Are cruelly murdered.
120 Thou, O Lord, hast done it in Thy righteous anger.
22Thou hast called as 121in a solemn day 122my 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.
121 That is, all that which might terrify me.
122 See Lam. 1:15.