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Notes for This Chapter

Introduction to Lamentations The touching significance of this book lies in the fact that it is the disclosure of the love and sorrow of Jehovah for the very people whom He is chastening – a sorrow wrought by the Spirit in the heart of Jeremiah See Jeremiah 13:17; Matthew 23:36, 38; Romans 9:1-5. The chapters indicate the analysis, viz., five lamentations. C. I. Scofield ~~~~~~~~~~ THE L A M E N T A T I O N S O F J E R E M I A H. ~Adam Clarke SINCE what Solomon says, though contrary to the common opinion of the world, is certainly true, that sorrow is better than laughter, and it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, we should come to the reading and consideration of the melancholy chapters of this book, not only willingly, but with an expectation to edify ourselves by them; and, that we may do this, we must compose ourselves to a holy sadness and resolve to weep with the weeping prophet. Let us consider, I. The title of this book; In the Hebrew it has one, but is called (as the books of Moses are) from the first word Ecah--How; but the Jewish commentators call it, as the Greeks do, and we from them, Kinoth--Lamentations. As we have sacred odes or songs of joy, so have we sacred elegies or songs of lamentation; such variety of methods has Infinite Wisdom taken to work upon us and move our affections, and so soften our hearts and make them susceptible of the impressions of divine truths, as the wax of the seal. We have not only piped unto you, but have mourned likewise, Matthew 11:17. II. The penman of this book; It was Jeremiah the prophet, who is here Jeremiah the poet, and vates signifies both; therefore this book is fitly adjoined to the book of his prophecy, and is as an appendix to it. We had there at large the predictions of the desolations of Judah and Jerusalem, and then the history of them, to show how punctually the predictions were accomplished, for the confirming of our faith: now here we have the expressions of his sorrow upon occasion of them, to show that he was very sincere in the protestations he had often made that he did not desire the woeful day, but that, on the contrary, the prospect of it filled him with bitterness. When he saw these calamities at a distance, he wished that his head were waters and his eyes fountains of tears; and, when they came, he made it to appear that he did not dissemble in that wish, and that he was far from being disaffected to his country, which was the crime his enemies charged him with. Though his country had been very unkind to him, and though the ruin of it was both a proof that he was a true prophet and a punishment of them for prosecuting him as a false prophet, which might have tempted him to rejoice in it, yet he sadly lamented it, and herein showed a better temper than that which Jonah was of with respect to Nineveh. III. The occasion of these Lamentations The occasion was the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by the Chaldean army and the dissolution of the Jewish state both civil and ecclesiastical thereby. Some of the rabbies will have these to be the Lamentations which Jeremiah penned upon occasion of the death of Josiah, which are mentioned 2 Chronicles 35:25. But, though it is true that that opened the door to all the following calamities, yet these Lamentations seem to be penned in the sight, not in the foresight, of those calamities--when they had already come, not when they were at a distance; and these is nothing of Josiah in them, and his praise, as was no question, in the lamentations for him. No, it is Jerusalem's funeral that this is an elegy upon. Others of them will have these Lamentations to be contained in the roll which Baruch wrote from Jeremiah's mouth, and which Jehoiakim burnt, and they suggest that at first there were in it only the 1st, 2nd, and 4th chapters, but that the 3rd and 5th were the many like words that were afterwards added; but this is a groundless fancy; that roll is expressly said to be a repetition and summary of the prophet's sermons, Jeremiah 36:2. IV. The composition of it; It is not only poetical, but alphabetical, all except the 5th chapter, as some of David's psalms are; each verse begins with a several letter in the order of the Hebrew alphabet, the first aleph, the second beth, &c., but the 3rd chapter is a triple alphabet, the first three beginning with aleph, the next three with beth, &c., which was a help to memory (it being designed that these mournful ditties should be got by heart) and was an elegance in writing then valued and therefore not now to be despised. They observe that in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chapters, the letter pe is put before ain, which in all the Hebrew alphabets follows it, for a reason of which Dr. Lightfoot offers this conjecture, That the letter ajin, which is the numeral letter for LXX., was thus, by being displaced, made remarkable, to put them in mind of the seventy years at the end of which God would turn again their captivity. V. The use of it: Of great use, no doubt, it was to the pious Jews in their sufferings, furnishing them with spiritual language to express their natural grief by, helping to preserve the lively remembrance of Zion among them, and their children that never saw it, when they were in Babylon, directing their tears into the right channel (for they are here taught to mourn for sin and mourn to God), and withal encouraging their hopes that God would yet return and have mercy upon them; and it is of use to us, to affect us with godly sorrow for the calamities of the church of God, as becomes those that are living members of it and are resolved to take our lot with it. From The Adam Clarke Commentary 834_a; Lamentations 1:1, how is she become as a widow Isaiah 47:7, 8. 834_b; Lamentations 1:1b, was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces Ezra 4:20. 834_c; Lamentations 1:3, Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction Jeremiah 52:27. 834_d; Lamentations 1:3b, she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest i.e., nations. 834_e; Lamentations 1:5, the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions Jeremiah 30:14, 15; Jeremiah 52:28; Daniel 9:7, 16. 834_f; Lamentations 1:8, Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction 1 Kings 8:46. 834_g; Lamentations 1:10, hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary 834_db; Lamentation 1:10, hath seen that the (1) heathen entered into her sanctuary Jeremiah 51:51. 834_h; Lamentations 1:12, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow Daniel 9:12. 834_i; Lamentations 1:13, he hath spread a net for my feet Ezekiel 12:13; Ezekiel 17:20. 834_j; Lamentations 1:14, The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: Deuteronomy 28:48. 834_k; Lamentations 1:15, the LORD hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, Isaiah 63:3; Revelation 14:19. 835_a; Lamentations 1:20, ; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, Deuteronomy 32:25; Ezekiel 7:15. 835_b; Lamentations 1:21, thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called Cf. Isaiah 13; Jeremiah 46.

CHAPTER 01 THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH Chronological notes relative to the Book of the Lamentations Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3416. Year of the Jewish era of the world, 3173. Year from the Deluge, 1760. First year of the forty-eighth Olympiad. Year from the building of Rome, according to the Varronian account, 166. Year before the birth of Christ, 584. Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 588. Year of the Julian Period, 4126. Year of the era of Nabonassar, 160. Cycle of the Sun, 10. Cycle of the Moon, 3. Second year after the fourth Sabbatic year after the seventeenth Jewish jubilee, according to Helvicus. Twenty-ninth year of Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of the Romans: this was the seventy-ninth year before the commencement of the consular government. Thirty-eighth year of Cyaxares or Cyaraxes, the fourth king of Media. Eighteenth year of Agasicles, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Proclidae. Twentieth year of Leon, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Eurysthenidae. Thirty-second year of Alyattes II., king of Lydia. This was the father of the celebrated Croesus. Fifteenth year of AEropas, the seventh king of Macedon. Nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Eleventh year of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah. N. B. The time when this book was written is very uncertain: the above chronology is agreeable to that contained in the present authorized version. Exposition Chapter 01 The prophet begins with lamenting the dismal reverse of fortune that befell his country, confessing at the same time that her calamities were the just consequence of her sins, 1-6. Jerusalem herself is then personified and brought forward to continue the sad complaint, and to solicit the mercy of God, 7-22. In all copies of the Septuagint, whether of the Roman or Alexandrian editions, the following words are found as a part of the text: -"And it came to pass after Israel had been carried away captive, and Jerusalem was become desolate, that Jeremiah sat weeping: and he lamented with this lamentation over Jerusalem; and he said." The Vulgate has the same, with some variations:-"Et factum est, postquam in captivitatem redactus est Israel, et Jerusalem deserta est, sedit Jeremias propheta fiens, et planxit lamentations hac in Jerusalem, et amaro animo suspirans et ejulans, digit." The translation of this, as given in the first translation of the Bible into English, may be found at the end of Jeremiah, taken from an ancient MS. in my own possession. I subjoin another taken from the first PRINTED edition of the English Bible, that by Coverdale, 1535. "And it came to passe, (after Israel was brought into captyvitie, and Jerusalem destroyed;) that Jeremy the prophet sat weeping, mournynge, and makinge his mone in Jerusalem; so that with an hevy herte he sighed and sobbed, sayenge." Matthew's Bible, printed in 1549, refines upon this: "It happened after Israell was brought into captyvite, and Jerusalem destroyed, that Jeremy the prophet sate wepyng, and sorrowfully bewayled Jerusalem; and syghynge and hewlynge with an hevy and wooful hert, sayde." Becke's Bible of the same date, and Cardmarden's of 1566, have the same, with a trifling change in the orthography. On this Becke and others have the following note:-"These words are read in the LXX. interpreters: but not in the Hebrue." All these show that it was the ancient opinion that the Book of Lamentations was composed, not over the death of Josiah, but on account of the desolations of Israel and Jerusalem. The Arabic copies the Septuagint. The Syriac does not acknowledge it; and the Chaldee has these words only: "Jeremiah the great priest and prophet said." Notes on Chapter 1 Verse 1. How doth the city sit solitary Sitting down, with the elbow on the knee, and the head supported by the hand, without any company, unless an oppressor near,-all these were signs of mourning and distress. The coin struck by Vespasian on the capture of Jerusalem, on the obverse of which there is a palm-tree, the emblem of Judea, and under it a woman, the emblem of Jerusalem, sitting, leaning as before described, with the legend Judea capta, illustrates this expression as well as that in Isaiah 47:1. See Clarke on Isaiah 3:26. where the subject is farther explained. Become as a widow Having lost her king. Cities are commonly described as the mothers of their inhabitants, the kings as husbands, and the princes as children. When therefore they are bereaved of these, they are represented as widows, and childless. The Hindoo widow, as well as the Jewish, is considered the most destitute and wretched of all human beings. She has her hair cut short, throws off all ornaments, eats the coarsest food, fasts often, and is all but an outcast in the family of her late husband. Is she become tributary! Having no longer the political form of a nation; and the remnant that is left paying tribute to a foreign and heathen conqueror. Verse 2. Among all her lovers Her allies; her friends, instead of helping her, have helped her enemies. Several who sought her friendship when she was in prosperity, in the time of David and Solomon, are now among her enemies. Verse 3. Between the straits. She has been brought into such difficulties, that it was impossible for her to escape. Has this any reference to the circumstances in which Zedekiah and the princes of Judah endeavoured to escape from Jerusalem, by the way of the gates between the two walls? Jeremiah 52:7. Verse 4. The ways of Zion do mourn A fine prosopopoeia. The ways in which the people trod coming to the sacred solemnities, being now no longer frequented, are represented as shedding tears; and the gates themselves partake of the general distress. All poets of eminence among the Greeks and Romans have recourse to this image. So Moschus, in his Epitaph on Bion, ver. 1-3:- "Ye winds, with grief your waving summits bow, Ye Dorian fountains, murmur as ye flow; From weeping urns your copious sorrows shed, And bid the rivers mourn for Bion dead. Ye shady groves, in robes of sable hue, Bewail, ye plants, in pearly drops of dew; Ye drooping flowers, diffuse a languid breath, And die with sorrow, at sweet Bion's death." FAWKES. So Virgil, AEn. vii., ver. 759:- Te nemus Anguitiae, vitrea te Fucinus unda Te liquidi flevere lacus. "For thee, wide echoing, sighed th' Anguitian woods; For thee, in murmurs, wept thy native floods." And more particularly on the death of Daphnis, Eclog. v. ver. 24:- Non ulli pastos illis egere diebus Frigida, Daphni, boves ad flumina: nulla neque amnem Libavit quadrupes, nec graminis attigit herbam. Daphni, tuum Poenos etiam ingemuisse leones Interitum, montesque feri, sylvaeque loquuntur. "The swains forgot their sheep, nor near the brink Of running waters brought their herds to drink: The thirsty cattle of themselves abstained From water, and their grassy fare disdained. The death of Daphnis woods and hills deplore; The Libyan lions hear, and hearing roar." DRYDEN. She has been brought into such difficulties, that it was impossible for her to escape. Has this any reference to the circumstances in which Zedekiah and the princes of Judah endeavoured to escape from Jerusalem, by the way of the gates between the two walls? Jeremiah 52:7. Verse 5. Her adversaries are the chief They have now supreme dominion over the whole land. She has been brought into such difficulties, that it was impossible for her to escape. Has this any reference to the circumstances in which Zedekiah and the princes of Judah endeavoured to escape from Jerusalem, by the way of the gates between the two walls? Jeremiah 52:7. Verse 7. Did mock at her Sabbaths. mishbatteha. Some contend that Sabbaths are not intended here. The Septuagint has ?at???es?aa?t??, "her habitation;" the Chaldee, al tubaha, "her good things;" the Syriac, {Syriac} al toboroh, "her breach." The Vulgate and Arabic agree with the Hebrew. Some of my oldest MSS. have the word in the plural number, mishbatteyha, "her Sabbaths." A multitude of Kennicott's MSS. have the same reading. The Jews were despised by the heathen for keeping the Sabbath. Juvenal mocks them on that account:- cui septima quaeque fuit lux Ignava et partem vitae non attigit ullam. Sat. v. "To whom every seventh day was a blank, and formed not any part of their life." St. Augustine represents Seneca as doing the same:- Inutiliter id eos facere affirmans, quod septimani ferme partem aetatis suae perdent vacando, et multa in tempore urgentia non agendo laedantur. "That they lost the seventh part of their life in keeping their Sabbaths; and injured themselves by abstaining from the performance of many necessary things in such times." He did not consider that the Roman calendar and customs gave them many more idle days than God had prescribed in Sabbaths to the Jews. The Sabbath is a most wise and beneficent ordinance. She has been brought into such difficulties, that it was impossible for her to escape. Has this any reference to the circumstances in which Zedekiah and the princes of Judah endeavoured to escape from Jerusalem, by the way of the gates between the two walls? Jeremiah 52:7. Verse 9. She remembereth not her last end Although evident marks of her pollution appeared about her, and the land was defiled by her sinfulness even to its utmost borders, she had no thought or consideration of what must be the consequence of all this at the last.-Blayney. She has been brought into such difficulties, that it was impossible for her to escape. Has this any reference to the circumstances in which Zedekiah and the princes of Judah endeavoured to escape from Jerusalem, by the way of the gates between the two walls? Jeremiah 52:7. Verse 11. They have given their pleasant things Jerusalem is compared to a woman brought into great straits, who parts with her jewels and trinkets in order to purchase by them the necessaries of life. She has been brought into such difficulties, that it was impossible for her to escape. Has this any reference to the circumstances in which Zedekiah and the princes of Judah endeavoured to escape from Jerusalem, by the way of the gates between the two walls? Jeremiah 52:7. Verse 12. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? The desolations and distress brought upon this city and its inhabitants had scarcely any parallel. Excessive abuse of God's accumulated mercies calls for singular and exemplary punishment. She has been brought into such difficulties, that it was impossible for her to escape. Has this any reference to the circumstances in which Zedekiah and the princes of Judah endeavoured to escape from Jerusalem, by the way of the gates between the two walls? Jeremiah 52:7. Verse 14. The yoke of my transgressions I am now tied and bound by the chain of my sins; and it is so wreathed, so doubled and twisted round me, that I cannot free myself. A fine representation of the miseries of a penitent soul, which feels that nothing but the pitifulness of God's mercy can loose it. She has been brought into such difficulties, that it was impossible for her to escape. Has this any reference to the circumstances in which Zedekiah and the princes of Judah endeavoured to escape from Jerusalem, by the way of the gates between the two walls? Jeremiah 52:7. Verse 15. Called an assembly The Chaldean army, composed of various nations, which God commissioned to destroy Jerusalem. She has been brought into such difficulties, that it was impossible for her to escape. Has this any reference to the circumstances in which Zedekiah and the princes of Judah endeavoured to escape from Jerusalem, by the way of the gates between the two walls? Jeremiah 52:7. Verse 17. Zion spreadeth forth her hands Extending the hands is the form in supplication. Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman To whom none dared to approach, either to help or comfort, because of the law, Leviticus 15:19-27. She has been brought into such difficulties, that it was impossible for her to escape. Has this any reference to the circumstances in which Zedekiah and the princes of Judah endeavoured to escape from Jerusalem, by the way of the gates between the two walls? Jeremiah 52:7. Verse 19. I called for my lovers My allies; the Egyptians and others. She has been brought into such difficulties, that it was impossible for her to escape. Has this any reference to the circumstances in which Zedekiah and the princes of Judah endeavoured to escape from Jerusalem, by the way of the gates between the two walls? Jeremiah 52:7. Verse 20. Abroad the sword bereaveth WAR is through the country; and at home death; the pestilence and famine rage in the city; calamity in every shape is fallen upon me. Virgil represents the calamities of Troy under the same image:- Nec soli poenas dant sanguine Teucri: Quondam etiam victis redit in praecordia virtus; Victoresque cadunt Danai. Crudelis ubique Luctus, ubique Pavor, et plurima mortis imago. AEneid. lib. ii. 366. "Not only Trojans fall; but, in their turn, The vanquished triumph, and the victors mourn. Ours take new courage from despair and night; Confused the fortune is, confused the fight. All parts resound with tumults, plaints, and fears; And grisly death in sundry shapes appears." DRYDEN. So Milton- "Despair Tended the sick, busiest from couch to couch; And over them triumphant Death his dart Shook." Par. Lost, B. xi. 489. Jeremiah, Jeremiah 9:21, uses the same image:- Death is come up into our windows: He hath entered our palaces, To cut off the infants without, And the young men in our streets. So Silius Italicus, II. 548:- Mors graditur, vasto pandens cava guttura rletu, Casuroque inhians populo. "Death stalks along, and opens his hideous throat to gulp down the people." Verse 21. They have heard that I sigh My affliction is public enough; but no one comes to comfort me. They are glad that thou hast done it On the contrary, they exult in my misery; and they see that THOU hast done what they were incapable of performing. Thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me. Babylon shall be visited in her turn; and thy judgments poured out upon her shall equal her state with my own. See the last six chapters of the preceding prophecy for the accomplishment of this prediction. Verse 22. Let all their wickedness come before thee That is, Thou wilt call their crimes also into remembrance; and thou wilt do unto them by siege, sword, famine, and captivity, what thou hast done to me. Though thy judgments, because of thy long-suffering, are slow; yet, because of thy righteousness, they are sure. For my sighs are many My desolations continue; and my heart is faint-my political and physical strength almost totally destroyed. Imprecations in the sacred writings are generally to be understood as declarative of the evils they indicate; or, that such evils will take place. No prophet of God ever wished desolation on those against whom he was directed to prophesy. CLARKE'S COMMENTARY - Lamentations Additional Resources Burton Coffman Geniva Bible Commentary The New John Gill Exposition Jamieson, Fausset, Brown Matthew Henry Complete Matthew Henry Concise Treasury of Scripture John Wesley's Explanatory Notes TopCom ^ Bibliography Information Clarke, Adam. "Commentary on Lamentations 01". "The Adam Clarke Commentary". 1832.

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