Ver. 11. — My bowels are troubled (see on ch. i. 20). My liver is poured upon the earth. A violent emotion being supposed to occa- sion a copious disci large of bUe. The daughter of my people. A poetic expression for Zion or Judah.
Ver. 12. — Corn. Either in the sense of parched com (comp. Lev. xxiii. 14; 1 Sam. xvii. 17; Prov. xxvii. 22) or a poetic expression for " bread " (comp. Exod. xvi. 4 ; Ps. ov. 40).
Ver. 13. — What thing shall I take to wit- ness for thee ? rather, What shall I testify unto thee? The nature of the testifying may be gathered from the following words. It would be a comfort to Zion to know that her misfortune was not unparalleled : sola- men miieris soeioa habuisse malorum. The expression is odd, however, and, comparing lea. xl. 18, A. Krochmal has suggested, What shall I compare 1 The correction ig eusy. EcLual ; i.e. compare (comp. Isa. zlvi. 5).
Ver. 14. — Thy prophets. Jeremiah con- stantly inveighs against the fallacious, im- moral prtJMching of tlie great mass of his prophetic contemporaries (comp. Jer. vi. 13, 14 ; xiv. 13 — 15 ; xxiii. 14 — 40). Have seen vain and foolish things ; t'.e. have announced " visions " (prophecies) of an unreal and irrational tenor. Comp. Jer. xxiii. 13, where the same word here paraphrased as "iriational" (literally, insipid) occurs. Dis-
covered ; {.e. disclosed. To tnm away thy
captivity. The Captivity, tlien, might have been " turned away," if the other prophets had, like Jeremiah, disclosed the true spiritual state of the people, and moved them to repentance. False burdens. Sug- gestive references to these false prophecies occur iu Jer. xiv, 13, 14; xxiii. 31, 32 (see the Exposition on these passages). Causes of banishment. So Jeremiah (xxvii. 10; comp. 15), " They propliesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land."
Ver. 15.— Clap . . . hiss . . . wag theij heads. Gestures of malicious joy (Job xxvii. 23) or contempt (Jer. xix. 8 ; Pb. xxii. 7). The perfection of beauty ; literally, the per- fect in beauty. The same phrase is used in Ezekiel (xxvii. 3 ; xxviii. 12) of Tyre, and a similar one in Ps. 1. 2 of Zion.
Vers 16, 17. — On the transposition of the initial letters in these verses, see Intro- duction.
Ver. 16. — Have opened their month against thee. As against the innocent sufferer of Ps. xxii. (ver. 13). Onash the teeth. In token of rage, as Ps. xxxv. 16 ; xxxvii. 12. We have seen it (comp. Ps. xxxv. 21).
Ver. 17. — His word that he had com- manded, etc. " Commanded," I'.e. given in charge to. Comp. Zech. i. 6, "My words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets." Zechariah continues, in language which illustrates the foregoing words of this verse, " Did they not take hold of [overtake] your fatb ers ;" where the persons spoken of as " your fathers " are the same as those who are represented by the speaker of the elegy. " In the days of old ; " alluding, perhaps, to such passages as Dent, xxviii. 52, etc. The horn of thine adversaries. "Horn" has a twofold meaning — ^"strength" or "de- fence" (comp. ver. 3), and " honour" or " dignity " (comp. 1 Sam. ii. 1). The figure is too natural to need explanation.
Ver. 18. — Their heart cried unto the Lord, etc. "Their heart" can only mean "the heart of the people of Jerusalem." For the expreseion, oorap- Ps. Ixxxiv. 2, " My heart and my flesh cry aloud to the living God." To avoid the rather startling proso- popoeia in the next clause, Thenius sup- poses a corruption in the group of letters rendered " wall," and attaches the corrected word to the first clause, rendering thus : " Their heart orieth unto the Lord in vain ; O daughter of Zion, let tears run down," etc. Another resource, which also involves an emendation, is that of Ewald, " Cry with all thy heart, O wall of the daughter of Zion." wall, etc. The prosopopoeia ia surprising, but is only a degree more striking than that of ver. 8 and ch. i. 4. In Isa, xiv. 31 we find an equally strong one, "Howl, O gate." Most probably, however,
OH. u. 1—22.] THE LAMBKTATlONb OF JEEEMIAH.
19
there is Bomething wrong in the text ; ths fnllowlng verses seem to refer to the daughter of Zion. Bickell reads thus: " Ory aloud unto the Lord, O virgin daughter of Zion." Like a river ; rather, like a torrent. Give thyself no rest. The word rendered " rest " means properly the stiffness produced by cold.
Yer. 19. — In the beginning of the watches. This would eeem to be moat naturally ex- plained as referring to the first watch of the night. When moat are wrapped in their first and sweetest sleep, the daughter of Zion is to " arise and ory." Others explain, " at the beginning of each of the night watches;" i.e. all the night through. Previously to the Roman times, the Jews had divided the night into three watches (comp. Judg. iii L9). Four out thine heart like water; {.a. give free course to thy complaint, shedding tears meanwhile. The expression is parallel partly to phrases like "I am poured out like water " (Ps. xxii. 14), partly to " Pour out youi beatt befoie blm" (Ps. Ixii. 8).
In the top of every street ; rather, at «terf ttreet corner (and so oh. iv. 1).
Ver. 20. — To whom thou hast done this ; viz. to Israel, the chosen people. And children; rather, (even) ehildren. The children are the " fruit " referred to. Comp. the warnings in Lev. xxvi. 26; Deut. xxviiL 56; and especially Jer. zix. 9; also the historical incident in 2 Kings vi 28, 29. Of a span long ; rather, borne in the hands. The word is derived from the verb rendered " to swad- dle" in ver. 22 (see note).
Ver. 22. — Than hast called as in a solemn day. The passage is illustrated by oh. i. 15, according to which the instruments of Jehovah's vengeance are "summoned" by him to a festival when starting for the holy war. Hy terrors round about. Almost identical with one of the oharacteristio phrases of Jeremiah's prophecies, " fear [w rather, ' terror'] on every side " (see on Jer. tL 25). Have swaddled ; lathar, bate bortu mpon the btuuU.
HOMILETICa
Yer. l.—Ood not remtmlbering hi$ footstool. The ark was regarded •> QoA'b foot- stool ; and the temple in which the ark was kept was also sometimes called the footstool, of God. When the temple was destroyed and the ark stolen, or broken, or lost, it looked as though God had forgotten his footstool. The symbolism of the ark and the ritual connected with it give a peculiar significance to this fact.
I. GrOD NO LONOEB BEHEMBER3 THE FLACB WHEBB HIS PBESENOE WAS MOST FtlLLT