rother, ha/1, proclaimed a f e,tioal. When Ver. 19.-For my lovers; render, to my ,Jehovah summons the instruments of his 1m,er~ (see on ver. 2). vengeance, tbo prophets describe it e.s the Ver. 20.-lllly bowel&. The vital po.rte, "proclaiming n fostivo.1." The Persians or especially the heart, as the seat ot' the Chaldcnns, as the case may be, obey the affections, like ,nr/\a.-yxv(I.. Are tronbled ; summons with n holy glee, and destroy the litere.lly, are made to boil. So ,Job xxx. 27, enemies of the true God (comp. Isa. xiii. 3). "My bowels boil" (a. diJferPnt word, 1,ow- Hath trodden, etc. ; rather, hath trodden /he ever). Is tumed; or, turne itself; i.e. palpi- winepress for (i.e. to the ruin of) tht virgin tateH violently. At home there is 1111 death. daughter of Zion. Tho poet carrie• on the So Jer. ix. 21, "For death is come up into figure of the festival. It is a vintage which ourwindowa,and is entered into oar palace8." is to be colebmled, such B vintage as is de- By "death," when dislingui.sl,e<l, as here, scribed in Isa. ]xiii. 3 (comp. Joel iii. 13). from "the sword," pestilence is meant; sn The choicest youth of Judah are to be cnt e.g. in Jer. xv. 2; xliii. 11. But the poet oft' like grapes from the vine. "Virgin says here, not that "there is death," but daughter" is a frequent figure to express merely" as death," i.e. a mild form of pesti- inviolo.te security (so Jer. xiv. 17). leBce, not the famine-typhus itself. Or, per- Ver. 16.-For these things, etc. After the haps, he means "every form of death " reflections of vers. 13-15, the poet gives (Virgil's" plurima. mortis imago"). vent anew to his bitter grief, Mine eye, Ver. 21.-Thou wilt brag. The Hebrew mine eye. A repetition quite in Jeremiah's has, " Thou hast brought: " it is the perfect manner: comp. Jer. iv. 19: vi. 14 (repeated of prophetic certitude, which represents an viii. 11); xxii. 29 : xxiii. 25. The Septua- event certainly foreseen aa if it had already gint and Vulgo.te, however, have "mine taken place. Ewald, however, takes this to eye" only once. Relieve my soul (see on be the precatirn, a variety of the perfect ver.11). • which certainly exists in Arabic, hut has Ver. 17.-Again the poet passes into the not been quite satisfactorily shown to exist tone of reflection, 1:hus relieving the strain in Hebrew (see Driver, •Hebrew Tenses,' § upon the feelings of the ree.der. Spreadeth 20 [13]). The da.y that thou hast called; forth her hands. The gesture of suppli- i.e. foretold by the prophets (comp. Jer. xxv. cation and entreaty (comp. Ps. xxviii. 2; 17-26). But very probably we shonlu Ix.iii. 4: Isa. lxv. 2). That his adversaries, read, with the Septuagint," Thou wilt bring etc. ; rather, those wh<> are about him are the day: thou wilt call the fit time." his adversaries. The neighbouring peoples, Ver. 22.-For my sighs are many. This who ought to be sympathetio and friendly, is not mentioned as the rell.'lon why Ga,L gloat over the spectacle of his calamities. should punish Jerusalem's enemies; we They both hate and (comp. ver. 8) despise ought rather to understand, either from the fallen city. ver. 20, •• Behold, my distress;" or simply, Ver. 18.-People; render, pe<Ypla. "Deliver me."
HOMILETICS. Ver. 1.-The solitary city. The first elegy on the desolation of Jerusalem opens with a lament over her solitariness, widowhood, and humiliation. I. THE SOLITARINESS, 1. How it is to be measured. (1) By tl1e natur11 of the place. It is a city that is solitary. A des~rted town strikes us as more lonely than the most dreary moor. We do not expect people in a wildemtss ; we look for them in a city. Streets which never echo to a footfall, windows which never brighten with a face, doors which are never opened, houses, palaces, shops, factories, markets, all silent and empty, -this is indeed a picture of desolation. It is contrary to experience, expectation, and purpose. (2) By the former condition of the place. It used to be populous. Jerusalem wos no sleepy old provincial town, but a busy capital. Crowds would throng the streets, little children play, and old men stand gossiping at the corners, and hucksters set up their stalls, where now no live creature is to be seen, save, perhaps, a few lean dogs prowling after their unclean food. The contrast of the past thus aggravates ~e dist~e:;s of the present. 2. Why it is most sad. The loss of men is the great trouble. Fme build- ings have boen thrown down, marble statues broken, gold and pr_ecious stones stolen. But these are not the worst evils. Had all remained untouched, still the trouble would have been heart-rending. The people are gone! Chicago rises out of her ashes in ip-~ater splendour beca~se _her peop)e.rema1n. Jerusalem is ~os~ d~solate bec~use her c1t1zens have been earned into capt1v1ty. The strength of a city 1B 1ts populat10n. The ~ower 4 THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH. [OH, I, 1-22,