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2 She1weepeth sore in the "night, and her tears are on A. C. 588. her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort 1 Jer. xiii. 17. her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they m Job vii. 3. are become her enemies.

3 Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and *because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the hea- * Heb. for the

the present deplorable and wretched condition of his country, and her former state of prosperity; and ascribes the unhappy change chiefly to the profligacy of its priests and prophets. The national calamities are deeply and tenderly lamented, especially the captivity of their sovereign Zedekiah. This elegy concludes with predicting the judgments that were impending over the Edomites, who had insulted the Jews in their distress. ELEGY 5. is an epilogue or conclusion to the preceding chapters or elegies. In the Syriac, Arabic, and Vulgate versions, this chapter is entitled THE Prayer OF JEREMIAH; but no such title appears in the Hebrew copies, or in the Septuagint version. It is rather, as Dr. Blayney has remarked, a memorial, representing, in the name of the whole body of Jewish exiles, the numerous calamities under which they groaned; and humbly supplicating God to commiserate their wretchedness, and to restore them to his favour, and to their ancient prosperity.

III. The Lamentations are evidently written in metre, and contain a number of plaintive effusions composed after the manner of funeral dirges. Bishop Lowth is of opinion, that they were originally written by the prophet, as they arose in his mind, in a long course of separate stanzas, and that they were subsequently collected into one poem. Each elegy consists of twenty-two periods, according to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet; although it is in the four first chapters only that the several periods begin (after the manner of an acrostic) with the different letters following each other in alphabetical order. By this contrivance, the metre is more precisely marked and ascertained, particularly in the third chapter, where each period contains three verses, all having the same initial letter. The two first chapters, in like manner, consist of triplets, excepting only the seventh period of the first and the nineteenth of the second, each of which has a supernumerary line. The fourth chapter resembles the three former in metre, but the periods are only couplets; and in the fifth chapter the periods are couplets, though of a considerably shorter measure.

Although there is no artificial or methodical arrangement of the subject in these incomparable elegies, yet they are totally free from wild incoherency or abrupt transition. Never, perhaps, was there a greater variety of beautiful, tender, and pathetic images, all expressive of the deepest distress and sorrow, more happily chosen and applied than in the lamentations of this prophet; nor can we too much admire the full and graceful flow of that pathetic eloquence, in which the author pours forth the effusions of a patriot heart, and piously weeps over the ruin of his venerable country.-Vide Horne's Critical Introduction, from which this note is extracted.

Dr. Blayney's Jeremiah, pp. 455, et seq. Bishop Lowth's Lectures on Hebrew Poetry, lect. xxii. in fine. Jahn, Introd. ad Vet. Fœd. pp. 415-417. Carpzov. Introd. ad Libros Biblicos, pars iii. cap. iv. pp. 177–197.

greatness of servitude.

A.C. 588. then, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.

nDeut, xxviii. 43, 44.

4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

n

5 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her o Jer lii. 28. transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.

ble, ver. 10.

6 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pur

suer.

7 Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and *Or, desira of her miseries all her * pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.

+ Heb. is be

come a remov.

dering.

8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is ing, or, wan- removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.

Or, desirable.

9 Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself.

10 The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered " Deut. xxiii. into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.

11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given Or, to make their pleasant things for meat § to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile.

the soul to

come again.

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|| Or, It is nothing.

*Heb. pass

by the way.

12 Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

13 From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day.

14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the LORD hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up.

15 The LORD hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me

to crush my young men the LORD hath trodden * the vir- A. C. 588. gin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.

* Or, the

the virgin, &c.

16 For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye run- winepress of neth down with water, because the comforter that should q Jer. xiii. 17. +relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.

17 Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the LORD hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them.

& xiv. 17. ch.

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+ Heb. bring back.

18 The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against r Dan. ix. 7. his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and be- ‡ Heb. mouth. hold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone

into captivity.

19 I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls.

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Jer. xlviii, 36,

20 Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels & Is. xvi. 11. are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.

21 They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast § called, and they shall be like unto me.

22 Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.

LAMENTATIONS II,

1 Jeremiah lamenteth the misery of Jerusalem. 20 He complaineth thereof to God.

1 How hath the LORD covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!

Or, proclaimed,

2 The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the || Heb. made kingdom and the princes thereof.

3 He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.

to touch.

4 He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew * all that were Heb all the

desirable of the eye.

A.C. 588. pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.

t Ps. lxxx. 12. & lxxxix. 40. Is. v. 5.

*Or, hedge.

5 The LORD was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

6 And he hath violently taken away his* tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: : the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.

7 The LORD hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his + Heb. shut sanctuary, he hath + given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.

up.

8 The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not Heb. swal withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.

lowing up.

9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among Ps. lxxiv. 9. the Gentiles: the law is no more; her " prophets also find no vision from the LORD.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

my

11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the suckOr, faint. lings & swoon in the streets of the city.

x Jer. ii. 8. &

v. 31. & xiv.

12 They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers'

bosom.

13 What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?

X

14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for 14. & xxiii. 16. thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

Heb, by the way.

15 All that pass || by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying,

Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The A.C. 588. joy of the whole earth?

16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.

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y Ps. xlviii. 2.

xxviii. 15, &c.

16, &c. Deut.

17 The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he z Lev. xxvi. hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.

a

18 Their heart cried unto the LORD, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and a Jer. xiv. 17. night give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye

cease.

19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the LORD: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every

street.

ch. i. 16.

20 ¶ Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children * of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain *Or, swad. in the sanctuary of the LORD?

21 The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.

22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD's anger none escaped nor remained those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

:

LAMENTATIONS III.

1 The faithful bewail their calamities. 22 By the mercies of God they nourish their hope. 37 They acknowledge God's justice. 55 They pray for deliverance, 64 and vengeance on their enemies.

1 I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

2 He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.

3 Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.

4 My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.

5 He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travel.

dled with their hands.

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