“Yahweh is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment. Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.
Parallel Translations
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“Yahweh is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment. Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.
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The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
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'The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against His word; hear, I pray you, all ye peoples, and behold my pain: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
Cross-references (31)
Passages linked to Lamentations 1:18 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 119:75 Yahweh, I know that your judgments are righteous, that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
- 1 Samuel 12:14-15 If you will fear Yahweh, and serve him, and listen to his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of Yahweh, then both you and also the king who reigns over you are followers of Yahweh your God. But if you will not listen to Yahweh’s voice, but rebel against the commandment of Yahweh, then Yahweh’s hand will be against you, as it was against your fathers.
- Zephaniah 3:5 Yahweh, within her, is righteous. He will do no wrong. Every morning he brings his justice to light. He doesn’t fail, but the unjust know no shame.
- Jeremiah 12:1 You are righteous, Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet I would like to reason the cause with you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are they all at ease who deal very treacherously?
- Lamentations 1:12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, with which Yahweh has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
- Nehemiah 9:33 However you are just in all that has come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly.
- Psalms 107:11 because they rebelled against the words of God, and condemned the counsel of the Most High.
- Lamentations 3:42 “We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned.
- Exodus 9:27 Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “I have sinned this time. Yahweh is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.
- Deuteronomy 28:32-41 Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will look, and fail with longing for them all day long. There will be no power in your hand. A nation which you don’t know will eat the fruit of your ground and all of your work. You will only be oppressed and crushed always, so that the sights that you see with your eyes will drive you mad. Yahweh will strike you in the knees and in the legs with a sore boil, of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. Yahweh will bring you, and your king whom you will set over yourselves, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods of wood and stone. You will become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where Yahweh will lead you away. You will carry much seed out into the field, and will gather little in, for the locust will consume it. You will plant vineyards and dress them, but you will neither drink of the wine, nor harvest, because worms will eat them. You will have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you won’t anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off. You will father sons and daughters, but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity.
- Deuteronomy 29:22-28 The generation to come—your children who will rise up after you, and the foreigner who will come from a far land—will say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which Yahweh has made it sick, that all of its land is sulfur, salt, and burning, that it is not sown, doesn’t produce, nor does any grass grow in it, like the overthrow of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath. Even all the nations will say, “Why has Yahweh done this to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?” Then men will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they didn’t know and that he had not given to them. Therefore Yahweh’s anger burned against this land, to bring on it all the curses that are written in this book. Yahweh rooted them out of their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and thrust them into another land, as it is today.”
- Deuteronomy 32:4 The Rock: his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he.
- Judges 1:7 Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their big toes cut off, scavenged under my table. As I have done, so God has done to me.” They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
- 1 Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected Yahweh’s word, he has also rejected you from being king.”
- 1 Kings 9:8-9 Though this house is so high, yet everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss; and they will say, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this land, and to this house?’ and they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned Yahweh their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them, and served them. Therefore Yahweh has brought all this evil on them.’ ”
- 1 Kings 13:21 and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Yahweh says, ‘Because you have been disobedient to Yahweh’s mouth, and have not kept the commandment which Yahweh your God commanded you,
- Ezra 9:13 “After all that has come on us for our evil deeds, and for our great guilt, since you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such a remnant,
- Nehemiah 1:6-8 Let your ear now be attentive, and your eyes open, that you may listen to the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel your servants, while I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Yes, I and my father’s house have sinned. We have dealt very corruptly against you, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances, which you commanded your servant Moses. “Remember, I beg you, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you trespass, I will scatter you among the peoples;
- Nehemiah 9:26 “Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, cast your law behind their back, killed your prophets that testified against them to turn them again to you, and they committed awful blasphemies.
- Psalms 145:17 Yahweh is righteous in all his ways, and gracious in all his works.
- Jeremiah 22:8-9 “Many nations will pass by this city, and they will each ask his neighbor, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this great city?’ Then they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh their God, worshiped other gods, and served them.’ ”
- Jeremiah 25:28-29 It shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at your hand to drink, then you shall tell them, ‘Yahweh of Armies says: “You shall surely drink. For, behold, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name; and should you be utterly unpunished? You will not be unpunished; for I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth, says Yahweh of Armies.” ’
- Jeremiah 49:12 For Yahweh says: “Behold, they to whom it didn’t pertain to drink of the cup will certainly drink; and are you he who will altogether go unpunished? You won’t go unpunished, but you will surely drink.
- Lamentations 1:5-6 Her adversaries have become the head. Her enemies prosper; for Yahweh has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions. Her young children have gone into captivity before the adversary. All majesty has departed from the daughter of Zion. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture. They have gone without strength before the pursuer.
- Ezekiel 14:22-23 Yet, behold, there will be left a remnant in it that will be carried out, both sons and daughters. Behold, they will come out to you, and you will see their way and their doings. Then you will be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought on it. They will comfort you, when you see their way and their doings; then you will know that I have not done all that I have done in it without cause,” says the Lord Yahweh.
- Daniel 9:7 “Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us confusion of face, as it is today; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near, and who are far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you.
- Daniel 9:9-16 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness; for we have rebelled against him. We haven’t obeyed Yahweh our God’s voice, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. Yes, all Israel have transgressed your law, turning aside, that they should not obey your voice. “Therefore the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us; for we have sinned against him. He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who judged us, by bringing on us a great evil; for under the whole sky, such has not been done as has been done to Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come on us. Yet we have not entreated the favor of Yahweh our God, that we should turn from our iniquities and have discernment in your truth. Therefore Yahweh has watched over the evil, and brought it on us; for Yahweh our God is righteous in all his works which he does, and we have not obeyed his voice. “Now, Lord our God, who has brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have gotten yourself renown, as it is today; we have sinned. We have done wickedly. Lord, according to all your righteousness, let your anger and please let your wrath be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a reproach to all who are around us.
- Romans 2:5 But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God;
- Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.
- Revelation 15:3-4 They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God, the Almighty! Righteous and true are your ways, you King of the nations. Who wouldn’t fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you only are holy. For all the nations will come and worship before you. For your righteous acts have been revealed.”
- Revelation 16:5-7 I heard the angel of the waters saying, “You are righteous, who are and who were, O Holy One, because you have judged these things. For they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve this.” I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain Jerusalem again acknowledges, and more clearly expresses, that she…
Jerusalem again acknowledges, and more clearly expresses, that she suffered a just punishment. She had before confessed that her enemies were cruel through God’s command; but it was necessary to point out again the cause of that cruelty, even that she had too long provoked the wrath of God.
She says, first, that God was just, or righteous, because she had provoked his mouth. By the mouth of God we are to understand the prophetic doctrine, as it is well known. But the phrase is emphatical, for when the word of God was proclaimed by the mouth of prophets, it was despised as an empty sound. As, then, prophetic doctrine has not its own majesty ascribed to it, God calls whatever his servants declare his mouth. This mode of speaking is taken from Moses, and often occurs in his writings. Jehovah, then, is just; how so? because I have provoked his mouth. And it was more grievous and less excusable to provoke the mouth of God than simply to offend God. The ungodly often offend God when they labor under ignorance; but when the Lord is pleased to open his mouth to recall the erring, and to shew the way of salvation, and then men rush headlong, as it were designedly, into sins, it is certainly a mark of extreme impiety. We hence understand why the Prophet mentions the mouth of God, or the teaching of the prophets, even to exaggerate the wickedness of Jerusalem, which had so obstinately disregarded God speaking by his prophets.
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The greatness of her sorrow is again deplored; and what follows is addressed to all nations, Hear, I pray, all ye people; see my sorrow. And what was the reason for this great sorrow? because, she says, my virgins and my young men have been driven into captivity. This might seem a light thing; for a previous account has been given of other calamities, which were far more severe; and exile in itself is but a moderate punishment. But we must bear in mind what we have before stated, that the Jews dwelt in that land, as though they had been placed there by the hand of God, that Jerusalem was to be a perpetual rest, which had been granted them from above; in short, that it was as it were a pledge of the eternal inheritance. When, therefore, they were driven into captivity, it was the same as though God had cast them down from heaven, and banished them from his kingdom. For the Jews would not have been deprived of that land, had not God rejected them and shewed his alienation from them. It was then the same as repudiation. It is therefore no wonder that Jerusalem so much lamented because her sons and her daughters were driven into exile.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Hebrew, mouth.
Hebrew, mouth.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Lam 1:18 The LORD is righteous; for I have…
Lam 1:18 The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
Ver. 18. The Lord is righteous.] Whatever I suffer, or say haply in my passion, that may seem to sound to the contrary. Righteous art thou, O Lord, and just are thy judgments, said David; {Psa 119:137} and after him Mauricius the emperor, when deposed by the traitor Phocas; and the noble Duplessis, when he heard of the death of his only son, slain in the Low Countries.
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For I have rebelled against his commandments.] Heb., Against his mouth, and have therefore deserved thus to feel the weight of his hand; to hear the rod, and who hath appointed it, because I would not hear the Word and who preached it. I have imbittered his mouth, as some render the Hebrew text, and therefore am worthily imbittered by him.
Hear, I pray you, all people.] See Lam 1:12. But how agreeth this with that of David in 2Sa 1:20, "Tell it not in Gath?" It is answered that David there would not have that slaughter in Gilboa to be reported as the hand of the Philistines, but of God.
My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.] Are carried out of this land, the sign of God’s favour, and of heaven itself. And here lay the pinch of their grief. Let young ones and maids - quibus hodie fraena laxari solent - obey God, unless they had rather perish.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The prophet either directeth those that feared God what…
The prophet either directeth those that feared God what they should say, or expresseth what many of them did say in the name of the rest, acknowledging both the Lord’s justice and faithfulness, because they had been disobedient to the commandments of God.
Hear, I pray you, & c.; In these words the prophet only personates a passionate woman begging pity of all because her children were taken from her.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain The Lord is righteous,.... Or, "righteous is he the…
The Lord is righteous,.... Or, "righteous is he the Lord" (g); in all these dispensations of his providence, how afflictive and severe soever they may seem to be; however the enemies of the church and people of God might transgress just bounds, and act the cruel and unrighteous part; yet good men will always own that God is righteous in all his ways, and that there is no unrighteousness in him; though they sometimes know not how to reconcile his providences to his promises, and especially to his declared love and affection to them; see Jer 12:1; the reason, clearing God of all injustice, follows:
for I have rebelled against his commandment; or, "his mouth" (h): the word of his mouth, which he delivered by word of mouth at Mount Sinai, or by his prophets since; and therefore was righteously dealt with, and justly chastised. The Targum makes these to be the words of Josiah before his death, owning he had done wrong in going out against Pharaohnecho, contrary to the word of the Lord; and the next clause to be the lamentation of Jeremiah upon his death: though they are manifestly the words of Jerusalem or Zion, whom the prophet personates, saying,
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hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow; directing herself to all compassionate persons, to hearken and attend to her mournful complaint, and to consider her sorrow, the nature and cause of it, and look upon her with an eye of pity in her sorrowful circumstances:
my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity; in Babylon; being taken and carried thither by the Chaldeans; had it been only her ancient men and women, persons worn out with age, that could have been of little use, and at most but of a short continuance, the affliction had not been so great; but her virgins and young men, the flower of the nation, and by whom it might have been supported and increased; for these to be carried away into a strange land must be matter of grief and sorrow.
(g) "justus ipse est Jehovah", Cocceius. (h) "ori ejus", Pagninus, Montanus; Piscator, Cocceius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Lam 1:18-19. The Lord is righteous, for I have…
Lam 1:18-19. The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled, &c. — He does me no wrong in dealing thus with me, nor can I charge him with any injustice. Observe, reader, whatever the troubles are which God is pleased to inflict upon us, we must own that in them he is righteous: we neither know him nor ourselves, if we do not acknowledge this. Jerusalem owns the equity of God’s actions by confessing the iniquity of her own. Hear, I pray you, all people — See note on Lam 1:12. My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity — Thus it is said, 2Ch 36:17, that the Chaldeans had “no compassion upon young men or maidens.” I called for my lovers, but they deceived me — They proved like the brooks in summer to the thirsty traveller, Job 6:15. The Egyptians and her other allies are intended, who made court to her in her prosperity, and promised her assistance, but in the day of her adversity and necessity were alienated from her, and cast her off. Thus we are commonly deceived and disappointed in those creatures that we set our hearts upon, and put our trust in. Happy they that have made God their friend, and keep themselves in his love, for he will not deceive them! My priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city — The famine hath consumed the most honourable as well as the meaner people. While they sought their meat to relieve their souls — While they went about seeking for bread to keep them alive. The LXX. add, και ουχ ευρον, and found none, with whom the Syriac agrees. But no such words appear in the Hebrew copies, although the thing is implied, for they would not have died if they had found what they sought.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain People - peoples, pagan nations.
People - peoples, pagan nations.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain The sure sign of repentance; justifying God, condemning herself…
The sure sign of repentance; justifying God, condemning herself (Neh 9:33; Psa 51:4; Dan 9:7-14).
his commandment--literally, "mouth"; His word in the mouth of the prophets.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 18. All people — Better, all peoples.
18. All people — Better, all peoples.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 18. I have rebelled against his commandment] See on…
18. I have rebelled against his commandment] See on Lam_1:5. The Targ. strangely explains the v. as having reference to Josiah’s defeat and death at Megiddo (b.c. 608).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (18) The Lord is righteous . . .—An echo…
(18) The Lord is righteous . . .—An echo from Jer_12:1; 2Ch_12:6. Misery does its work, and issues in repentance. The suffering comes from the all-righteous Judge. It is, perhaps, significant that with this beginning of conversion the name “Jehovah” reappears.
All people . . .—Better, all peoples. Those addressed are the heathen nations, who are summoned to gaze on the desolate mourners.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain People; render, peoples.
People; render, peoples.
The righteousness of God confessed.
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I THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD AS A FACT.
1. What it is. In its fulness and breadth it is the goodness of God, his sinlessness, his pure and holy character. But it has characteristics of more special importance. Righteousness in God is conformity with truth, justice, and honour. It means that God has no subtle double dealing, but acts in perfect integrity. He moves in straight lines. Further, it means that God is fair to all, doing, if not the same thing to each, which would often be unjust, that which is fitting for every one. It also includes God"s regard for the standard of right in his government, his care to make his creatures righteous, and his determination to check all unrighteousness.
2. Why we are to believe in it. It is declared most forcibly by those who know God best. Sceptical strangers may doubt it; but they who have entered into the presence of God, whether in holiness or in inspiration, alike agree in testifying to the righteousness of God. The deeper our Christian experience the more shall we be brought to admit this great truth.
II THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD HIDDEN UNDER A CLOUD. There are times when it is hard to say from our hearts, "The Lord is righteous." Doubts and difficulties should be boldly faced, for God cares for no lip service of unbelieving flatterers.
1. Trouble darkens our vision of the righteousness of God. We fail to see the object of the storm while the darkness of it lowers over us. It seems to be greater than it is, and more than just, because we cannot take a fair view of it.
2. Our own trouble seems to be out of proportion to that of other people. We feel the full weight of our own burden; our neighbour"s burden is seen at a distance, and then only seen, not felt. In her grief Jerusalem feels that she is visited with a strange pre-eminence of sorrow. Never was sorrow equal to hers (see ver. 12). This appears to be unjust.
3. Our trouble looks more than we deserve. So we think till we see our sin. To the impenitent God must often seem unjust.
4. God has many purposes in sorrow that are unknown to us. Therefore we fail to see the justice of the blow. But part of the discipline of trouble depends on our ignorance of its end. If we knew whither it was leading us we should not be led. Darkness is necessary for the training of faith.
III THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD CONFESSED. This is grand! In the midst of wailing and weeping Jerusalem confesses that the hand that dealt the blow was right.
1. Faith is requisite for this confession. The righteousness cannot be seen; it is still shrouded in darkness. But faith holds to it. Thus we must use in the darkness the knowledge which we have won in the light.
2. Penitence is also necessary for this confession. When we confess our guilt we are ready to confess God"s righteousness, but not till then. Even Job had to abhor himself and repent in dust and ashes in order to see the righteousness of God. (Job_42:6)
"The Lord is righteous
In nothing is the distinction more marked between religions of human origin and device and the religion which is the revelation of infinite Wisdom and Truth, than in the views they respectively afford of the moral character and attributes of Deity. Whilst the heathen freely attribute to their gods qualities which are detestable in man, the Scriptures represent the Supreme as perfectly righteous. The acknowledgment here made by Jeremiah was made by Moses, by Nehemiah, by Daniel, and indeed is virtually, if not verbally, made by the writer of every book of the Old Testament. And the new covenant is based upon the revelation of a righteous Ruler and Father.
I GOD IS RIGHTEOUS IN HIS CHARACTER. It is certainly no progress, but a retrogression towards ignorance and barbarism, to represent the supreme Intelligence as destitute of moral attributes, exercised in the fulfilment of wise and benevolent purposes. Affliction and anguish sometimes obscure men"s judgment of the character and the dealings of God. It was not so with Jeremiah, who, in lamenting the troubles of his nation and of himself, did not distort the representation he gave to his countrymen of the attributes of the Most High.
II GOD IS RIGHTEOUS IN HIS LAW. The theocratic government of the Hebrews was based upon the just character and the holy Law of the eternal King. To some minds the reflection might have seemed inappropriate and unwelcome in the depth of disaster. But a true prophet, a true religious teacher, feels bound to set forth the fact that the rule under which men live as individuals and as communities is a righteous rule; the justice of the Law abides although that Law be broken, and although its penalties be incurred and endured.
III GOD IS RIGHTEOUS IN HIS RETRIBUTION. This is probably the thought most prominent in the text. The fate of Jerusalem was a hard fate, a lamentable fate, but it was not an unjust fate. The people reaped as they had sown. An onlooker might readily have acknowledged this, but it was a merit in a sufferer so to do. For the chastened to confess the justice of their chastisement is a proof that already the chastening is not in vain. T.
The acknowledgment that suffering is deserved.
I THE CLEAR RECOGNITION ON THE PART OF THOSE VISITED THAT THE SUFFERING WAS OF JEHOVAH"S BRINGING. Secondary causes were prominent, but behind them was a Divine cause most important to be perceived in all the intensity of its working. Those who desolated Jerusalem did so from the worst of motives, motives always to be condemned; and these motives, keenly inspiring as they were, would have ended in nothing save for the weakness in which Israel had been left by its apostasy from God. When we are suffering for our sin and folly it is good if we can recognize that the suffering is of God"s producing. Because that which God produces God can remove in the hour of repentance. Whereas what man produces he may not be able to put right again, even when he is so disposed.
II A REASON IS GIVEN FOR DECLARING JEHOVAH RIGHTEOUS. He has done righteously to those who have rebelled against his commandments. God has made us so that we can distinguish between the right and the wrong. We need ever to be on our guard against saying that a thing is right because God does it. What is admitted here is that it is a right thing for God to inflict chastisement on the disobedient. The greater the disobedience the severer must be the chastisement. The commandment of God was always a right thing in itself; and the prophets had again and again illustrated the righteousness of particular commandments and the evident miseries that flowed from neglecting them. Recollect that this great blow upon Israel came after many lesser ones. It was not as if Israel could plead that the commandments were dubious or the warnings scanty.
III It must not be forgotten that JEHOVAH"S RIGHTEOUSNESS IS EQUALLY SHOWN IN HIS TREATMENT OF THE OBEDIENT. It is of the greatest importance to recollect this, because unfortunately the disobedient are more noticeable than the obedient, and the treatment of the disobedient, by consequence, more noticeable than the treatment of the obedient. The spirit of our life determines, by a most fixed law, the way in which God will treat us. It is perfectly impossible for the disobedient to escape suffering. But it is equally impossible for the obedient to lose their reward. Joy and blessedness, the exquisite peace and rapture of holiness, must come to them by the very nature of things. Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain The Lord is righteous; for I have rebelled.
Lam_1:18
The Lord is righteous; for I have rebelled.
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A right view of punishment
When we see God in our punishments, we begin to take a right view of them; when they are nothing to us but self-humiliations or signs of contempt, they embitter us and harden our hearts; but when we see God at work in the very desolation of our fortunes, we axe sure that He has a reason for thus scourging us, and that if we accept the penalty, and bow down before His majesty, we shall be lifted up by His mighty hand. Zion says that the Lord hath made her strength to fail, the Lord hath trodden under foot all her mighty men, the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress. But Zion does not accept these results with a hard heart; no: rather she says, For these things I weep, etc. Whatever brings us to this softness of heart is a helper to the soul in all upward and Divine directions. Zion confesses the righteousness of the Lord. In proportion as we can recognise the justice of our punishment, may we bear that punishment with some dignity. It has been pointed out that with this beginning of conversion the name of the Lord, or Jehovah, reappears. The people whom God has punished on account of their sins have, in the result, been enabled to recognise the justice of their punishment. Of this we have an example in the Book of Nehemiah (Neh_9:33-34). In the case of the Captivity, we see the extreme rigour of the law in the expression, My virgins and my young men, etc.: the most honoured and the most beautiful have perished of hunger, as it were, in the open streets. How impartial and tremendous are the judgments of God! May not virgins be spared? May not His priests be exempted from the operation of the law of judgment? Will not an official robe protect a soul against the lightning of Divine wrath? All history answers No; all experience testifies to the contrary, and thereby re-establishes and infinitely confirms our confidence in the living God. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The equity of punishment acknowledged
1. Gods people do acknowledge His justice in all His works, yea, even in His punishments laid upon them.
(1) His Word and Spirit hath reformed their judgments, teaching them how to think of His holy majesty in all things.
(2) The consciousness of their own sins causeth them to justify the Lord, and to accuse themselves.
2. It is the duty of Gods children to seek the cause of all their evils in themselves.
(1) God is righteous, and layeth nothing upon them but what they justly deserve.
(2) They know their own manifold sins, and their exceeding weakness in well-doing, which they cannot see in any others.
3. Though God punish us oft for other causes, yet the matter that He worketh upon is our sins.
4. We must not lessen our sins, but account them most heinous in our own eyes.
5. It is our duty (especially in religion) neither to go further nor to come shorter than Gods revealed will; but attend unto it as the servants eye doth unto his masters hand (Psa_123:2).
6. It is rebellion against the Lord Himself to be disobedient unto the voice of His ministers teaching His truth (Luk_10:16).
7. We are constrained in our adversity to acknowledge Gods hand in those things which in our prosperity we neglected.
8. When Gods people are punished, they are not ashamed but willing to tell all men of it, and to declare their sins to be the cause of it.
(1) Above all things they desire to have the Lord justified in all mens judgments.
(2) They desire that their own example may teach others to serve God better.
9. The manifesting of our punishments unto the world as from Gods hand because of our sins can neither dishonour the Lord nor harden others in their wickedness, but is a just occasion of the contrary. (J. Udall.)
Acknowledging the righteousness of Gods judgments
The cure token of Judahs and Israels repentance shall be when, accepting the punishment of their iniquity as their just due, they shall justify God. It is the most hopeful sign in any sinner, when the Holy Spirit applying inwardly the lesson taught by outward distresses, teaches him to cry, The Lord is righteous; for I have rebelled against His commandments. (A. R. Fausset, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Lam_1:12-22. These verses form the second section of the…
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—
Lam_1:12-22. These verses form the second section of the poem. The city is represented as complaining of its harassed condition, 12–16, and then as acknowledging her persistent sin in sight of her righteous Lord, who will deal out justice to all transgressors, 17–22.
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(צ) Lam_1:18. During her pause the weeper has received new thoughts. Like the younger son when feeding on husks, she has come to herself so far that she is ready to own the justice of Jehovah in her sufferings. He is righteous, Jehovah, for I have disobeyed his voice, rejected the words of His mouth. Yet she sorely wants human pity, and cries to them, Hear, I pray; all ye peoples, and see my sorrow; the flower of her youth has gone into captivity.
(ק) Lam_1:19. She addresses Jehovah, and tells how her appeals to the friends of her prosperous days have proved futile; I called to my lovers; they have deceived me, disappointed my hopes; and not only they have failed; my priests and my elders have expired in the city, where they had been high in position, the medium between God and His worshippers, and leaders in the state, when they sought food for themselves to restore their souls, they were starving, like the common people in the closely invested city, and made a strenuous quest for some means to keep themselves alive in famine.
(ר) Lam_1:20. Again she refers to Jehovah as to her forlornness and aggravated sin. See, O Jehovah, for I am in distress, and this distress is felt:
(1) Internally. My bowels are troubled, my heart is turned within me; agitation and anguish excite her, even her vital parts, as it were, change their position. The reason therefor is not ascribed to man’s neglect and inhumanity to her, but,
(2) to her disregard of God, for, she confesses, I have grievously disobeyed. The penalty she undergoes is calamitous indeed; abroad the sword bereaveth, she is rendered a mourner because of slaughter in the open country and in the streets; at home is like death, as if nothing but the dead were in the houses—so overpowering was the exhaustion from starvation and diseases. This somewhat halting explanation may be compared with the free rendering of the Septuagint translator—at least there is no extant authority in the Hebrew for an equivalent reading—Outside the sword made me childless as death in the house.
(שׁ) Lam_1:21. A transition is made from unfaithful friends to open enemies, and they too are denounced. The sounds of her grief have echoed far off among persons unnamed, they have heard that I sigh; again the refrain of this chapter is repeated, there is no comforter for me. The frequent allusions to a personal comforter, Lam_1:2; Lam_1:9; Lam_1:16-17; Lam_1:21, are worthy of consideration, as if there was a feeling after a higher gift not yet distinctly perceived. All my enemies have heard of my evil, and understand something of the unseen influences which produced it; they rejoice that thou hast done it. From Jer_40:2-3, it appears that even foes recognised that the calamitous state of the Jews proceeded from their disobedience to Jehovah, though their joy may have been more because of her fall than for the confirmation given to the truth of the Lord. Nevertheless, vengeance for their misdeeds was coming on. The Lord has announced a day of judgment on the heathen as well as on Judah, and the cup of wrath shall be drunk from; thou bringest the day thou hast announced, and they shall become like me in suffering their penalties.
(ת) Lam_1:22. Jerusalem further formulates the wish that the retribution due to their guilty actions should not be put aside; Let all their evil come before thee, and do unto them as thou hast done unto me, for all my transgressions. The first natural cry of those that are punished is for justice all round. “If I suffer for every wrong, make every other wrongdoer suffer equally with me!” In this desire there appears the consciousness that Jehovah must pass judgment upon every form of sin, and rightly, for He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; and also a grim expectation of revenge, under which Edom, Moab, Babylon, &c., disappeared. We may say that confession of her own transgressions should have been accompanied with sympathy and pity for other sinners; but the time for that love of enemies did not arrive for many a day. Her own sad state again moves her, For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint. So Jeremiah felt (Jer_8:18). “With these words the sound of this lamentation dies away.”
HOMILETICS
THE BITTER FRUITS OF REBELLION
(Lam_1:18-22)
I. That rebellion is the violation of the law of a righteous God. “The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled against His commandment” (Lam_1:18). “I have grievously rebelled” (Lam_1:20). A man may fight against God’s will and exalt his own; but he cannot fight against the law by which obedience brings peace, harmony, and joy to the soul, and disobedience brings unrest, pain, and deadness. All things in God’s universe proclaim the folly of the man who thinks to oppose his will to the Infinite. He may to some extent succeed in thwarting the Divine will; but he cannot prosper. What may seem success will turn into shame and ruin. The violation of law puts us out of harmony with God, Nature, and man.
II. That rebellion is the occasion of great national disasters.
1. The young are enslaved. “My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity” (Lam_1:18). There is little hope for the future of a nation when its young people are in degrading bondage. Christianity has created a just appreciation of the worth of young life. A Japanese woman once came to a Christian lady in Japan with a girl-baby which had been thrown into a ditch by its father, as thousands were, because it was “only a girl.” In begging the Christian lady to take care of the naked child, covered with mud, the poor woman said, “Please do take little baby. Your God is the only God that teaches to be good to little children.”
2. Friendships are demoralised. “I called for my lovers, but they deceived me” (Lam_1:19). The confusion that springs out of rebellion is a severe strain on the fidelity of professed friends. Promises made with the utmost solemnity are little regarded. One brave and truthful action tells more than a million utterances of the mouth. Genuine friendship is ever frank and true. Simplicity is not the absence of intricacy, but its solution. The true friend, however much misunderstood in a time of disorder, comes out scatheless.
3. The nation is ravaged by war, famine, and death. “Abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death” (Lam_1:20). “My priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls” (Lam_1:19). Those who should have advised and comforted the people were disabled by starvation, or were lying dead among the slain.
4. The sufferings of the people are distressingly acute. “I am in distress; my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me” (Lam_1:20). My heart is so violently agitated that it seems to have changed its position—to be overturned. It is difficult to conceive words that could more pathetically describe the extremity of grief. Much of our trouble is intensified by forebodings as to the future. God gives us strength to bear each day’s burden as it comes. When we stagger and fall because our burden has become too heavy, it is because we have added of our own accord something of the future’s weight to that of the present.
5. The enemies gloat over the national troubles. “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” (Lam_1:21). It is the acme of cruelty and obduracy of heart to chuckle over the miseries of the fallen. How different is the true Christian spirit. Lord Shaftesbury earned the title of “the good Earl” by his philanthropic endeavours to raise the most depraved. A costermonger who had been a most notorious sinner was once asked, “What did his Lordship say to you that made you a reformed man?” “Oh, he didn’t say much,” was the reply. “He just sat down by my side and said, ‘Jack, we will make a man of you yet.’ ” It was the upward gravitation of Christian manhood that helped Jack, and many like him.
III. That every nation that rebels against God will be certainly punished. “Thou wilt bring the day that Thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me. Do unto them as Thou hast done unto me,” &c. (Lam_1:21-22). The prophet, in terms that seem dictated by a spirit of retaliation, is but expressing in prophecy what actually happened in the capture of Babylon—the destruction of the Chaldean empire and of the neighbouring states by which the Jews had been ill-used. He also expressed the general truth, so often exemplified in history, that the nations that ignore God come to nought.
LESSONS.—
1. The greatest troubles of a nation are the result of rebellion.
2. God is not indifferent to the sufferings of a nation under punishment.
3. Obedience to God is the only guarantee of national prosperity.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Lam_1:18. “The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled against His commandment.” Divine justice:
1. Is publicly acknowledged.
2. Must punish rebellion.
3. Is ever mingled with mercy.
—“Hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow.” The voice of sorrow:
1. Has a lesson for all classes.
2. Cannot express all that is felt.
3. Excites sympathy among the most indifferent
4. Should lead to inquiry as to its cause.
—“My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.” Young life:
1. The hope and strength of a nation.
2. Should be placed in the most favourable circumstances for development and culture.
3. Is crushed by the degradation of slavery.
Lam_1:19. “I called for my lovers, but they deceived me.” Human fickleness:
1. A bitter disappointment when shown by those we love, and who have professed to love us.
2. Cannot bear the strain of a great trial. Fails us when we most need help.
3. A pure, unselfish, faithful affection a rarity.
4. Should teach us to trust alone in God.
Lam_1:20. Sincere penitence: I. Shown in a frank and full confession of sin. “I have grievously sinned.” II. Experiences the most pungent sorrow for sin. “I am in distress: my bowels are troubled: mine heart is turned within me.” III. Appeals to God alone for mercy. “Behold, O Lord.”
Lam_1:21. A spirit of enmity: I. Is coldly indifferent to the troubles of others, though cognisant of them. “All mine enemies have heard of my trouble.” II. Exhibits a refinement of cruelty in rejoicing over the distresses of its victims. “They are glad thou hast done it.” III. Will meet with a day of retribution. “Thou wilt bring the day that Thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me.”
Lam_1:22. The punishment of Judah a type of the punishment of all unfaithful nations. I. Their sins are fully know to God. “Let all their wickedness come before Thee.” II. They will be punished according to their actual sins. “Do unto them as Thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions.” III. They shall know what it is to endure sorrow and exhaustion. “For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.”
ILLUSTRATIONS.—Rebellion—Dead Sea fruit.—If Satan ever knows pleasure at all, it is of the foulest and most unsatisfactory kind. Dust is his meat. There is nothing satisfying in the pleasures of rebellion. He remains a disappointed, restless being. The most cunning error which he invents and sustains by philosophy is no more than dust. His whole cause, for which he has laboured these thousands of years with a horrible perseverance, will dissolve into dust, and be blown away as smoke. Still doth he feed himself on dust. Let those who are servants of Satan know assuredly that as they are living in sin they will have to eat at their father’s table and learn the emptiness of all the pleasures of sin, and the worthlessness of all the treasures of evil. Everything that sin can bring you is just so much dust—foul eating, insufficient, clogging, killing. Though you hoard up wealth, gold is nothing but dust to a dying man. Though you gain all earthly honour, it too dissolves into dust. This is the misery of that great spirit who is called the Prince of Darkness, that he must eat dust all his days. But what misery it must be to be only some poor subject in that unhallowed kingdom, and still to be doomed to the same loathsome fare! Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. Note that right well; and may God deliver you from such feeding!—Spurgeon.
Fomenting rebellion, a ruinous policy. The rebellion in the Netherlands had already been an expensive matter to the crown. The Spanish army numbered more than sixty-two thousand men. Forty millions of dollars had already been sunk, and it seemed probable that it would require nearly the whole annual produce of the American mines to sustain the war. The Transatlantic gold and silver, disinterred from the depths where they had been buried for ages, were employed not to expand the current of a healthy, life-giving commerce, but to be melted into blood. The sweat and tortures of the king’s pagan subjects in the primeval forests of the New World were made subsidiary to the extermination of his Netherland people and the destruction of an ancient civilisation. To this end had Columbus discovered a hemisphere for Castile and Aragon, and the new Indies revealed their hidden treasures. The military expenses alone of the Netherlands were more than seven million dollars yearly, and the mines of the New World produced an annual average of only eleven. There was not a stiver left in the exchequer, nor the means of raising one. Such was the condition to which the unrelenting tyranny and financial experiments of Alva had reduced the country.—Motley’s “Dutch Republic.”
Sorrow does not regenerate. On a May day in the French Revolution of 1848, a wretched-looking man was seen dragging himself along by the help of a stick, fleeing from the excited and rushing crowd, till he entered a hall in the Louvre, where was an exquisite piece of sculpture, the Venus of Milos. Before this statue the man broke down, and bitter tears streamed over his face. That man was Heinrich Heine, the scoffing Israelite. This one moment disclosed a whole world of heartache. “Deepest misery, thy name is Heine!” was the passionate cry that escaped his lips. The source of this misery was the pleasure of the world. The goddess before whom he lay prostrate entwined the poet with the glowing arms of sense. He had sacrificed all to her—body, soul, conscience, reason, heart, and harp. “Once,” he groaned, “I fancied, with Hegel, I was a god; now I know I am a sick, forgotten Jew.” Sixteen years, filled with unexampled pains, followed, but it was only a transitory glance of faith to which the poet attained. On the whole, affliction only excited him to new blasphemies.—Otto Funcke.
Justice and mercy. Terror is subservient to love. As a skilful painter fills the background of his picture with his darker colours, so God introduces the black thunder-clouds of Sinai to give brighter prominence to Jesus, the Cross of Calvary, and His love to the chief of sinners.—Guthrie.
Youth. Youth and white paper take any impression. The young are the divinely-appointed heirs of the great past, and the fathers of the sublime future.
—Perhaps as the Creator looks down on this world, whose wondrous beauty beams on us more and more in proportion as our science would take it from poetry into law, He beholds nothing so beautiful as the pure heart of a simple, loving child.—Lytton.
Human fickleness a disappointment. Astronomers toll us that temporary stars attain their maximum brightness only once and for all. They burst into brilliance suddenly, come to a point, continue at that point only for a short time, and then vanish, either by exploding or by coming into collision with another body. It is difficult to see the reason for their existence at all, except to show that the steady, dependable light of the permanent star is of more service in the heavens than the flashing brilliance that dazzles only to confuse and mislead. It is dangerous to be star of any kind, whether pulpit star, political star, or social star; but to be a temporary star is the most provoking and disappointing of all.—The Scottish Pulpit.
Human fickleness and its contrast. At a trial in Anglesey the heroic devotion of a wife and the base fickleness and savagery of a husband were painfully illustrated. The prisoner saved his neck through the self-forgetful devotion of his wife, who sat at his side, pale and suffering, through the trial. If it had been known that the third bullet fired from his pistol was even then lodging in the body of his faithful wife, nothing would have saved his life. It was only after the miserable man had been convicted of murder in a minor degree that did not involve hanging that she applied to a doctor, confessed that her husband had shot her, and that the bullet was still in her hip. Who can fathom a woman’s love and devotion? It is often strangely lavished on those who deserve it least.—Ibid.
Penitence involves confession of sin. Sometimes a prisoner is advised to plead not guilty because his advocate has discovered a flaw in the indictment, or a weak place in the chain of evidence, and he may get the benefit of the doubt. Not so in the case of the sinner; there can be no doubt. The evidence is cumulative. He is caught red-handed in the act of sin. His only hope for mercy is in a full and frank confession.
How enmity is manufactured. “Right must right remain,” says the farmer, and goes to law with his neighbour about a strip of pasture-land a quarter of a yard wide, and enmity and hatred exist between the two families for whole decades, while a thousand times the value of the disputed strip is lost over it. But no matter; “Right must right remain.” Nor is it only among farmers, but among all kinds of people that such foolish and unhappy litigation takes place, just because no one chooses to give way; nay, not even to submit to the judgment of an umpire. “Right must right remain,” says A, and passionately disputes in a large party with B as to whether the train which ran two years ago to H—— in the evening was an ordinary or an express train; and this wretched stubbornness in disputing about trifles destroys the sociability of men who ought to have brought light and salt to each other. “Right must right remain,” says this respectable man. He was offended by the harsh words of another, and has now passed him coldly by for years. “He must first apologise,” he says, instead of saying, “Don’t let us please the devil by hating one another; here is my hand; we are brethren and heirs of one heaven.” No! “Right must right remain.”—Otto Funcke.
Retribution. The certainty that unrepentant wickedness will be punished may be argued—
1. From the principle of moral causation. God has established such a connection between character and condition that misery must ever spring from sin, and blessedness from virtue. Our present grows out of the past, hence our sins must find us out. What we morally sowed yesterday we reap in experience to-day, and so on for ever.
2. From the operation of moral memory. Memory recalls sins, places them before the eye of conscience, and sets the soul aflame.
3. From the declarations of Scripture. “The wicked shall not go unpunished. The wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God.”
4. From the history of mankind. Nations are an example—the Antediluvians, the Sodomites, the Jews. Individuals are an example.—Moses, David, Judas.—D. Thomas, D.D.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
In this section Jerusalem is portrayed as a woman speaking about herself. (See: Personification)
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Yahweh is righteous
This implies that what Yahweh has done, he has done because he is righteous. AT: "Yahweh has acted out of his righteousness" or "What Yahweh has done is right"
see my sorrow
The word "sorrow" can be expressed as a "sad." AT: "see how extremely sad I am" (See: Abstract Nouns)
My virgins and my vigorous men have gone into captivity
Here all of the people of Jerusalem who were taken into captivity are represented by the "virgins" and the "vigorous men" who were taken. AT: "Many of my people, including my virgins and vigorous men, have gone into captivity" (See: Synecdoche)
vigorous men
This refers to men at the strongest time of their lives. See how you translated this in Lamentations 1:15.
I called for my friends
"I called for my friends to help me" or "I called for my allies to help me"
they were treacherous toward me
This means that they betrayed him. AT: "they betrayed me" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
to restore their lives
"to save their lives" or "to restore their strength"
translationWords
Yahweh
righteous
rebel
command
people group
virgin
captive
priest
elder
perish
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.