The Pulpit Commentary — Lamentations — Section 61

eevere, the guilt mnst have been in propor- aTrows upon them "-the Hebrew verb is tion. And no handa atayed on her. To the same aR here (Deut.. xxxii. 23). To make the picture of smlden destruction show the completeness ot" Zion's ruin it iH more vivid, the poet alludes to the ordinary compared to a fire which ha;;h devoured the circumstances of the cBpture of a city, the (veTy) foundation■ thereof. "ho.nds" of n fierce soldiery ever" whirling" Ver. 12.-The kings of the earth, etc. a destroying sword. Uomp. "the swinging And yet Jerusalem had been bken twiM of the hand of Jehovah Sabaoth, which he before its capture by Nebuchadnezzar (sfle swingeth against it" (Isa. xix. 16). I Kings xiv. 26; 2 Kings xiv. 13,. How Ver. 7.-Her Nazarites; mther, her emi- is the language of tl,e seconr\ part t0 b0 nent ones (just as Joseph is called n'zir accounted for? It will hPlp us t0 an ekhav, "eminent among his brethren"). The answer if we observe that the latel' J ewa rendering of the Authorized Version is lexi- seem to have acquired an exorbitant cally possible, but is intrinsically impro- confidence in their m.tional fnture ever bable. The Nazarites constituted too small a since the Book of Deuteronomy had be- portion of the Jewish people to receive so pro- come as it were canonical in the reign minent a place in the elegy. Bnbies; rather, of Josiah. "The temple of Jehovah" wa~ corals. Their polishing was of sapphire ; ever in their mouths ( J er. vii. 9), e.nd the literally, their shape was (like) a sapphire. strong outward regard paid to the di- But the point in which the sapphire is rections of the Law Blilemed to them to compared to the bodies of the princes is justify their believing in the fulfilment evidently not the outline of its form, but its of its promises. And, in fact, the grand gleaming brilliant appearance; so that the deliverance of Jerusalem in the reign of He- Authorized Version is substantially correct. zekiah might, eveu without this misunder- Ver. 8.-Their visage is blacker than a standing of Deuteronomy, have inspired a coal; rather, their appearance is darker firm faith in the security of Jernse.lem. A. than blackness-one of the hyperboles which sacred poet had already, on the occasion of seem to indicate that the poem was not that deliverance, declared of the holy city written at the very moment of the calamity that "God upholdeth the same for ever" described (comp. Job xxx. 30). Not known (Ps. xlviii. 8), and also (in vers. 4, 5) used the in the streets. Another point of contact au.me hyperbole as the author of this lamen- with the Book of Job (ii. 12). Their skin, tation to express the wide-reaching interest etc. Again we must compare the lamen- felt in the fortunes of Jerusalem. tations of Job :(xix. 20; xxx. 30). Ps. Ver. 13.-For the Bins of her prophets, cii. 5 may also be quoted; for the second etc. Instead of connecting this verse by a half of the verse is too short unless we insert comma with the following, we should rather " to my skin " before "to my flesh." view it as a unit in itself. and under:;tand Ver. 9.-The miserable condition just now e.t the beginning," All this hath happened." described maintains a sad pre-eminence The sins of the prophets and priests are even when compared with the fate of the mentione,l together by Jeremiah (vi. 13; slain in battle. And why t For these pine xxiii. 11 ), as well as by Isaiah (xxviii. 7). away (literally, melt away), stricken throngh But we are nowhere else told that the (with the pangs of hunger). The Authorized spiritual leaders of the people, in these Version takes the subject of the second half closing years of the Jewish state, were of the verse to be the famished. But it is, guilty of shedding innocent bloou, nnless perhaps, more natural to take it to be those this is to be inferred from the incident re- wounded in a battle, to whom the expression, lated in Jer. x.xvi. 7, etc. " stricken through," is actually applied in Ver. 14.-They; i.e. the prophets and eh. xxxvii. 10; Ii. 4. In this case the line priests. Wandered a.a blind men. The had better be rendered thus : For those pine lenders of the people are blinded by igno- aioay, stricl,en through, leaving the fruits of ro.nce, for they know not the only true way thejield (which they no longer need). The of averting calamity, and by passion, for word rendered "pine e.we.y " would be par- they have not that" eye" of the soul (i.Hatt. tioularly applicable to those who periohed vi. 22, 23) which alone enables a man to see from loss of blood. the good e.nd the right course for himself Ver. 10.-The pitiful women. Strange individuo.lly, The" wandering,'' or, rather, contrast between the compassionate nature "staggering" (comp. Ps. cvii. 27, Autho- of woman (comp. Iso.. xlix.15) e.nd the dread rized Version), however, may also refer to horrors of this more.I e.s well us physical the panic-stricken condition of those self- catastrophe (comp. note on oh. ii. 20). deoeived deceivers when overtaken by God's Ver. 11.-Re.th e.ooomplished means here, 1;>unishment; comp. ·• wiue of reeliug" not " bath finished." but "hath poured out (Authorized Version, "o.stonishmeut"), l's. in full measure," as in the song of Moses lx. 3; also the prophecies in Deut. xxviil. J ohove.h deolares that he will " speml his 28, 29 ; J er. xxiii. 12. The doubt is \\ heth,,r LAMENTATIONB, Ii' 6(\ THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH. [oH, IV. 1-22.