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(*) The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the 10 ground, and keep silence:

They have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth :

The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

() Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, My liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people;

Because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.

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They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? 1: When they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city,

When their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.

() What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what 13 thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem ? What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion?

For thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?

10. The elders of the daughter of Zion] a ruling body of this kind. See I Sam. xvi.

they have cast up dust upon their heads]

Neh. ix. I; Job ii. 12.

Each city and district had
4; 2 Kings x. I.
Compare 2 Sam. xiii. 19;

11. Here begins the lamentation over Zion's condition, exposed to the mockery of her enemies.

my bowels are troubled] See notes on chap. i. 20.

my liver is poured upon the earth] The liver was looked upon in common with the rest of the vitals as the seat of the emotions, and hence the expression in the text merely denotes strong and painful excitement.

the destruction of the daughter of my people] See note on tabernacle,

ver. 4.

12.

corn and wine] a general designation for solid and liquid food. 13. shall I take to witness for thee] rather, shall I testify to thee? The prophet_casts about for some sort of message of comfort, that he may bear to Jerusalem in her sorrow.

equal] liken, compare. 'Equal' is not elsewhere used in the Bible as a transitive verb.

great like the sea] without measure.

14. For the assertion that in this and the next verse the author makes use of the prophecies of Ezekiel, see Introduction, chap. ii. § 2 (d), and § 3 (d).

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(3) Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee:

And they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity;

But have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

(D) All that pass by clap their hands at thee;

They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusa-
lem, saying,

Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty,
The joy of the whole earth?

(D) All thine enemies have opened their mouth against
thee:

They hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up:

Certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.

(y) The LORD hath done that which he had devised;

foolish things] virtually the same word as that which is rendered "folly" in Jer. xxiii. 13, where see note.

discovered uncovered, revealed (to thee), a use of the word now obsolete. Compare Shakespeare:

"Go, draw aside the curtains and discover
The several caskets to this noble prince."

Merch. of Ven. Act. II. Sc. 7.

to turn away thy captivity] by producing in thee repentance. false burdens] See note on Jer. xxiii. 30-33. causes of banishment] The Heb. word is not elsewhere found, and probably here points to the consequences which, as Jeremiah has already said, will follow the teaching of the false prophets (Jer. xxvii. 10, 15).

15. they hiss] Since the context contains expressions which imply contempt, this word probably does the same here, as it certainly does in Job xxvii. 23.

16. For the inverted order of the initial letters in the Heb. of this and the next verse, see Introduction, chap. i. § 4.

all thine enemies...against thee] almost identical with iii. 46. gnash the teeth] in token of rage. Compare Ps. xxxv. 16, xxxvii. 12. we have seen it] we have seen. The it is best omitted, as also the her in an earlier clause of the verse. Thus the clauses are made more abrupt in consonance with the joyful emotions of those supposed to be uttering them. For a parallel to the last words of this verse, see Ps.

XXXV. 21.

he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in

the days of old:

He hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee,

He hath set up the horn of thine adversaries. (3) Their heart cried unto the Lord,

O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night :

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Give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease. (P) Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the 19

watches,

Pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord:

Lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children,

That faint for hunger in the top of every street.

17. in the days of old] That which had happened was merely a fulfilment of the threats, Lev. xxvi. 14 etc.; Deut. xxviii. 15 etc.

he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries] See ver. 3, and compare I Sam. ii. I.

18. In this and the following verse we have the thought consequent on the main one on which the prophet has been dwelling, viz. that the calamity is from the Lord, and is the result of disobedience. The people cry to Him whom they have offended, to help them now in their hour of need.

Their heart] that of the people.

O wall] The rampart and wall have been already (ver. 8) said to lament. Here the wall, meaning those who had hitherto been sheltered by it, is called upon in its ruins to cry out for help.

river] torrent, a mountain stream, rushing down its rugged channel. no rest] The verb corresponding to the Heb. substantive here used, is found in Psal. lxxvii. 2, where the reference is to the hand (so margin, not "sore as in Eng. Text) stretched out in prayer, "and ceased not," literally, and grew not cold. Such then is the meaning of the word here also.

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apple] For this word, meaning pupil (of the eye), compare Deut. xxxii. 10; Ps. xvii. 8.

19. cry out] in prayer.

in the beginning of the watches] i.e. of each watch. In New Testament times the Jews had adopted the Roman division of the night into four watches of three hours each (see Matt. xiv. 25; Mark xiii. 35). Up to that time the division was threefold, each consisting of four hours. Compare Exod. xiv. 24; Ps. lxiii. 6, etc.

pour out thine heart like water] Compare ver. II. lift up thy hands] in supplication.

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(7) Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this.

Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long?

Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary

of the Lord?

() The young and the old lie on the ground in the

streets:

My virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; Thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.

() Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about,

So that in the day of the LORD's anger none escaped nor remained:

Those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

20. Here begins the prayer made in response to the prophet's exhortation.

consider to whom thou hast done this] Remember that the people whom Thou thus afflictest are Thy chosen ones of old.

and children] children.

of a span long] The word properly means stretched out, and thus a better sense is given us by the Eng. margin, swaddled with their hands, the objects of their care, the thought of maternal tenderness in the forms in which it would ordinarily be displayed towards children of that age heightening the effect of the picture. See note on Jer. xix. 9.

21. The young] the same word as that used in Jer. i. Ŏ (“child”), where see note. The words in Italics in the Eng. text (them—and) rather weaken the passage and are best omitted.

22. Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about] As though proclaiming a festival Thou hast summoned aloud my terrors. Jeremiah here alludes, as is shewn by the form of the Heb. for terrors (wrongly translated neighbouring villages by the Septuagint), to the word Magor-missabib, which had been so constantly in his mouth (see note on Jer. vi. 25, xx. 3), and which, though disregarded and no doubt mocked, the people had now come to recognise as but too well warranted by realities.

have swaddled] the same word as that so rendered in margin of ver. 20 (see note).

CHAP. III. 1-21. The prophet, as representing the nation, bewails their sufferings.

(N) I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of 3

his wrath.

(N) He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but 2 not into light.

(N) Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his 3 hand against me all the day.

() My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath 4 broken my bones.

1) He hath builded against me, and compassed me 5 with gall and travail.

CHAP. III. 1-21. THE PROPHET, AS REPRESENTING THE NATION,

BEWAILS THEIR SUFFERINGS.

1. For remarks upon the character and teaching of this chapter and upon its structure, see Introduction, chaps. i. § 4, iii. § 2.

affliction] the whole series of calamities, which had now reached their climax in the capture and burning of Jerusalem.

by the rod of his wrath] For the figure itself compare Job ix. 34, xxi. 9; Is. x. 5, and for an expansion of the thought of Babylon acting as the instrument of God's wrath see Jer. li. 20-23.

3. is he turned; he turneth] he turneth again and again. For the Heb. idiom see note on Jer. xii. 15.

4. made old] wasted. The Heb. verb means to rub away.

he hath broken my bones] For this phrase compare Is. xxxviii. 13. The flesh, skin, and bones are taken as comprising the whole man, the former two denoting the softer portions, the last the harder, which must be fractured, in order to destroy it.

5. He hath builded against me, and compassed] Here as in ver. 3 we have to deal with the idiom by which two verbs are used where we should in English have a verb and adverb. Translate therefore He hath builded against me round about.

gall For the primary sense of the word see note on Jer. viii. 14. In a case like the present it had no doubt ceased to be a metaphor and come to mean simply bitterness, and so it illustrates, along with the words that follow, Jeremiah's custom of suddenly dismissing a figure and falling back upon the subject itself. See Introd. to Jer. chap. ii. § 8 (d), and compare verses 13 and 14 of the present chapter.

travail] From 1611 to the American edition of 1867 all editions of the Authorized Version had travel both here and in the case of Numb.. XX. 14. It was probably in comparatively recent times that the two modes of spelling were definitely appropriated to distinct meanings of the word, as they now are. The Heb. word here (and in Numbers) is clear in its sense, viz. weariness.

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