Lamentations 4

■The prophet returns to the same metre he used in the two first chapters, and treats of the same subject. [Dr. Pocock translates the word tannin, jackals, seamonsters having no breasts. See the notes upon Micah i. 8.] The word tannin signifies any great fiSli, as a whale: or a crocodile: (see the note on Isa. xxvii. 1.) and is here very fitly rendered sea-monsters. These tho’ prophet saith are not so unnatural, as to neglect the care of their young ones: whereas the women of Jerusalem have been reduced to that miserable necessity, as hot only to disregard their children, not having wherewithal to provide for themselves, but likewise to feed upon them, (ver. 4. 10.) Like the ostriches in the wilderness.’] See Job xxxix. 14. 1G. * Vcr. 5. Tliey that ivere bred up in scarlet, embrace dunghills.’] Are content to lie down upon a dunghill, or to seek for food there. (Compare Job xxiv. 8.) * Ver. G. That was overthrown as in a moment, and?io’hands stayed on her.] Sodom was not given up into the hands of an enemy that laid siege to it, nor condemned to the lingering destruction of famine. (See vcr. 9.) [Ver. 7. Her Nazarites.] A Nazarite signifies a person dedicated to God. Their vow did often include an attendance upon the worship of God in the temple. (See the note upon Amos ii. 11.) It is of such Nazarites the word seems here to be meant.] They were more ruddy in body than rubies.] Or, Their’Skin was clearer than rubies, or pearls, as Bochart translates the words, (Hierozoic. lib. ii. cap. 6.) The word adam signifies clear, or transparent, and is so to be understood, Cant. v. 10. where our translation renders it ruddy, ■as it does here. Thus the Latin word purpureus is used by Virgil, when he saith, u Lumenque juventae purpureum." Lu’dolphus renders the words, TJiey were more beautiful -than pearls; from the sense which the word adam still retains in the Ethiopic language, where it signifies beautiful: from which signification he supposes the first man had the name of Adam. (See his Commentary in Histor. iEthiop. lib. i. n. 107.) sitors understand of king Josiah, and thereupon ground their opinion that the Lamentations were written upon occasion of his death. (Sec the Argument to chap, i.) But I rather conceive that Zedekiah is here meant, of whom the prophet saith, that he was taken in those toils his enemies had laid to catch him. (See Jen Iii. 8. Ezek. xii. 13.) As long as he was safe,.we had hopes of preserving some face of government, although we were carried away into a foreign country.. lUiider his shadow we shall live among the heathens.) The protection a king affords his subjects, is compared to the shelter of a great tree, which is a covert against storms and tempests. (See Ezek. xvii. 23. xxxi. 6. Dan. iv. 12.) And we might then have hoped to preserve some face of religion and government.]

Lamentations 4:1

HOW is the gold become dim! &c. How is the glory of the temple obscured! The sanctuary which was overlaid with gold (see 2 Chron. iii. 8.) now lies in ruins: and the stones of it are not distinguished from common rubbish! In like manner, the priests and Levites, who attended upon God’s service, and the elders of the people, the members of the great Sanhedrin, who kept their court within the precincts of the temple; (see the note on Jer. xxxv. 4.) these persons, that might be resembled to the pillars or corner-stones of that sacred building, are now involved in the same common destruction with the meanest of the people. (See ver. 16. ii. 20.) At the top of every street.] See the note on ii. 19.

Lamentations 4:2

Tlie precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers!. Those that in honour and worth exceed the meanest, as much as gold doth earthenware, now lie undistinguished in their death. The words are an explication of what is said in more general terms inthe verse before.

Lamentations 4:3

Even the sea-monsters draw out the breast, &cj

Lamentations 4:8

Tlieir visage is blacker than a coal. The famine and other hardships they have endured have spoiled their complexion, and made them look dry and withered. (Compare v. 10.)

Lamentations 4:9

Stricken through for want of the fruits of the’earth. Their vitals are pierced through as if they had been pierced with a sword, but with this difference, that it is by: famine, the most cruel, because the most lingering death. The preposition mm is rightly translated for want of; so it is taken, Jer. xlviii. 45. (See the note there.).

Lamentations 4:10

The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children. The affection of a mother towards her child is the strongest of all natural affections, (compare Isa. ■xlix. 15.) and yet the famine hath forced that tender sex to divest themselves of it. (See ii. 20.)

Lamentations 4:11

He hath kindled afire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundatio7is thereof. It hath made an entire destruction, so as not to leave one stone upon anotlier* (Sec Jen vii. 20.)

Lamentations 4:12

Tlie kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed, &c. The city was so well fortified, and had been so often miraculously preserved by God from the attempts of its enemies, that it seemed incredible that it should at last fall into their hands. Vcr. 13. For tlie sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests.] See Jer. v. 31. vi 13. xxiii. 11. Ezek. xxii. 2G/2S. Zeph.iii. 4.

Lamentations 4:14

They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood. When they fled for their lives they were like blind men, not knowing which way to go, because of the many carcasses which lay in their way: whereby they became stained with blood, and so legally polluted. (See Numb. xix. 1G.) Thus they carried the marks of their sin in their punishment. So that men could not touch their garments.] The syntax, iu the original, is very obscure, which causes different interpretations of the sentence. Some render it, They touched [the blood] zvith their garments, which they might not lawfully do: in which sense the verb yacal is used, Deut. xii. 17. Others translate the words, So that they could not but touch it zvith their garments: which made others cry, Depart, &c. as it follows in the next verse.

Lamentations 4:15

Tliey cried, Depart, depart, it is unclean; [or, ye polluted. depart, &c] When they fled to save their lives, they could find no safe retreat, but <?very body shunned and avoided them: and used the same words to express their abhorrence of this defilement of such persons, whose office it was to cleanse and purify others, as the lepers were by the law obliged to pronounce upon themselves, and cry, Unclean, unclean. (See Lev. xiii.45.) The filthy garments of the priest were an emblem of their filthy minds: (see Zech. iii. 4, 5.) and called to remembrance the innocent blood which had been shed by their means; (see ver. 13.) when people saw their sin thus retaliated upon them. They said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.] When those priests were driven out into heathen countries, every one looked upon their banishment as a just judgment upon their wickedness, and accounted them unworthy to attend any longer upon God’s worship in his temple.

Lamentations 4:16

Tlie anger of the Lord hath divided them, &c. .God, in his just displeasure, hath scattered and dispersed them into foreign courts, where no respect will be given tp their characters.

Lamentations 4:17

In watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us. We have long waited for, and have at last been disappointed in, the succours w r e expecte dfrom the Egyptians. (See Jer. xxxvii. 7. and the note upon xxii. 20.)

Lamentations 4:18

They hunt our steps, that ive cannot go in our streets. Our enemies pursue us a§ wild beasts hunt their prey, and lay w T ait for us in every turning and corner of the streets. (See 2 Kings xxv. 3, 4.) Our end is come*] Compare Ezek. vii, 6. Amos viii. 2.

Lamentations 4:19

Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heavens. God has brought upon us that judgment which he threatened by Moses, of bringing a nation against us as swift as the eagle flieth, (Deut. xxviii. 49.) Such were the horsemen of the Chaldean army. (See Jer. iv. 13. Iii, 8.) They pursued us upon the mountains; they laid wqitfor us in the wilderness.] We could no where escape them, neither by flying to the mountains, nor by hiding ourselves in the valleys. The wilderness is elsewhere taken for the lower or pasture grounds. (See Isa. lxiii. 13, 14. Joel i. 19.)

Lamentations 4:20

The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in tlieir pits, &c. This verse some expo-

Lamentations 4:21

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter ofEdom. An ironical expression, like that of Solomon, Eccles. xi. 9. Rejoice, O young man, &c. As if the prophet had said, Rejoice while thou mayest, O Edom, over the calamities of the Jews. (See Psal. exxxvii. 7. Obad. ver. 101) But thy joy will not last long, for, in a little time, it shall come to thy turn to feel God’s afflicting hand. (Sep Jcr. xlix. 7, &c.) That dwellest in the land of Uz.] See the note on Jer. xxv. 20. The cup also shall pass through unto thee.’] See the note on Jer. xxv. 15, 16. And shall make thyself naked.] God’s astonishing judgments, often compared to drunkenness, shall have the usual effect of drunkenness upon thee; viz. that thy nakedness shall thereby be discovered. (See the note on Jer. xiii.22.) The word maybe translated, Thou shalt be made naked: for the conjugation hith-pael, is sometimes taken in a passive sense: as Glassius hath observed, in his Philologia Sacra, p. 840. Some render the word, And shall empty thyself [by vomiting]. To this effect of drunkenness God’s judgments are compared, Isa. xix. 14. Habak. ii. 16. especially, as that resembles men’s disgorging their wealth and treasures when an enemy overpowers them, and leaves them empty and exhausted.

Lamentations 4:22

The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter ofZion. It is usual for the prophets, when they have denounced God’s judgments against any heathen nation, at the same time to give gracious promises to Israel: thereby importing, that God will never cast off his people utterly, as he doth strangers, but will, in due time, extend his mercy towards them. (Compare Jer. xlvi. 27, 28, 1. 18 —20. Ezek. xxviii. 24—26. Obad. ver. 17, &c.) We will no more carry thee into captivity.’] Several suchlike promises we find in the prophets; (see Jer. xxxi. 40.) such as these of Isaiah, Iii. 1. There shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised, and the unclean: and, liv. 9. I have sworn I would not be wroth with thee. (Compare li. 22.) These and such-like expressions, if they tie understood in a strict literal sense, must relate to the final restoration of the Jews. (See the notes on Isa. Ii. 22. liv. 9. and compare Ezek. xxix. 28.) He will discover thy sins.] He will discover how great thine iniquities are, by the remarkable judgments wherewith he punisheth thee. (Compare Job xx. 27.) The margin reads, He will carry thee captive for thy sins; in which sense the verb galah is used in the same verse.