Lamentations 2

Lamentations 2:10-22

The subject of this chapter is the same as the former. 1. Here is the anger of Zion’s God taken notice of, as the cause of her calamities, ver. 1—9. 2. Here is the fervour of Zion’s children taken notice of, as the effect of her calamities, ver. 10—10. 3. The complaint is made to God, and the matter referred to his compassionate vindication, ver. 20—22. The hand that wounded may make, while.

4. Met. al.

5. 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 fackeloth; the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. 11. 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 facklings of whom in the streets of the city. 12. They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they fattened as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers bosom. 13. 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

the breach is great like the sea: who can haul thee?

14. “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. 15. All that pale by ‘clap their hands at thee; they hils and ‘wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that now call ’the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth? 16. ‘All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hils and gnath 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. 17. The LORD hath done that ‘which he had decided: 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 adverbaries. 18. 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 eyes cease. 19. Aries, 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 towards him, for the life of thy young children, ’that faint for hunger in the top of every street. 20. Behold, O LORD, and ‘consider to whom thou hath 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? 21. 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. 22. 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: thine that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

Nothing breathes here but lamentation, mourning, and woe.

1. The mourners and their bitter angels are described. The elders, who in robes of state were seated on the throne of judgment, now sit on the ground with every expressive sign of sorrow, duly on their heads, and grit with sackcloth, the virgins of Jerusalem, so sprightly ance and gay, with downcast eyes and melancholy looks between their miteries, v. 10. Whilst the prophet himself, in deepest distress, wept till his eyes grew dim in their unthousand fescents; his breath troubled with acutely pangs of grief, and all within him melted as it were through very angels, for the destruction of the daughter of his people, v. 2.

2. Abundant cause appears for such bitter mourning.

(1.) The famine is very grievous. The infants swoon thro’ hunger, and cry to their tender mothers for bread; unable to relieve their wants, the fond parent sees them feast in the florets as wounded, or clashing them to their bosom they expire there, v. 18. nay, more horrid still, driven by those cruising that silence even the strangest feelings of natural affections, the infant, murdered from the woods, is devoured by the humbled mother, v. 20. Well may we cry, in the view of such a feast, from plague, pallance, and famine, good Lord deliver us?

(2.) The forced of their enemies rests with the blood of the skin: no sacredness of place or character affords protection. The proof and prophet are plain in that feast’s whither they find for refuge, v. 20. neither young nor old are spared, and even virgins bleed in the general mufflers. God’s wrath had set their unscathed enemies upon them: He no more pitted them, and suffered their hearts to be flashed against every feeling of humanity, v. 21. Thick as the crowded worshippers assembled in the days of their solemnities, now their terrible enemies, functioned of God, befit them round: hummed in on every side, now plagued or remained, but were slain or made captives; so that Zion, a childless widow, saw all her pains and care, befted with her helpless children, fruitless, mortified only as funds for the daughter: and all this the Lord’s doing, the effects of his fierce anger. How then should we fear to provoke this jealous God.

(3.) Their prophets defended them, v. 14. Pretending to inspiration, they reported the dreams of their own foolish imaginations, allowing the people of peace, inflicted of rebuking them for their iniquity, flattering them in their sins, and hathering them to their ruin, v. 14. Note, (1.) No curft more heavy than to be given up to the delusions of lying prophets. (2.) They who prophesy smooth things, inflicted of chewing faithfulness to men’s souls in rebuking their sins, evidence the falsehood of their pretended million.

(4.) Their neighbours reproach, their enemies inflict them. As it well pleaded with their fail, those that pass by his and wig

the head, defending their miteries; Is this the city that now call the perfection of beauty? the joy of the whole earth? Where now are their Jewish boasts?—With open mouths their enemies join the cry, blaspheming and reviling, hailing as serpents, and gnathing their teeth, in testimony of their abhorrence; they say, we have swallowed her up, delighted with the delicious rapah, with the rich prey of Zion’s palaces. Certainly this is the day we have looked for, we have found, we have seen it; with malicious joy they triumph, and think they have prevailed to her everfalling destruction. But let the enemies of God’s church know, the sunk never so low, she will revive, and their triumphing will be short.

(5.) Their misery is unparalleled, their safe to human view desperate, v. 13. no nation ever suffered the like calamities; to seek, as a ground of comfort, for afflictions similar to those Zion had endowed were cast; for thy bread is great like the joy, which, when it overflows, with violence irresistible deluges the country. Who can heal that? no human wisdom or power can repair these defoliations, v. 13.

(6.) God himself appears their enemy. The Lord hath done that which he had decided, his hand hath done it, his country planned the blow: he hath fulfilled his word, that he had commanded in the days of old; for, when he gave them his holy law by Meios, he told them what would be the effects of their transgressions, Lev. xxvi. 17. Deut. xxviii. 20. which is now fulfilled. He hath thrown down, and hath not pitied, fearing neither city nor temple: he hath caused the enemy to rejoice over thee, giving Jerusalem for a prey to their teeth, v. 17. and for these miteries no marvel if their heart in anguish cried unto the Lord: in some the voice of mere nature, lamenting their sufferings; in others, it may be hoped also, the voice of grace bewailing their sins.

3. They are exhorted, as the only means of redress, in deep humiliation to seek unto God. He hath wounded, and he alone can heal. O wall of the daughter of Zion, ye watchmen that stand thereon, and all others, let tears penitentiary sun down as a river day and night, give thyself no rest, weep in selfishly, let not the apple of thine eye cease, till thou hast found pardon and grace. Reste, cry out in the night, impurtenant in prayer, and speaking hard with God for mercy, in the beginning of the wathen, repeatedly and ceaseless till he vouchsafes an answer of peace; pour out thine heart his water before the face of the Lord, lift up thine hands to him, pour all thy griefs into his compassionate bosom, and urge every argument for pity, such as the infants groans expiring for hunger, v. 19. Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this; to the seed of Abraham thy friend, the sons of Jacob thy children; the people thou didst separate for thine own. Note, We can take no step so effectual to remove our miteries as spreading them in humble and fervent prayer before God. None but he can help us; and none who ever truly sought him fought in vain.