Verse 1

Aleph

How — The title of the collection repeated here, and in Lamentations 4:1.

covered  …  with a cloud — that is, with the darkness of ignominy.

cast down from heaven unto  …  earth — (Matthew 11:23); dashed down from the highest prosperity to the lowest misery.

beauty of Israel — the beautiful temple (Psalm 29:2; Psalm 74:7; Psalm 96:9, Margin; Isaiah 60:7; Isaiah 64:11).

his footstool — the ark (compare 1 Chronicles 28:2, with Psalm 99:5; Psalm 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.

Verse 2

Beth

polluted — by delivering it into the hands of the profane foe. Compare Psalm 89:39, “profaned  …  crown.”

Verse 3

Gimel

horn — worn in the East as an ornament on the forehead, and an emblem of power and majesty (1 Samuel 2:10; Psalm 132:17; see on Jeremiah 48:25).

drawn back  …  fight hand — (Psalm 74:11). God has withdrawn the help which He before gave them. Not as Henderson, “He has turned back his (Israel‘s) right hand” (Psalm 89:43).

Verse 4

Daleth

(Isaiah 63:10).

stood 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.

all  …  pleasant to  …  eye — (Ezekiel 24:25). All that were conspicuous for youth, beauty, and rank.

in  …  tabernacle — the dwellings of Jerusalem.

Verse 5

He

an enemy — (Jeremiah 30:14).

mourning and lamentation — There is a play of similar sounds in the original, “sorrow and sadness,” to heighten the effect (Job 30:3, Hebrew; Ezekiel 35:3, Margin).

Verse 6

Vau

tabernacle — rather, “He hath violently taken away His hedge (the hedge of the place sacred to Him, Psalm 80:12; Psalm 89:40; Isaiah 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.” Isaiah 1:8 accords with this (Job 27:18).

places of  …  assembly — the temple and synagogues (Psalm 74:7, Psalm 74:8).

solemn feasts — (Lamentations 1:4).

Verse 7

Zain

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 Lamentations 2:22).

Verse 8

Cheth

stretched  …  a line — The Easterns used a measuring-line not merely in building, but in destroying edifices (2 Kings 21:13; Isaiah 34:11); implying here the unsparing rigidness with which He would exact punishment.

Verse 9

Teth

Her gates cannot oppose the entrance of the foe into the city, for they are sunk under a mass of rubbish and earth.

broken  …  bars — (Jeremiah 51:30).

her king  …  among  …  Gentiles — (Deuteronomy 28:36).

law  …  no more — (2 Chronicles 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” (Psalm 74:9; Ezekiel 7:26).

Verse 10

Jod

(Job 2:12, Job 2:13). The “elders,” by their example, would draw the others to violent grief.

the virgins — who usually are so anxious to set off their personal appearances to advantage.

Verse 11

Caph

liver is poured, etc. — that is, as the liver was thought to be the seat of the passions, “all my feelings are poured out and prostrated for,” etc. The “liver,” is here put for the bile (“gall,” Job 16:13; “bowels,” Psalm 22:14) in a bladder on the surface of the liver, copiously discharged when the passions are agitated.

swoon — through faintness from the effects of hunger.

Verse 12

Lamed

as the wounded — famine being as deadly as the sword (Jeremiah 52:6).

soul  …  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.”

Verse 13

Mem

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 (Lamentations 1:12; Daniel 9:12).

Verse 14

Nun

Thy prophets — not God‘s (Jeremiah 23:26).

vain  …  for thee — to gratify thy appetite, not for truth, but for false things.

not discovered thine iniquity — in opposition to God‘s command to the true prophets (Isaiah 58:1). Literally, “They have not taken off (the veil) which was on thine iniquity, so as to set it before thee.”

burdens — 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].

Verse 15

Samech

clap  …  hands — in derision (Job 27:23; Job 34:37).

wag  …  head — (2 Kings 19:21; Psalm 44:14).

perfection of beauty  …  joy of  …  earth — (Psalm 48:2; Psalm 50:2). The Jews‘ enemies quote their very words in scorn.

Verse 16-17

Pe

For the transposition of Hebrew letters (Pe and Ain, Lamentations 2:16, Lamentations 2:17) in the order of verses, see on Introduction.

opened  …  mouth — as ravening, roaring wild beasts (Job 16:9, Job 16:10; Psalm 22:13). Herein Jerusalem was a type of Messiah.

gnash  …  teeth — in vindictive malice.

we have seen it — (Psalm 35:21).

Verse 17

Ain

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 (Leviticus 26:16-25; Deuteronomy 28:36-48, Deuteronomy 28:53; Jeremiah 19:9).

Verse 18

Tzaddi

wall — (Lamentations 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).

let tears, etc. — (Jeremiah 14:17). The wall is called on to weep for its own ruin and that of the city. Compare the similar personification (Lamentations 1:4).

apple — the pupil of the eye (Psalm 17:8).

Verse 19

Koph

cry  …  in  …  night — (Psalm 119:147).

beginning 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” (Judges 7:19), from ten till two o‘clock. The third, “the morning watch,” from two to sunrise (Exodus 14:24; 1 Samuel 11:11). Afterwards, under the Romans, they had four watches (Matthew 14:25; Luke 12:38).

for  …  thy  …  children — that God, if He will not spare thee, may at least preserve “thy young children.”

top of  …  street — (Isaiah 51:20; Nahum 3:10).

Verse 20

Resh

women eat  …  fruit — as threatened (Leviticus 26:29; Deuteronomy 28:53, Deuteronomy 28:56, Deuteronomy 28:57; Jeremiah 19:9).

children  …  span long — or else, “children whom they carry in their arms” [Maurer].

Verse 21

Schin

(2 Chronicles 36:17).

Verse 22

Tau

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 Lamentations 1:15: “called an assembly against me.”