{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"LAM","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Lamentations","commonName":"Lamentations","introduction":"In the Hebrew Bible these Elegies of Jeremiah, five in number, are placed among the Chetuvim, or \"Holy Writings\" (\"the Psalms,\" &c., Luk 24:44), between Ruth and Ecclesiastes. But though in classification of compositions it belongs to the Chetuvim, it probably followed the prophecies of Jeremiah originally. For thus alone can we account for the prophetical books being enumerated by JOSEPHUS [Against Apion, 1.1.8] as thirteen: he must have reckoned Jeremiah and Lamentations as one book, as also Judges and Ruth, the two books of Samuel, &c., Ezra and Nehemiah. The Lamentations naturally follow the book which sets forth the circumstances forming the subject of the Elegies. Similar lamentations occur in Sa2 1:19, &c.; Sa2 3:33. The Jews read it in their synagogues on the ninth of the month Ab, which is a fast for the destruction of their holy city. As in Ch2 35:25, \"lamentations\" are said to have been \"written\" by Jeremiah on the death of Josiah, besides it having been made \"an ordinance in Israel\" that \"singing women\" should \"speak\" of that king in lamentations; JOSEPHUS [Antiquities, 10.5.1], JEROME, &c., thought that they are contained in the present collection. But plainly the subject here is the overthrow of the Jewish city and people, as the Septuagint expressly states in an introductory verse to their version. The probability is that there is embodied in these Lamentations much of the language of Jeremiah's original Elegy on Josiah, as Ch2 35:25 states; but it is now applied to the more universal calamity of the whole state, of which Josiah's sad death was the forerunner. Thus Lam 4:20, originally applied to Josiah, was \"written,\" in its subsequent reference, not so much of him, as of the throne of Judah in general, the last representative of which, Zedekiah, had just been carried away. The language, which is true of good Josiah, is too strong in favor of Zedekiah, except when viewed as representative of the crown in general. It was natural to embody the language of the Elegy on Josiah in the more general lamentations, as his death was the presage of the last disaster that overthrew the throne and state.\n\nThe title more frequently given by the Jews to these Elegies is, \"How\" (Hebrew, Eechah), from the first word, as the Pentateuch is similarly called by the first Hebrew word of Gen 1:1. The Septuagint calls it \"Lamentations,\" from which we derive the name. It refers not merely to the events which occurred at the capture of the city, but to the sufferings of the citizens (the penalty of national sin) from the very beginning of the siege; and perhaps from before it, under Manasseh and Josiah (Ch2 33:11; Ch2 35:20-25); under Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah (Ch2 36:3-4, Ch2 36:6-7, Ch2 36:10-11, &c.). LOWTH says, \"Every letter is written with a tear, every word the sound of a broken heart.\" The style is midway between the simple elevation of prophetic writing and the loftier rhythm of Moses, David, and Habakkuk. Terse conciseness marks the Hebrew original, notwithstanding Jeremiah's diffuseness in his other writings. The Elegies are grouped in stanzas as they arose in his mind, without any artificial system of arrangement as to the thoughts. The five Elegies are acrostic: each is divided into twenty-two stanzas or verses. In the first three Elegies the stanzas consist of triplets of lines (excepting Lam 1:7; Lam 2:19, which contain each four lines) each beginning with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in regular order (twenty-two in number). In three instances (Lam 2:16-17; Lam 3:46-51; Lam 4:16-17) two letters are transposed. In the third Elegy, each line of the three forming every stanza begins with the same letter. The stanzas in the fourth and fifth Elegies consist of two lines each. The fifth Elegy, though having twenty-two stanzas (the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet), just as the first four, yet is not alphabetical; and its lines are shorter than those of the others, which are longer than are found in other Hebrew poems, and contain twelve syllables, marked by a cÃ&brvbrsura about the middle, dividing them into two somewhat unequal parts. The alphabetical arrangement was adopted originally to assist the memory. GROTIUS thinks the reason for the inversion of two of the Hebrew letters in Lam 2:16-17; Lam 3:46-51; Lam 4:16-17, is that the Chaldeans, like the Arabians, used a different order from the Hebrews; in the first Elegy, Jeremiah speaks as a Hebrew, in the following ones, as one subject to the Chaldeans. This is doubtful. \n\n\n\nNext: Lamentations Chapter 1\n\n","order":25,"numberOfChapters":5,"sha256":"253f4c267f5a2683cc6751e31f8cf89f77ebaf62c7549df5097da6fa1b4c330e","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LAM/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LAM","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":5,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LAM/5.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LAM","chapter":5},"totalNumberOfVerses":148},"chapter":{"number":2,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["polluted--by delivering it into the hands of the profane foe. Compare Psa 89:39, \"profaned . . . crown.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["horn--worn in the East as an ornament on the forehead, and an emblem of power and majesty (Sa1 2:10; Psa 132:17; see on Jer 48:25). \n\ndrawn back . . . fight hand-- (Psa 74:11). God has withdrawn the help which He before gave them. Not as HENDERSON, \"He has turned back his (Israel's) right hand\" (Psa 89:43).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["(Isa 63:10). \n\nstood with . . . right hand--He took His stand so as to use His right hand as an adversary. HENDERSON makes the image to be that of an archer steadying his right hand to take aim. Not only did He withdraw His help, but also took arms against Israel. \n\nall . . . pleasant to . . . eye-- (Eze 24:25). All that were conspicuous for youth, beauty, and rank. \n\nin . . . tabernacle--the dwellings of Jerusalem.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["an enemy-- (Jer 30:14). \n\nmourning and lamentation--There is a play of similar sounds in the original, \"sorrow and sadness,\" to heighten the effect (Job 30:3, Hebrew; Eze 35:3, Margin).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["tabernacle--rather, \"He hath violently taken away His hedge (the hedge of the place sacred to Him, Psa 80:12; Psa 89:40; Isa 5:5), as that of a garden\" [MAURER]. CALVIN supports English Version, \"His tabernacle (that is, temple) as (one would take away the temporary cottage or booth) of a garden.\" Isa 1:8 accords with this (Job 27:18). \n\nplaces of . . . assembly--the temple and synagogues (Psa 74:7-8). \n\nsolemn feasts-- (Lam 1:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["they . . . made a noise in . . . house of . . . Lord, as in . . . feast--The foe's shout of triumph in the captured temple bore a resemblance (but oh, how sad a contrast as to the occasion of it!) to the joyous thanksgivings we used to offer in the same place at our \"solemn feasts\" (compare Lam 2:22).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["stretched . . . a line--The Easterns used a measuring-line not merely in building, but in destroying edifices (Kg2 21:13; Isa 34:11); implying here the unsparing rigidness with which He would exact punishment.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Her gates cannot oppose the entrance of the foe into the city, for they are sunk under a mass of rubbish and earth. \n\nbroken . . . bars-- (Jer 51:30). \n\nher king . . . among . . . Gentiles-- (Deu 28:36). \n\nlaw . . . no more-- (Ch2 15:3). The civil and religious laws were one under the theocracy. \"All the legal ordinances (prophetical as well as priestly) of the theocracy, are no more\" (Psa 74:9; Eze 7:26).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["(Job 2:12-13). The \"elders,\" by their example, would draw the others to violent grief. \n\nthe virgins--who usually are so anxious to set off their personal appearances to advantage.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["liver is poured, &c.--that is, as the liver was thought to be the seat of the passions, \"all my feelings are poured out and prostrated for,\" &c. The \"liver,\" is here put for the bile (\"gall,\" Job 16:13; \"bowels,\" Psa 22:14) in a bladder on the surface of the liver, copiously discharged when the passions are agitated. \n\nswoon--through faintness from the effects of hunger.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["as the wounded--famine being as deadly as the sword (Jer 52:6). \n\nsoul . . . poured . . . into . . . mothers bosom--Instinctively turning to their mother's bosom, but finding no milk there, they breathe out their life as it were \"into her bosom.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["What thing shall I take to witness--What can I bring forward as a witness, or instance, to prove that others have sustained as grievous ills as thou? I cannot console thee as mourners are often consoled by showing that thy lot is only what others, too, suffer. The \"sea\" affords the only suitable emblem of thy woes, by its boundless extent and depth (Lam 1:12; Dan 9:12).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["Thy prophets--not God's (Jer 23:26). \n\nvain . . . for thee--to gratify thy appetite, not for truth, but for false things. \n\nnot discovered thine iniquity--in opposition to God's command to the true prophets (Isa 58:1). Literally, \"They have not taken off (the veil) which was on thine iniquity, so as to set it before thee.\" \n\nburdens--Their prophecies were soothing and flattering; but the result of them was heavy calamities to the people, worse than even what the prophecies of Jeremiah, which they in derision called \"burdens,\" threatened. Hence he terms their pretended prophecies \"false burdens,\" which proved to the Jews \"causes of their banishment\" [CALVIN].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["clap . . . hands--in derision (Job 27:23; Job 34:37). \n\nwag . . . head-- (Kg2 19:21; Psa 44:14). \n\nperfection of beauty . . . joy of . . . earth-- (Psa 48:2; Psa 50:2). The Jews' enemies quote their very words in scorn.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["For the transposition of Hebrew letters (Pe and Ain, Lam 2:16-17) in the order of verses, see Introduction. \n\nopened . . . mouth--as ravening, roaring wild beasts (Job 16:9-10; Psa 22:13). Herein Jerusalem was a type of Messiah. \n\ngnash . . . teeth--in vindictive malice. \n\nwe have seen it-- (Psa 35:21).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["Lord--Let not the foe exult as if it was their doing. It was \"the Lord\" who thus fulfilled the threats uttered by His prophets for the guilt of Judea (Lev 26:16-25; Deu 28:36-48, Deu 28:53; Jer 19:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["wall-- (Lam 2:8). Personified. \"Their heart,\" that is, the Jews'; while their heart is lifted up to the Lord in prayer, their speech is addressed to the \"wall\" (the part being put for the whole city). \n\nlet tears, &c.-- (Jer 14:17). The wall is called on to weep for its own ruin and that of the city. Compare the similar personification (Lam 1:4). \n\napple--the pupil of the eye (Psa 17:8).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["cry . . . in . . . night-- (Psa 119:147). \n\nbeginning of . . . watches--that is, the first of the three equal divisions (four hours each) into which the ancient Jews divided the night; namely, from sunset to ten o'clock. The second was called \"the middle watch\" (Jdg 7:19), from ten till two o'clock. The third, \"the morning watch,\" from two to sunrise (Exo 14:24; Sa1 11:11). Afterwards, under the Romans, they had four watches (Mat 14:25; Luk 12:38). \n\nfor . . . thy . . . children--that God, if He will not spare thee, may at least preserve \"thy young children.\" \n\ntop of . . . street-- (Isa 51:20; Nah 3:10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["women eat . . . fruit--as threatened (Lev 26:29; Deu 28:53, Deu 28:56-57; Jer 19:9). \n\nchildren . . . span long--or else, \"children whom they carry in their arms\" [MAURER].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["(Ch2 36:17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["Thou hast called as in . . . solemn day . . . terrors--Thou hast summoned my enemies against me from all quarters, just as multitudes used to be convened to Jerusalem, on the solemn feast days. The objects, for which the enemies and the festal multitude respectively met, formed a sad contrast. Compare Lam 1:15 : \"called an assembly against me.\"\n\nJeremiah proposes his own experience under afflictions, as an example as to how the Jews should behave under theirs, so as to have hope of a restoration; hence the change from singular to plural (Lam 3:22, Lam 3:40-47). The stanzas consist of three lines, each of which begins with the same Hebrew letter.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Lamentations Chapter 3\n\n"]}],"introduction":"(Lam. 2:1-22)\n\nHow--The title of the collection repeated here, and in Lam 4:1. \n\ncovered . . . with a cloud--that is, with the darkness of ignominy. \n\ncast down from heaven unto . . . earth-- (Mat 11:23); dashed down from the highest prosperity to the lowest misery. \n\nbeauty of Israel--the beautiful temple (Psa 29:2; Psa 74:7; Psa 96:9, Margin; Isa 60:7; Isa 64:11). \n\nhis footstool--the ark (compare Ch1 28:2, with Psa 99:5; Psa 132:7). They once had gloried more in the ark than in the God whose symbol it was; they now feel it was but His \"footstool,\" yet that it had been a great glory to them that God deigned to use it as such.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LAM/2.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LAM","chapter":2},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LAM/3.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LAM","chapter":3},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/LAM/1.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"LAM","chapter":1},"numberOfVerses":21}