Ver. 5.— They that did feed delicately, etc. i.e. luxuriously. The rendering has been dis- puted, but without sufficient ground. " They that did eat at dainties," i.e. pick at their dainty food, is forced. The Aramaic mark of the accusative need not surprise ua in Larnentations (comp. Jer. xl. 2). Brought up in scarlet; rather, borne upon scarlet; i.e. r. sting upon scarlet-covered couches. The poet speaks of adults, not of children.
Ver.6.— The punishment of the iniquity, . . the punishment of the sin. This is a possible rendering (see Gen. iv. 13 ; Zech. xiv. 19) but the renderings, « the iniquity," " the sin," are preferable, and yield a finer meaning, via. that the punishment having been »o
OH.rv. 1— 22.J THE LAMENTATIONS OP JEEEMIAH.
65
severe, the guilt must have been in propor- tion. And no hands stayed on her. To make the picture of sudden destruction more vivid, the poet alludes to the ordinary circumstances of the capture of a city, the "hands" of a fierce soldiery ever " whirling " a destroyiuK sword. Comp. " the swinging of the hand of Jehovah Sab£oth, which he swingeth against it " (Isa. xix. 16).
Yer. 7. — Her Nazarites ; rather, her emi- nent ones (just as Joseph is called n'zir elehctv, "eminent among his brethren"). The rendering of the Autliorized Version is lexi- cally possible, but is intrinsically impio- bable. The Nazarites constituted too small a portion of the Jewish people to receive so pro- minent a place in the elegy. Bubies ; rather, coraU. Their polishing was of sapphire ; literally, their shape was (jUit) a sapphire. But the point iu which the sapphire is compared to the bodies of the princes is evidently not the outline of its form, but its gleaming brilliant appearance ; so that the Authorized Version is substantially correct.
Ver. 8. — Their visage is blacker than a coal; rather, their appearance is darher than hlaehness — one of the hyperboles wliich seem to indicate that the poem was not written at the very moment of the calamity described (comp. Job xxx. 30). Not known in the streets. Another point of contact with the Book of Job (iL 12). Their skin, etc. Again we must compare the lamen- tations of Job ,(xix. 20 ; ixx. 30). Ps. cii. 5 may also be quoted; for tlie second half of the verse is too short unless we insert " to my skin " before " to my flesh."
Ver. 9. — The miserable condition just now described maintains a sad pre-eminence even when compared with the fute of the slain in battle. And why % For these pine away (literally, melt away), stricken through (with the pangs of hunger). The Authorized Version takes the subject of the second half of the verse to be the famished. But it is, perhaps, more natural to take it to be those wounded in a battle, to whom the expression, " stricken through," is actually applied in ch. xxxvii. 10 ; li. 4. In this case the line had better be rendered thus : For those pine moay, stricken through, leaving the fruits of the field (which they no longer need) The word rendered " pine away " would be par- ticularly applicable to those who perished from loss of blood.
Ver. 10.— The pitiful women. Strange contrast between the compassionate nature of woman (comp. Isa. xlix. 15) and the dread horrors of this moral as well as physical catastrophe (comp. note on ch. ii. 20).
Ver. 11. — Hath accomplished means here,
not " hath finished," but " hath poured out
iu full measure," as in the song of Moses
Jehovah declare* that he will "spend his
LAJCEKTATIONS.
arrows upon them " — the Hebrew Terb is the same as here (Deut. xxxii. 23). To show the completeness of Zion's ruin it is compared to a fire which ha^h devoured the (very) foundations thereof.
Ver. 12. — The kings of the earth, etc. And yet Jerusalem had been taken twice before its capture by Nebuchadnezzar (see 1 Kings xiv. 26; 2 Kings xiv. 13). Hon is the language of the second part to be accounted for? It will help us to an answer if we observe that the later Jews seem to have acquired an exorbitant confidence in their national future ever since the Book of Deuteronomy had be- come as it were canonical in the reign of Josiah. " The temple of Jehovah " was ever iu their mouths (Jer. vii. 9), and the strong outward regard paid to the di- rections of the Law seemed to them to justify their believing in the fulfilment of its promises. And, in fact, the grand deliverance of Jerusalem in the reign of He- zekiah might, even without this misunder- staniling of Deuteronomy, have inspired a firm faith in the security of Jerusalem. A sacred poet had already, on the occasion of that deliverance, declared of the holy city that "God upholdeth the same for ever" (Ps. xlviii. 8), and also (in vers. 4, 5) used the same hyperbole as the author of this lamen- tation to express the wide-reiiching interest felt in the fortunes of Jerusalem.
Ver, 13. — For the sins of her prophets, etc. Instead of connecting this verse by a comma with the following, we should rather view it as a unit in itself and understand at the beginning, " All this hath happened." The sins of the prophets and priests are mentioned together by Jeremiah (vi. 13; xxiii. 11), as well as by Isaiah (xxviii. 7). But we are nowhere else told that the spiritual leaders of the people, in these closing years of the Jewish state, were guilty of shedding inuncent blood, unless this is to be inferred from the incident re- lated in Jer. xxvi. 7, etc.
Ver. 14.— They; i.e. the prophet* and priests. Wandered as blind men. The leaders of the people are blinded by igno- rance, for they know not the only true way of averting calamity, and by passion, for they have not that " eye " of the soul (Matt, vi. 22, 23) which alone enables a man to Bee the good and the right course for himself individually, The " wandering," or, rather, "staggering" (comp. Ps. cvii. 27, Autho- rized Version), however, may also refer to the panic-stricken comlition of those self- deceived deceivers when overtaken by God's punishment ; comp. " wine of reeling " (Authorized Version, " astonishment "), Ps. Ix. 3; also the prophecies in Dent, xxviii 28, 29 ; Jer. zziu. 12L The doubt ia whethei
«6
THE LAMENTATIONS OP JEREMIAH. [oh. nr, 1— 2a
"have wandered" refers to gome period before the final catastrophe, or to the con- eternation produced by that awful surprise. The latter view seems the more probable. They have polluted themselves, etc. Their acts of violence have been continued to the very end of their term of power. Their garments are still stained with blood when the smnmons to depart into exile reaches them.