The Pulpit Commentary — Lamentations — Section 74

EXPOSITION. Ver. 3.-We are orphans and fatherless; CHAPTER V, i.e. " We are like the most desolate of Vers. 1-18.-lNSULT UPON INSULT HAS beings," e.s the Targu.m already explains it. 11EEN HEAPED UPON JERUSALEM. Hence in the next clau,e the mothers of Ver. 2.-0ur inheritance. The Innd had Israel ore likened to widows. been "given" to Abraham (Gen. xiii. 25; Ver. 4.-We have drunken our water, etc. ·xvii. 8), and wee consequently inherited by The Jews were not yet carried awtiy lo A breham's posterity. Our houses. Not es ir llnbylonia when this was written, but hfld the Chaldeens had actually taken up their to pny a dear price to the new lords of th., abode in some of tlie houses of Jerusnkm. soil for the commonest necessaries of life. Tlie expressions are forcible, but inexact. Ver. 5.-0ur necks are under persecuticn. 'The land was seized; the houses were dc- Penecution is here compared to a yoke. etroyed (J er. lii. 13). But this rendering and expluuatiou haru.ly 80 THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEHEM:IAH. [CH, V, 1-22. -------------------- - - ·- imit the phr111m. which rather mC'anB, " We Ver. 12.-Prinoe■ are h11nged up by their "re pursued C'lose upon our necks." 'l'he hand ; i.e. by the hand of the enemy. Im- harassing conduct of the Babylonian con- palement after death WAS e. common punish• querors is compR.red to the pursuit of a foe ment with the Assyrians nud Babylonians. faun gaining upon a fugitwe. Thus SennMherib says that, aftur c·apturing Ver. 6.-We have given the hand, etc. rehellious Ekron, ho hung tho botlies of the 8tarvati01l aw1<its the ,Tews unless they sub- chief men on stnkcs all round the city mit to one or the other or their hc>reditary , (' Records of the Pnst,' i. 38). Bonomi gives foes. Some eecape to Egypt and" give the a picture of such an impnlement from one hA.nd" (i.e. surrender, Jer. I. 15) to the lords of the plates in Dotta's great work(' Nine- of the fertile Nile valky; others a.cqniesco veh aud its Palaces,' p. 192). in the fate of the m~jority, and sue for the Ver. 13.-They took the young men to alms of the Babylonians. grind ; rather, the young men have borne t11e Ver. 7.-We have borne their iniquities. mill. The lower millstone seems to hnve The fathers died before the iniquity was been specially hard, nnd therefore heavy fully ripe for puni,;hment, and their descend- (see Job xii. 24), and to carry it about ants have the foeling that the accumulated must have required 11 more severe exertion i;ins of the nntion are visited upon them. even than the constant turning of the mill- This view of national troubles is very h1mdle. Dr. Thomson " cannot recall an clearly endorsed by one important class of instance in which men were grinding at the passages (Exod. xx. 5; xxxiv. 7: Numb. xiv. mill" (' The Land and the Book,' edit. IS; .Jer. xxxii. IS). The objection to it is 1881, p. 108), and both Exod. xi. 5 and forcibi, e,:pressed by Job (xxi. 19), "God llfott. xxiv. 41 presuppose that it was [it is said] lnyeth up his iniquity for his women's work. The conquered Jewish children: [but] let him requite it to him- youths, however, share the fate of Samson- 1,-elf, that he may feel it I " Hence Jeremiah (xxxi. 30) and Ezekiel (xviii. 1, etc.) insist " Eyeless, in Gaza, at the mill with slaves." on the truth that every man is punished (' Samson Agonistes,' 41.) for his own sins. Of course the two views "Eyeless," indeed, they may some of them of punishment are reconcilable. The Jews have been, as putting out the eyes was a were not only punished, according to Jer. common Oriental punishment (comp. Jer. xvi. 11, 12, for their fathers' sins, but for mix. 7). The children. This is, perhaps, tlleir own still more :flagrant offences. too strong. The Hebrew na'ar is applic- Ver. 8.-Berva.nta have ruled; rather, able, not only to children, but to yootlts at 11laves. The Babylonians in general might the age for marriage (Gen. :x.xxiv. 19) or war be called slaves, by compari,;on with the (l Kin~s xx. I 5). The wood; not the •• kingdom of priests" (Exod. rix. 6), and wooden handle of the mill, but the wood the "11ons" of Jehovah (Isa. xlv. 11 ; Hos. i. required for fuel. 10). Or the expre11sion may mean that even Ver. 14.-From the gate. The place ba!leborn hangers-on of the conquering host where the elders, technically so called, as- assumed the right to command the defence- sembled for legal proceedings, and where less captives. the citizens iu genP-ral met together for Ver. 9.-We gat 011r bread; rather, we social concourse (comp. Gen. xix. l; Ruth get our bread. The allusion in the follow- iv. 11; Ps. Ix.ix. 12; Amos v. 12, 15; Dan. ing words is perlie.ps to murderou11 attacks ii. 49). From their musio (comp. Jer. vii. of Bede.wins (e.s we should call the Ishmael• 34; xvi. 9). ites) on the Jews who attempted to gather Ver. 16.-The orown is fallen, etc. ; rather, in the scanty harvest. the crown of our head is fallen. The Jewish Ver. 10.-Wu black like an oven. The people is compared to a l'ich man at e. ban- translation is misleading ; there is no real quet, crowned with a die.dern (comp. Isn. parallel to eh. iv. 8. Render, gloweth. It xxviii. 1). Jeremiah has a similar phrase is the feverish glow product;d by gnawing in his prophecies (xiii. 18). It evidently hunger which is meant. The terrible expresses figuratively the prosperity and famine; rather, the burning heat of hunger. honour formerly enjoyed by the now van- Hariri the humoristic author of the cycle quished people. of sto;ies in rhymed Arabic prose and verse, Vere. 17, 18.-These verses form a transi- called • Maka.mat,' put11 into the mouth of tion to the final appeal. The thought of his ne'er-do-well Abu Seid very similar the desolation of Zion overwhelms the spirit words to describe a famished man- of the poet. But he will soon be able to " Debs Eingeweide brennend no.eh Erquick- lift himself up again when he recalls the ung schrein, sublime truth of the inviolable security of Der nichtll gegessen seit zwei Te.gen oder Israel's God. Foxes; rather,jacT,ala. drein." Vera. 19-22.-FINAL Al'Pl!:AL TO GOD FOB (Riickert's adapte.tion, third Maka.ma.) ' THE REVERSAL Ol'TBE JODOW:NT. OH, V, 1-22.] THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH. 81