5Her 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.
6All 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.
7Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old; when her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and no one helped her. The adversaries saw her. They mocked at her desolations.
8Jerusalem has grievously sinned. Therefore she has become unclean. All who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness. Yes, she sighs, and turns backward.
5 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.
6 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.
7 Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old; when her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and no one helped her. The adversaries saw her. They mocked at her desolations.
8 Jerusalem has grievously sinned. Therefore she has become unclean. All who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness. Yes, she sighs, and turns backward.
KJVKing James Version
5 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.
6 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
7 Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.
8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.
Show all 3 translations
JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
5 Her adversaries are become the head, her enemies are at ease; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her young children are gone into captivity before the adversary.
6 And gone is from the daughter of Zion all her splendour; her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
7 Jerusalem remembereth in the days of her affliction and of her anguish all her treasures that she had from the days of old; now that her people fall by the hand of the adversary, and none doth help her, the adversaries have seen her, they have mocked at her desolations.
8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned, therefore she is become as one unclean; all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness; she herself also sigheth, and turneth backward.
Isaiah 59:2-13(v8)But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands…
Lamentations 1:20-22(v8)“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…
Psalms 79:4(v7)We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and derision to those who are around us.
Deuteronomy 4:34-37(v7)Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from among another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand,…
Deuteronomy 32:15-27(v5)But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and…
Show all 100 cross-references
Psalms 42:4(v7)These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of…
Psalms 77:5-9(v7)I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I remember my song in the night. I consider in my own heart; my spirit…
Psalms 90:7-8(v5)For we are consumed in your anger. We are troubled in your wrath. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of…
Jeremiah 13:22(v8)If you say in your heart, “Why have these things come on me?” Your skirts are uncovered because of the greatness of your iniquity, and your…
Jeremiah 13:26(v8)Therefore I will also uncover your skirts on your face, and your shame will appear.
Jeremiah 30:14-15(v5)All your lovers have forgotten you. They don’t seek you. For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a…
Jeremiah 39:9(v5)Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the residue of the people who remained in the city, the…
Lamentations 1:4-5(v8)The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to the solemn assembly. All her gates are desolate. Her priests sigh. Her virgins are…
Lamentations 1:11(v8)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…
Ezekiel 8:17-18(v5)Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they…
Ezekiel 9:9(v5)Then he said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full…
Ezekiel 24:25(v6)“You, son of man, shouldn’t it be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and…
Leviticus 26:15-46(v5)and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhors my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my…
Leviticus 26:36-37(v6)“ ‘As for those of you who are left, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf…
Deuteronomy 4:7-8(v7)For what great nation is there that has a god so near to them as Yahweh our God is whenever we call on him? What great nation is there that…
Deuteronomy 4:25-27(v5)When you shall father children and children’s children, and you shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a…
Deuteronomy 8:7-9(v7)For Yahweh your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of springs, and underground water flowing into valleys and…
Deuteronomy 28:15-68(v5)But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which…
Deuteronomy 28:25(v6)Yahweh will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and will flee seven ways before them. You…
Deuteronomy 29:18-28(v5)lest there should be among you man, woman, family, or tribe whose heart turns away today from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of…
Deuteronomy 31:16-18(v5)Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers. This people will rise up and play the prostitute after the strange gods…
Deuteronomy 31:29(v5)For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn away from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will…
Deuteronomy 32:30(v6)How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had delivered them up?
Joshua 7:12-13(v6)Therefore the children of Israel can’t stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become…
1 Samuel 2:30(v8)“Therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father should walk before me forever.’ But…
2 Samuel 4:11-12(v6)How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house on his bed, should I not now require his blood from your…
1 Kings 8:46-47(v8)If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn’t sin), and you are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they…
1 Kings 9:9(v8)and they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned Yahweh their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other…
2 Kings 19:21(v6)This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: ‘The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of…
2 Chronicles 36:14-16(v5)Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they…
Nehemiah 9:33-34(v5)However you are just in all that has come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly. Also our kings, our princes, our…
Job 29:2–30:1(v7)“Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me; when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I walked…
Psalms 44:9-11(v6)But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor, and don’t go out with our armies. You make us turn back from the adversary. Those who…
Psalms 48:2-3(v6)Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the north sides, the city of the great King. God has shown himself in…
Psalms 50:2(v6)Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines out.
Psalms 77:3(v7)I remember God, and I groan. I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed.
Psalms 80:6(v5)You make us a source of contention to our neighbors. Our enemies laugh among themselves.
Psalms 89:42(v5)You have exalted the right hand of his adversaries. You have made all of his enemies rejoice.
Psalms 96:9(v6)Worship Yahweh in holy array. Tremble before him, all the earth.
Psalms 132:12-13(v6)If your children will keep my covenant, my testimony that I will teach them, their children also will sit on your throne forever more.” For…
Psalms 137:3-4(v7)For there, those who led us captive asked us for songs. Those who tormented us demanded songs of joy: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”…
Psalms 147:19-20(v7)He shows his word to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. He has not done this for just any nation. They don’t know his…
Isaiah 1:21(v6)How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice. Righteousness lodged in her, but now there are murderers.
Isaiah 4:5(v6)Yahweh will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming…
Isaiah 5:1-4(v7)Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up,…
Isaiah 12:6(v6)Cry aloud and shout, you inhabitant of Zion; for the Holy One of Israel is great among you!”
Isaiah 47:3(v8)Your nakedness will be uncovered. Yes, your shame will be seen. I will take vengeance, and will spare no one.”
Isaiah 63:18(v5)Your holy people possessed it but a little while. Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.
Jeremiah 4:31(v8)For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who gives birth to her first child, the voice of the daughter of…
Jeremiah 5:3-9(v5)O Yahweh, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused…
Jeremiah 5:29(v5)“Shouldn’t I punish for these things?” says Yahweh. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Jeremiah 6:28(v8)They are all grievous rebels, going around to slander. They are bronze and iron. All of them deal corruptly.
Jeremiah 12:7(v5)“I have forsaken my house. I have cast off my heritage. I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.
Jeremiah 13:18(v6)Say to the king and to the queen mother, “Humble yourselves. Sit down, for your crowns have come down, even the crown of your glory.
Jeremiah 14:5-6(v6)Yes, the doe in the field also calves and forsakes her young, because there is no grass. The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights. They…
Jeremiah 15:4(v8)I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah,…
Jeremiah 23:14(v5)In the prophets of Jerusalem I have also seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of…
Jeremiah 24:9(v8)I will even give them up to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil; to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt…
Jeremiah 29:4(v6)Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon:
Jeremiah 34:17(v8)Therefore Yahweh says: “You have not listened to me, to proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor. Behold,…
Jeremiah 37:7(v7)“Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘You shall tell the king of Judah, who sent you to me to inquire of me: “Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which…
Jeremiah 44:21-22(v5)“The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes,…
Jeremiah 47:3(v6)At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong ones, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers…
Jeremiah 48:41(v6)Kerioth is taken, and the strongholds are seized. The heart of the mighty men of Moab at that day will be as the heart of a woman in her…
Jeremiah 51:30-32(v6)The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting, they remain in their strongholds. Their might has failed. They have become as women. Her…
Jeremiah 52:7-8(v6)Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two…
Jeremiah 52:11(v6)He put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison until the…
Jeremiah 52:13(v6)He burned Yahweh’s house, and the king’s house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, he burned with fire.
Jeremiah 52:27-30(v5)The king of Babylon struck them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land.…
Lamentations 1:18(v5)“Yahweh is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment. Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My virgins and my young…
Lamentations 2:1-7(v6)How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He has cast the beauty of Israel down from heaven to the earth,…
Lamentations 2:10(v8)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…
Lamentations 2:15-16(v7)All that pass by clap their hands at you. They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city that men…
Lamentations 2:17(v5)Yahweh has done that which he planned. He has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old. He has thrown down, and has not…
Lamentations 3:39-43(v5)Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh. Let’s lift…
Lamentations 3:46(v5)“All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
Lamentations 4:15-16(v8)“Go away!” they cried to them. “Unclean! Go away! Go away! Don’t touch! When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, “They…
Lamentations 4:17(v7)Our eyes still fail, looking in vain for our help. In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.
Lamentations 4:21(v8)Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, that dwells in the land of Uz. The cup will pass through to you also. You will be drunken, and will…
Lamentations 5:12-16(v8)Princes were hanged up by their hands. The faces of elders were not honored. The young men carry millstones. The children stumbled under…
Ezekiel 7:20-22(v6)As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things…
Ezekiel 11:22-23(v6)Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, and the wheels were beside them. The glory of the God of Israel was over them above. Yahweh’s…
Ezekiel 14:13-21(v8)“Son of man, when a land sins against me by committing a trespass, and I stretch out my hand on it, and break the staff of its bread, and…
Ezekiel 16:37-39(v8)therefore see, I will gather all your lovers, with whom you have taken pleasure, and all those who you have loved, with all those who you…
Ezekiel 22:2-15(v8)“You, son of man, will you judge? Will you judge the bloody city? Then cause her to know all her abominations. You shall say, ‘The Lord…
Ezekiel 22:24-31(v5)“Son of man, tell her, ‘You are a land that is not cleansed, nor rained on in the day of indignation.’ There is a conspiracy of her…
Ezekiel 23:29(v8)They will deal with you in hatred, and will take away all your labor, and will leave you naked and bare. The nakedness of your prostitution…
Ezekiel 23:46(v8)“For the Lord Yahweh says: ‘I will bring up a mob against them, and will give them to be tossed back and forth and robbed.
Ezekiel 24:21(v6)‘Speak to the house of Israel, “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your…
Daniel 9:7-16(v5)“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,…
Hosea 2:3(v8)Lest I strip her naked, and make her bare as in the day that she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and…
Hosea 2:7(v7)She will follow after her lovers, but she won’t overtake them; and she will seek them, but won’t find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go…
Hosea 2:10(v8)Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of my hand.
Micah 3:9-12(v5)Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity. They…
Micah 4:11(v7)Now many nations have assembled against you, that say, “Let her be defiled, and let our eye gloat over Zion.”
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (107 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (19 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv5–8He first says that her enemies had become the…
He first says that her enemies had become the head; and by this expression he doubtless means power; and this way of speaking he borrowed from Moses, for these are his words,
“Thou shalt be the head and not the tail, in a high place, not obscure.” (Deuteronomy 28:13.)
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He then says, that enemies were the head, that is, ruled over them. And the opposite of that is to be understood, even that they had become the tail, that is, were under the feet as it were of their enemies. And he says that her enemies had acted successfully, even because Jehovah had afflicted her. He here laments after the common practice, as ungodly men are wont to do; but he mixes instruction with his mourning, and shews that God, in a state of things so turbulent and confused, appeared as a righteous judge. He then recalled them to the consideration of God’s hand, when he said that her enemies had acted successfully, because God had afflicted her. Jerome renders the words, “because Jehovah hath spoken.” He derives the verb from הגה, ege, which means to speak or to meditate. But this is an evident mistake, as we shall find another presently in this very chapter. There is no doubt but that the Prophet intimates that the cause of all evils was, that God had afflicted her, even on account of the greatness of her impieties, or of her sins. He now then begins to shew that there is no reason why the Jews should be swallowed up with grief and despair, if only they considered whence their evils proceeded. He thus begins to call their attention to God’s judgment. This indeed of itself would not have been sufficient; but he afterwards points out a fruitful source of consolation. But we shall see these things mentioned in their due order.
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 translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv5–8That is, have rule over her, Deut. 28:41.
That is, have rule over her, Deut. 28:41.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv5–8Lam 1:5 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies…
Lam 1:5 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.
Ver. 5. Her adversaries are the chief.] Heb, Are for the head. This was threatened. {Deu 28:13-14; Deu 28:43-44} This, when it happens, is a great grief to the godly. Therefore the prophet Nahum, for the comfort of God’s Israel, is wholly in setting forth the destruction of their enemies, the Assyrians.
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Her enemies prosper.] See Jer 12:1. They prevail, and do what they wish; so that there seemeth to be neither hope of better, nor place for worse.
For the Lord hath afflicted her.] Not so much her adversaries and enemies, or her oppressors and haters, as the words properly signify - that is, those that oppress them in action, and hate them in affection. {a}
Her children are gone into captivity.] Those that were able to go; for the rest were slain. {Lam 4:9}
Before the enemy.] Driven before them, as cattle.
{a} Cavet Scriptura ne haec potestas detur adversariis. - Oecolamp.
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 Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv5–8God hath fulfilled his threatening, Deu 28:43; the enemy…
God hath fulfilled his threatening, Deu 28:43; the enemy is got
above us, and
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we are brought very low, for the multitude of our sins, directly contrary to his promise in case of obedience, Lam 1:13. Not only our young and old men, but the little children, have been driven like sheep before the enemy into a miserable captivity.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv5–8Her adversaries are the chief,.... Or, "for the head"…
Her adversaries are the chief,.... Or, "for the head" (n); or are the head, as was threatened, Deu 28:44; and now fulfilled; the Chaldeans having got the dominion over the Jews, and obliged them to be subject to them:
her enemies prosper; in wealth and riches, in grandeur and glory; live in ease and tranquillity, enjoying all outward felicity and happiness; while Zion was in distress; which was an aggravation of it; and yet this was but righteous judgment:
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for the Lord hath afflicted her; who is righteous in all his ways: the Chaldeans were but instruments; the evil was from the Lord, according to his will and righteous determination, as appears by what follows:
for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy; that is, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea were carried captive by the enemy, and drove before them as a flock of sheep, and that for the sins of the nation; and these not a few, but were very numerous, as Mordecai and Ezekiel, and others, who were carried captive young with Jeconiah, as well as many now.
(n) "in caput", Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "facti sunt caput", Cocceius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv5, 7Verse 5. Her adversaries are the chief] They have…
Verse 5. Her adversaries are the chief] They have now supreme dominion over the whole land.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv7–8Lam 1:7. Jerusalem remembered in her affliction and misery.…
Lam 1:7. Jerusalem remembered in her affliction and misery. The word מרודים, here rendered misery, frequently signifies banishment and captivity. The LXX. render it απωσμων, rejections, or expulsions; all her pleasant things — All her former riches and glory, and the various benefits she enjoyed from God’s favour and protection, particularly the honour and happiness of having his peculiar presence in the temple, and among his people, and the manifestation he gave of his will by the prophets. Nothing is more natural than for persons, who have fallen into adversity, to recollect the advantages they had formerly possessed, and to feel an aggravation of their sufferings in proportion to the greatness of the contrast. The adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths — Not considering the excellent uses those days were designed for; namely, to give men a proper degree of relaxation from labour; leisure to attend upon the service of God, and learn the duties of religion; and to celebrate the creation of the world, that wonderful effect of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness, which can never be sufficiently extolled. The heathen writers, it must be observed, commonly ridicule the Jews’ celebration of their sabbaths as a mark of their sloth and idleness.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv5–8Are the chief ... prosper - Or, “are become…
Are the chief ... prosper - Or, “are become the head”... are at rest. Judaea is so entirely crushed that her enemies did not need to take precautions against resistance on her part.
Children - i. e. “young children,” who are driven before the enemy (literally the adversary), not as a flock of lambs which follow the shepherd, but for sale as slaves.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv5–8Lords. Literally, "at the head," (Haydock) which Moses had…
Lords. Literally, "at the head," (Haydock) which Moses had threatened, Deuteronomy xxvi. 1, 43. (Calmet) --- This would be most cutting. (Worthington)
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 Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv5–8the chief--rule her (Deu 28:43-44).
the chief--rule her (Deu 28:43-44).
adversaries . . . prosper; for the Lord--All the foes' attempts would have failed, had not God delivered His people into their hands (Jer 30:15).
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. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv5–85. Are the chief — The mighty, and therefore…
5. Are the chief — The mighty, and therefore rule her.
Prosper — Literally, are at rest; an expressive figure.
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Children… before the enemy — In ancient sculptures such mournful processions of women and tender children are often engraved.
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 Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv5–85. are become the head] There may be a…
5. are become the head] There may be a reference to Deu_28:13; Deu_28:44.
prosper] lit. are at peace. Cp. Jer_12:1 (“are … at ease”).
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for the multitude, etc.] The acknowledgement that Israel’s calamities were the requital for her sin recurs frequently in this poem (Lam_1:8; Lam_1:18; Lam_1:20; Lam_1:22).
before the adversary] either driven like a flock of cattle on the occasion of the actual deportation, or possibly (as the writer may be dealing with a time many years subsequent) sold by their parents owing to their extreme penury.
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 Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv5–8(5) Her adversaries are the chief.—Literally, have become the…
(5) Her adversaries are the chief.—Literally, have become the head (Deu_28:13).
Her enemies prosper.—Better, are at ease, secure from every resistance on her part. “Before the enemy,” driven, i.e., as slaves are driven.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv5–8Are the chief; rather, are become the head. Comp.…
Are the chief; rather, are become the head. Comp. Deu_28:44, where, as a part of the curse of Israel"s rebellion, it is foretold that "he the stranger shall become the head, and thou shalt become the tail." Before the enemy. Like a herd of cattle.
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 Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv5–8Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper.
Lam_1:5
Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper.
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The adversaries of the good
1. The cause apparent of all the miseries of Gods people is the prospering and prevailing of their enemies.
2. It often comes to pass that the wicked prosper in all things of this life, and the godly contrary (Psa_73:4; Job_21:7).
(1) God will, by giving them prosperity, make the wicked without excuse.
(2) The godly being assured of Gods favour and yet pinched, they may the more earnestly bend their affections to the inheritance which is prepared for them.
3. It is the natural disposition of the wicked towards the godly to oppress them in action and hate them in affliction.
4. The wicked never prevail against the godly, further than the Lord giveth strength unto them (Job_1:11-12; 1Ki_22:22; Mat_8:31-32). This teaches us--
(1) To he more patient towards the instruments, and not to be as the dog that snatcheth at the stone cast at him, not regarding the thrower.
(2) To seek the cause of our afflictions in ourselves, for else the just Judge of the world would not correct us.
5. All our afflictions come from the Lord, who is the chief worker thereof.
6. It is the sin of the godly that causeth the Lord to lay all their troubles upon them (Dan_9:6; Neh_1:6).
7. When God withdraweth His strength from His servants, they fall into many grievous sins, one after another.
8. When God meaneth to punish man, He will not spare to deprive him of that which is more dear unto him.
9. The wicked bear such malice unto the truth that when they get the advantage they spate neither age nor sex, thinking to root out the godly from under heaven. (J. Udall.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible1887 · Public DomainOn v8THE doctrinaire rigour of Judaism in its uncompromising association…
SIN AND SUFFERING
Lam_1:8-11
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THE doctrinaire rigour of Judaism in its uncompromising association of moral and physical evils has led to an unreasonable disregard for the solid truth which lies behind this mistake. It can scarcely be said that men are now perplexed by the problem that inspired the Book of Job. The fall of the tower of Siloam or the blindness of a man from his birth would not start among us the vexatious questions which were raised in the days of our Lord. We have not accepted the Jewish theory that the punishment of sin always overtakes the sinner in this life, much less have we assented to the by no means necessary corollary that all calamities are the direct penalties of the misconduct of the sufferers, and therefore sure signs of guilt. The modern tendency is in the opposite direction; it goes to ignore the existence of any connection whatever between the course of the universe and human conduct. No interference with the uniformity of the laws of nature for retributive or disciplinary purposes can be admitted. The machinery runs on in its grooves never deflected by any regard for our good or bad deserts. If we dash ourselves against its wheels they will tear us to pieces, grind us to powder; and we may reasonably consider this treatment to be the natural punishment of our folly. But here we are not beyond physical causation, and the drift of thought is towards holding the belief in anything more to be a simple survival from primitive anthropomorphic ideas of nature, a pure superstition. Is it a pure superstition? It is time we turned to another side of the question.
Every strong conviction that has obtained wide recognition, however erroneous and mischievous it may be, can be traced back to the abuse of some solid truth. It is not the case that the universe is constructed without any regard for moral laws. Even the natural punishment of the violation of natural laws contains a certain ethical element. Other considerations apart, clearly it is wrong to injure ones health or endanger ones life by rushing headlong against the constituted order of the universe; therefore the consequences of such conduct may be taken as signs of its condemnation. In the case of the sufferings of the Jews lamented by our poet the calamities were not primarily of a physical origin; they grew out of human acts-the accompaniments of the Chaldaean invasion. When we come to the evolution of history we are introduced to a whole world of moral forces that are not at work in the material universe.
Nebuchadnezzar did not know that he was the instrument of a Higher Power for the chastisement of Israel; but the corruptions of the Jews, so ruthlessly exposed by their prophets, had undermined the national vigour which is the chief safeguard of a state, as surely as at a later time the corruptions of Rome opened her gates to devastating hosts of Goths and Huns. May we not go further, and, passing beyond the region of common observation, discover richer indications of the ethical meanings of events in the application to them of a real faith in God? It was his profound theism that lay at the base of the Jews conception of temporal retribution, crude, hard, and narrow as this was. If we believe that God is supreme over nature and history as well as over individual lives, we must conclude that He will use every province of His vast dominion so as to further His righteous purposes. If the same Spirit reigns throughout there must be a certain harmony between all parts of His government. The mistake of the Jew was his claim to interpret the details of this Divine administration with a sole regard for the minute fraction of the universe that came under his own eyes, with blank indifference to the vast realm of facts and principles of which he could know nothing. His idea of Providence was too shortsighted, too parochial, in every respect too small; yet it was true in so far as it registered the conviction that there must be an ethical character in the government of the world by a righteous God, that the divinely ordered course of events cannot be out of all relation to conduct.
It does not fall in with the plan of the Lamentations for this subject to be treated so fully in these poems as it is in the stirring exhortations of the great prophets. Yet it comes to the surface repeatedly. In the fifth verse of the first elegy the poet attributes the affliction of Zion to "the multitude of her transgressions"; and he introduces the eighth verse with the clear declaration-
"Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she has become an unclean thing."
The powerful Hebrew idiom according to which the cognate substantive follows the verb is here employed. Rendered literally, the opening phrase is, "sinned sin." The experience of the chastisement leads to a keen perception of the guilt that precedes it. This is more than a consequence of the application of the accepted doctrine of the connection of sin with suffering to a particular case. No intellectual theory is strong enough by itself to awaken a slumbering conscience. The logic may be faultless; and yet even though the point of the syllogism is not evaded it will be coolly ignored. Trouble arouses a torpid conscience in a much more direct and effectual way. In the first place, it shatters the pride which is the chief hindrance to the confession of sin. Then it compels reflection; it calls a halt, and makes us look back over the path we may have been following too heedlessly. Sometimes it seems to exercise a distinctly illuminating influence. It is as though scales had fallen from the sufferers eyes; he sees all things in a new light, and some ugly facts which had been lying at his side for years disregarded suddenly glare upon him as horrible discoveries. Thus the "Prodigal Son" perceives that he has sinned both against Heaven and against his father when he is in the lowest depths of misery, not so much because he recognises a penal character in his troubles, but more on account of the fact that he has come to himself. This subjective, psychological connection between suffering and sin is independent of any dogma of retribution; for the ends of practical discipline it is the most important connection. We may waive all discussion of the ancient Jewish problem, and still be thankful to recognise the Elijah-like ministry of adversity. The immediate effect of this vision of sin is that a new colour is given to the picture of the desolation of Jerusalem. The image of a miserable woman is preserved, but the dignity of the earlier scene is missing here. Pathos and poetry gather round the picture of the forlorn widow weeping for the loss of her children. Neglected and humbled as she is in worldly estate, the tragic vastness of her sorrow has exalted her to an altitude of moral sublimity. Such suffering breaks through those barriers of conventional experience which make many lives look mean and trivial. It is so awful that we cannot but regard it with reverence. But all this is altered in the aspect of Jerusalem which follows the confession of her great sin. In the freedom of ancient language the poet ventures on an illustration that would be regarded as too gross for modern literature. The limits of our art exclude subjects which excite a sensation of disgust; but this is just the sensation the author of the elegy deliberately aims at producing. He paints a picture which is simply intended to sicken his readers. The utter humiliation of Jerusalem is exhibited in the unavoidable exposure of a condition which natural modesty would conceal at any cost. Another contrast between the reserve of our modern style and the rude bluntness of antiquity is here apparent. It is not only that we have grown more refined in language-a very superficial change which might be no better than the whitewashing of sepulchres; over and above this civilising of mere manners, the effect of Teutonic habits, strengthened by Christian sentiments, has been to develop a respect for woman undreamed of in the old Eastern world. It may be added that the scientific temper of recent times has taught us that there is nothing really dishonouring in purely natural processes. The ancient world could not distinguish between delicacy and shame. We should regard a poor suffering woman whose modesty had been grievously wounded with simple commiseration; the ancient Jews treated such a person with disgust as an unclean creature, quite unable to see that their conduct was simply brutal.
The new aspect of the misery of Jerusalem is thus set forth as one of degradation and ignominy. The vision of sin is immediately followed by a scene of shame. Commentators have been divided over the question whether this picture of the humiliated woman is intended to apply to the sin of the city or only to her misfortunes. In favour of the former view, it may be remarked that uncleanness is distinctly associated with moral corruption: the connection is the more appropriate here inasmuch as a confession of sin immediately precedes. On the other hand, the attendant circumstances point to the second interpretation. It is the humiliation of the condition of the sufferer, rather than that condition itself, which is dwelt upon. Jerusalem is despised, "she sigheth," "is come down wonderfully," "hath no comforter," and is generally afflicted and oppressed by her enemies. But while we are led to regard the pitiable picture as a representation of the woful plight into which the proud city has fallen, we cannot conclude it to be an accident that this particular phase of her misery succeeds the mention of her great guilt. After all, it is only the underlying guilt that can justify a verdict which carries disgrace as well as suffering for its penalty. Even when the judgments of men are too confused to recognise this truth with regard to other people, it should be apparent to the conscience of the humiliated person himself. The humiliation which follows nothing worse than a fall into external misfortunes is but a superficial trouble, and the consciousness of innocence can enable one to submit to it without any sense of inward shame. The sting of contempt lies in the miserable consciousness that it is deserved.
Thus we see the punishment of sin consisting in exposure. The exposure which simply hurts natural modesty is acutely painful to a refined, sensitive spirit; and yet the very dignity which it outrages is a shield against the point of the insult. But where the exposure follows sin this shield is absent. In that case the degradation of it is without any mitigation. Nothing more may be necessary to constitute a very severe punishment. When the secrets of all hearts are revealed the very revelation will be a penal process. To lay bare the quivering nerves of memory to the searching sunlight must be to torture the guilty soul with inconceivable horrors. Nevertheless it is a matter for profound thankfulness that there is no question of a surprising revelation of the sinners guilt being made to God at some future time, some shocking discovery which might turn His lovingkindness into wrath or contempt. We cannot have a firmer ground of joy and hope than the fact that God knows everything about us, and yet loves us at our worst, patiently waiting for repentance with His offer of unlimited forgiveness. Exposure before God is like a surgical examination; the hope of a cure, if it does not dispel the sense of humiliation and that is impossible in the case of guilt, the disgrace of which to a healthy conscience is more intense before the holiness of God than before the eyes of fellow-sinners still encourages confidence.
The recognition of a moral lapse at the root of the shame of Jerusalem, though not perhaps in the shame itself, is confirmed by a phrase which reflects on the culpable heedlessness of the Jews. The elegy deplores how the city has "come down wonderfully" on account of the fact that "she remembered not her latter end." It is quite confusing and incorrect to render this expression in the present tense as it stands in the Authorised English Version. The poet cannot mean that the Jews in exile and captivity have already forgotten the recent horrors of the siege of Jerusalem. This would be flatly contrary to the motive of the elegy, which is to give tongue to the sufferings of the Jews flowing out of that disaster. It would be impossible to say that the calamity that inspired the elegy was no longer even remembered by its victims. What an anti-climax this would be! Clearly the poet is bewailing the culpable folly of the people in not giving a thought to the certain consequences of such a course as they were following; a course that had been denounced by the faithful prophets of Jehovah, who, alas! had been but voices crying in the wilderness, unnoted, or even scouted and suppressed, like the stormy petrels hated by sailors as birds of ill-omen. In her ease and prosperity, her self-indulgence and sin, the doomed city had failed to recollect what must be the end of such things. The idea of remembrance is peculiarly apt and forcible in this connection, although it has a relation to the future, because the Jews had been through experiences which should have served as warnings if they had duly reflected on them. This was not a matter for wild guesses or vague apprehensions. Not only were there the distinct utterances of Jeremiah and his predecessors to rouse the thoughtless; events had been speaking louder than words. Jerusalem was already a city with a history, and that history had even by this time accumulated some tragic lessons. These were subjects for memory. Thus memory can become prophecy, because the laws which are revealed in the past will govern the future. We are none of us so wholly inexperienced but that in the knowledge of what we have already been through we may gain wisdom to anticipate the consequences of our present actions. The heedless person is one who forgets, or at all events one who will not attend to his own memories. Such recklessness is its own condemnation; it cannot plead the excuse of ignorance.
But now it may be objected that this reference to the mere thought of consequences suggests considerations that are too low to furnish the reasons for the ruin of Jerusalem. Would the city have been spared if only her inhabitants had been a little more foreseeing? It should be observed that though mere prudence is never a very lofty virtue, imprudence is sometimes a very serious fault. It cannot be right to be simply reckless, to ignore all lessons of the past and fling oneself blindly into the future. The hero who is sure that he is inspired by a lofty motive may walk straight into the very jaws of death, and be all the stronger for his noble indifference to his fate; but he who is no hero, he who is not influenced by any great or unselfish ideas, has no excuse for neglecting the warnings of common prudence. All wise actions must be more or less guided with a view to their issues in the future, although in the case of the best of them the aims will be pure and unselfish. It is our prerogative, to "look before and after"; and just in proportion as we take long views do our deeds acquire gravity and depth. Our Lord characterised the two ways by their ends. While the example of the careless Jews is followed on all sides-and who of us can deny that he has ever fallen into the negligence?-is it not a little superfluous to discuss abstract, unpractical problems about a remote altruism?
Intermingled with his painful picture of the humiliation and shame of the fallen city, the poet supplies indications of the effect of all this on the suffering citizens. Despised by all who had formerly honoured her, Jerusalem sighs and longs to retire into obscurity, away from the rude gaze of her oppressors.
In particular, two further signs of her distress are here given.
The first is spoliation. Her enemies have laid hands on "all her pleasant things." It may strike us that, after the miseries just narrated, this is but a minor trouble. Jobs calamities began with the loss of his property, and rose from this by degrees to the climax of agony. If his first trouble had been the sudden death of all his children, stunned by that awful blow, he would have cared little about the fate of his flocks and herds. It is not according to the method of the Lamentations, however, to move on to any climax. The thoughts are set forth as they well up in the mind of the poet, now passionate and intense, then again of a milder cast, yet altogether combining to colour one picture of intolerable woe. But there is an aspect of this idea of the robbery of the "pleasant things" which heightens the sense of misery. It is another instance of the force of contrast so often manifested in these elegies. Jerusalem had been a home of wealth and luxury in the merry old days. But hoarded money, precious jewellery, family heirlooms, products of art and skill, accumulated during generations of prosperity and treated as necessaries of life-all had been swept away in the sack of the city, and scattered among strangers who could not prize them as they had been prized by their owners: and now these victims of spoliation, stripped of everything, were in want of daily bread. Even what little could be saved from the wreck they had to give up in exchange for common food, bought dearly in the market of necessity.
The second sign of the great distress here noted is desecration. Gentiles invade the sacred precincts of the temple. Considering that the sanctuary had been already much more effectually desecrated by the blood-stained hands and lustful hearts of impious worshippers, such as those "rulers of Sodom" denounced by Isaiah for "trampling" the courts of Jehovah with their "vain oblations," {Isa_1:10-17} we do not find it easy to sympathise with this horror of a supposed defilement from the mere presence of heathen persons. Yet it would be unjust to accuse the shocked Israelites of hypocrisy. They ought to have been more conscious of the one real corruption of sin; but we cannot add that therefore their notions of external uncleanness were altogether foolish and wrong. To judge the Jews of the age of the Captivity by a standard of spirituality which few Christians have yet attained to would be a cruel anachronism. The Syrian invasion of the temple in the time of the Maccabees was called by a very late prophet an "abomination of desolation," {Dan_11:31} and a similar insult to be offered to the sacred place by the Romans is described by our Lord in the same terms. {Mar_13:14} All of us must be conscious at times of the sacredness of associations. To botanise on his mothers grave may be a proof of a mans freedom from superstition, but it cannot be taken as an indication of the fineness of his feelings. The Israelite exclusiveness which shunned the intrusion of foreigners simply because they were foreigners was combined both with a patriotic anxiety to preserve the integrity of the nation, and in some cases with a religious dread of idolatry. It is true the nominal contamination of the mere presence of Gentiles was generally more dreaded than the real contagion of their corrupt examples. Still the very idea of desecration, even when it is superficial, together with a sense of pain at its presence, is higher than the materialism which despises it not because this materialism has the grace to sanctify everything, but for the opposite reason, because it counts nothing holy, because to it all things are common and unclean.
Before we pass from this portion of the elegy there is one curious characteristic of it which calls for notice. The poet suddenly drops the construction in the third person and writes in the first person. This he does twice-at the end of the ninth verse, and again at the end of the eleventh. He might be speaking in his own person, but the language points to the personified city. Yet in each case the outburst is quite abrupt, sprung upon us without any introductory formula. Possibly the explanation of this anomaly must be sought in the liturgical use for which the poem was designed. If it was to be sung antiphonally we may conjecture that at these places a second chorus would break in. The result would be a startling dramatic effect-as though the city had sat listening to the lament over her woes until the piteous tale bad compelled her to break her silence and cry aloud, in each case the cry is directed to heaven. It is an appeal to God; and it simply prays for His attention-"Behold, O Lord," "See, O Lord, and behold." In the first case the Divine attention is called to the insolence of the enemy, in the second to the degradation of Jerusalem. Still it is only an appeal for notice. Will God but look upon all this misery? That is sufficient.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn vv5, 8(ה) Lam_1:5. Her adversaries are become the head, as…
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—
(ה) Lam_1:5. Her adversaries are become the head, as was threatened if unfaithful to the Lord (Deu_28:44); her enemies prosper, are in peace, and rest secure, knowing that all resistance is over, so completely has she been crushed. This was brought about not by their might, but because Jehovah has afflicted her for the greatness of her transgressions; and the sufferings befall the most innocent also; her young children have gone captives, the most ominous of all her disasters, driven like a band of the enslaved in Africa, before the adversary.
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(ו) Lam_1:6. She has not only been harried of her most precious and tender charges, also from the daughter of Zion is departed all her beauty. God Himself, whose Shechinah made Zion the perfection of beauty, no longer shined there; no longer was there a worship of Him in the beauty of holiness, and even her princes are become like harts that do not find pasture; enfeebled by the scanty diet of the close siege, they have lost vigour, and go without strength when chased before the pursuer, so as to be easily caught. This is in evident allusion to the flight and capture of the King and his men of war, within a few miles from Jerusalem, when it was besieged by the Chaldean army (2Ki_25:3-5).
(ז) Lam_1:7. Again a change of aspect is presented. Already the city ruined, the people exiled, the holy mountain desecrated have been regarded. Now the poet gives the name of the city, which he shrank from pronouncing before, and uses it as a generic, all-embracing term, Jerusalem remembers, adding an item of pungency to her deep sufferings, in the days of her affliction and—a probable meaning of the following word is wanderings, as in margin of Revised Version here. In chap. Lam_3:19, where the same word is again employed, the margin gives outcast state as a fresh rendering. That of the Speaker’s Commentary is to be preferred—homelessness, describing the state of the Jews cast out of their homes and driven into banishment; all her pleasant things which were from the days of old. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. “Sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier things.” When her people fell into the band of the adversary, and there is no helper to her; the adversaries see her, they sneer at her cessations (desolations in Revised Version). This last Hebrew word occurs only here. Its root means to cease, and so this derivative is applied, as by Plumptre, to “the enforced Sabbaths of untitled land, and the Sabbaths conspicuous for the absence of any religious rites.” This seems far-fetched, except as to the latter part, and this should be considered as but a portion of the Jewish customs which had been discontinued. If Romans derided the Jews for cessation from work on the seventh day of the week, Babylonians would not. They may have mocked at the faith of Israel in the supremacy of Jehovah, seeing they regarded Him as a subjugated national deity; but “it was no subject of wonder to the Babylonians that the Jews celebrated a weekly day of rest, as they had one of their own (sabbatu)”—(Cheyne).
HOMILETICS
THE TANTALISING INDIFFERENCE OF THE ENEMIES OF THE CHURCH
(Lam_1:5-7)
I. They contentedly enjoy the fruits of their conquest. “Her adversaries are the chief; her enemies prosper.” Her foes have become her masters; her enemies enjoy quiet prosperity—Geikie (Lam_1:5). Judea has become so utterly crushed that her conquerors revel in their spoils without fear of resistance, or any attempt at reprisals on the part of the vanquished. If we allow our vices to become our masters, we have the chagrin of seeing them rioting in indulgence while we are powerless to interpose.
II. They have no concern to know the cause of the Church’s calamities. “For the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions” (Lam_1:5). What of that? It is no concern of theirs to pry into moral causes. The invaders wish to strike a blow at imperious Egypt. Judah stands in the way, and, becoming troublesome, must be crushed. They knew not, nor did they care to know, that they were but instruments in the hands of a Higher Power to punish a nation for its sins. It was brought home to Judah that her disasters were provoked by her manifold transgressions, and it was an aggravation of her sufferings that her enemies were utterly regardless and apparently ignorant of all this. Had they understood it, they might have shown more pity.
III. They are indifferent to the sufferings they inflict. “Her children are gone into captivity. Her princes have become like harts … without strength before the pursuer” (Lam_1:5-6). The young children are driven before the adversary, not as a flock of lambs which follow the shepherd, but for sale as slaves. The princes are hunted down to exhaustion. In the ancient sculptures nothing is more affecting than the mournful processions so often depicted of tender women and young children driven in gangs as captives before their heartless conquerors. In olden times the treatment of prisoners of war was characterised by the most brutal cruelty. They were regarded as an encumbrance, and were often butchered wholesale to save further trouble. They were subjected to degradations from which death would have been a merciful relief.
IV. They make no allowance for the feelings of the conquered regarding their losses. “From the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed. Jerusalem remembered all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old” (Lam_1:6-7). In the midst of her distress Jerusalem remembered the happiness of former days, when the Temple stood out in all the beauty of its architecture, and as the symbol of holiest worship; when the throne was the centre of imperial power and magnificence; when the land was prosperous, and the people united and content. Now the Temple is shattered past recognition, the most distinguished citizens are in exile, the land is desolate, and the people plunged in misery. But all this is nothing to her enemies; they heed not what their victims have lost; they are more interested in what their conquests have gained.
V. They make sport of the Church’s utter discomfiture. “The adversaries saw her, and did mock at her Sabbaths,” her calamities, her ruined circumstances (Geikie; Henderson). The more literal meaning is her Sabbatisms. Foreigners ridiculed the custom of the Jews in ceasing from labour every seventh day, and attributed their ruin to what appeared to them a strange, fanatical practice. Oh, had those Sabbaths been as faithfully observed in spirit as they were in form, how different would have been the career of Judah! The Church is familiar with the scoffs of unbelievers. While she is true to God, they are powerless to harm. It is when she is conscious of unfaithfulness that they begin to irritate.
LESSONS.—
1. It is a hard time for the Church when her enemies triumph.
2. God is the refuge of the Church in time of trouble. He is never indifferent to her sufferings.
3. The Church should learn to make the best of prosperous times.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Lam_1:5. “Her adversaries are the chief; her enemies prosper.” New masters:
1. Soon make evident their newly-acquired superiority.
2. Rule with severity when actuated by a spirit of enmity.
3. Enjoy without compunction the prosperity secured by the ruin of others.
—“The Lord afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.” Sin:
1. Is a transgression of the law of God.
2. Has a tendency to multiply itself.
3. Is a prolific source of trouble.
4. Is punished by the Being against whom it is committed.
Lam_1:5-6. National disaster. I. Involves the suffering of innocent children. “Her children are gone into captivity before the enemy” (Lam_1:5). II. Quenches the splendour of its reputation. “From the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed” (Lam_1:6). III. Degrades and harasses its most illustrious rulers. “Her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer” (Lam_1:6).
Lam_1:7. Sad memories.
1. When contrasting present miseries with former joys.
2. When reflecting on the suddenness and completeness of our calamities.
3. When mingled with the heartless mockery of the authors of our misfortunes.
ILLUSTRATIONS.—Lessons from the world’s treatment. Three men are my friends, He that loves me, he that hates me, and he that is indifferent to me. Who loves me teaches me tenderness; who hates me teaches me caution; who is indifferent to me teaches me self-reliance.
Loose talk leads to loose conduct. Indulgence in verbal vices soon encourages corresponding vices in conduct. Let any one talk about any mean or vile practice with familiar tone, and do you suppose, when the opportunity occurs for committing the mean or vile act, he will be as strong against it as before? It is by no means an unknown thing that men of correct lives talk themselves into sensuality, crime, and perdition. Bad language easily runs into bad deeds. Select any iniquity you please, suffer yourself to converse in its dialect, to use its slang, to speak in the character of one who relishes it, and I need not tell you how soon your moral sense will lower down to its level. Becoming intimate with it, you lose your horror of it. To be too much with bad men and in bad places is not only unwholesome to man’s morality, but unfavourable to his faith and trust in God. It is not every man who could live as Lot did in Sodom, and then be fit to go out of it under God’s convoy.—The Christian Commonwealth.
New masters: Tyranny not permanent. By the volcanic eruption among the Tonga group in 1885, a new island was formed. When it was visited a few years after, the soil below the surface was still hot, the temperature at a depth of seven feet being 100° Fahr., while at the surface it was only 74°. With the exception of two young cocoa-nut trees, which seemed not very hardy, there was no vegetation but a few bunches of grass, and a moth and small sandpiper constituted the animal population. It is thought the island will disappear in a few years, as the waves are rapidly wearing the shore-line away. Such has been the history of many a vaunted human tyranny. Its policy was inaugurated with noise and heat, and threatened to revolutionise the existing order. But when it had spent its force and cooled down, it revealed its barrenness, and, worn away with the ever-active waves of time, it at length disappeared.—The Scottish Pulpit.
Sin a poison. What poison one fang of the old serpent will throw into our moral system! Look around and see how many have been poisoned with the desire for strong drink, with lust, with avarice, with pride, with anger, with unbelief. Fiery serpents are among us, and many die of their venom. If we tolerate the least sin, it is a burning drop in the veins of the soul. One touch of the fangs of this serpent will work immeasurable sorrow, even if the soul be saved from death. It is only the power of God that keeps us from being destroyed by this viper. Had he his will, he is a spirit so malignant that no heir of heaven would survive. O God, keep Thine own! Deliver us from the evil one!—C. H. Spurgeon.
Sin defies law. A woman named Guerin, in a rage of jealousy, murdered her unfaithful husband. Going to a villa where she learnt he was living with another woman, she stood at the door and called his name. Hearing her voice, he went out to speak to her, and had scarcely crossed the threshold when she stabbed him in the abdomen. He staggered back into the house, and after a few minutes crawled to the window and said in a feeble voice, “Kiss our child, for all is over.” The recital of this incident in the court in Paris, told as a woman could tell it, and she a principal actor in the scene, and the evidence adduced that Madame Guerin had borne an irreproachable character and was an excellent mother, so moved the jury that they acquitted her without a moment’s hesitation, amid a storm of applause from the public in court. A gush of sentiment disarmed the rigour of the law and choked the voice of vengeance. One wrong does not justify another. But sin defies law and justice, and spreads confusion wherever it reigns.—The Scottish Pulpit.
Avoid the example of the bad. I would desire all young men often to remember the saying of Lactantius, “He who imitates the bad cannot be good.” Young men, in these professing times, stand between good and bad examples, as Hercules in his dream stood between virtue and vice, solicited by both. Choose you must who to follow. Oh, that you were all so wise as to follow the best! Life, heaven, happiness, eternity, hang upon it.
Sad memories. A small boat was picked up one morning on the north shore at Troon. It had the appearance of having broken away from a vessel during a great gale in the Clyde. It is a dangerous moment when a young man breaks away from the happy associations of his early life, whether in church or home. Chafing under restraint, he plunges heedlessly into the wide world in search of a larger liberty. Unaccustomed to self-control, he is swayed by every varying current, drifts out to sea, and is ultimately picked up a partial wreck on some far-off shore. Then it is that he is tormented with painful memories; he sees his folly, and laments his reckless severance from the moral restrictions of a happier time. “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.”—The Scottish Pulpit.
Memory and music. Music touches every key of memory, and stirs all the hidden springs of sorrow and joy. We love it for what it makes us forget, and for what it makes us remember.
Beware of melancholy. Never give way to melancholy; resist it steadily, for the habit will encroach. A lady was once given two-and-twenty recipes against melancholy. One was a bright fire, another to remember all the pleasant things said to her, another to keep a box of plums on the mantelpiece and a kettle simmering on the hob. She thought this mere trifling at the moment, but did in after life discover how true it is that these little pleasures often banish melancholy better than higher and more exalted objects, and that no means ought to be thought too trifling which can oppose it either in ourselves or others.
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 translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv6–8General 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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Beauty has left the daughter of Zion
This speaks of everything beautiful in Zion being destroyed as if "beauty" were a person that left Zion. AT: "Everything that was beautiful about the daughter of Zion is destroyed"
daughter of Zion
This is a poetic name for Jerusalem, which is spoken of here as if it were a woman. (See: Personification)
Her princes have become like deer that cannot find pasture
This speaks of Zion's princes having nothing to eat like deer that cannot find grass to eat. AT: "Her princes are starving, they are like deer that cannot find grass to eat" (See: Simile)
deer
A deer is a medium-sized, grass-eating animal that is often hunted by humans for food. It is also a beautiful animal to look at.
they go without strength before
"they are not strong enough to run away from" or "they are very weak before"
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv5, 7, 81:5 for her many sins: Judah’s sins before the…
1:5 for her many sins: Judah’s sins before the Babylonian invasion are outlined in 2 Kgs 21:1-9, 16; 24:3-4 (cp. 2 Chr 33:1-10, 22-23 and 2 Chr 36:11-16). Similarly, a list of Israel’s sins before Assyria destroyed it is found in 2 Kgs 17:14-23.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv5–8 He first says that her enemies had become the…
He first says that her enemies had become the head; and by this expression he doubtless means power; and this way of speaking he borrowed from Moses, for these are his words,
“Thou shalt be the head and not the tail, in a high place, not obscure.” (Deuteronomy 28:13.)
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He then says, that enemies were the head, that is, ruled over them. And the opposite of that is to be understood, even that they had become the tail, that is, were under the feet as it were of their enemies. And he says that her enemies had acted successfully, even because Jehovah had afflicted her. He here laments after the common practice, as ungodly men are wont to do; but he mixes instruction with his mourning, and shews that God, in a state of things so turbulent and confused, appeared as a righteous judge. He then recalled them to the consideration of God’s hand, when he said that her enemies had acted successfully, because God had afflicted her. Jerome renders the words, “because Jehovah hath spoken.” He derives the verb from הגה, ege, which means to speak or to meditate. But this is an evident mistake, as we shall find another presently in this very chapter. There is no doubt but that the Prophet intimates that the cause of all evils was, that God had afflicted her, even on account of the greatness of her impieties, or of her sins. He now then begins to shew that there is no reason why the Jews should be swallowed up with grief and despair, if only they considered whence their evils proceeded. He thus begins to call their attention to God’s judgment. This indeed of itself would not have been sufficient; but he afterwards points out a fruitful source of consolation. But we shall see these things mentioned in their due order.
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 On vv5–8 That is, have rule over her, Deut. 28:41.
That is, have rule over her, Deut. 28:41.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv5–8 Lam 1:5 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies…
Lam 1:5 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.
Ver. 5. Her adversaries are the chief.] Heb, Are for the head. This was threatened. {Deu 28:13-14; Deu 28:43-44} This, when it happens, is a great grief to the godly. Therefore the prophet Nahum, for the comfort of God’s Israel, is wholly in setting forth the destruction of their enemies, the Assyrians.
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Her enemies prosper.] See Jer 12:1. They prevail, and do what they wish; so that there seemeth to be neither hope of better, nor place for worse.
For the Lord hath afflicted her.] Not so much her adversaries and enemies, or her oppressors and haters, as the words properly signify - that is, those that oppress them in action, and hate them in affection. {a}
Her children are gone into captivity.] Those that were able to go; for the rest were slain. {Lam 4:9}
Before the enemy.] Driven before them, as cattle.
{a} Cavet Scriptura ne haec potestas detur adversariis. - Oecolamp.
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 On vv5–8 God hath fulfilled his threatening, Deu 28:43; the enemy…
God hath fulfilled his threatening, Deu 28:43; the enemy is got
above us, and
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we are brought very low, for the multitude of our sins, directly contrary to his promise in case of obedience, Lam 1:13. Not only our young and old men, but the little children, have been driven like sheep before the enemy into a miserable captivity.
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 On vv5–8 Her adversaries are the chief,.... Or, "for the head"…
Her adversaries are the chief,.... Or, "for the head" (n); or are the head, as was threatened, Deu 28:44; and now fulfilled; the Chaldeans having got the dominion over the Jews, and obliged them to be subject to them:
her enemies prosper; in wealth and riches, in grandeur and glory; live in ease and tranquillity, enjoying all outward felicity and happiness; while Zion was in distress; which was an aggravation of it; and yet this was but righteous judgment:
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for the Lord hath afflicted her; who is righteous in all his ways: the Chaldeans were but instruments; the evil was from the Lord, according to his will and righteous determination, as appears by what follows:
for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy; that is, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea were carried captive by the enemy, and drove before them as a flock of sheep, and that for the sins of the nation; and these not a few, but were very numerous, as Mordecai and Ezekiel, and others, who were carried captive young with Jeconiah, as well as many now.
(n) "in caput", Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "facti sunt caput", Cocceius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv5, 7 Verse 5. Her adversaries are the chief] They have…
Verse 5. Her adversaries are the chief] They have now supreme dominion over the whole land.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv7–8 Lam 1:7. Jerusalem remembered in her affliction and misery.…
Lam 1:7. Jerusalem remembered in her affliction and misery. The word מרודים, here rendered misery, frequently signifies banishment and captivity. The LXX. render it απωσμων, rejections, or expulsions; all her pleasant things — All her former riches and glory, and the various benefits she enjoyed from God’s favour and protection, particularly the honour and happiness of having his peculiar presence in the temple, and among his people, and the manifestation he gave of his will by the prophets. Nothing is more natural than for persons, who have fallen into adversity, to recollect the advantages they had formerly possessed, and to feel an aggravation of their sufferings in proportion to the greatness of the contrast. The adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths — Not considering the excellent uses those days were designed for; namely, to give men a proper degree of relaxation from labour; leisure to attend upon the service of God, and learn the duties of religion; and to celebrate the creation of the world, that wonderful effect of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness, which can never be sufficiently extolled. The heathen writers, it must be observed, commonly ridicule the Jews’ celebration of their sabbaths as a mark of their sloth and idleness.
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 On vv5–8 Are the chief ... prosper - Or, “are become…
Are the chief ... prosper - Or, “are become the head”... are at rest. Judaea is so entirely crushed that her enemies did not need to take precautions against resistance on her part.
Children - i. e. “young children,” who are driven before the enemy (literally the adversary), not as a flock of lambs which follow the shepherd, but for sale as slaves.
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 On vv5–8 Lords. Literally, "at the head," (Haydock) which Moses had…
Lords. Literally, "at the head," (Haydock) which Moses had threatened, Deuteronomy xxvi. 1, 43. (Calmet) --- This would be most cutting. (Worthington)
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 On vv5–8 the chief--rule her (Deu 28:43-44).
the chief--rule her (Deu 28:43-44).
adversaries . . . prosper; for the Lord--All the foes' attempts would have failed, had not God delivered His people into their hands (Jer 30:15).
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 On vv5–8 5. Are the chief — The mighty, and therefore…
5. Are the chief — The mighty, and therefore rule her.
Prosper — Literally, are at rest; an expressive figure.
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Children… before the enemy — In ancient sculptures such mournful processions of women and tender children are often engraved.
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 On vv5–8 5. are become the head] There may be a…
5. are become the head] There may be a reference to Deu_28:13; Deu_28:44.
prosper] lit. are at peace. Cp. Jer_12:1 (“are … at ease”).
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for the multitude, etc.] The acknowledgement that Israel’s calamities were the requital for her sin recurs frequently in this poem (Lam_1:8; Lam_1:18; Lam_1:20; Lam_1:22).
before the adversary] either driven like a flock of cattle on the occasion of the actual deportation, or possibly (as the writer may be dealing with a time many years subsequent) sold by their parents owing to their extreme penury.
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 On vv5–8 (5) Her adversaries are the chief.—Literally, have become the…
(5) Her adversaries are the chief.—Literally, have become the head (Deu_28:13).
Her enemies prosper.—Better, are at ease, secure from every resistance on her part. “Before the enemy,” driven, i.e., as slaves are driven.
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 On vv5–8 Are the chief; rather, are become the head. Comp.…
Are the chief; rather, are become the head. Comp. Deu_28:44, where, as a part of the curse of Israel"s rebellion, it is foretold that "he the stranger shall become the head, and thou shalt become the tail." Before the enemy. Like a herd of cattle.
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 On vv5–8 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper.
Lam_1:5
Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper.
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The adversaries of the good
1. The cause apparent of all the miseries of Gods people is the prospering and prevailing of their enemies.
2. It often comes to pass that the wicked prosper in all things of this life, and the godly contrary (Psa_73:4; Job_21:7).
(1) God will, by giving them prosperity, make the wicked without excuse.
(2) The godly being assured of Gods favour and yet pinched, they may the more earnestly bend their affections to the inheritance which is prepared for them.
3. It is the natural disposition of the wicked towards the godly to oppress them in action and hate them in affliction.
4. The wicked never prevail against the godly, further than the Lord giveth strength unto them (Job_1:11-12; 1Ki_22:22; Mat_8:31-32). This teaches us--
(1) To he more patient towards the instruments, and not to be as the dog that snatcheth at the stone cast at him, not regarding the thrower.
(2) To seek the cause of our afflictions in ourselves, for else the just Judge of the world would not correct us.
5. All our afflictions come from the Lord, who is the chief worker thereof.
6. It is the sin of the godly that causeth the Lord to lay all their troubles upon them (Dan_9:6; Neh_1:6).
7. When God withdraweth His strength from His servants, they fall into many grievous sins, one after another.
8. When God meaneth to punish man, He will not spare to deprive him of that which is more dear unto him.
9. The wicked bear such malice unto the truth that when they get the advantage they spate neither age nor sex, thinking to root out the godly from under heaven. (J. Udall.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v8 THE doctrinaire rigour of Judaism in its uncompromising association…
SIN AND SUFFERING
Lam_1:8-11
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THE doctrinaire rigour of Judaism in its uncompromising association of moral and physical evils has led to an unreasonable disregard for the solid truth which lies behind this mistake. It can scarcely be said that men are now perplexed by the problem that inspired the Book of Job. The fall of the tower of Siloam or the blindness of a man from his birth would not start among us the vexatious questions which were raised in the days of our Lord. We have not accepted the Jewish theory that the punishment of sin always overtakes the sinner in this life, much less have we assented to the by no means necessary corollary that all calamities are the direct penalties of the misconduct of the sufferers, and therefore sure signs of guilt. The modern tendency is in the opposite direction; it goes to ignore the existence of any connection whatever between the course of the universe and human conduct. No interference with the uniformity of the laws of nature for retributive or disciplinary purposes can be admitted. The machinery runs on in its grooves never deflected by any regard for our good or bad deserts. If we dash ourselves against its wheels they will tear us to pieces, grind us to powder; and we may reasonably consider this treatment to be the natural punishment of our folly. But here we are not beyond physical causation, and the drift of thought is towards holding the belief in anything more to be a simple survival from primitive anthropomorphic ideas of nature, a pure superstition. Is it a pure superstition? It is time we turned to another side of the question.
Every strong conviction that has obtained wide recognition, however erroneous and mischievous it may be, can be traced back to the abuse of some solid truth. It is not the case that the universe is constructed without any regard for moral laws. Even the natural punishment of the violation of natural laws contains a certain ethical element. Other considerations apart, clearly it is wrong to injure ones health or endanger ones life by rushing headlong against the constituted order of the universe; therefore the consequences of such conduct may be taken as signs of its condemnation. In the case of the sufferings of the Jews lamented by our poet the calamities were not primarily of a physical origin; they grew out of human acts-the accompaniments of the Chaldaean invasion. When we come to the evolution of history we are introduced to a whole world of moral forces that are not at work in the material universe.
Nebuchadnezzar did not know that he was the instrument of a Higher Power for the chastisement of Israel; but the corruptions of the Jews, so ruthlessly exposed by their prophets, had undermined the national vigour which is the chief safeguard of a state, as surely as at a later time the corruptions of Rome opened her gates to devastating hosts of Goths and Huns. May we not go further, and, passing beyond the region of common observation, discover richer indications of the ethical meanings of events in the application to them of a real faith in God? It was his profound theism that lay at the base of the Jews conception of temporal retribution, crude, hard, and narrow as this was. If we believe that God is supreme over nature and history as well as over individual lives, we must conclude that He will use every province of His vast dominion so as to further His righteous purposes. If the same Spirit reigns throughout there must be a certain harmony between all parts of His government. The mistake of the Jew was his claim to interpret the details of this Divine administration with a sole regard for the minute fraction of the universe that came under his own eyes, with blank indifference to the vast realm of facts and principles of which he could know nothing. His idea of Providence was too shortsighted, too parochial, in every respect too small; yet it was true in so far as it registered the conviction that there must be an ethical character in the government of the world by a righteous God, that the divinely ordered course of events cannot be out of all relation to conduct.
It does not fall in with the plan of the Lamentations for this subject to be treated so fully in these poems as it is in the stirring exhortations of the great prophets. Yet it comes to the surface repeatedly. In the fifth verse of the first elegy the poet attributes the affliction of Zion to "the multitude of her transgressions"; and he introduces the eighth verse with the clear declaration-
"Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she has become an unclean thing."
The powerful Hebrew idiom according to which the cognate substantive follows the verb is here employed. Rendered literally, the opening phrase is, "sinned sin." The experience of the chastisement leads to a keen perception of the guilt that precedes it. This is more than a consequence of the application of the accepted doctrine of the connection of sin with suffering to a particular case. No intellectual theory is strong enough by itself to awaken a slumbering conscience. The logic may be faultless; and yet even though the point of the syllogism is not evaded it will be coolly ignored. Trouble arouses a torpid conscience in a much more direct and effectual way. In the first place, it shatters the pride which is the chief hindrance to the confession of sin. Then it compels reflection; it calls a halt, and makes us look back over the path we may have been following too heedlessly. Sometimes it seems to exercise a distinctly illuminating influence. It is as though scales had fallen from the sufferers eyes; he sees all things in a new light, and some ugly facts which had been lying at his side for years disregarded suddenly glare upon him as horrible discoveries. Thus the "Prodigal Son" perceives that he has sinned both against Heaven and against his father when he is in the lowest depths of misery, not so much because he recognises a penal character in his troubles, but more on account of the fact that he has come to himself. This subjective, psychological connection between suffering and sin is independent of any dogma of retribution; for the ends of practical discipline it is the most important connection. We may waive all discussion of the ancient Jewish problem, and still be thankful to recognise the Elijah-like ministry of adversity. The immediate effect of this vision of sin is that a new colour is given to the picture of the desolation of Jerusalem. The image of a miserable woman is preserved, but the dignity of the earlier scene is missing here. Pathos and poetry gather round the picture of the forlorn widow weeping for the loss of her children. Neglected and humbled as she is in worldly estate, the tragic vastness of her sorrow has exalted her to an altitude of moral sublimity. Such suffering breaks through those barriers of conventional experience which make many lives look mean and trivial. It is so awful that we cannot but regard it with reverence. But all this is altered in the aspect of Jerusalem which follows the confession of her great sin. In the freedom of ancient language the poet ventures on an illustration that would be regarded as too gross for modern literature. The limits of our art exclude subjects which excite a sensation of disgust; but this is just the sensation the author of the elegy deliberately aims at producing. He paints a picture which is simply intended to sicken his readers. The utter humiliation of Jerusalem is exhibited in the unavoidable exposure of a condition which natural modesty would conceal at any cost. Another contrast between the reserve of our modern style and the rude bluntness of antiquity is here apparent. It is not only that we have grown more refined in language-a very superficial change which might be no better than the whitewashing of sepulchres; over and above this civilising of mere manners, the effect of Teutonic habits, strengthened by Christian sentiments, has been to develop a respect for woman undreamed of in the old Eastern world. It may be added that the scientific temper of recent times has taught us that there is nothing really dishonouring in purely natural processes. The ancient world could not distinguish between delicacy and shame. We should regard a poor suffering woman whose modesty had been grievously wounded with simple commiseration; the ancient Jews treated such a person with disgust as an unclean creature, quite unable to see that their conduct was simply brutal.
The new aspect of the misery of Jerusalem is thus set forth as one of degradation and ignominy. The vision of sin is immediately followed by a scene of shame. Commentators have been divided over the question whether this picture of the humiliated woman is intended to apply to the sin of the city or only to her misfortunes. In favour of the former view, it may be remarked that uncleanness is distinctly associated with moral corruption: the connection is the more appropriate here inasmuch as a confession of sin immediately precedes. On the other hand, the attendant circumstances point to the second interpretation. It is the humiliation of the condition of the sufferer, rather than that condition itself, which is dwelt upon. Jerusalem is despised, "she sigheth," "is come down wonderfully," "hath no comforter," and is generally afflicted and oppressed by her enemies. But while we are led to regard the pitiable picture as a representation of the woful plight into which the proud city has fallen, we cannot conclude it to be an accident that this particular phase of her misery succeeds the mention of her great guilt. After all, it is only the underlying guilt that can justify a verdict which carries disgrace as well as suffering for its penalty. Even when the judgments of men are too confused to recognise this truth with regard to other people, it should be apparent to the conscience of the humiliated person himself. The humiliation which follows nothing worse than a fall into external misfortunes is but a superficial trouble, and the consciousness of innocence can enable one to submit to it without any sense of inward shame. The sting of contempt lies in the miserable consciousness that it is deserved.
Thus we see the punishment of sin consisting in exposure. The exposure which simply hurts natural modesty is acutely painful to a refined, sensitive spirit; and yet the very dignity which it outrages is a shield against the point of the insult. But where the exposure follows sin this shield is absent. In that case the degradation of it is without any mitigation. Nothing more may be necessary to constitute a very severe punishment. When the secrets of all hearts are revealed the very revelation will be a penal process. To lay bare the quivering nerves of memory to the searching sunlight must be to torture the guilty soul with inconceivable horrors. Nevertheless it is a matter for profound thankfulness that there is no question of a surprising revelation of the sinners guilt being made to God at some future time, some shocking discovery which might turn His lovingkindness into wrath or contempt. We cannot have a firmer ground of joy and hope than the fact that God knows everything about us, and yet loves us at our worst, patiently waiting for repentance with His offer of unlimited forgiveness. Exposure before God is like a surgical examination; the hope of a cure, if it does not dispel the sense of humiliation and that is impossible in the case of guilt, the disgrace of which to a healthy conscience is more intense before the holiness of God than before the eyes of fellow-sinners still encourages confidence.
The recognition of a moral lapse at the root of the shame of Jerusalem, though not perhaps in the shame itself, is confirmed by a phrase which reflects on the culpable heedlessness of the Jews. The elegy deplores how the city has "come down wonderfully" on account of the fact that "she remembered not her latter end." It is quite confusing and incorrect to render this expression in the present tense as it stands in the Authorised English Version. The poet cannot mean that the Jews in exile and captivity have already forgotten the recent horrors of the siege of Jerusalem. This would be flatly contrary to the motive of the elegy, which is to give tongue to the sufferings of the Jews flowing out of that disaster. It would be impossible to say that the calamity that inspired the elegy was no longer even remembered by its victims. What an anti-climax this would be! Clearly the poet is bewailing the culpable folly of the people in not giving a thought to the certain consequences of such a course as they were following; a course that had been denounced by the faithful prophets of Jehovah, who, alas! had been but voices crying in the wilderness, unnoted, or even scouted and suppressed, like the stormy petrels hated by sailors as birds of ill-omen. In her ease and prosperity, her self-indulgence and sin, the doomed city had failed to recollect what must be the end of such things. The idea of remembrance is peculiarly apt and forcible in this connection, although it has a relation to the future, because the Jews had been through experiences which should have served as warnings if they had duly reflected on them. This was not a matter for wild guesses or vague apprehensions. Not only were there the distinct utterances of Jeremiah and his predecessors to rouse the thoughtless; events had been speaking louder than words. Jerusalem was already a city with a history, and that history had even by this time accumulated some tragic lessons. These were subjects for memory. Thus memory can become prophecy, because the laws which are revealed in the past will govern the future. We are none of us so wholly inexperienced but that in the knowledge of what we have already been through we may gain wisdom to anticipate the consequences of our present actions. The heedless person is one who forgets, or at all events one who will not attend to his own memories. Such recklessness is its own condemnation; it cannot plead the excuse of ignorance.
But now it may be objected that this reference to the mere thought of consequences suggests considerations that are too low to furnish the reasons for the ruin of Jerusalem. Would the city have been spared if only her inhabitants had been a little more foreseeing? It should be observed that though mere prudence is never a very lofty virtue, imprudence is sometimes a very serious fault. It cannot be right to be simply reckless, to ignore all lessons of the past and fling oneself blindly into the future. The hero who is sure that he is inspired by a lofty motive may walk straight into the very jaws of death, and be all the stronger for his noble indifference to his fate; but he who is no hero, he who is not influenced by any great or unselfish ideas, has no excuse for neglecting the warnings of common prudence. All wise actions must be more or less guided with a view to their issues in the future, although in the case of the best of them the aims will be pure and unselfish. It is our prerogative, to "look before and after"; and just in proportion as we take long views do our deeds acquire gravity and depth. Our Lord characterised the two ways by their ends. While the example of the careless Jews is followed on all sides-and who of us can deny that he has ever fallen into the negligence?-is it not a little superfluous to discuss abstract, unpractical problems about a remote altruism?
Intermingled with his painful picture of the humiliation and shame of the fallen city, the poet supplies indications of the effect of all this on the suffering citizens. Despised by all who had formerly honoured her, Jerusalem sighs and longs to retire into obscurity, away from the rude gaze of her oppressors.
In particular, two further signs of her distress are here given.
The first is spoliation. Her enemies have laid hands on "all her pleasant things." It may strike us that, after the miseries just narrated, this is but a minor trouble. Jobs calamities began with the loss of his property, and rose from this by degrees to the climax of agony. If his first trouble had been the sudden death of all his children, stunned by that awful blow, he would have cared little about the fate of his flocks and herds. It is not according to the method of the Lamentations, however, to move on to any climax. The thoughts are set forth as they well up in the mind of the poet, now passionate and intense, then again of a milder cast, yet altogether combining to colour one picture of intolerable woe. But there is an aspect of this idea of the robbery of the "pleasant things" which heightens the sense of misery. It is another instance of the force of contrast so often manifested in these elegies. Jerusalem had been a home of wealth and luxury in the merry old days. But hoarded money, precious jewellery, family heirlooms, products of art and skill, accumulated during generations of prosperity and treated as necessaries of life-all had been swept away in the sack of the city, and scattered among strangers who could not prize them as they had been prized by their owners: and now these victims of spoliation, stripped of everything, were in want of daily bread. Even what little could be saved from the wreck they had to give up in exchange for common food, bought dearly in the market of necessity.
The second sign of the great distress here noted is desecration. Gentiles invade the sacred precincts of the temple. Considering that the sanctuary had been already much more effectually desecrated by the blood-stained hands and lustful hearts of impious worshippers, such as those "rulers of Sodom" denounced by Isaiah for "trampling" the courts of Jehovah with their "vain oblations," {Isa_1:10-17} we do not find it easy to sympathise with this horror of a supposed defilement from the mere presence of heathen persons. Yet it would be unjust to accuse the shocked Israelites of hypocrisy. They ought to have been more conscious of the one real corruption of sin; but we cannot add that therefore their notions of external uncleanness were altogether foolish and wrong. To judge the Jews of the age of the Captivity by a standard of spirituality which few Christians have yet attained to would be a cruel anachronism. The Syrian invasion of the temple in the time of the Maccabees was called by a very late prophet an "abomination of desolation," {Dan_11:31} and a similar insult to be offered to the sacred place by the Romans is described by our Lord in the same terms. {Mar_13:14} All of us must be conscious at times of the sacredness of associations. To botanise on his mothers grave may be a proof of a mans freedom from superstition, but it cannot be taken as an indication of the fineness of his feelings. The Israelite exclusiveness which shunned the intrusion of foreigners simply because they were foreigners was combined both with a patriotic anxiety to preserve the integrity of the nation, and in some cases with a religious dread of idolatry. It is true the nominal contamination of the mere presence of Gentiles was generally more dreaded than the real contagion of their corrupt examples. Still the very idea of desecration, even when it is superficial, together with a sense of pain at its presence, is higher than the materialism which despises it not because this materialism has the grace to sanctify everything, but for the opposite reason, because it counts nothing holy, because to it all things are common and unclean.
Before we pass from this portion of the elegy there is one curious characteristic of it which calls for notice. The poet suddenly drops the construction in the third person and writes in the first person. This he does twice-at the end of the ninth verse, and again at the end of the eleventh. He might be speaking in his own person, but the language points to the personified city. Yet in each case the outburst is quite abrupt, sprung upon us without any introductory formula. Possibly the explanation of this anomaly must be sought in the liturgical use for which the poem was designed. If it was to be sung antiphonally we may conjecture that at these places a second chorus would break in. The result would be a startling dramatic effect-as though the city had sat listening to the lament over her woes until the piteous tale bad compelled her to break her silence and cry aloud, in each case the cry is directed to heaven. It is an appeal to God; and it simply prays for His attention-"Behold, O Lord," "See, O Lord, and behold." In the first case the Divine attention is called to the insolence of the enemy, in the second to the degradation of Jerusalem. Still it is only an appeal for notice. Will God but look upon all this misery? That is sufficient.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv5, 8 (ה) Lam_1:5. Her adversaries are become the head, as…
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—
(ה) Lam_1:5. Her adversaries are become the head, as was threatened if unfaithful to the Lord (Deu_28:44); her enemies prosper, are in peace, and rest secure, knowing that all resistance is over, so completely has she been crushed. This was brought about not by their might, but because Jehovah has afflicted her for the greatness of her transgressions; and the sufferings befall the most innocent also; her young children have gone captives, the most ominous of all her disasters, driven like a band of the enslaved in Africa, before the adversary.
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(ו) Lam_1:6. She has not only been harried of her most precious and tender charges, also from the daughter of Zion is departed all her beauty. God Himself, whose Shechinah made Zion the perfection of beauty, no longer shined there; no longer was there a worship of Him in the beauty of holiness, and even her princes are become like harts that do not find pasture; enfeebled by the scanty diet of the close siege, they have lost vigour, and go without strength when chased before the pursuer, so as to be easily caught. This is in evident allusion to the flight and capture of the King and his men of war, within a few miles from Jerusalem, when it was besieged by the Chaldean army (2Ki_25:3-5).
(ז) Lam_1:7. Again a change of aspect is presented. Already the city ruined, the people exiled, the holy mountain desecrated have been regarded. Now the poet gives the name of the city, which he shrank from pronouncing before, and uses it as a generic, all-embracing term, Jerusalem remembers, adding an item of pungency to her deep sufferings, in the days of her affliction and—a probable meaning of the following word is wanderings, as in margin of Revised Version here. In chap. Lam_3:19, where the same word is again employed, the margin gives outcast state as a fresh rendering. That of the Speaker’s Commentary is to be preferred—homelessness, describing the state of the Jews cast out of their homes and driven into banishment; all her pleasant things which were from the days of old. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. “Sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier things.” When her people fell into the band of the adversary, and there is no helper to her; the adversaries see her, they sneer at her cessations (desolations in Revised Version). This last Hebrew word occurs only here. Its root means to cease, and so this derivative is applied, as by Plumptre, to “the enforced Sabbaths of untitled land, and the Sabbaths conspicuous for the absence of any religious rites.” This seems far-fetched, except as to the latter part, and this should be considered as but a portion of the Jewish customs which had been discontinued. If Romans derided the Jews for cessation from work on the seventh day of the week, Babylonians would not. They may have mocked at the faith of Israel in the supremacy of Jehovah, seeing they regarded Him as a subjugated national deity; but “it was no subject of wonder to the Babylonians that the Jews celebrated a weekly day of rest, as they had one of their own (sabbatu)”—(Cheyne).
HOMILETICS
THE TANTALISING INDIFFERENCE OF THE ENEMIES OF THE CHURCH
(Lam_1:5-7)
I. They contentedly enjoy the fruits of their conquest. “Her adversaries are the chief; her enemies prosper.” Her foes have become her masters; her enemies enjoy quiet prosperity—Geikie (Lam_1:5). Judea has become so utterly crushed that her conquerors revel in their spoils without fear of resistance, or any attempt at reprisals on the part of the vanquished. If we allow our vices to become our masters, we have the chagrin of seeing them rioting in indulgence while we are powerless to interpose.
II. They have no concern to know the cause of the Church’s calamities. “For the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions” (Lam_1:5). What of that? It is no concern of theirs to pry into moral causes. The invaders wish to strike a blow at imperious Egypt. Judah stands in the way, and, becoming troublesome, must be crushed. They knew not, nor did they care to know, that they were but instruments in the hands of a Higher Power to punish a nation for its sins. It was brought home to Judah that her disasters were provoked by her manifold transgressions, and it was an aggravation of her sufferings that her enemies were utterly regardless and apparently ignorant of all this. Had they understood it, they might have shown more pity.
III. They are indifferent to the sufferings they inflict. “Her children are gone into captivity. Her princes have become like harts … without strength before the pursuer” (Lam_1:5-6). The young children are driven before the adversary, not as a flock of lambs which follow the shepherd, but for sale as slaves. The princes are hunted down to exhaustion. In the ancient sculptures nothing is more affecting than the mournful processions so often depicted of tender women and young children driven in gangs as captives before their heartless conquerors. In olden times the treatment of prisoners of war was characterised by the most brutal cruelty. They were regarded as an encumbrance, and were often butchered wholesale to save further trouble. They were subjected to degradations from which death would have been a merciful relief.
IV. They make no allowance for the feelings of the conquered regarding their losses. “From the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed. Jerusalem remembered all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old” (Lam_1:6-7). In the midst of her distress Jerusalem remembered the happiness of former days, when the Temple stood out in all the beauty of its architecture, and as the symbol of holiest worship; when the throne was the centre of imperial power and magnificence; when the land was prosperous, and the people united and content. Now the Temple is shattered past recognition, the most distinguished citizens are in exile, the land is desolate, and the people plunged in misery. But all this is nothing to her enemies; they heed not what their victims have lost; they are more interested in what their conquests have gained.
V. They make sport of the Church’s utter discomfiture. “The adversaries saw her, and did mock at her Sabbaths,” her calamities, her ruined circumstances (Geikie; Henderson). The more literal meaning is her Sabbatisms. Foreigners ridiculed the custom of the Jews in ceasing from labour every seventh day, and attributed their ruin to what appeared to them a strange, fanatical practice. Oh, had those Sabbaths been as faithfully observed in spirit as they were in form, how different would have been the career of Judah! The Church is familiar with the scoffs of unbelievers. While she is true to God, they are powerless to harm. It is when she is conscious of unfaithfulness that they begin to irritate.
LESSONS.—
1. It is a hard time for the Church when her enemies triumph.
2. God is the refuge of the Church in time of trouble. He is never indifferent to her sufferings.
3. The Church should learn to make the best of prosperous times.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Lam_1:5. “Her adversaries are the chief; her enemies prosper.” New masters:
1. Soon make evident their newly-acquired superiority.
2. Rule with severity when actuated by a spirit of enmity.
3. Enjoy without compunction the prosperity secured by the ruin of others.
—“The Lord afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.” Sin:
1. Is a transgression of the law of God.
2. Has a tendency to multiply itself.
3. Is a prolific source of trouble.
4. Is punished by the Being against whom it is committed.
Lam_1:5-6. National disaster. I. Involves the suffering of innocent children. “Her children are gone into captivity before the enemy” (Lam_1:5). II. Quenches the splendour of its reputation. “From the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed” (Lam_1:6). III. Degrades and harasses its most illustrious rulers. “Her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer” (Lam_1:6).
Lam_1:7. Sad memories.
1. When contrasting present miseries with former joys.
2. When reflecting on the suddenness and completeness of our calamities.
3. When mingled with the heartless mockery of the authors of our misfortunes.
ILLUSTRATIONS.—Lessons from the world’s treatment. Three men are my friends, He that loves me, he that hates me, and he that is indifferent to me. Who loves me teaches me tenderness; who hates me teaches me caution; who is indifferent to me teaches me self-reliance.
Loose talk leads to loose conduct. Indulgence in verbal vices soon encourages corresponding vices in conduct. Let any one talk about any mean or vile practice with familiar tone, and do you suppose, when the opportunity occurs for committing the mean or vile act, he will be as strong against it as before? It is by no means an unknown thing that men of correct lives talk themselves into sensuality, crime, and perdition. Bad language easily runs into bad deeds. Select any iniquity you please, suffer yourself to converse in its dialect, to use its slang, to speak in the character of one who relishes it, and I need not tell you how soon your moral sense will lower down to its level. Becoming intimate with it, you lose your horror of it. To be too much with bad men and in bad places is not only unwholesome to man’s morality, but unfavourable to his faith and trust in God. It is not every man who could live as Lot did in Sodom, and then be fit to go out of it under God’s convoy.—The Christian Commonwealth.
New masters: Tyranny not permanent. By the volcanic eruption among the Tonga group in 1885, a new island was formed. When it was visited a few years after, the soil below the surface was still hot, the temperature at a depth of seven feet being 100° Fahr., while at the surface it was only 74°. With the exception of two young cocoa-nut trees, which seemed not very hardy, there was no vegetation but a few bunches of grass, and a moth and small sandpiper constituted the animal population. It is thought the island will disappear in a few years, as the waves are rapidly wearing the shore-line away. Such has been the history of many a vaunted human tyranny. Its policy was inaugurated with noise and heat, and threatened to revolutionise the existing order. But when it had spent its force and cooled down, it revealed its barrenness, and, worn away with the ever-active waves of time, it at length disappeared.—The Scottish Pulpit.
Sin a poison. What poison one fang of the old serpent will throw into our moral system! Look around and see how many have been poisoned with the desire for strong drink, with lust, with avarice, with pride, with anger, with unbelief. Fiery serpents are among us, and many die of their venom. If we tolerate the least sin, it is a burning drop in the veins of the soul. One touch of the fangs of this serpent will work immeasurable sorrow, even if the soul be saved from death. It is only the power of God that keeps us from being destroyed by this viper. Had he his will, he is a spirit so malignant that no heir of heaven would survive. O God, keep Thine own! Deliver us from the evil one!—C. H. Spurgeon.
Sin defies law. A woman named Guerin, in a rage of jealousy, murdered her unfaithful husband. Going to a villa where she learnt he was living with another woman, she stood at the door and called his name. Hearing her voice, he went out to speak to her, and had scarcely crossed the threshold when she stabbed him in the abdomen. He staggered back into the house, and after a few minutes crawled to the window and said in a feeble voice, “Kiss our child, for all is over.” The recital of this incident in the court in Paris, told as a woman could tell it, and she a principal actor in the scene, and the evidence adduced that Madame Guerin had borne an irreproachable character and was an excellent mother, so moved the jury that they acquitted her without a moment’s hesitation, amid a storm of applause from the public in court. A gush of sentiment disarmed the rigour of the law and choked the voice of vengeance. One wrong does not justify another. But sin defies law and justice, and spreads confusion wherever it reigns.—The Scottish Pulpit.
Avoid the example of the bad. I would desire all young men often to remember the saying of Lactantius, “He who imitates the bad cannot be good.” Young men, in these professing times, stand between good and bad examples, as Hercules in his dream stood between virtue and vice, solicited by both. Choose you must who to follow. Oh, that you were all so wise as to follow the best! Life, heaven, happiness, eternity, hang upon it.
Sad memories. A small boat was picked up one morning on the north shore at Troon. It had the appearance of having broken away from a vessel during a great gale in the Clyde. It is a dangerous moment when a young man breaks away from the happy associations of his early life, whether in church or home. Chafing under restraint, he plunges heedlessly into the wide world in search of a larger liberty. Unaccustomed to self-control, he is swayed by every varying current, drifts out to sea, and is ultimately picked up a partial wreck on some far-off shore. Then it is that he is tormented with painful memories; he sees his folly, and laments his reckless severance from the moral restrictions of a happier time. “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.”—The Scottish Pulpit.
Memory and music. Music touches every key of memory, and stirs all the hidden springs of sorrow and joy. We love it for what it makes us forget, and for what it makes us remember.
Beware of melancholy. Never give way to melancholy; resist it steadily, for the habit will encroach. A lady was once given two-and-twenty recipes against melancholy. One was a bright fire, another to remember all the pleasant things said to her, another to keep a box of plums on the mantelpiece and a kettle simmering on the hob. She thought this mere trifling at the moment, but did in after life discover how true it is that these little pleasures often banish melancholy better than higher and more exalted objects, and that no means ought to be thought too trifling which can oppose it either in ourselves or others.
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 On vv6–8 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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Beauty has left the daughter of Zion
This speaks of everything beautiful in Zion being destroyed as if "beauty" were a person that left Zion. AT: "Everything that was beautiful about the daughter of Zion is destroyed"
daughter of Zion
This is a poetic name for Jerusalem, which is spoken of here as if it were a woman. (See: Personification)
Her princes have become like deer that cannot find pasture
This speaks of Zion's princes having nothing to eat like deer that cannot find grass to eat. AT: "Her princes are starving, they are like deer that cannot find grass to eat" (See: Simile)
deer
A deer is a medium-sized, grass-eating animal that is often hunted by humans for food. It is also a beautiful animal to look at.
they go without strength before
"they are not strong enough to run away from" or "they are very weak before"
their pursuer
"the person that is pursuing them"
translationWords
daughter of Zion
prince
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 On vv5, 7, 8 1:5 for her many sins: Judah’s sins before the…
1:5 for her many sins: Judah’s sins before the Babylonian invasion are outlined in 2 Kgs 21:1-9, 16; 24:3-4 (cp. 2 Chr 33:1-10, 22-23 and 2 Chr 36:11-16). Similarly, a list of Israel’s sins before Assyria destroyed it is found in 2 Kgs 17:14-23.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.