9 Her uncleanness `is' in her skirts, She hath not remembered her latter end, And she cometh down wonderfully, There is no comforter for her. See, O Jehovah, mine affliction, For exerted himself hath an enemy.
And thou sayest, `To the age I am mistress,' While thou hast not laid these things to thy heart, Thou hast not remembered the latter end of it.
If they were wise -- They deal wisely `with' this; They attend to their latter end:
And I have turned, and I see all the oppressions that are done under the sun, and lo, the tear of the oppressed, and they have no comforter; and at the hand of their oppressors `is' power, and they have no comforter.
See mine affliction and my misery, And bear with all my sins.
`Resh.' See my affliction, and deliver Thou me, For Thy law I have not forgotten.
Also in thy skirts hath been found the blood of innocent needy souls, Not by digging have I found them, but upon all these.
And if ye do not hear it, In secret places doth my soul weep, because of pride, Yea, it weepeth sore, And the tear cometh down mine eyes, For the flock of Jehovah hath been taken captive. Say to the king and to the mistress: Make yourselves low -- sit still, For come down have your principalities, The crown of your beauty.
Declare ye him drunk, For against Jehovah he made himself great And Moab hath stricken in his vomit, And he hath been for a derision -- even he.
This `is' to them for their arrogancy, Because they have reproached, And they magnify `themselves' against the people of Jehovah of Hosts.
who is opposing and is raising himself up above all called God or worshipped, so that he in the sanctuary of God as God hath sat down, shewing himself off that he is God -- `the day doth not come'. Do ye not remember that, being yet with you, these things I said to you? and now, what is keeping down ye have known, for his being revealed in his own time, for the secret of the lawlessness doth already work, only he who is keeping down now `will hinder' -- till he may be out of the way, and then shall be revealed the Lawless One, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the manifestation of his presence,
Summon unto Babylon archers, all treading the bow, Encamp against her round about, Let `her' have no escape; Recompense to her according to her work, According to all that she did -- do to her, For unto Jehovah she hath been proud, Unto the Holy One of Israel.
because it is the time of the beginning of the judgment from the house of God, and if first from us, what the end of those disobedient to the good news of God?
Therefore, lo, I am enticing her, And have caused her to go to the wilderness, And I have spoken unto her heart,
and now, hearken, O our God, unto the prayer of Thy servant, and unto his supplication, and cause Thy face to shine on Thy sanctuary that `is' desolate, for the Lord's sake. `Incline, O my God, Thine ear, and hear, open Thine eyes and see our desolations, and the city on which Thy name is called; for not for our righteous acts are we causing our supplications to fall before Thee, but for Thy mercies that `are' many. O lord, hear, O Lord, forgive; O Lord, attend and do; do not delay, for Thine own sake, O my God, for Thy name is called on Thy city, and on Thy people.'
`With' sorrows she hath wearied herself, And the abundance of her scum goeth not out of her, In the fire `is' her scum. In thine uncleanness `is' wickedness, Because I have cleansed thee, And thou hast not been cleansed, From thine uncleanness thou art not cleansed again, Till I have caused My fury to rest on thee.
How is the gold become dim, Changed the best -- the pure gold? Poured out are stones of the sanctuary At the head of all out-places.
What do I testify `to' thee, what do I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What do I equal to thee, and I comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? For great as a sea `is' thy breach, Who doth give healing to thee?
How hath she sat alone, The city abounding with people! She hath been as a widow, The mighty among nations! Princes among provinces, She hath become tributary! She weepeth sore in the night, And her tear `is' on her cheeks, There is no comforter for her out of all her lovers, All her friends dealt treacherously by her, They have been to her for enemies.
Grant not, O Jehovah, the desires of the wicked, His wicked device bring not forth, They are high. Selah.
and the people believe when they hear that Jehovah hath looked after the sons of Israel, and that He hath seen their affliction; and they bow and do obeisance.
and we cry unto Jehovah, God of our fathers, and Jehovah heareth our voice, and seeth our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression;
and voweth a vow, and saith, `Jehovah of Hosts, if Thou dost certainly look on the affliction of Thy handmaid, and hast remembered me, and dost not forget Thy handmaid, and hast given to Thy handmaid seed of men -- then I have given him to Jehovah all days of his life, and a razor doth not go up upon his head.'
it may be Jehovah doth look on mine affliction, and Jehovah hath turned back to me good for his reviling this day.'
`And now, O our God -- God, the great, the mighty, and the fearful, keeping the covenant and the kindness -- let not all the travail that hath found us be little before Thee, for our kings, for our heads, and for our priests, and for our prophets, and for our fathers, and for all Thy people, from the days of the kings of Asshur unto this day;
They said in their hearts, `Let us oppress them together,' They did burn all the meeting-places of God in the land. Our ensigns we have not seen, There is no more a prophet, Nor with us is one knowing how long.
And Jehovah saith, `I have certainly seen the affliction of My people who `are' in Egypt, and their cry I have heard, because of its exactors, for I have known its pains;
`It may be Jehovah thy God doth hear the words of Rabshakeh with which the king of Asshur his lord hath sent him to reproach the living God, and hath decided concerning the words that Jehovah thy God hath heard, and thou hast lifted up prayer for the remnant that is found.'
Whom hast thou reproached and reviled? And against whom lifted up the voice? Yea, thou dost lift up on high thine eyes Against the Holy One of Israel.
Because of thy anger towards Me, And thy noise -- it came up into Mine ears, I have put My hook in thy nose, And My bridle in thy lips, And I have caused thee to turn back In the way in which thou camest.
O afflicted, storm-tossed, not comforted, Lo, I am laying with cement thy stones, And have founded thee with sapphires,
The prophets have prophesied falsely, And the priests bear rule by their means, And My people have loved `it' so, And what do they at its latter end?
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Lamentations 1
Commentary on Lamentations 1 Matthew Henry Commentary
An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of
The Lamentations of Jeremiah
Chapter 1
We have here the first alphabet of this lamentation, twenty-two stanzas, in which the miseries of Jerusalem are bitterly bewailed and her present deplorable condition is aggravated by comparing it with her former prosperous state; all along, sin is acknowledged and complained of as the procuring cause of all these miseries; and God is appealed to for justice against their enemies and applied to for compassion towards them. The chapter is all of a piece, and the several remonstrances are interwoven; but here is,
Lam 1:1-11
Those that have any disposition to weep with those that weep, one would think, should scarcely be able to refrain from tears at the reading of these verses, so very pathetic are the lamentations here.
Lam 1:12-22
The complaints here are, for substance, the same with those in the foregoing part of the chapter; but in these verses the prophet, in the name of the lamenting church, does more particularly acknowledge the hand of god in these calamities, and the righteousness of his hand.