PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible — Lamentations
Gill, John, 1697-1771 · 39,873 words · 79 reading sections
Lamentations 1:1
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible. Lamentations 1:1 INTRODUCTION TO LAMENTATIONS This book very properly follows the prophecy of Jeremiah, not only because wrote by him, but because of the subject matter of it, the deplorable case of the Jews upon the destruction of their city; and has been reckoned indeed …
1,607 wordsSECTION 2Lamentations 1:2
Lamentations 1:2 Ver. 2. She weepeth sore in the night,.... Or, "weeping weeps" {i}; two weepings, one for the first, the other for the second temples {k}; and while others are taking their sleep and rest; a season fit for mourners, when they can give their grief the greater vent, without any interruption from others;…
308 wordsSECTION 3Lamentations 1:3
Lamentations 1:3 Ver. 3. Judah is gone into captivity,.... Not only Jerusalem the metropolis of Judea was destroyed, but the whole country was ravaged, and the inhabitants of it carried captive into Babylon: because of affliction, and because of great servitude; because of their sins in oppressing and afflicting thei…
448 wordsSECTION 4Lamentations 1:4
Lamentations 1:4 Ver. 4. The ways of Zion do mourn,.... Being unoccupied, as in Jud 5:6; or unfrequented: this is said by a rhetorical figure; as ways may be said to rejoice, or look pleasant and cheerful, when there are many passengers in them, going to and fro; so they may be said to mourn, or to look dull and melan…
593 wordsSECTION 5Lamentations 1:5
Lamentations 1:5 Ver. 5. Her adversaries are the chief,.... Or, "for the head" {n}; or are the head, as was threatened, De 28:44; and now fulfilled; the Chaldeans having got the dominion over the Jews, and obliged them to be subject to them: her enemies prosper; in wealth and riches, in grandeur and glory; live in ea…
206 wordsSECTION 6Lamentations 1:6
Lamentations 1:6 Ver. 6. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed,.... The kingdom removed; the priesthood ceased; the temple, their beautiful house, burnt; the palaces of their king and nobles demolished; and everything in church and state that was glorious were now no more: her princes are become li…
168 wordsSECTION 7Lamentations 1:7
Lamentations 1:7 Ver. 7. Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries,.... When carried captive, and in exile in a foreign land; when surrounded with distresses and calamities of various kinds; which are a means sometimes of rubbing up and refreshing the memories of persons with those good th…
460 wordsSECTION 8Lamentations 1:8
Lamentations 1:8 Ver. 8. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned,.... Or, "hath sinned a sin" {r}; a great sin, as the Targum; the sin of idolatry, according to some; or of covenant breaking, as others; though perhaps no particular sin is meant, but many grievous sins; since she was guilty of a multitude of them, as in La 1:…
249 wordsSECTION 9Lamentations 1:9
Lamentations 1:9 Ver. 9. Her filthiness [is] in her skirts,.... Her sin is manifest to all, being to be seen in her punishment. The allusion is to a menstruous woman, to whom she is compared, both before and after; whose blood flows down to the skirts of her garments, and there seen; by which it is known that she is i…
399 wordsSECTION 10Lamentations 1:10
Lamentations 1:10 Ver. 10. The enemy hath spread out his hands on all her pleasant things,.... Meaning not the wealth and riches, the goods and substance, or the rich furniture in their own houses; but the precious things in the house of God, the ark, the table, the altar, the priests garments, and vessels of the sanc…
4,448 wordsSECTION 11Lamentations 2:1
Lamentations 2:1 INTRODUCTION TO LAMENTATIONS 2 This chapter contains another alphabet, in which the Prophet Jeremiah, or those he represents, lament the sad condition of Jerusalem; the destruction of the city and temple, and of all persons and things relative to them, and to its civil or church state; and that as be…
457 wordsSECTION 12Lamentations 2:2
Lamentations 2:2 Ver. 2. The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied,.... As he regarded not his own habitation the temple, nor the ark his footstool, it is no wonder he should be unconcerned about the habitations of others; as of the inhabitants of the land of Judea and of Jerusalem, …
304 wordsSECTION 13Lamentations 2:3
Lamentations 2:3 Ver. 3. He hath cut off in [his] fierce anger all the horn of Israel,.... All its power and strength, especially its kingly power, which is often signified by a horn in Scripture; see Da 7:24; this the Lord took away in his fierce anger, and left the land destitute of all relief, help, defence and pro…
187 wordsSECTION 14Lamentations 2:4
Lamentations 2:4 Ver. 4. He hath bent his bow like an enemy,.... God sometimes appears as if he was an enemy to his people, when he is not, by his conduct and behaviour; by the dispensations of his providence they take him to be so, as Job did, Job 16:9; he bends his bow, or treads it, for the bending or stretching th…
230 wordsSECTION 15Lamentations 2:5
Lamentations 2:5 Ver. 5. The Lord was as an enemy,.... Who formerly was on their side, their God and guardian, their protector and deliverer, but now against them; and a terrible thing it is to have God for an enemy, or even to be as one; this is repeated, as being exceeding distressing, and even intolerable. Mr. Brou…
200 wordsSECTION 16Lamentations 2:6
Lamentations 2:6 Ver. 6. And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as [if it were] of a garden,.... The house of the sanctuary or temple, as the Targum; which was demolished at once with great force and violence, and as easily done as a tent or tabernacle is taken down; and no more account made of it than of a …
305 wordsSECTION 17Lamentations 2:7
Lamentations 2:7 Ver. 7. The Lord hath cast off his altar,.... Whether of incense, or of burnt offerings; the sacrifices of which used to be acceptable to him; but now the altar being cast down and demolished, there were no more offerings; nor did he show any desire of them, but the reverse: he hath abhorred his sanc…
281 wordsSECTION 18Lamentations 2:8
Lamentations 2:8 Ver. 8. The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion,.... Either the wall of the city, as Aben Ezra; or the wall that encompassed the temple, and all the outward courts of it, as Dr. Lightfoot {s} thinks; this the Lord had determined to destroy, and according to his purposes did …
284 wordsSECTION 19Lamentations 2:9
Lamentations 2:9 Ver. 9. Her gates are sunk into the ground,.... Either the gates of the city or temple, or both; being broke and demolished, and laid level with the ground, and covered with rubbish; for as for the Midrash, or exposition, that Jarchi mentions, that the gates sunk into the earth upon the approach of th…
373 wordsSECTION 20Lamentations 2:10
Lamentations 2:10 Ver. 10. The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground, [and] keep silence,.... Who used to sit in the gate on thrones of judgment, and passed sentence in causes tried before them; or were wont to give advice and counsel, and were regarded as oracles, now sit on the ground, and dumb, as mourne…
184 wordsSECTION 21Lamentations 2:11
Lamentations 2:11 Ver. 11. Mine eyes do fail with tears,.... According to Aben Ezra, everyone of the elders before mentioned said this; but rather they are the words of the Prophet Jeremiah, who had wept his eyes dry, or rather blind, on account of the calamities of his people; though he himself obtained liberty and e…
223 wordsSECTION 22Lamentations 2:12
Lamentations 2:12 Ver. 12. They say to their mothers, where [is] corn and wine?.... Not the sucklings who could not speak, nor were used to corn and wine, but the children more grown; both are before spoken of, but these are meant, even the young men of Israel, as the Targum; and such as had been brought up in the bes…
249 wordsSECTION 23Lamentations 2:13
Lamentations 2:13 Ver. 13. What thing shall I take to witness for thee?.... What argument can be made use of? what proof or evidence can be given? what witnesses can be called to convince thee, and make it a clear case to time, that ever any people or nation was in such distress and calamity, what with sword, famine, …
391 wordsSECTION 24Lamentations 2:14
Lamentations 2:14 Ver. 14. Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee,.... Not the prophets of the Lord; but false prophets, as the Targum; which were of the people's choosing, and were acceptable to them; prophets after their own hearts, because they prophesied smooth things, such as they liked; though i…
2,976 wordsSECTION 25Lamentations 3:1
Lamentations 3:1 INTRODUCTION TO LAMENTATIONS 3 This chapter is a complaint and lamentation like the former, and on the same subject, only the prophet mixes his own afflictions and distresses with the public calamities; or else he represents the church in her complaints; and some have thought him to be a type of Chri…
617 wordsSECTION 26Lamentations 3:2
Lamentations 3:2 Ver. 2. He hath led me, and brought [me into] darkness,.... Which oftentimes signifies distress, calamity, and affliction, of one sort or another: thus the Jews were brought into the darkness of captivity; Jeremiah to the darkness of a dungeon, to which there may be an allusion; and Christ his antityp…
136 wordsSECTION 27Lamentations 3:3
Lamentations 3:3 Ver. 3. Surely against me is he turned,.... As an enemy, who used to be a friend; he has so altered and changed the course of his providence, as if his favour and affections were wholly removed; he has planted his artillery against me, and made me the butt of his arrows: or, "only against me"; so Jarc…
137 wordsSECTION 28Lamentations 3:4
Lamentations 3:4 Ver. 4. My flesh and my skin hath he made old,.... His flesh with blows, and his skin with smiting, as the Targum; his flesh was so emaciated, and his skin so withered and wrinkled, that he looked like an old man; as our Lord, when little more than thirty years of age, what with his sorrows and troubl…
132 wordsSECTION 29Lamentations 3:5
Lamentations 3:5 Ver. 5. He hath builded against me,.... Fortresses, as the Targum adds; as when forts and batteries were raised by the Chaldeans against the city of Jerusalem, in which the prophet was: and compassed [me] with gall and travail; or "weariness" {e}; the same with gall and wormwood, La 3:19; as Jarchi o…
133 wordsSECTION 30Lamentations 3:6
Lamentations 3:6 Ver. 6. He hath set me in dark places,.... In the dark house of the prison, as the Targum; in the dark dungeon where the prophet was put; or the captivity in which the Jews were, and which was like the dark grave or state of the dead; and hence they are said to be in their graves, Eze 37:12. Christ wa…
144 wordsSECTION 31Lamentations 3:7
Lamentations 3:7 Ver. 7. He hath hedged me about, that I cannot go out,.... When in prison, or in the dungeon, or during the siege of Jerusalem; though the phrase may only denote in general the greatness of his troubles, with which he was encompassed, and how inextricable they were; like a hedge about a vineyard, or a…
141 wordsSECTION 32Lamentations 3:8
Lamentations 3:8 Ver. 8. Also when I cry and shout,.... Cry, because of the distress of the enemy within; "shout", or cry aloud for help from others without; as persons in a prison do, to make them hear and pity their case: thus the prophet in his affliction cried aloud to God; was fervent, earnest, and importunate in…
163 wordsSECTION 33Lamentations 3:9
Lamentations 3:9 Ver. 9. He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone,.... Not with a hedge of thorns, or mud walls, but with a fence of stones; and these not rough, and laid loosely together, but hewn and put in order, and well cemented. The Targum is, with marble hewn stones, which are harder than common stones, and not…
180 wordsSECTION 34Lamentations 3:10
Lamentations 3:10 Ver. 10. He [was] unto me [as] a bear lying in wait,.... For its prey, which seizes on it at once, and tears it in pieces; such were the Chaldeans to the Jews by divine permission: [and as] a lion in secret places; lurking there, in order to take every opportunity and advantage, and fall upon any cr…
77 wordsSECTION 35Lamentations 3:11
Lamentations 3:11 Ver. 11. He hath turned aside my ways,.... Or caused me to depart or go back from the way I was in, and so fall into the hand of the enemy that lay in wait, as before. Jarchi interprets the word of thorns, and of scattering the way with thorns, and hedging it up with them, so that there was no passin…
172 wordsSECTION 36Lamentations 3:12
Lamentations 3:12 Ver. 12. He hath bent his bow,.... Which is put for all the instruments, of war; the Chaldeans were archers, and shot their arrows into the city: and set me as a mark for the arrow; as a target to shoot at; signifying that God dealt with him, or his people, as enemies, the object of his wrath and in…
86 wordsSECTION 37Lamentations 3:13
Lamentations 3:13 Ver. 13. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver,.... Or, "the sons of his quiver" {i}; an usual Hebraism; the quiver is compared, as Aben Ezra observes, to a pregnant woman; and Horace has a like expression, "venenatis gravidam sagittis pharetram" {k}; the judgments of God are often signified by thi…
139 wordsSECTION 38Lamentations 3:14
Lamentations 3:14 Ver. 14. I was a derision to all my people,.... So Jeremiah was to the people of the Jews, and especially to his townsmen, the men of Anathoth, Jer 20:7; but if he represents the body of the people, others must be intended; for they could not be a derision to themselves. The Targum renders it, to the…
191 wordsSECTION 39Lamentations 3:15
Lamentations 3:15 Ver. 15. He hath filled me with bitterness,.... Or "with bitternesses" {m}; instead of food, bitter herbs; the allusion perhaps is to the bitter herbs eaten at the passover, and signify bitter afflictions, sore calamities, of which the prophet and his people had their fill. The Targum is, "with the …
123 wordsSECTION 40Lamentations 3:16
Lamentations 3:16 Ver. 16. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones,.... With gritty bread, such as is made of corn ground with new millstones, the grit of which mixes with the flour; or with stony bread, as Seneca {n} calls a benefit troublesome to others; with bread that has little stones mixed with it, by ea…
213 wordsSECTION 41Lamentations 3:17
Lamentations 3:17 Ver. 17. And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace,.... From the time the city was besieged by the Chaldeans, and now the people was carried captive; who could have no true peace, being in a foreign land, in an enemy's country, and out of their own, and far from the place of divine worship; no…
138 wordsSECTION 42Lamentations 3:18
Lamentations 3:18 Ver. 18. And I said, my strength and my hope are perished from the Lord. The former of these words signifies, according to Aben Ezra, "my standing", my subsistence, my continuance in being, or my perpetuity; according to Jarchi, my abiding {r} in this world; it is rendered "blood" in Isa 63:3; which …
10,376 wordsSECTION 43Lamentations 4:1
Lamentations 4:1 INTRODUCTION TO LAMENTATIONS 4 The prophet begins this chapter with a complaint of the ill usage of the dear children of God, and precious sons of Zion, La 4:1; relates the dreadful effects of the famine during the siege of Jerusalem, La 4:3; the taking and destruction of that city he imputes to the …
836 wordsSECTION 44Lamentations 4:2
Lamentations 4:2 Ver. 2. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold,.... This explains what is meant in La 4:1; by gold, fine gold, and stones of the sanctuary; not Josiah and his sons, as some Jewish interpreters; but all the sons of Zion, or children of God; not the inhabitants of Zion literally, but spiritu…
362 wordsSECTION 45Lamentations 4:3
Lamentations 4:3 Ver. 3. Even the sea monsters draw out the breast,.... Which some interpret of dragons; others of seals, or sea calves; but it is best to understand it of whales, as the word is rendered in Ge 1:21; and elsewhere: and Bochart {d} has proved, out of various writers, that these have breasts and milk; bu…
682 wordsSECTION 46Lamentations 4:4
Lamentations 4:4 Ver. 4. The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst,.... Through want of the milk of the breast, which is both food and drink unto it: the young children ask bread; of their parents as usual, not knowing how the case was, that there was a famine in the city; these are…
127 wordsSECTION 47Lamentations 4:5
Lamentations 4:5 Ver. 5. They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets,.... That were brought up in the king's palace, or in the houses of noblemen; or, however, born of parents rich and wealthy, and had been used to good living, and had fared sumptuously and deliciously every day, were now wandering about…
222 wordsSECTION 48Lamentations 4:6
Lamentations 4:6 Ver. 6. For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people,.... In the long siege of their city, and the evils that attended it, especially the sore famine: is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom; which was destroyed at once by fire from heaven: or it may be rendered, "the in…
283 wordsSECTION 49Lamentations 4:7
Lamentations 4:7 Ver. 7. Her Nazarites were purer than snow,.... Such who separated themselves by a vow to the Lord, and abstained from drinking wine and strong drink, and by a moderate diet, and often washing themselves, as well as taking great care of their hair, appeared very neat and comely, like snow, without any…
512 wordsSECTION 50Lamentations 4:8
Lamentations 4:8 Ver. 8. Their visage is blacker than a coal,.... Or, "darker than blackness"; or, "dark through blackness" {y}; by reason of the famine, and because of grief and trouble for themselves and their friends, which changed their complexions, countenances, and skins; they that looked before as pure as snow,…
203 wordsSECTION 51Lamentations 4:9
Lamentations 4:9 Ver. 9. [They that be] slain with the sword are better than [they that be] slain with hunger,.... Not that they are better with respect to their state after death, but with respect to their manner of dying. They that were slain by the sword of the Chaldeans, as many were, either upon the walls, or in …
405 wordsSECTION 52Lamentations 4:10
Lamentations 4:10 Ver. 10. The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children,.... Such as were naturally, and agreeably to their sex, pitiful and compassionate; merciful to the poor, as the Targum; and especially tenderhearted to their own offspring; yet, by reason of the soreness of the famine, became so …
252 wordsSECTION 53Lamentations 4:11
Lamentations 4:11 Ver. 11. The Lord hath accomplished his fury,.... Which rose up in his mind, and which he purposed in himself to bring upon the sinful people of the Jews: he hath poured out his fierce anger; the vials of his wrath in great abundance, even all he meant to pour out upon them: and hath kindled a fire…
139 wordsSECTION 54Lamentations 4:12
Lamentations 4:12 Ver. 12. The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world,.... Not only the neighbouring nations, and the kings of them, but even such in all parts of the world that knew anything of Jerusalem: would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy would have entered into the gates of …
238 wordsSECTION 55Lamentations 4:13
Lamentations 4:13 Ver. 13. For the sins of her prophets, [and] the iniquities of her priests,.... Aben Ezra interprets this of the prophets of Baal, and the priests of the high places; but though false prophets and wicked priests are meant, yet such as were among the Jews, made choice of and approved of by them: see 2…
161 wordsSECTION 56Lamentations 4:14
Lamentations 4:14 Ver. 14. They have wandered [as] blind [men] in the streets,.... That is, the false prophets and wicked priests; and may be understood either literally, that when the city was taken, and they fled, they were like blind men, and knew not which way to go to make their escape, but wandered from place to…
266 wordsSECTION 57Lamentations 4:15
Lamentations 4:15 Ver. 15. They cried unto them, depart ye, [it is] unclean,.... Or, O ye "unclean" {e}; that is, the people said so to the priests, being polluted with blood; they abhorred them, did not care they should come nigh them, but bid them keep at distance; they that cleansed others of leprosy were treated a…
2,769 wordsSECTION 58Lamentations 5:1
Lamentations 5:1 INTRODUCTION TO LAMENTATIONS 5 In this chapter are reckoned up the various calamities and distresses of the Jews in Babylon, which the Lord is desired to remember and consider, La 5:1; their great concern for the desolation of the temple in particular is expressed, La 5:17; and the chapter is conclud…
347 wordsSECTION 59Lamentations 5:2
Lamentations 5:2 Ver. 2. Our inheritance is turned to strangers,.... The land of Canaan in general, which was given to Abraham and his seed to be their inheritance; and their field, and vineyards in particular, which came to them by inheritance from their fathers, were now in the hands of the Chaldeans, strangers to G…
94 wordsSECTION 60Lamentations 5:3
Lamentations 5:3 Ver. 3. We are orphans and fatherless,.... In every sense; in a natural sense, their fathers having been cut off by the sword, famine, or pestilence; in a civil sense, their king being taken from them; and in a religious sense, God having forsaken them for their sins: our mothers [are] as widows; eit…
115 wordsSource & rights
Public domain; John Gill (1697–1771). Source item is marked Public Domain on Internet Archive.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.