Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Lamentations 1:1 - 1:11

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Lamentations 1:1 - 1:11


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Description of the Shameful Lot which has come upon Jerusalem

v. 1. How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! It is a strong expression of horrified astonishment over the fact that the formerly populous city is now lonely and deserted, sitting alone in deep mourning. How is she become as a widow! She no longer enjoys the fellowship of Jehovah, her Husband, and she has lost her children, who have been killed in battle and carried away into exile. She that was great among the nations and princess among the provinces, her rule being accepted more or less continuously in the surrounding provinces from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates, how is she become tributary! herself condemned to servitude and to the payment of tribute-money.

v. 2. She weepeth sore in the night,
the slumber being driven away from her eyelids by the greatness of her sorrow, and her tears are on her cheeks, since they flow without stopping and have no chance to dry; among all her lovers, who formerly professed affection for her, she hath none to comfort her; all her friends, upon whom she depended for assistance, have dealt treacherously with her, deserting her in the midst of the dangers which came upon her; they are become her enemies, their former profession of loyalty changing to open hostility.

v. 3. Judah is gone into captivity,
led away into exile, because of affliction, the misery upon the country on account of the occupation of the land by the Chaldeans, and because of great servitude, the servile work which was included in the tributary service exacted by the conquerors; she dwelleth among the heathen, sojourning among them, as it were, in the hope of finding some measure of security; she findeth no rest, being disappointed also in this respect; all her persecutors overtook her between the straits, so that there was no outlet for her, no chance to escape.

v. 4. The ways of Zion do mourn,
all the roads leading to the capital lying desolate, because there are no pilgrims found there, because none come to the solemn feasts, the great festivals of the Jewish year; all her gates are desolate, for there is no longer the happy traffic of former years; her priests sigh, under the heavy oppression which they suffer and because the Temple and its worship are no longer in existence, her virgins are afflicted, since their joyful singing no longer enlivened the great festivals, and she is in bitterness, she feels her misfortunes with poignant grief.

v. 5. Her adversaries are the chief,
that is, the head, the rulers of Judah, her enemies prosper, their good fortune intensifying the darkness of her own calamity; for the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions, the punishment which she was suffering being fully deserved; her children are gone into captivity before the enemy, literally, "her infants in absence of strength before the pursuer. "

v. 6. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed,
the presence of Jehovah and His glory in her midst; her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, so that they have no strength to flee and escape from the enemy, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer. Cf 2Ki_25:3-4.

v. 7. Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old,
the members of the Jewish Church recalling with eager remembrance the glorious evidences of God's blessing which had been theirs, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her, the days of her calamity contrasting very strikingly with her former state of blessedness; the adversaries saw her and did mock at her Sabbaths. As the Jewish day of rest was a favorite object of mockery on the part of the enemies, so they now thought it a huge joke that a general and lasting Sabbath had come upon their country.

v. 8. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned,
chiefly by joining in the idolatry of Israel and the heathen nations, therefore she is removed, as one separated from the congregation on account of legal impurity; all that honored her despise her because they have seen her nakedness, her sins and vices having now become known; yea, she sigheth, since now at last she has, in a measure, come to the realization of her transgressions, and turneth backward, withdrawing from men, so that her shame may no longer be witnessed.

v. 9. Her filthiness is in her skirts,
as of a woman Levitically unclean; she remembereth not her last end, she did not consider the result of her persistent iniquity, therefore she came down wonderfully, the greatness of her fall being such as to cause men to marvel; she had no comforter, no one to take her part with so much as a word of consolation. It is for this reason that her sighing is heard: O Lord, behold my affliction; for the enemy hath magnified himself, increasing his insolence and violence. The prophet now continues his description of Jerusalem's misery.

v. 10. The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things,
blasphemously robbing even the precious vessels and appointments of the Temple; for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her Sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation, the heathen as such being excluded from the Temple, except where they were proselytes of righteousness. They had been excluded from the Sanctuary, but here they entered with blasphemous intent, ruthlessly trampling down and robbing just as they chose.

v. 11. All her people sigh,
with the calamity of the severe famine as a further cause for groaning, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul, no valuables being too precious, in this emergency, where the question is to save lives. Their groaning arises in a fervent appeal: See, O Lord, and consider, for I am become vile, an object of wretchedness. The first step of true repentance is a full and unequivocal acknowledgment of one's own sinfulness and a corresponding free confession of it to the Lord.