The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to the solemn assembly. All her gates are desolate. Her priests sigh. Her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.
Parallel Translations
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The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to the solemn assembly. All her gates are desolate. Her priests sigh. Her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.
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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.
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The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn assembly; all her gates are desolate, her priests sigh; her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.
Cross-references (14)
Passages linked to Lamentations 1:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Jeremiah 9:11 “I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling place of jackals. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”
- Joel 1:8-13 Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth! The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh’s house. The priests, Yahweh’s ministers, mourn. The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes. Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished. The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men. Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house.
- Isaiah 24:4-6 The earth mourns and fades away. The world languishes and fades away. The lofty people of the earth languish. The earth also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.
- Jeremiah 10:22 The voice of news, behold, it comes, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling place of jackals.
- Jeremiah 14:2 “Judah mourns, and its gates languish. They sit in black on the ground. The cry of Jerusalem goes up.
- Lamentations 2:6-7 He has violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden. He has destroyed his place of assembly. Yahweh has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion. In the indignation of his anger, he has despised the king and the priest. The Lord has cast off his altar. He has abhorred his sanctuary. He has given the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in Yahweh’s house, as in the day of a solemn assembly.
- Isaiah 32:9-14 Rise up, you women who are at ease! Hear my voice! You careless daughters, give ear to my speech! For days beyond a year you will be troubled, you careless women; for the vintage will fail. The harvest won’t come. Tremble, you women who are at ease! Be troubled, you careless ones! Strip yourselves, make yourselves naked, and put sackcloth on your waist. Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. Thorns and briers will come up on my people’s land; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city. For the palace will be forsaken. The populous city will be deserted. The hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks,
- Jeremiah 33:10-12 Yahweh says: “Yet again there will be heard in this place, about which you say, ‘It is waste, without man and without animal, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without animal,’ the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, ‘Give thanks to Yahweh of Armies, for Yahweh is good, for his loving kindness endures forever;’ who bring thanksgiving into Yahweh’s house. For I will cause the captivity of the land to be reversed as at the first,” says Yahweh. Yahweh of Armies says: “Yet again there will be in this place, which is waste, without man and without animal, and in all its cities, a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.
- Lamentations 1:11-12 All her people sigh. They seek bread. They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh their soul. “Look, Yahweh, and see; for I have become despised.” “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.
- Lamentations 1:18-20 “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. “I called for my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city, while they sought food for themselves to refresh their souls. “Look, Yahweh; for I am in distress. My heart is troubled. My heart turns over within me, for I have grievously rebelled. Abroad, the sword bereaves. At home, it is like death.
- Lamentations 2:9-11 Her gates have sunk into the ground. He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not. Yes, her prophets find no vision from Yahweh. The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground. They keep silence. They have cast up dust on their heads. They have clothed themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. My eyes fail with tears. My heart is troubled. My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city.
- Lamentations 2:19-21 Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street. “Look, Yahweh, and see to whom you have done thus! Should the women eat their offspring, the children that they held and bounced on their knees? Should the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? “The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets. My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword. You have killed them in the day of your anger. You have slaughtered, and not pitied.
- Lamentations 5:13 The young men carry millstones. The children stumbled under loads of wood.
- Micah 3:12 Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (19 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain Jeremiah refers here to another cause of sorrow, that…
Jeremiah refers here to another cause of sorrow, that the worship of God had ceased, it having been interrupted; nay, it seemed to have become extinct for ever. He then says that the ways of Sion mourned, because none came to the feasts. The words are figurative, for we know that feelings belong not to ways; but the Prophet ascribes feeling to what is inanimate. And this sort of personification is more emphatical than if he had introduced the people as mourning. But when the Jews saw that God’s worship had fallen, it was more grievous than to find themselves bereaved of children or of wives, or plundered of all their goods; for the more precious God’s worship was to them, and the more religion was thought of, in which consisted the eternal salvation of their souls, the more severe and mournful was it to see the Church, so scattered, that God could no longer be worshipped and invoked.
It is indeed true that God’s worship was not tied to ceremonies; for Daniel never ceased to pray, and he was heard no less in his exile than if he came to the sacrifices with great solemnity to make an offering in the Temple. This is no doubt true; but as God had not in vain instituted these duties and rites of religion, the Prophet exhibits the thing itself by its symbols. As, then, feasts were testimonies of God’s grace, it was the same as though the Jews were called together by a standard being lifted up, and as though God appeared in the midst of them. Hence the Prophet, referring to these external symbols, shews that the worship of God had in a manner ceased.
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Her gates are solitary, or desolate; her priests are in mourning, her virgins in afflictions; she is in bitterness. Now this passage reminds us, that when God afflicts his Church, however grievous it may be to see innocent men slain, blood shed promiscuously, the sexes, men and women, killed indiscriminately; and though it be a sad spectacle to see houses robbed and plundered, fields laid waste, and al! things in a confusion, yet when all these things are compared with the abolition of God’s worship, this passage reminds us that all these things ought to appear light to us. Though David greatly deplored his condition, because he was banished from the Temple, and did not as usual lead thither the assembly, when he was not the only one ejected from the sanctuary of God; yet when the sanctuary itself was destroyed, together with the altar, when there were no sacrifices, no thanksgiving, no praises; in short, no prayer, it was surely much more bitter.
This lamentation of the Prophet ought then to be carefully noticed, when he says, that the ways of Sion mourned, that no one went up to the feasts. What follows I pass over; I shall hereafter dwell more on these things when we advance towards the end of the narrative.
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 As they used to come up with mirth and…
As they used to come up with mirth and joy, Ps. 42:4.
Hebrew, bitterness.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Lam 1:4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because…
Lam 1:4 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.
Ver. 4. The ways of Zion do mourn.] So they seem to do because unfrequented, overgrown with grass, and out of their kindly order.
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Her priests sigh.] For want of employment.
The virgins were afflicted.] Or, Discomfited. Those that are usually set upon the merry pin, and were wont to make mirth at those festivities,
And she is in bitterness.] Zion is; but for nothing so much as for the decay of religion, and the loss of holy exercises. When this befalleth, all things else are mere Ichabods to good people, {a} See Zep 3:18.
{a} Cultus Dei desertus est, et omnia luctifica. - Jun.
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 ways that lead to the temple have as…
The ways that lead to the temple have as unlovely a complexion as mourners, being overgrown, by reason that none goeth up as usually to the feasts of the passover, of tabernacles, &c. Either all the gates of Jerusalem, or the temple, or all her cities, are very thin of people, the places that use to be so full. Her priests that were wont to be so fully employed at festivals receiving the people’s oblations, and offering sacrifices, they mourn, having now nothing to do. The virgins who in those feasts were wont to play with timbrels, Psa 68:25, they now mourn, and persons of all ages and ranks are in bitterness.
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 ways of Zion do mourn,.... Being unoccupied, as…
The ways of Zion do mourn,.... Being unoccupied, as in Jdg 5:6; or unfrequented: this is said by a rhetorical figure; as ways may be said to rejoice, or look pleasant and cheerful, when there are many passengers in them, going to and fro; so they may be said to mourn, or to look dull and melancholy, when no person is met with, or seen in them; thus Jerusalem and the temple being destroyed, the ways which led from the one to the other, and in which used to be seen great numbers going up to the worship of God, which was pleasant to behold, Psa 42:4; now not one walking in them, and all overgrown with grass; and those roads which led from the several parts of the land to Jerusalem, whither the ten tribes went up to worship three times in the year, and used to travel in companies, which made it delightful and comfortable, and pleasant to look at, now none to be seen upon them; which was matter of grief to those that wished well to Zion; as it is to all truly godly persons to observe that the ways and worship of God are not frequented; that there are few inquiring the way to Zion above, or travelling in the road to heaven; as also when there are few that worship God in Zion below, or ask the way unto it, or walk in the ordinances of it:
because none come to the solemn feasts. Aben Ezra understands this of the sanctuary itself; which sense Abendana mentions; expressed by the word here used; and so called, because all Israel were convened here; but the Targum and Jarchi more rightly interpret it of the feasts, the three solemn feasts of the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles, at which all the males in Israel were obliged to appear; but now, the temple and city being in ruins, none came to them, which was a very distressing case; as it is to good men, when upon whatever occasion, either through persecution, or through sloth and negligence, the ministry of the word, and the administration of ordinances, particularly the Lord's supper, the solemn feasts under the Gospel dispensation, are not attended to:
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all her gates are desolate; the gates of the temple; none passing through them into it to worship God, pray unto him, praise him, or offer sacrifice; or the gates of the city, none going to and fro in them; nor the elders sitting there in council, as in courts of judicature, to try causes, and do justice and judgment:
her priests sigh; the temple burnt; altars destroyed, and no sacrifices brought to be offered; and so no employment for them, and consequently no bread; but utterly deprived of their livelihood, and had good reason to sigh. The Targum adds,
"because the offerings ceased:''
her virgins are afflicted; or, "are sorrowful" (m); are in grief and mourning, that used to be brisk and gay, and to play with timbrels at their festivals; so the Targum paraphrases it,
"the virgins mourn because they cease to go out on the fifteenth of Ab, and on the day of atonement, which was the tenth of Tisri, to dance in the dances:''
and she is in bitterness; that is, Zion; or the congregation of Israel is in bitterness of spirit, in great affliction and distress; her name might be rightly called Marah; see Rut 1:20.
(m) "moestae", Junius & Tremellius, Michaelis; "moerent", Piscator; "moestitia affectae sunt", Cocceius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain She - Persons of all ages and ranks are…
She - Persons of all ages and ranks are in bitterness.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 4. The ways of Zion do mourn] A…
Verse 4. The ways of Zion do mourn] A fine prosopopoeia. The ways in which the people trod coming to the sacred solemnities, being now no longer frequented, are represented as shedding tears; and the gates themselves partake of the general distress. All poets of eminence among the Greeks and Romans have recourse to this image. So Moschus, in his Epitaph on Bion, ver. 1-3: -
Αιλινα μοι στροναχειτε ναπαι, και Δωριον ὑδωρ
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Και ποταμοι κλαιοιτε τον ἱμεροεντα Βιωνα.
Νυν φυτα μοι μυρεσθε, και αλσεα νυν γοαοισθε, κ. τ. λ.
"Ye winds, with grief your waving summits bow,
Ye Dorian fountains, murmur as ye flow;
From weeping urns your copious sorrows shed,
And bid the rivers mourn for Bion dead.
Ye shady groves, in robes of sable hue,
Bewail, ye plants, in pearly drops of dew;
Ye drooping flowers, diffuse a languid breath,
And die with sorrow, at sweet Bion's death."
FAWKES.
So Virgil, AEn. vii., ver. 759: -
Te nemus Anguitiae, vitrea te Fucinus unda
Te liquidi flevere lacus.
"For thee, wide echoing, sighed th' Anguitian woods;
For thee, in murmurs, wept thy native floods."
And more particularly on the death of Daphnis, Eclog. v. ver. 24: -
Non ulli pastos illis egere diebus
Frigida, Daphni, boves ad flumina: nulla neque amnem
Libavit quadrupes, nec graminis attigit herbam.
Daphni, tuum Poenos etiam ingemuisse leones
Interitum, montesque feri, sylvaeque loquuntur.
"The swains forgot their sheep, nor near the brink
Of running waters brought their herds to drink:
The thirsty cattle of themselves abstained
From water, and their grassy fare disdained.
The death of Daphnis woods and hills deplore;
The Libyan lions hear, and hearing roar."
DRYDEN.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Lam 1:4-6. The ways of Zion do mourn —…
Lam 1:4-6. The ways of Zion do mourn — The highways leading to Zion, which used to be thronged with people going to the solemn feasts before the Lord, now, as it were, mourned on account of no persons travelling in them for that purpose. All her gates are desolate — The gates of Jerusalem, or of the temple: few or none passing through them, the city and country being depopulated; and there are no longer any courts of judicature, or assemblies of people, held in her gates. Her priests sigh — Because no victims, or other oblations, are offered, the temple and altar being destroyed. Her virgins are afflicted — Her calamities afflict the young as well as the old, and persons of all ages and ranks are in bitterness. Her adversaries are the chief — Her enemies have got the advantage over her, and she is become their vassal. This was a judgment that Moses threatened to them if they proved disobedient, Deu 28:43; namely, that their enemies should be the head, and they the tail. For the Lord hath afflicted her — Hath fulfilled his threatenings, denounced in case of disobedience. For the multitude of her transgressions — The procuring, provoking cause of all her calamities: for whoever may be made the instruments, God is the author of all these troubles: it is the Lord that has afflicted her, and he has done it as a righteous judge, because of her transgressions, which have been very many as well as very great. Hence her children, her inhabitants, are gone into captivity before the enemy — Are forced into slavery by the Chaldeans, as cattle are driven in herds by them that sell them. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed — All the glory of God’s sanctuary, and the comely order of his worship, and all the beauty of holiness. Her princes are like harts, &c. — That upon the first alarm betake themselves to flight, and make no resistance: they are become dispirited, have lost their courage, given way and fled before their enemies.
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 Zion, as the holy city, is the symbol of…
Zion, as the holy city, is the symbol of the religious life of the people, just as Judah in the previous verse represents their national life. The “virgins” took a prominent part in all religious festivals Jer 31:13; Exo 15:20.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Feast, thrice-a-year. This was the most charming sight, when…
Feast, thrice-a-year. This was the most charming sight, when all the nation met to adore God, and to renew their friendship with one another. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain feasts--the passover, pentecost (or the feast of weeks), and…
feasts--the passover, pentecost (or the feast of weeks), and the feast of tabernacles.
gates--once the place of concourse.
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 4. Ways of Zion — That is, the roads…
4. Ways of Zion — That is, the roads and highways leading to Zion.
Do mourn — Because they are no longer trodden by the pilgrims going up to the solemn feasts, the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles. Virgins are mentioned as bearing a part in the religious services. See Jer_31:13, and Psa_68:25.
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 4. The ways of Zion do mourn] The approaches…
4. The ways of Zion do mourn] The approaches to Jerusalem are meant. They are desolate, without the usual throng of those coming up to the feasts.
For the thought of inanimate objects as sympathising with human affairs cp.
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“Call it not vain—they do not err,
Who say, that, when the Poet dies,
Mute Nature mourns her worshipper,
And celebrates his obsequies.”
Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto V.
All her gates are desolate] See on Jer_14:2.
her priests do sigh] in the absence of sacrifices, their livelihood has disappeared.
Her virgins are afflicted] They are mentioned as taking part in religious ceremonies. See Exo_15:20; Jdg_21:21; Psa_68:25; Jer_31:13. It is clear from this passage that when the poem was written, there was no attempt at worship on the Temple site, though it may have continued for a while after the destruction of the city (see on Jer_41:5).
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 (4) The ways of Zion do mourn.—The words paint…
(4) The ways of Zion do mourn.—The words paint what we may call the religious desolation of Jerusalem. The roads leading to it, the “gates” by which it was entered, were no longer thronged with pilgrims and worshippers. “Virgins” are joined with “priests” as taking part in the hymns and rejoicing processions of the great festivals (Exo_15:20; Psa_68:25; Jdg_21:19-21; Jer_31:13).
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 The ways of Zion do mourn. The reads leading…
The ways of Zion do mourn. The reads leading to Jerusalem, usually so thronged with pilgrims, are desolate and "mourn". (comp. Lam_2:8 Isa_3:26 Isa_14:31) All her gates are desolate. No one goes in or out of Jerusalem, and there is no concourse of citizens in the shady recess of the gates. The virgins are afflicted. So Zep_3:18. The sorrow was on account of the cessation of the festival, in the music of which they took a leading part. (comp. Psa_68:25)
The abandoned feasts.
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Jerusalem was the religious centre of the nation. Thither the tribes came up to present themselves before the Lord. Great assemblies and joyous feasts were held there for the benefit of all the Jews. But after the Babylonian destruction all this was suspended. None now came to the solemn feasts. The high roads which were wont to be thronged with pilgrims mourn for the lack of travellers; the gates through which they used to press are unused; priests sigh with weariness and distress, having no glad offerings to present; and the virgins who led the song and dance in honour of God are smitten with affliction.
I IT IS A CALAMITY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP TO CEASE. Some regard public worship as a onerous duty and others as a superfluous infliction. But they who enter into the privileges of it heartily and spiritually know that it is a boon to the worshipper. As the sabbath is made for man, so also is the institution of worship. To be deprived of it is to suffer loss.
1. The loss of the joy of worship. There is a gladness in expressing love to earthly friends which should be found in the outpouring of our devotion to God. To mingle with the song of the angels is to taste the joy of the angels.
2. The loss of the elevating influence of worship. The soul rises on the wings of its own prayer. Worship is aspiration, and aspiration elevates. If we never worship we stagnate in worldliness. True worship is spiritual and may be enjoyed moat in private. But public worship greatly helps this spiritual worship with most people.
3. The loss of the social influence of worship. Public worship affords mutual help in worship. Numbers give warmth and life to it.
II IT IS A CALAMITY FOR JOYOUS FESTIVALS TO CEASE. The loss is twofold.
1. The loss of the joy itself. The gladness of worship is no small part of the brightness of a devout man"s life. Rob him of this, and you darken his sky. There are clouds enough; we cannot afford to lose the sunlight which pierces and sometimes illumines them.
2. The loss of the influence of the joy.
(1) This joy purifies. It keeps out unholy pleasures by satisfying the soul with its own blessedness.
(2) This joy strengthens. In gladness we can serve God most earnestly. If, then, the unavoidable loss of joyous exercises of religion is a calamity, how great is the error of those who voluntarily convert religion into a thing of gloom!
III IT IS A CALAMITY FOR RELIGIOUS INTERCOURSE BETWEEN MEN TO CEASE. The festival was an occasion for the meeting of Jews from all quarters. Townsmen met countrymen. Herdsmen from the south met agriculturists from the north. When this assembly was interrupted, the people suffered in many respects.
1. The loss of brotherly association. We are tempted to forget our brethren if we cease to see them. Solitary Christians tend to become selfish Christians. Brotherly sympathy is fostered by brother fellowship.
2. The loss of mutual stimulus. The strong would urge on the weak, and the more spiritual inspire the less spiritual. There were prophets in these assemblies.
3. The loss of the breadth of variety. We become narrow by isolation. Intercourse broadens us. Christians should seek opportunities to meet with their fellow Christians, to gain width and liberality of view.
The decline of national religion.
Nowhere has the great truth of the close dependence of national prosperity upon national religion been more plainly and emphatically taught than in the writings of the Hebrew prophets. Their spiritual insight detected the true cause of national degradation. Whoever looks below the surface may see that the decline and fall of nations may usually be traced to spiritual causes, to the loss of any hold upon eternal principles of righteousness and piety.
I THE OPEN SYMPTOMS OF THE DECLINE OF A NATION"S RELIGION. Those here mentioned are in circumstances and colour local and temporary; they were determined, as a matter of course, by what was peculiar to the religion of the country and of the day.
1. The roads of Zion are forsaken. There is no concourse upon the roads leading up to the metropolis, as was the case in the days of Judah"s prosperity.
2. The gates are deserted and unentered. There was a time when the busy population passed to and fro, when the people gathered together at the gates to discuss the news of the day, the affairs of the city, when the royal processions passed in splendour through the gates leading to the country. It is now so no longer.
3. The festivals are unfrequented. Formerly, when the great and sacred national feasts were being held, multitudes of Israelites attended these holy and welcome assemblies to share in the pious mirth, the cheering reminiscences, the fraternal fellowship, distinctive of such solemn and joyous occasions. But now there are none to celebrate the mercies of Jehovah, none to fulfil the sacred rites. To the religious heart the change is not only afflicting, it is crushing.
4. The ministers of religion are left to mourn. The priests who are left, if permitted to fulfil their office, do so under the most depressing influences; and no longer are there virgins to rejoice in the dance. The picture is painted in the darkest, saddest colours. We feel, as we enter into the prophet"s lamentations, how dreary and hopeless is the state of that nation which God gives over to its foes.
II THE CAUSE OF THE DECLINE OF A NATION"S RELIGION. This ever begins in spiritual unfaithfulness and defections. The external observances of religion may be kept up for a season, but this may be only from custom and tradition. The body does not at once decay when the spirit has forsaken it. To forget God, to deny his Word, to break his laws, to forsake his mercy seat, such are the steps by which a nation"s decline is most surely commenced, by which a nation"s ruin is most surely anticipated.
III THE REMEDY FOR THE DECLINE OF A NATION"S RELIGION.
1. Confession.
2. Repentance.
3. Prayer for pardon and acceptance.
4. Resolution to obey the Lord, and again to reverence what is holy and to do what is right.
5. The union of all classes, rulers and subjects, priests and people, old and young, in a national reformation. T.
Zion forsaken as a religious centre.
I THE PECULIAR GLORY OF ZION IN THE PAST. The ways of Zion mourned, now, but the very fact that such a thing should be said showed that they had once been filled with rejoicing. The gates had been crowded with worshippers from every district of the land. Zion was glorified as the site of the temple, and the temple was glorified as holding within its imposing walls the ark of the covenant. Zion was the city of solemnities. Things were done there not according to will worship or mere immemorial tradition, but according to Jehovah"s definite instructions given in the wilderness through Moses centuries before. Praise continually waited for God in Zion. Jehovah loved the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. There was no day without its morning and evening sacrifice, and every sabbath and new moon brought their peculiar additions. Nor must we forget the Feast of the Passover, of the first fruits, of the Pentecost, and the great feast of the seventh month. If as nothing more than times of mirth and relaxation, these would play a large part in the life of the people, and true prophets and whosoever among the priests had deep reverence for God would get much strength out of these services, finding in them, according to the measure of their faith, zeal, and diligence, constant means of grace.
II THE PECULIAR HUMILIATION OF ZION IN THE PRESENT. The thought of Zion probably carried to the Israelite more associations than did the thought of any other place, The great periodic assemblies at Zion manifested the history, the privileges, the strength, the unity, of the nation. There may have been intervals of comparative neglect, but we know that in the time of Hezekiah there was a great keeping of the Passover. Thus, so far as outward observances were concerned, the machinery of Divine service must have been in good working order. But it is also very evident that the nation at large got no real good out of the numerous and elaborate rites which Jehovah had commanded. We may quote words of Hosed which, while they show the prominent position occupied by Zion in the national life, also explain the reason why God brought such desolation to Zion. "I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts". (Hos_2:11) Religion had been turned into mere merry making. The house of prayer became a house of revelling. Jehovah had declared emphatically by his prophets that offerings had no value detached from righteousness and mercy. What wonder, then, that from condemning words he should advance to condemning deeds? Forsaken Zion itself spoke as if with a prophetic voice. It was when they remembered Zion that the exiles in Babylon wept, and when their masters wanted from them a song of Zion they could only reply that it was not possible to sing Jehovah"s song in a strange land. There is warning in all this desolation of Zion as to how great discernment is needed to make sure that the elements of our worship are acceptable to God, edifying to ourselves, and not merely for self-pleasure.
III We must not forget that BRIGHTER DAYS ARE PROPHESIED FOR ZION. The same old Zion was again crowded, but of this we must not make too much. Jesus himself had to say that the rebuilt house of his Father had become a house of merchandise and even a den of thieves, There is the ideal Zion, part of the heavenly Jerusalem, where the holiest service will be the highest joy, where our religion will no longer be imperiled by formality, superstition, or superficiality. 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 ways of Zion do mourn, because none come…
Lam_1:4
The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts.
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The decay of religion mournful
1. The overthrow of the commonwealth bringeth with it the overthrow of the Churchs outward peace.
2. When the things that God hath given us here are not applied to the appointed use, we have just cause to mourn, seeing our sins have caused the let thereof (Deu_28:15-68; Isa_13:19, etc.).
3. The earth and earthly things do often admonish men of their sins, either by denying that comfort which naturally they bring with them (Lev_18:25), or bringing grief or punishment with them (Mic_2:10).
(1) God hath made all His creatures as written books, wherein man may read his sins.
(2) That man may have no show of excuse left him at that great day of account.
4. All Gods creatures mourn when God is disobeyed, and rejoice when He is obeyed by His people.
5. The service of God is not tied to any place, but upon condition of their obedience that dwell therein (Jer_26:4).
6. It is a great grief to Gods ministers to be deprived of their ministry or to see it unprofitable to the Church.
(1) God is greatly dishonoured thereby.
(2) It giveth occasion of interrupting all good things among the people, and matter of all kinds of sin.
7. The ministers must be guides to the people, to lead them to mourning (when there is cause), as also to all other duties.
8. They that seem most exempt from it must mourn at the decay of religion.
(1) This reproves them that lay not to heart the distress of Gods people for the truth, thinking it sufficient that themselves live in safety.
(2) It teaches us to strive to be grieved when we hear of the decay of true religion in any place, though it be safe where we are.
9. The greatest loss that can befall Gods people is the loss of the exercise of the Word and Sacraments. Because God hath appointed them to be the means of begetting and confirming faith in us. (J. Udall.)
All her gates are desolate.
Religious desolation
A pathetic picture indeed is this, that the feast is spread and no man comes to the banqueting table; every gate is open in token of welcome and hospitality, yet no wandering soul asks for admittance; the priests once so noble in the service of song, the virgins once so beautiful as images of innocence, now stand with hands thrown down, with eyes full of tears, with hearts sighing in expressive silence their bitterness and disappointment. All this can God do even to His chosen place, and to altars on which He has written His name. Officialism is no guarantee of spiritual perpetuity. Pomp and ceremony, with all their mechanical and external decorations and attractions, are no pledge of the presence of the Spirit of the Living God. The sanctuary is nothing but for the Lords presence. Eloquent preaching is but eloquent noise if the Spirit of the Lord be not in it, giving it intellectual value, spiritual dignity, and practical usefulness. Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord; because men have forgotten this doctrine, they have trusted to themselves and have seen their hopes perishing in complete and bitter disappointment. (J. Parker, D. D.)
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 (ד) Lam_1:4 introduces another view personifying the religious condition:…
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—
(ד) Lam_1:4 introduces another view personifying the religious condition: not the banished people, not the fallen city, but the dwelling-place of the Holy One of Israel is forsaken and overthrown. The ways of Zion, not the streets in Jerusalem leading up to the Temple, but the roads from all quarters of the land, which found their termini in the Holy hill, are mournful, for they are entirely deserted; being without those who go to a solemn assembly, none come to appear before the Lord in His courts at set times, as He had enjoined His worshippers to do; all her gates, which Jehovah loveth, are desolate, broken down; no one goes up to or lingers about them. The Temple has lost its sanctity and is open to all intruders. The glory has departed from it: her priests are sighing; her virgins are afflicted. “The reason why the priests and the virgins are here conjoined is that lamentation is made over the cessation of the religious feasts. The virgins are here considered as those who enlivened the national festivals by playing, singing, and dancing (Psa_68:26; Jer_31:13)” (Keil). And she is in bitterness herself, as if all was lost religiously as well as politically.
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HOMILETICS
LAMENTATION OVER A FORSAKEN SANCTUARY
(Lam_1:4)
I. Because its thoroughfares are no longer thronged with worshippers. “The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts; all her gates are desolate.” Those were happy days when the roads leading up to Jerusalem were crowded with eager worshippers, coming to the three great annual festivals—the Passover, Pentecost, and Feast of Tabernacles. The city was jubilant in song, and full to overflowing with life and movement. Now the very roads are represented as mourning, as if they missed the tread of the pilgrims’ feet; and the gates look in vain for the travellers they had so often welcomed. “All her gates are desolate.”
It is a dispiriting spectacle to see a closed sanctuary, with weeds and grasses growing about the entrance; the more so when we have seen the same sanctuary filled with delighted worshippers. When men forsake the house of God, God forsakes it too, and it is then desolate indeed.
II. Because the office of the ministry is obsolete. “Her priests sigh”—sigh not only for want of bread, because the offerings, which were their means of livelihood, fail; but because their life-work is useless, because the people lapse into ignorance and sin, because the worship of Jehovah is neglected and dishonoured. The true minister is wholly consecrated to his sacred calling; it is the theme of his earnest prayers, his constant study, and exercises his best powers. Life to him is bereft of its holiest motive, its sweetest relish, when it is baulked of its loftiest purpose. “It is time to sigh when the priests, the Lord’s ministers, sigh.”
III. Because the training of the young is neglected. “Her virgins are afflicted.” The virgins are mentioned because they took a prominent part in all religious festivals (Jer_31:13; Exo_15:20; Psa_68:25); and therefore special notice is taken of the educative loss to them occasioned by disused ordinances. Neglect in the religious training of the young means grave peril to the moral stamina of the community. Religion is the mightiest force in the formation of youthful character. The men and women of the future will be what the Church makes them in their younger years. It has been said—“People fancy that we cannot become wise without becoming old also; but in truth, as years accumulate, it is hard to keep as wise as we were. Man becomes, in the different stages of his life, a different being, but he cannot say that he will surely be better as he grows onwards. In certain matters he is as likely to be right in his twentieth as in his sixtieth year.” The young will carry with them through life the influences for good or evil that have been brought to bear upon them in their early days.
IV. Because the city is deprived of religious ordinances. “And she is in bitterness.” It is a beautiful and touching conception to impersonate the metropolis of Judah as a disconsolate female, troubled with the evident cessation of Divine worship and the universal neglect of religious duties. As is the Church, so will be the city; as is the state of religion, so will be the people. The glory of a city is gone when religious ordinances are abandoned. No loss should be lamented more bitterly than the loss of religion.
LESSONS.—
1. A closed temple anywhere is a pitiable sight.
2. Where religious privileges are withdrawn the people suffer.
3. Love of worship will always crowd the sanctuary.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Lam_1:4. “Her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted.” A dispirited ministry.
1. Because the sanctuary is destroyed.
2. Because the worshippers are scattered and uncared for.
3. Because its maintenance is withdrawn.
4. Because the joyous song of the young is turned to sorrow. “Her virgins are afflicted.”
5. Because of conscious imperfections and unfaithfulness.
—“She is in bitterness.” A city in sorrow.
1. Because its reputation is dishonoured.
2. Because its resources are crippled, its people dispersed, its commerce interrupted, its institutions destroyed.
3. Because the public worship of God is abandoned.
4. Because its future seems hopeless.
ILLUSTRATIONS.—Dead and dying Churches. A barque on her voyage from Hong-Kong fell in with a British ship, the “Guiding Star,” helplessly floating about with a fever-stricken crew. When found, only one member of the crew was able to work. The captain, the first mate, the steward, and a seaman had died. Five men were lying helpless, though still alive, and the boatswain had gone mad from the want of proper attention. The “Guiding Star” was towed to Batavia, where the survivors were placed under medical treatment. Are there not Churches to-day that are morally in a similar plight—drifting hospitals, officered with the dead and dying! It will be a mercy if they are spiritually rescued before they become sepulchres, entombing the hopelessly dead.—The Scottish Pulpit.
The true man superior to his surroundings.—The scientist, while admitting the influence of geographical surroundings in shaping the history and character of nations, admits that nothing would be more erroneous than to suppose that Nature alone acts in determining the conditions of life and of races. Man’s activity must be associated with Nature. A country may be prominent and fertile, and yet occupied by a race of men utterly unfit to develop its resources. After all, man is greater than Nature, and it is his lofty mission to subdue it. The energy of the Netherlands turned a swamp into a garden, while their Spanish oppressors, with inexhaustible resources in soil and mineral, sank into decay. We are apt to lay too much stress upon the operation of the law of environment, and to ignore individual responsibility. Plant within man the vital principles of Christianity, and he will soon change his environment.—The Scottish Pulpit.
Ministers not only finger-posts, but guides. There ought to be no hiatus between our declarations and our spiritual conduct. We must not only be finger-posts, but guides, “Lest having preached to others, we ourselves become castaways.”
“The love of Christ and His Apostles twelve
He taught, but first he followed it himself.”
If we are the channels of good to our fellows, it behoves us to clear away all that might impede the flowing, and defile the purity, of the stream of truth from God.
Youth needs instruction. Narcissus, a beautiful youth, though he would not love them that loved him, yet afterwards fell in love with his own shadow. Ah! how many young men in these days, who were once lovely and hopeful, are now fallen in love with their own and others’ shadows, with high, empty, airy notions, and with strange, monstrous speculations, to their own damnation. A youth deprived of instruction and left to his natural development is a pitiable object, and is menaced by many perils.
Work a remedy for misery. Nothing is more remarkable in the Apostles than their unbroken mental health. The histories of religious communities are full of instances of ecstasies and hysterical delusions; but never do we find among our Lord’s followers anything approaching to a spiritual craze. This health of theirs came in great measure from their being constantly employed about matters of which their hearts were full. The busy man has neither time nor inclination to nurse delusive fancies. Hard, honest, practical work is a panacea for many ills. Underneath a fresco of the 13th century discovered at Cortona, in Italy, is inscribed the motto, Sum misero nisi teneam ligonem—I am miserable unless I hold a spade.—The Scottish Pulpit.
The uses of suffering.
“Through long days did Anguish,
And sad nights did Pain
Forge my shield, Endurance,
Bright and free from stain.
Doubt in misty caverns,
’Mid dark horrors sought,
Till my peerless jewel,
Faith, to me she brought.
Sorrow that I wearied
Should remain so long,
Wreathed my starry glory,
The bright crown of song.
Strife, that racked my spirit
Without hope or rest,
Left the blooming flower,
Patience, in my breast.”
—Proctor.
Love in sorrow. Always through the darkest part of every life there runs, though we may sometimes fail to see it, the golden thread of love, so that even the worst man on earth is not wholly cut off from God, since He will, by some means or other, eternally try to draw him out of death into life. We are astounded now and then to read that some cold-blooded murderer, some man guilty of a hideous crime, will ask in his last moments to see a child who loved him devotedly, and whom he also loved. We are astonished just because we do not understand the untiring heart of the Almighty Father, who in His goodness often gives to the vilest sinner the love of a pure-hearted woman or child. So true is the beautiful old Latin saying, Mergere nos patitur, sed non submergere Christus—Christ lets us sink, may be, but not drown.—Edna Lyall.
A city in sorrow. In 1576 Antwerp was stormed by the Spaniards with fire and sword. Never was there a more monstrous massacre, even in the blood-stained annals of the Netherlands. In the course of three days eight thousand human beings were murdered. The Spaniards seemed to cast off even the vizard of humanity. Hell seemed emptied of its fiends. Night fell upon the scene before the soldiers were masters of the city; but worse horrors began after the contest was ended. This army of brigands had come thither with a definite, practical purpose, for it was not blood thirst, nor lust, nor revenge which impelled them, but greediness for gold. Torture was employed to discover hidden treasure; and, after all had been given, if the sum seemed too little, the proprietors were brutally punished for their poverty or their supposed dissimulation. Women, children, and old men were killed in countless numbers, and still, through all this havoc, directly over the heads of the struggling throng, suspended in mid-air above the din and smoke of the conflict, there sounded, every half-quarter of every hour, as if in gentle mockery, from the belfry of the cathedral, the tender and melodious chimes.—Motley’s “Dutch Republic.”
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:
The city of Zion is spoken of as if it were a woman. In Lamentations, Zion and Jerusalem are names used to refer to the same city. (See: Personification)
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The roads of Zion mourn
The author speaks of the roads that lead to Zion mourning as if they were human beings. (See: Personification)
the appointed feasts
"the feasts that God told them to celebrate"
All her gates are desolate
The word "her" refers to Zion. AT: "All of Zion's gates are empty" (See: Personification)
Her virgins are sorrowful and she herself is in complete distress
Here the people of Zion being distressed are spoken of as if they were a woman in distress. AT: "Zion's virgins are sorrowful, and its people despairing" (See: Personification)
Her adversaries have become her master; her enemies prosper
"Zion's adversaries rule over it; its enemies prosper"
Yahweh has afflicted her for her many sins
This speaks of Yahweh punishing the people of Zion for their sins as if they were a woman that Yahweh was punishing. AT: "Yahweh has afflicted her people because of the sins they have committed" (See: Personification)
Her little children go into captivity to her adversary
The word "captivity" can be expressed as a verb. AT: "Her enemy captures her little children" (See: Abstract Nouns)
translationWords
Zion
mourn
feast
gate
desolate
priest
virgin
adversary
lord
Yahweh
sin
captive
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 1:4 Jerusalem (Hebrew Zion): In the Psalms and in…
1:4 Jerusalem (Hebrew Zion): In the Psalms and in the prophetic books, Zion represents the city of Jerusalem. In Lamentations, Zion is a poetic name for the city, even in ruins. Hebrews 12:22-24 speaks of the heavenly Zion (see also Rev 14:1-5). • The annual festivals in Jerusalem were the Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Harvest, Harvest (Pentecost), Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Shelters (Tabernacles). • The main duties of the priests were carried out in the Temple and its surrounding area. Since the Temple was in ruins, they had no jobs and hence no future.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.