Lamentations

Chapter 1

Ver. 1. How doth the city sit solitary.] Some {a} tell us of Jeremiah’s cave, near to Aceldama, where he sat in sight of the city now destroyed, and made her this epitaph—not altogether unlike that which David once made for his dear Jonathan. {#2Sa 1:17} There he hath his Echa admirantis et commiserantis, his wondering and condoling. How once, and again, and a third time. {#2Sa 1:19,25,27} And our prophet hath the self-same, in sense at least, three different times in this one verse; whence the Hebrews call the whole book by the name of Echa (How), which is the first word in it, and beginneth with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. For it must be observed here that, for memory’s sake especially, this piece of Holy Writ is most of it made up in order of alphabet, viz., the four first chapters, and all of it with singular artifice in a poetic strain. Take that one passage for a taste, #La 5:16: Oi na lanu, chi chattanu, which soundeth rhythmically, i.e., woe to us that we have sinned. And whereas other poetry is the luxury of such learning as is in words restrained, in matter usually loose, here it is altogether otherwise; for the prophet or poet, whether id sibi negotii credidit solum dari, maketh it his whole business to set forth his people’s misery in the cause thereof, their sins and excesses, pressing therefore to patience, to repentance, to earnest prayer, and to a confident expectation of a gracious issue, together with a sanctified use of all their sufferings. He had himself been a man of many sorrows all along; and now had his share as deep as any in the common calamity. Besides which he could truly say with Cyprian, Cum singulis pectus meum copulo, maeroris et funeris pondera luctuosa participo: cum plangentibus plango, cum deflentibus defleo, i.e., in St Paul’s words, "Who is weak, and I am not weak? grieved, and I grieve not? offended, and I burn not?" {#2Co 11:29} And this he expresseth in a stately style and figurative terms, full of passion and compassion, as to show his love to his country, so to work upon his hard hearted countrymen, and to excite them to repentance and better obedience.

How doth the city.] Lately a city, yea, the city, the most famous of all the cities of the East, saith Pliny; but now, alas! of a city become a heap. So true is that of Seneca, speaking of a great city burned to ashes, Una dies interest inter magnam civitatem et nullam, There was but one day between a city and no city.

Sit solitary.] Sit on the ground in a mourning posture, as Job did among the ashes, and as Vespasian, after the last destruction of Jerusalem by his son Titus, caused money to be coined, whereon was stamped the picture of Judea in form of a captive woman, sitting sorrowfully under a palm tree.

“How sits this city, late most populous,

Thus solitary! like a widow thus!

Empress of nations, queen of provinces

She was, that now thus tributary is.”

That was full of people.] Full indeed, at the three solemn anniversary feasts especially. Josephus testifieth that at the last destruction of this city by the Romans there were more than eleven hundred thousand people in it. And although Judea was not over two hundred miles long and fifty miles broad, nothing nearly as large as England, yet what huge armies brought they into the field in the days of David, Asa, Jehoshaphat, &c.! Augustine saith there were three million present at that passover, whereof one million one hundred thousand perished by the sword and famine, one hundred thousand were led to Rome in triumph. {b}

How is she become as a widow] Having lost her king, if not her God. Happy if in this last respect she be but quasi vidua, as a widow only, and no more. See #2Co 6:8. {See Trapp on "2Co 6:8"} If God at any time should say unto her, as #Zec 10:6, "She shall be as if I had not cast her off, and I will hear her." Or if she could say of herself as that good widow in the story did, Sola relicta solum Deum sequor, Being left alone, I will follow after God alone.

She that was great among the nations.] So was Athens, once the glory of Greece, for both arts and arms, now a dog hole in comparison. Sparta also, that other eye of Greece, is now a small burrow called Misithra, having nothing to boast of but the fame and thoughts of its former greatness.

And princess among the provinces.] In David’s and Solomon’s days especially, when that state was in the flourish—i.e., the praise of the whole earth, and terror to all nations.

How is she become tributary!] And by that means melted and exhausted, as the Hebrew word importeth. So was England once, when the Pope’s ass. Oh the huge sums that he sucked hence, to the wasting and impoverishing of the land! Of one of his agents here it is recorded, that at his departure he left not so much money in the whole kingdom as he either carried with him or sent to Rome before him. Some of them derive their mass from the Hebrew word mas in the text, signifying tribute; and in some respects well they may— Per eam scilicet pietas omnis liquefacta est et dissoluta, saith Rivet—-for it is the bane of men’s souls, and a purge to their purses

{a} Adrichom. ex Niceph.

{b} Serm. de Tempore, 204.

Ver. 2. She weepeth sore.] Heb., Weeping she weepeth—i.e., sadly and soakingly, or as we say, savourly, seeking that way to ease her sorrow, which is so deep and downright.

“ Expletur lachrymis, egeriturque dolore.”

In the night.] When grief may have its full forth, and when widows are most sensible of their solitary and forlorn condition. She weeps when she should sleep.

“ Iam iacet in viduo squallida facta toro.”

And her tears are on her cheeks.] Haerent et perennant, seldom or never are they off. As hinds by calving, so she by weeping, cast out her sorrows. {#Job 39:3}

Among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her.] Optimum solarium sodalitium, saith one; and Affert solarium lugentibus suspiriorum societas, saith another father. It was no small aggravation of Jerusalem’s misery, that her confederates proved miserable comforters, and her allies kept aloof off, so that she had none to compassionate her. This is also none of the smallest torments of the damned ghosts, that they are unpitied of their best friends and nearest relations.

All her friends have dealt treacherously with her.] The Edomites and Moabites. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, &c. Every sinner shall one day take up this lamentation. And why? "They have forsaken the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out broken cisterns, that can hold no water." {#Jer 2:13}

Ver. 3. Judah is gone into captivity.] But with no goodwill. God hath driven them out for their cruel oppressions and hard usage of their poor brethren that served them; thus the Chaldee paraphrast, and not amiss. Others {a} thus: Judah, i.e., the inhabitants of the kingdom, goeth away, i.e., willingly leave their country, goods, and dwelling, sc., before the desolation of Jerusalem, because of affliction, i.e., extremity of trouble, and great slavery, &c.

She dwelleth among the heathen.] Where she can get nothing better than guilt or grief.

She findeth no rest.] No more than did the dove in the deluge. {#Ge 8:9}

All her persecutors took her in the straits, ] i.e., At the most advantage to mischief her—a term taken from hunters or highwaymen. The Chaldees took the city when it had been first distressed with famine; and then the Jews that went down to Egypt for succour and shelter after Gedaliah’s death, they caught there, as mice in a trap, as this prophet had foretold them (Jer. 42-44), but they would not be warned. Mitsraim proved to be their Metsarim—i.e., Egypt their pound, or prison.

{a} Jun., Udal.

Ver. 4. The ways of Zion do mourn.] So they seem to do because unfrequented, overgrown with grass, and out of their kindly order.

Her priests sigh.] For want of employment.

The virgins were afflicted.] Or, Discomfited. Those that are usually set upon the merry pin, and were wont to make mirth at those festivities,

And she is in bitterness.] Zion is; but for nothing so much as for the decay of religion, and the loss of holy exercises. When this befalleth, all things else are mere Ichabods to good people, {a} See #Zep 3:18.

{a} Cultus Dei desertus est, et omnia luctifica. -Jun.

Ver. 5. Her adversaries are the chief.] Heb, Are for the head. This was threatened. {#De 28:13,14,43,44} 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.

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. {#La 4:9}

Before the enemy.] Driven before them, as cattle.

{a} Cavet Scriptura ne haec potestas detur adversariis. -Oecolamp.

Ver. 6. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed.] Her glory, {as #Isa 5:14} that is chiefly the temple, and the service of God in it. It is now Ichabod with her. The beauty and bulwark of a nation are God’s holy ordinances.

Her princes are become like harts, ] i.e., Heartless, bereft of courage. They dare not make headway against an enemy.

Before the pursuer.] R. Solomon here observeth that the Hebrew word ףרור is written in full, {Hebrew Text Note} so as it is scarcely anywhere else, to note the fulness of the persecution.

Ver. 7. Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction.] Misery is the best art of memory. Then those privileges we prized not in prosperity, we recount with regret. Bona a tergo formosissima: the worth of good things is best known by the lack of them; {a} and as we see things best at a distance, so here. Afflictions are pillulae lucis, that do notably clear the eyesight.

The adversaries saw her, ] sc., With a spiteful and scornful eye.

And did mock at her Sabbaths.] Calling the Jews in contempt, Sabbatarians, and jeering them as those that lost more than a seventh part of their time that way, and telling them, in scorn, that now they might well a while to keep a long Sabbath, as having little else to do. Juvenal thus describeth a Jew—

“ Cui septima quaeque fuit lux

Ignava, et partem vitae non attigit ullam.’’—Satyr. v.

Paulus Phagius telleth likewise of a black mouthed Egyptian, who said that Christians were a colluvies {b} of most loathsome, lecherous people, that had a foul disease upon them, and were therefore fain to rest every seventh day.

{a} Magis carendo quam fruendo.

{b} A collection or gathering of filth or foul matter; spec. foul discharge from an ulcer. ŒD

Ver. 8. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned.] Perpetuo, assidue, et graviter peccavit. Heb., Hath sinned sin, hath sinned sinningly, doing wickedly as she could, {#Jer 3:4} and having many transgressions wrapped up in her sins and their circumstances. {#Le 16:21} And this is here acknowledged as the true cause of her calamity. Profane persons lay all the blame in this case upon God, as he in the poet—

“ O patria, O divum domus Ilium, et inclyta bello

Maenia Dardanidum: ferus omnia Iupiter Argos

Transtulit…

Postquam res Asiae Priamique evertere gentem

Immeritam visum superis, ”& c.—Virg., Aeneid., ii.

Therefore she is removed.] Heb., Therefore is she unto removing or wandering, as Cain was {a} when he went to live in the land of Nod, or as a menstruous woman is separated from the society of others. Nidah for Niddah.

All that honoured her.] When her ways pleased the Lord.

Because they have seen her nakedness.] Her infamous wickednesses, for which she hath done penance, as it were, and is therefore despised. Or else it is a term taken from a naked captive woman.

Yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward, ] sc., To hide her nakedness from public view. Or, going into captivity, she looked her last look toward her dear country, and fetched a sigh.

{a} Ad modum Cain fratricidae. -Piguier.

Ver. 9. Her filthiness is in her skirts.] Taxat impudentiam insignem. {a} She rather glorieth in her wickedness, than is any whit abashed of it—a metaphor from a menstruous woman that is immodest. Oh quam Vulgatee hoc hodie malum. Oh how comon this present time of evil. See #Isa 3:9. But whence this gracelessness

She remembereth not her last end, ] i.e., What a black tail of plagues sin draweth after it, and that for all these things she must come to judgment. Memorare novissima is a good preservative from sin; but most men are of Otho the emperor’s mind, who thought it a piece of dastardy to speak or think much of death; {b} whereas Moses assureth us that by keeping out the thoughts of death, we keep our spirits void of true magnanimity, and that one of those that will consider their latter end would chase a thousand. {#De 32:30}

Therefore she came down wonderfully.] Heb., With wonderments. Her incogitancy and inconsiderateness, together with the licentious wickedness following thereupon, being more heavy than a talent of lead, {#Zec 5:7} brought her down with a powder, as we say, ita ut ad miraculum corruerit.

O Lord, behold mine affliction.] If not me, as utterly unworthy, yet mine affliction, as thou once didst Hagar’s; {#Ge 16:13} and if I may obtain no favour, yet why should the enemy insult to thy dishonour {#De 32:27 Ps 35:26 38:16 Jer 48:26,42 Zep 2:10}

{a} Paschasius.

{b} Plura de extremis loqui pars ignaviae est. -Tacit., lib. ii, Hist.

Ver. 10. The adversary.] The common enemy both of God and us, out of hatred of the truth and the professors thereof.

Hath spread out his hand.] His plundering and sacrilegious hand.

Upon her pleasant things.] But especially those that were consecrated to the service of God in the temple. The Rabbis here by pleasant or desirable things understand principally the book of the law, which, say they, the Moabites and the Ammonites sought for in the temple, that they might burn it, because therein was forbidden their admission into the Church for ever.

Ver. 11. All her people sigh.] And so think to ease their grief.

They shall seek bread.] The staff of life, which, without repair by nutrition, would be soon extinct so in the spiritual life, which made Job prefer the Word before his "necessary food." There is a "famine of the Word" which is much worse; {#Am 8:11 Isa 6:9,10} pray against it, and prevent it.

They have given their pleasant things for meat.] Which must be had at any rate; much more must the food of the soul. Our forefathers gave five marks, or more, for a good book; a load of hay for a few chapters of St James, or of St Paul, in English, saith Mr Foxe. {a} The Queen of Castile sold her jewels to furnish Columbus for his discovering voyage to the West Indies, when he had showed his maps, though our Henry VII, loath to part with money, slighted his proffers, and thereby the golden mines were found and gained to the Spanish crown. {b} Let no man think much to part with his pleasant things for his precious soul, or to sacrifice all that he hath to the service of his life, which, next to his soul, should be most dear unto him. Our ancestors in Queen Mary’s days were glad to eat the bread of their souls in peril of their lives.

To relieve the soul.] Heb., To make the soul come again; for A nimantis cuiusque vita in fuga est, Life must be fetched again by food when it is fainting away.

See, O Lord, and consider.] Quam delicata epulatrix facta sim; to what hard meat I am held, to how strait an allowance; see it, and be sensible of my prisoner’s pittance, and how I have made many a meal’s meat upon the promises when I have wanted bread, as that good woman once said.

{a} Acts and Mon., 750.

{b} Keckerm., Praefat. Geograph.

Ver. 12. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by the way?] Siste viator. Stay, passenger, hast not a tear to shed? &c. Sanchez thinks that this is Jerusalem’s epitaph, made by herself, as to be engraven on her tomb to move compassion. The Septuagint have οι προς υμας, Hei, id vos subaudite, clamo, Woe and alas, cry I to you; make ye nothing of my misery? I wish the like may never befall you— Ne sit super vos -for so some render the words.

Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.] What we see in the water seemeth greater than it is, so in the waters of Marah. See #La 3:1. It is sure that "no temptation, taketh us but what is human, or common to man." {#1Co 10:13} But what did the man Christ Jesus suffer! All our sufferings are but chips of his cross, saith Luther, not worthy to be named in the same day, &c.

Wherein the Lord hath afflicted me.] This was yet no small allay to her grief, that God had done it. The Stoics, who held that all came by destiny, were noted for their patience, or rather tolerance, and equanimity in all conditions.

Ver. 13. From above hath he sent fire into my bones.] Like as when the marrow and natural moisture is dried up by a violent fever; or rather, as when the solid parts of bodies below are lightning-struck from above, and scorched by these sulphurous flames that pierce into them.

And it prevailed against them.] Or, And he ruled it—-viz., the fire; i.e., He directed and disposed it.

He hath spread a net for my feet.] And so hampered me, an unruly creature, ut constricta fuerim in ruinam, that there is no escaping from him; yea, the more I strive to get out, the faster I stick.

He hath turned me back.] Laid me on my back.

He hath made me desolate and faint.] My calamities come thick, one in the neck of another; words are too weak to utter them; and yet here is very great copia and variety of words, so that Paschasius saith this book may well be called, The Lamentations of Lamentations; like as Solomon’s Song is called for its excellence, The Song of Songs.

Ver. 14. The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand.] Compactum est. Or, Is bound upon his hand; that is, the Lord carrieth them in his continual remembrance.

They are wreathed.] Wrapped and wreathed together as a strong cord. My sins are twisted together, saith one, and sadly accented; so are the punishments of my sins, saith the Church here, neither can I get free, but as the heifer, by wriggling against the yoke, galleth her neck, so do I

And come up upon my neck.] Praeclarum scilicet monile, et torques, mearum virtutum index, et insigne.

He hath made my strength to fall.] Heb., He hath caused my power to stumble i.e., so to stumble as to fall; for he who stumbleth and yet falleth not, getteth ground.

From whom I am not able to arise.] Only God can raise me; and it is a work worthy of God, who

“ Deiecit ut relevet: premit ut solaria praestet.”

Ver. 15. The Lord hath trodden underfoot.] As unsavoury salt; that is, he hath covered with the greatest contempt.

All my mighty men.] Vulgate, My magnificos, or gallants, in whom I too much trusted.

In the midst of me.] In the very bosom of their mother; as Caracalla killed his brother Geta, consecrating the sword wherewith he so killed him.

He hath called an assembly against me.] Vocant adversum me tempus, so the Vulgate version hath it; and Calvin to the same purpose, He hath called the time against me—i.e., a set time wherein to destroy my strong ones. Howbeit one {a} maketh this inference from the words, for the very time which we have condemned, we shall be condemned; and for every day which we have spent idly, we shall be shent severely. This is true, but little to the present purpose; like as Hushai said, Ahithophel’s counsel was good, but not now.

The Lord hath trodden her as in a winepress.] By another like metaphor, God is said to have threshed Babylon as a threshingfloor. {#Jer 51:33}

{a} Dr Playfair.

Ver. 16. For these things I weep.] I, Jerusalem; {as #La 1:2} or, I, Jeremiah.

“ Nam faciles motus mens generosa capit.’’—Ovid.

Mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water.] Continuitatem significat: imo emphasin dicit. Niobe like, I weep excessively and without intermission. God would not have the wounds of a godly sorrow to be ever so healed up but that they may bleed afresh again upon all good occasion. As for worldly sorrow, there must be a stop put to it, lest what we have overly wept, we be forced to unweep again.

Because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me.] This was very sad, and made both eyes run down with water. God stood aloof off; men were slack to shore up a poor sinking soul. This was a condition and complaint not unlike that of Saul, "I am sore distressed; for the Philistines are upon me, and God is departed from me." {#1Sa 28:15}

Ver. 17. Zion spreadeth forth her hands.] But to whom? To God? She should have done it sooner—namely, while he stretched out his hands to her all the day long. To the Babylonian? At barbarus nil nisi iras spirat, but his tender mercies are mere cruelties. God will not take the wicked by the hand, saith Bildad; {#Job 8:20} men may not, whenas God will not. No better course can be taken in this case than that prescribed, #La 3:40,41; then God will repent, and men shall relent, toward a distressed creature.

And there is none to comfort her.] See #La 1:16. This is oft complained of as a most heavy affliction.

The Lord hath commanded.] What marvel, then, that their hearts were so set off from him, Who had been so careless of keeping God’s commands?

Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them.] Or, As an abomination, tanquam quisquiliae, vel tanquam foetidae aliquae sordes. God’s people are more shamefully slighted and reproached in the world than any else, and the godliest most of all.

Ver. 18. The Lord is righteous.] Whatever I suffer, or say haply in my passion, that may seem to sound to the contrary. Righteous art thou, O Lord, and just are thy judgments, said David; {#Ps 119:137} and after him Mauricius the emperor, when deposed by the traitor Phocas; and the noble Duplessis, when he heard of the death of his only son, slain in the Low Countries.

For I have rebelled against his commandments.] Heb., Against his mouth, and have therefore deserved thus to feel the weight of his hand; to hear the rod, and who hath appointed it, because I would not hear the Word and who preached it. I have imbittered his mouth, as some render the Hebrew text, and therefore am worthily imbittered by him.

Hear, I pray you, all people.] See #La 1:12. But how agreeth this with that of David in #2Sa 1:20, "Tell it not in Gath?" It is answered that David there would not have that slaughter in Gilboa to be reported as the hand of the Philistines, but of God.

My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.] Are carried out of this land, the sign of God’s favour, and of heaven itself. And here lay the pinch of their grief. Let young ones and maids— quibus hodie fraena laxari solent -obey God, unless they had rather perish.

Ver. 19. I called for my lovers, but they deceived me.] My confederates, idols, and other sweethearts, never yet true to any that trusted them. See #Jer 22:20 30:14.

My priests and mine elders, &c.] What then became of poor folk? and how gracious was God to Jeremiah in the provision made for him by the king, who yet loved him not!

Ver. 20. Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress.] Thus ever and anon she is lifting up her soul to God, by a holy apostrophe, in some short yet pithy expressions. And surely if a long look toward God speedeth, {#Ps 34:4,5 Jon 2:4,7} how much more a hearty ejaculation, as here!

My bowels are troubled.] Lutulant, bulliunt, vel intumescunt: non solum fluctuant, aut strepunt, ut alibi. My bowels boil and bubble, or are thick and muddy, as waters are after and in a tempest: or it is a metaphor from mortar made by mingling water with lime and sand. She was in a great perturbation, and sought ease by submitting to God’s justice, and imploring his mercy.

Mine heart is turned within me.] Or, Turneth itself upside down. See #Ho 11:8.

For I have grievously rebelled.] This was the right way to get ease and settle all within—viz., to confess sin with aggravation, putting in weight, laying on load.

Abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.] Famine especially, which is worse than the sword. {#La 4:9}

“ Et plurima mortis imago.”

“Even the most intense image of death.”

R. Solomon interpreteth it of evil angels.

Ver. 21. They have heard that I sigh, .] My friends have, and yet they pity me not: this was a great vexation, and is much complained of. See #La 1:2,16,17,19.

All mine enemies have heard of my trouble: they are glad.] This επιχαιρεκακια is the devil’s disease: the wicked compose comedies out of the saints’ tragedies, and revel in their ruins. But God’s people, in this case, have a double comfort: (1.) That God hath done it, and not the enemy; that he hath a holy hand in all the troubles that befall them. (2.) That their enemies shall not escape scot-free, but be soundly punished.

That thou hast done it.] Or, But thou hast done it; and sure we are thou wilt not overdo.

Thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called.] The dismal day of vengeance that thou hast threatened Babylon with, especially by Isaiah and Jeremiah.

And they shall be like unto me.] Their future desolation is my present consolation.

Ver. 22. Let their wickedness come before thee.] God had pronounced Babylon’s destruction, and therefore the Church might safely pray it: think the like of spiritual Babylon. God seemeth to forget the insolencies of his enemies, and deliverance of his people; we must mind him, and then it will be done. Only let us see to it, that our fire of zeal for God’s glory burn clear, without the smoke of self-ends and of private revenge.

As thou hast done unto me for my transgressions.] This was it that put a sting into all her sufferings; but then she had this to support her, that her sighs for her sins were many, and that her heart was faint or heavy through fear of wrath; yet not without hope of mercy, which made her thus to repair unto him by prayer. Qui nihil sperat, nihil orat.

Chapter 2

Ver. 1. How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion witha cloud!] Heb., With a thick cloud: nothing like that bright cloud wherein he appeared to his people, as a token of his grace, at the dedication of the temple. {#1Ki 8:10} How comes it about, and what may be the reason for it? Oh in what a wonderful manner and by what strange means hath the Lord now clouded and covered his people (whom he had established as Mount Zion) with blackest calamities and confusions, taking all the lustre of happiness and of hope from her, and that in his anger, and again in the day of his anger!

“ Tantaene animis coelestibus irae?”

And cast down from heaven to earth, ] i.e., From the highest pitch of felicity to the lowest plight of misery. This was afterwards indeed Caperuaum’s case; but when Micah the Morashite prophesied in the times of Jeremiah that "Zion should be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem laid on heaps," {#Mic 3:12 Jer 26:18} it seemed a paradox, and very few believed them. Christ’s disciples also had a conceit that the temple and the world must needs have one and the same period, which occasioned that mixed discourse made by our Saviour. {#Mt 24:1-3} But God’s gracious presence is not tied to a place. The ark, God’s footstool (as here it is called) was transportative till settled in Zion; so is the Church militant in continual motion, till it come to triumph in heaven; and those that with Capernaum are lifted up to heaven in the abundance of means, may be brought down to hell for an instance of divine vengeance.

And remembered not his footstool.] The temple, and therein the ark, to teach them that he was not wholly there included, neither ought now to be sought and worshipped anywhere but above. Sursum corda.

Ver. 2. The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jadah.] Κατεποντισε, {a} as the sea swalloweth up a ship; as an earthquake swalloweth up whole townships; as fire swalloweth up fuel, or as Moses’ serpent swallowed up the sorcerers’ serpents.

And hath not pitied.] This was worse than all the rest. {#Isa 47:6}

He hath thrown down.] Not shaken them only, and so left them standing, but utterly subverted them, and that in great displeasure, Deo irritato, et irato. God set on the Chaldees, and was the author, not of their evil will, but of their work.

He hath brought them down to the ground.] Though for their height they seemed to threaten heaven.

He hath polluted the kingdom and the priests.] Which were held holy and inviolable. Profanavit regnum coeli, say some Rabbis here, He hath profaned the kingdom of heaven; for so they accounted the commonwealth of Israel, which Josephus calleth Θεοκρατειαν, a God government. But now God had disprivileged them, and cast them off as a thing of naught.

{a} Septuag.

Ver. 3. He hath cut off in his anger all the horn of Israel, ] i.e., All the strength and beauty, the royal majesty especially. {#Ps 89:24 132:17}

He hath drawn back his right hand.] Wherewith he was wont to shelter them and to fight for them. Or, Israel’s right hand—scil., by disabling them; for it is God that strengtheneth and weakeneth the arm of either party. {#Eze 30:24}

And he burned against Jacob.] Or, In Jacob—i.e., He declareth his displeasure among his people as clearly as a flame of fire that is easily discerned.

Ver. 4. He hath bent his bow like an enemy.] He doth not only help the enemies, but himself fighteth against us with his own bare hand. He hath bent his bow, id est, vim suam ultricem, saith Origen; that is, his avenging force. So the poet feigneth that Apollo shot his deadly shafts into the camp of the Grecians.

He stood with his right hand.] Heb., He was set. Vulgate, Firmavit dextram suam; he held his right hand steadily, that he might hit what he shot at.

In the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion.] In Jerusalem, that was sweetly situated, as a tabernacle pitched in a pleasant plain, but now a field of blood.

He hath poured out his wrath like fire, ] i.e., Abundantly and most vehemently, perinde ac Aetna, Hecla, &c.

Ver. 5. The Lord was an enemy.] This the secure and foolish people would not be drawn to believe, till now they felt it; therefore it is so reiterated.

He hath swallowed up Israel, he hath destroyed, &c.] This he had said before, {#La 2:2} but in cases of this kind people love to say the same things over and over. Redundanti copia exponit quae antea dixerat.

And hath increased…mourning and lamentation.] Heb., Lamentation and lamentation—q.d., this is all he hath left us. And this she speaketh mourning, but not murmuring: Non litem intendit Deo, sed confessionem edit.

Ver. 6. And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle.] Redit ad deplorandam religionem: nothing grieves a good soul so much as the loss of religious opportunities. Old Eli’s heart was broken before his neck at the news of the ark taken.

As if it were of a garden.] As if it were some cottage or hovel set up for a short time in a garden for the repose of the gardener. {#Isa 1:8}

He hath destroyed his places of the assembly.] Whence we were wont to hope for help in answer to our prayers. There it was that he formerly "brake the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle." {#Ps 76:3} {See Trapp on "Ps 76:3"} Hence {#2Ch 4:9} the great court of the temple, where the people used to pray, is called Gnazarah; that is, help and defence.

The king and the priest.] Zedekiah and Seraiah, and with them the kingdom and the priesthood.

“ Haec iam pro vill, sub pedibusque iacent.”

Ver. 7. The Lord hath cast off his altar.] She goeth over it again, as the main matter of her grief, that she was bereft of the outward exercises of religion. His altar God had cast into a corner, as that which was an eyesore to him; his sanctuary he abhorred or dissolved, &c. Longe fecit, procul removit a se quasi rem odiosam, sibi ingratam et molestam.

They have made a noise in the house of the Lord.] Where God was wont to be praised with heart and voice, now the enemies reboate and roar out Io triumphe, Io Paean, Victoria, All is our own.

Ver. 8. The Lord hath purposed to destroy.] Non casu, non subito, non temere, sed maturo el destinato decreto. God’s providence (which is nothing else but the carrying on of his decree) extendeth to smallest matters, much more to the subversion of states and cities.

He that stretched out a line, ] scil., Of destruction, or a levelling line. See #2Ki 21:13 Isa 34:11. Jerusalem was built by line, and so it was destroyed by him who doeth all things in number, weight, and measure.

Ver. 9. Her gates are sunk into the ground.] So they seem to be, because laid on the ground, and covered with rubbish. The Rabbis fable, that the gates sank indeed into the ground, that they might not come into the enemy’s power, because the ark had once passed through them; and when the priests that carried it sang, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates," &c., they opened of their own accord.

The law is no more, ] scil., Read, or regarded. Inter arma silent leges, The noise of wars drowns the voice of laws.

Her prophets also find no vision from the Lord.] See #Ps 74:9. {See Trapp on "Ps 74:9"} Jeremiah was alone, and haply thought, when he saw all ruined, that he should prophesy no more. Ezekiel and Daniel were far remote. This was no small affliction that is here complained of. How woe begone was sinful Saul, when in his distress he could have no answer from God either by Urim or vision, &c., but had the devil to preach his funeral!

Ver. 10. The elders of the daughters of Zion.] Who sat once aloft passing sentence, and held themselves, haply, too high to be told their duties by a poor prophet.

Sit upon the ground.] After the manner of mourners.

And keep silence.] Who were wont to be the oracles of the country.

They have cast dust upon their heads.] Those white heads of theirs, which they had stained with foul practices.

They have girded themselves with sackcloth.] Heb., Sacks, instead of silks.

The virgins of Jerusalem.] Who were wont to walk haughtily, and with outstretched necks. {#Isa 3:16}

Hang down their heads to the ground.] As if they were ashamed of themselves, and had small joy of their beauty and former bravery.

Ver. 11. Mine eyes do fail with tears.] Those fountains (as the Hebrew word signifieth) are even drawn dry. I have wept till I can weep no more, as David did; or I have wept myself blind, as Faustus the son of Vortigern (once king of England) is said to have done.

My bowels are troubled.] Heb., Bemudded. See #La 1:20.

My liver is poured upon the earth.] I have well nigh vomited up my gall. {as #Job 16:13}

For the destruction.] Heb., The breach even to shivers, as young trees or ships are broken by tempests.

Because the children and sucklings swoon in the streets.] Miserabile etiam hostibus spectaculum; a rueful sight.

Ver. 12. They say to their mothers.] Lege et luge. Gather and mourne.

“ Tu quibus ista leges incertum est, Lector, ocellis:

Ipse quidem siccis scribere vix potui.”

As oft as I read the Lamentations of Jeremiah, saith Gregory Nazianzen, {a} my voice faileth me, and I am overwhelmed with tears. The misery of that poor people cometh under my view, as it were, and my heart is therewith very much affected and afflicted.

Where is corn and wine.] Frumentum dicunt, non panem. They say grain not bread. Grain they would have been glad of, though unground, saith one; wine they ask for, and not water, which noteth an ill custom in their mothers to drink wine, and to give it their little ones; but by grain and wine here may be meant necessary food, to keep them alive.

When their soul was poured out into the mother’s bosom.] As it were giving them their lives again, seeing they yielded them no food to preserve them alive.

{a} Orat. i. Pacificat.

Ver. 13. What thing shall I take to witness for thee?] q.d., Thou art such a mirror of God’s heavy judgments, that I know not whence to borrow arguments, nor where to find examples for thy comfort, so matchless is thy misery. It exceedeth that of the Egyptians under Moses, of the Canaanites under Joshua, of the Philistines under David, of the Hebrews under Eli, &c. It is even imparallel and inexpressible. I have but one simile to set it forth by, and it is this,

Thy breach is great, like the sea.] As far as the sea exceedeth the rivers, so doth thy calamity exceed that of other nations.

Who can heal thee?] None but an almighty Physician. Surely, in man’s judgment, thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous. {#Jer 30:12}

Ver. 14. Thy prophets.] Thine, and not mine; for thou art miserable by thine own election, accessary to thine own ruin.

Have seen vain and foolish things for thee.] Visions of vanity, sapless and savourless stuff; the fruit, or rather froth, of their own fancies. {#Jer 23:9-14}

And they have not discovered thine iniquity.] Conviction maketh way for conversion, and so preventeth utter subversion.

But have seen for thee false burdens, ] viz., Against Babylon, in confidence whereof thou hast been hardened and heartened in thy sinful practices, to thine utter undoing.

And causes of banishment, ] scil., Eventually, and as it hath proved.

Ver. 15. All that pass by thee clap.] See #La 1:17.

Is this the city?] God’s palace upon earth, the porch of paradise, &c., as they said of Jezebel when she lay torn with dogs, Is this that Jezebel?

“ O quantum haec Niobe, Niobe mutatur ab ills?”

Ver. 16. All thine enemies opened their mouths against thee.] They speak largely and freely to thy dishonour, the very banks of blasphemy being broken down, as it were.

We have swallowed her up.] But shall find her to be hard meat, such as they shall digest in hell. See #La 2:2,5.

Certainly this is the day that we look for.] Pray we that the Papists may never see here their longlooked for day, as they have long called it.

Ver. 17. The Lord hath done that which he hath devised.] Or, Performed what he purposed. See #La 2:8.

He hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded.] That is, his threats annexed to his commands, and of as great authority as they.

In the days of old.] And not two or three days only since. God’s menaces are ancient and infallible, not uttered in terrorem only; neither is his forbearance any acquittance.

And he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee.] Still the prophet calleth off this distressed people from the jeers and insolencies of their enemies, whom they too much looked upon, to the just judgment of God, who turned those dogs loose upon them, to bark at them and to bait them, in the manner said before.

Ver. 18. Their herd cried unto the Lord, ] i.e., They cried seriously at least, if not sincerely. Some think it was not a cry of the spirit for grace, but only of the flesh, for ease and freedom from affliction; wherefore the prophet in the next words turneth to the walls of Jerusalem, which were now broken down, bidding them weep, since the people would not. And surely the stony walls of men’s houses, standing with bells of water on their faces before foul weather, shall witness against such hard hearts as relent not, and so prevent not the terrible tempest of God’s wrath for their iniquities. There are those who render and sense the text thus: "Their heart crieth against the Lord,"—i.e., The adversaries set their whole power to devise blasphemy against God; let the Church therefore pray in hope to be heard, and to speed the better for the other’s insolence. These by wall understand the people within the wall. Others, O mure, qui nunc es mera ruina; O poor shattered wall; or, O city, which art now nothing but bare walls, without housing and inhabitants.

Ver. 19. Arise, cry in the night.] A fit time for meditation and prayer, as we read of David, {#Ps 119:55,148} and of the Son of David. {#Lu 21:37}

In the beginning of the watches.]. When others are in their first—which is their deepest and sweetest—sleep, break thyself of thy rest, that thou mayest give God no rest. {#Isa 62:6,7} Omnibus signis et modis miseriam tuam expone Domino; bestir thee every way, all is but little enough.

Pour out thine heart like water.] That is, saith Sanchez, Weep till thou hast wept thy very heart out, if it were possible. Or as others, Pour out thine heart to God in humble and ingenuous confession and supplication; but then pour it forth as water (whereof every drop will come out), and not as oil, whereof some will still stick to the sides of the vessel. Tundens pectus et non effundens vitia, ea consolidat, saith Augustine. He who pretendeth to repent, and yet parteth not with his sins, doth but increase them.

Lift up thine hands toward him.] But with thy heart. {#La 3:41}

For the life of thy young children.] See on #La 2:11,12.

Ver. 20. Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this.] Even to thine own inheritances, who suffer harder and heavier things commonly than any others. And why? Ingentia beneficia, ingentia flagitia, ingentia supplicia; their offences are increased, their punishments are aggravated by their obligations.

Shall the women eat their fruit, children of a span long?] That they did so in the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldees, it appeareth by this question. In the famine of Samaria, under Joram, they did likewise; {#2Ki 6:28,29} as also at the last destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans; {a} and at the siege of Sancerra, in France, A.D. 1572. See the sad effects of sin, and shun it, if but for the ill consequents of it.

Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?] It seems they were so—but who they were we read not—although God had cautioned, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." Priests were slaughtered, where they used to slaughter beasts for sacrifices; but it may be they were nothing better than Thomas Becket, the devil’s martyr, here, and Adam Benton, that butcherly archbishop in Scotland, who, when himself was butchered, cried out, Kill me not, for I am a priest. {b}

{a} Joseph. de Bel., lib. vii. cap. 8.

{b} Acts and Mon.

Ver. 21. The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets.] Oh, the woe of war! oh, the bloody work that the sword maketh wheresoever it is in commission! Well may it be called "an evil, an only evil," by an antonomasy. {a} {#Isa 45:7}

{a} The substitution of an epithet or appellative, or the name of an office or dignity, for a person’s proper name, as the Iron Duke for Wellington, his Grace for an archbishop. Also, conversely, the use of a proper name to express a general idea, as in calling an orator a Cicero, a wise judge a Daniel. ŒD

Ver. 22. Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors, ] i.e., My terrible enemies the Chaldees, being called in by thee their generalissimo, came on as cheerfully as if they had come to a solemn feast or some merry meeting, and not to a siege and to a bloody war, which they cannot but know to be utrinque triste, such as both sides usually suffer by.

Those that I have swaddled and brought up.] Singula haec verba ponderanda sunt; singula enim ingens habent pathos. Here every word is very ponderous and pathetic; indeed, this whole book is so, which is the reason that there is no great coherence in some places thereof to be discovered. For as he that is under some grievous affliction, without observing of order, now cries, now prays, now laments, now complains, &c.; so doth the prophet here, in the name of the Church, pour forth himself tumultuously in a flood such words as his grief ministered unto him; and grief is no methodical speaker.

Chapter 3

Ver. 1. I am the man.] Here Jeremiah, in the name and place of all the Jewish people, setteth forth his sufferings very passionately and elegantly. Ουδεν γαρ του παθοντος ρητορικοτερον, saith Synesius; for nothing is more rhetorical than a man in misery. See on #La 1:12.

By the rod of his wrath, ] i.e., Of God’s wrath, whom yet he nameth not prae magnitudine affectus, { a} but referreth to him all his sufferings; and he alludeth here, say some, to that rod. {#Jer 1:11}

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 2. He hath led me and brought me into darkness.] Perstat semper in metaphora a pastoritia, say some, who by rod in the foregoing verse understand God’s shepherd’s wand, wherewith, when he is displeased, he driveth his unruly sheep into dark and dangerous places. {#Ps 23:3,4 Mic 7:9}

Ver. 3. Surely against me is he turned.] Metaphora a colaphizantibus. A metaphor from buffeters, who double their blows, beating their adversaries on both sides, as the smith doth his red hot iron upon the anvil till he hath shaped it. {a}

{a} Hinc inde continenter verberat. -Jun.

Ver. 4. My flesh and my skin hath he made old.] Withered it and wanzed it, so that I am not like myself; facta videbor anus, as she said. See #Ps 32:3.

He hath broken my bones.] Decayed and impaired, and that with greatest torment, as befalleth when bones are broken.

Ver. 5. He hath builded against me.] Bulwarks and batteries.

And compassed me with gall and travel.] Or, With venom and vexation. See #Jer 8:14. In these and the like hyperbolic expressions we must note that words are too weak to utter the greatness of the saints’ grief, when they lie under the sense of God’s wrath and heavy displeasure.

Ver. 6. He hath set me in dark places.] Dungeons haply, which are a kind of graves, and where poor prisoners lie as forgotten. The Persians called their prisons ληθας, oblivions. And Ezekiel saith that Babylon was to the Jews as a grave, where they lay for dead till those dead bones lived again. {#Eze 37:1-14}

As they that be dead of old.] Free among the dead and forgotten. It may be said of a saint, in some cases, that

“ Vivit, et est vitae nescius ipse sum.”

Ver. 7. He hath hedged me about.] Sorrounded me with troubles, brought me into straits inextricable and importable.

Ver. 8. Also when I cry and shout.] As poor prisoners use to do for relief and release.

He shutteth out my prayer.] Or, Shutteth his ear to my prayer. This was very grievous to any good heart; more than it could be to Cicero, a stranger to the true God, who yet bewaileth the matter to his brother in these words, I would pray to the gods for those things; but that, alas! they have given over to hear my prayers.

Ver. 9. He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone, ] i.e., Most strongly and closely, so that none can come at me.

He hath made all my paths crooked.] So that all things go cross with me; and although they were never so well devised, yet still they sort out unto the worst.

Ver. 10. He was unto me as a bear lying in wait.] So that if I do but offer to stir, or seek to make escape, I am in danger to be devoured.

And as a lion in secret places.] God hath many ways and means to bemeet with sinners. He can stop them in their course, as he did Balaam, Jonah, and others.

Ver. 11. He hath turned aside my ways.] As #La 3:9.

And pulled me in pieces.] As a bear or lion doth the silly sheep that falleth into their paws. Carnali quadam intemperie haec effusa sunt. The Vulgate hath it, Confregit me. He hath broken me in pieces; scil., Attempting to leap over his hedge; {#La 3:7} his stone wall. {#La 3:9} In the year 1590, Nicolas Frischlin, that famous poet, orator, and philosopher, attempting to escape out of prison, was so broken, a capite ad talos, a cute ad ossa. from the head to the heels, from the skin to the bones. {a}

{a} Alsted., Chron., 480.

Ver. 12. He hath bent his bow.] #La 2:4.

And set me as a mark.] Which he is sure to hit. The Benjamites, {#Jud 20:16} the Parthians, Alcon the Cretan, Domitian the Emperor, were excellent archers; but

“ Non semper feriet quodcunque minabitur arcus; ”

God’s arrow never misseth the mark.

Ver. 13. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.] {a} Heb., The sons of his quiver, by a Hebraism. So Horace hath—

“ Pharetram gravidam sagittis.”—Lib, ii. od. 21.

“Full quiver of arrows.”

Job hath many like complaints. {#Job 7:20 8:4 16:12,13}

{a} Renes sunt sedes libidinis.

Ver. 14. I was a derision, to all my people.] Or, To all peoples. Our Saviour suffered all this and much more for us.

And their song all the day.] Or, Their lute, or kit, whom they played on at pleasure, and desired no better sport.

Ver. 15. He hath filled me with bitterness.] Heb., Bitternesses: {a} alluding, as some think, to that ius seu embamma in quo intingebant agnum Paschalem, sauce of bitter herbs wherewith they did eat the Passover—the juice of them expressed—to mind them of the bitter afflictions which they suffered in Egypt.

He hath made me drunk with wormwood.] Or, Hensbane, or wolfsbane rather, succo cicutae.

{a} Exarescunt torrentes, metalla exhauriuntur, flumina deficiunt, prata item cum structibus, &c.

Ver. 16. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones.] Comminuit scrupis dentes meos -i.e., With gritty bread. See #Pr 20:17.

He hath covered me with ashes.] The Greek and Latin have it, He hath fed me with ashes, which was worse than that bread made most of sawdust, wherewith they fed the martyrs in the Marian times.

Ver. 17. And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace.] Prosperity and I are twain; we are utterly unacquainted.

Ver. 18. And I said.] But not so wisely. I was even almost tumbling into the pit of desperation. I was straddling over it, as it were, but God preserved me.

My strength and my hope is perished.] My strength to bear these miseries, and my hope to be ever freed of them.

Ver. 19. Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall, ] i.e., The bitterness that was in it, but of mine own commingling. Impatiens quisque bis affligitur, Impatience redoubleth an affliction.

Ver. 20. My soul hath them still in remembrance.] But it is not good to plod overly much in this case. Such bitter pills should be swallowed whole, and not chewed upon, unless it be for our further humiliation.

Ver. 21. This I recall to my mind.] This? What? God’s infinite mercies, that cape of good hope; see #La 3:22 Ps 119:56; "This I had"—that is, this comfort, or this ability to keep thy precepts.

Ver. 22. It is of the Lord’s mercy that we are not consumed.] That we are yet on this side hell. This sentence was much in the mouth of that famous Maria Aegyptiaca, and should be in all our minds and mouths for a lenitive.

Because his compassions fail {a} not.] Or, Are not spent, wasted, but, as the oil in the cruse, as the spring ever runneth, the sun ever shineth, &c. This should ever shine in our hearts as the sun doth in the firmament.

{a} Exarescunt torrentes, metalla exhauriuntur, flumina deficiunt, prata item cum fructibus, &c.

Ver. 23. They are new every morning.] Yea, every moment. We have continual experiments.

Great is thy faithfulness.] God’s mercy moved him to promise; his truth to perform. See #2Sa 7:18,21. {See Trapp on "2Sa 7:18"} {See Trapp on "2Sa 7:21"}

Ver. 24. The Lord is my portion.] And that is enough for me, should I never have more. {See Trapp on "Ps 16:5"} That which giveth content in any portion is (1.) The favour and presence of God; (2.) That it is from the hand of a Father; (3.) That it comes to us in the covenant of grace; (4.) That it is the purchase of Christ’s blood; (5.) That it is an answer of prayers, and a blessing from above on honest endeavours, &c. Vide autem, pie Lector, saith an expositor: See here, good reader, how this prophetic lamentation beginneth to be a guide to godliness. For it doth not, after the manner of silly women, throw out empty words without wisdom; but teacheth all along, either overtly or covertly, that all things here below, how highly soever esteemed, are vanity and soon lost; but the grace of God is solid and stable; {a} Christum tollere nemo potest. Christ is a portion unlosable, as one {b} once answered to those that asked him why he was still merry and cheerful.

Said my soul.] {c} Not my mouth only; but I speak it from my very heart, which rejoiceth in God my portion more than the many do in the increase of their grain and wine. {#Ps 4:7}

Therefore will I hope in him.] Expectabo ut teneam per speciem, quem teneo per spem.

{a} Pet. a Figueir.

{b} Deicola Abbas.

{c} Emphatice loquitur.

Ver. 25. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him.] Which few can skill of, and I have somewhat to do to hit on, but would not now have missed of for all the world. {a}

To the soul that seeketh him.] Not giving over till he findeth him.

{a} Et hoc apertam cruditionem continct. -Figu.

Ver. 26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait.] Heb., Be silent: not with a pythagoric or monastic silence, ut non liceat loqui locis et horis certis, but with a humble submission to God’s holy will, a patient and peaceable behaviour under his hand; waiting for a good use thereof, and a gracious issue in the best time—to frame the heart whereunto, Aurea his subnectitur sententia.

Ver. 27. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke from his youth.] The yoke of God’s law, and the discipline of afflictions: it is good to be betime in God’s nurturing house, and remain a good while there, that he be trained up in the school of afflictions, that he be a well-beaten soldier to the cross. {a} The description of such a one followeth.

{a} Quo semel iste imbuta reccus servabit odorem Testa diu. -Hor.

Ver. 28. He sitteth alone.] Sessio solitaria, as being much in meditation, according to that counsel of the preacher, "in the day of adversity consider."

And keepeth silence.] When God’s hand is upon his back, his hand is upon his mouth. See on #La 3:26.

Because he hath borne it upon him.] Or, When he hath taken it upon him; taken up his cross, as being active in suffering.

Ver. 29. He putteth his mouth in the dust.] He lieth low at God’s feet: putting himself into the hands of justice, yet in hope of mercy. See #1Co 14:25.

If so be there may be hope.] Heb., Peradventure there is hope—q.d., doubtless there is; however, I will try, since I have lost many a worse labour.

Ver. 30. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him.] Humility, the product of affliction sanctified, is still at her lesson, or rather practising what she hath learned. David, having suffered by Absalom, can well enough bear with Shimei’s tongue smitings; and the apostles, after they had been in prison, departed from the council, rejoicing that they were so far graced as to be disgraced for the name of Jesus. {#Ac 5:41}

He is filled full of reproach.] He can bravely bear all contumelies and contempts for his conscience, taking them as crowns and confirmations of his conformity to Christ.

Ver. 31. For the Lord will not cast off for ever.] No, not at all, however he may seem to some so to do. Non deserit etiamsi deserat, saith a father: He doth not put his people far from him, as the word here signifieth.

Ver. 32. For though he cause grief.] As sometimes he doth "in very faithfulness," and that he may be true to his people’s souls.

Yet he will have compassion.] He will repent and return, and leave a blessing behind him, that is certain. {#Joe 2:14}

Ver. 33. For he doth not afflict willingly.] Heb., From the heart. {a} Non nisi coactus, as that emperor said when he sealed a writ for execution of a condenmed person: I would not do it but upon necessity. It goeth as much against the heart with God as it can do against the hair with us:

“ Ille dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox.”

{a} Non est Deo volupe, proprium, aut per se intentum. Poenas dat dum poenas exigit. -Sen. de Augusto. Iustis etiam suppliciis illacrymavit et ingemuit. —- De Vespasiano Suetonius.

Ver. 34. To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, ] i.e., All those that are in misery, to lay more load upon them, and so to crush them to pieces, yea, to grind them to powder. This he could as easily do as bid it be done: but he takes no such delight in severity and harshness.

Ver. 35. To turn aside the right of a man.] To wrest his right by false witness and corrupt means, as wicked men use to do before the face of the Most High, or of a superior under colour of law. God liketh none of all this, though again for excellent ends he allows it so to be, and orders it when so it is.

Ver. 36. To subvert a man in his cause.] By sleight of hand to tilt the balance of justice on one side.

The Lord approveth not.] Heb., Seeth not. Non videt -i.e., non ei visum est, it seemeth not good unto him; he liketh it not.

Ver. 37. Who is he?] Tam imprudens et imperitus? Can any one be so simple as to think that the enemy could do aught against us but by the divine permission and appointment? God, as he made all by his power, so he manageth all by his providence. This the Egyptians hieroglyphically set forth by painting God, (1.) As blowing an egg out of his mouth—that is, as making the round world by his word; (2.) To compassing about that orb with a girdle—that is, keeping all together, and governing all by his providence.

Ver. 38. Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good?] i.e., Prosperity and adversity; q.d., Who doubteth of that? {#Am 3:5 Isa 45:7} Talk not then of fate and blind fortune.

Ver. 39. Wherefore doth a living man complain?] Mourn immoderately, or murmur causelessly. 1. If he mourn, let him mourn for his sin as the cause of his suffering; let him revenge upon that. 2. If he be tempted to murmur, let him remember that he is yet alive, and that is more than his part cometh to, since it is the Lord’s mercy that he is not consumed, and sent packing hence to hell. Life in any sense is a sweet mercy, even that which to the afflicted may seem a lifeless life. {as #Pr 15:15} Let this patient us, that we are yet alive.

A man for the punishment of his sins.] Heb., Man for his sin. For sin doth as naturally draw and suck punishments to it as the loadstone doth iron or turpentine fire; wherefore also the same word in Hebrew signifieth both.

Ver. 40. Let us search and try our ways, ] i.e., Make accurate inquiry into them; so shall we soon find ourselves to be a whole newly found world of wickedness. Search we therefore, and do it thoroughly. Many either search not at all (they cannot endure these domestic audits: it is death to them to reflect and recognise what they have done), or as though they desired not to find. They search as men do for their bad money; they know they have it, but they would gladly have it to pass for current among the rest. Heathens will rise up in judgment against such, for they prescribed and practised self-examination: Pythagoras once a day;

“ Non prius in dulcem declines lumina somnum,

Quam prius exactae reputaveris acta diei, ”& c.

Phocylides thrice a day, if Stobaeus {a} may be believed.

And turn again to the Lord.] Let self-examination end in reformation, else sin will be thereby but emboldened and strengthened, as idle vagrants and lawless subjects are, if questioned only, and not punished and restrained. Of turning again to the Lord; {See Trapp on "Zec 1:2"}

{a} Serm.

Ver. 41. Let us llft up our hearts with our hands.] Holy hearts, pure hands. Instead of wrangling with God, {as #La 3:39} let us wrestle with him in prayer; this is the only way to get off with comfort. Nazianzen saith, that the best work we can put our hands unto is, in coelos eas extendere, ad precesque expandere, to lift them up to God in prayer. But then it must be with a true heart. {#Heb 10:22} See #Job 11:13. {See Trapp on "Job 11:13"}

Ver. 42. We have transgressed and have rebelled.] We have committed evil and omitted good, and failed in the manner, and are therefore justly punished. Let God hear such words fall from our mouths, set to work by our hearts, and then we may have anything.

Ver. 43. Thou hast covered with anger.] Overwhelmed us with thy judgments. None out of hell have ever suffered more than the saints: they have felt the sad effects of displeased love.

Ver. 44. Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud.] Hid thy face from us, and secreted thyself as a judge doth when he hath passed sentence upon a malefactor, that he may not be solicited to reverse it.

That our prayers should not pass through.] The veil of the temple was of no debarring matter, but thin and pervious, that the incense might easily pass through it into the Holy of holies: but now it was otherwise; God had set a bar between him and his people.

Ver. 45. Thou hast made us as the offscouring.] Eradicationem, saith the Vulgate; rasuram potius, not the rooting out, but the scrapings off. As the Jews did rather extrinsecus radere peccata quam intrinsecus eradicare, { a} shave off their sins outwardly, than root them out from within: so God made them as despicable as the parings of a pavement, or of a leprous house.

And refuse.] See #1Co 4:13. {See Trapp on "1Co 4:13"}

{a} Bern.— Exverras, scobes et ramenta. Excreamenta et excrements.

Ver. 46. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us, ] i.e., Reviled and derided us. See #La 2:16.

Ver. 47. Fear and a snare is come upon us.] Heb., A pit; great terror, and no way to escape. See #Isa 24:17,18.

Ver. 48. Mine eye runneth down.] Heb., Mine eye descendeth; i.e., falleth, as it were, wholly away. See #La 1:16 2:18.

Ver. 49. Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not.] Put fire under the still, and water droppeth from roses. Fiery afflictions cause drops of repentance; and repentance, like the philosopher’s stone, maketh golden afflictions. {#1Pe 1:7}

Ver. 50. Till the Lord look down.] Let God but see the rainbow of sound repentance in our hearts, and he will soon shine forth, and cause it to clear up.

Ver. 51. Mine eye affecteth my heart.] Iisdem quibus videmus oculis flemus, We see and weep with the same eyes. But Pliny {a} wondereth where that humour is at other times that floweth out of the eyes so readily and plentifully in case of grief.

Because of all the daughters of my city.] Or, Prae omnibus filiabus, ‘ More than all the daughters,’ &c.; more than the most passionate women use to weep when they are most grieved.

{a} Lib. ii. cap. 32.

Ver. 52. Mine enemies chased me sore.] In a most eager and extreme manner, with utmost cruelty and craft.

As a bird.] Beaten from bush to bush.

Without cause.] Jeremiah and the godly party might say so; but not Zedekiah and other perfidious ones.

Ver. 53. They have cut off my life in the dungeon.] Where I led a lifeless life; such as did Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, in King Stephen’s time, who sustained such miseries in prison, ut vivere noluerit, mori nescierit, that live he would not, and yet die he could not.

And cast a stone upon me.] As they did upon the mouths of dens, dungeons, or sepulchres, to make sure work. The Chaldee hath it, They stoned me.

Ver. 54. Waters flowed over mine head.] Many and great miseries have overwhelmed and oppressed me, both in body and soul. These are frequently compared to waters.

Then I said, I am cut off, ] sc., From the land of the living; but God was better to me than my hopes.

Ver. 55. I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.] See #Ps 130:1 Jon 2:1. {See Trapp on "Ps 130:1"} {See Trapp "Jon 2:1"}

Ver. 56. Thou hast heard my voice.] Seem a man’s case never so desperate, if he can but find a praying heart, God will find a pitying heart. Prayer is the best lever at a dead lift.

Hide not thine ear at my breathing.] As breathing is a proof of animal life, so is prayer, though never so weak, of spiritual. If therefore you cannot speak, weep— fietu saepe agitur non affatu, tears also have a voice; {#Ps 39:12} if you cannot weep, sigh—a storm of sighs may do as much as a shower of tears; if you cannot sigh, yet breathe, as here. God feels breath; and happy is he that can say, In te spero et respiro, In thee I hope, Lord, and after thee I breathe or pant.

Ver. 57. Thou drawest near.] This thou hast done, and this I hope thou yet wilt do. Experience breedeth confidence.

Ver. 58. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul.] Whereof those Babylonians were no just judges.

Thou hast redeemed my life.] It is the life, nay, the soul of the saints, that the wicked hunt after, though they do not always profess so to do.

Ver. 59. O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong.] Thou hast seen it and art sensible of it; that is my comfort; for

εχει θεος εκδικον δμμα.

Judge thou my cause.] As #Ps 43:1.

Ver. 60. Thou hast seen all their vengeance.] See on #La 3:59. The saints fare the better for their enemies’ spite and cruelty; and they may very well plead and present it to God in prayer.

Ver. 61. Thou hast heard their reproach.] Their spiteful speeches and taunting terms have come into thine ears.

And all their imaginations.] Heb., Their contrivements. As the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers, {#Ps 34:15} so he both seeth the ill carriage and heareth the ill language of graceless persons against the godly.

Ver. 62. The lips of those that rose up.] See on #La 3:61.

Ver. 63. Behold their sitting down, and their rising up.] Or, At their both sitting down (to eat), and at their rising up (from eatting). I am their music master, their table talk, and the matter of their mirth; they make sport with us, as the Philistines did with Samson. David complaineth of the like evil dealing. {#Ps 35:15-17}

Ver. 64. Render unto them a recompense.] Call them to an account, and requite them. Let their music be marred, and the meal once ended, send them in a reckoning.

Ver. 65. Give them sorrow of heart.] In place of their mad mirth and sinful music; turn their psalm—as the Vulgate rendereth the word music in the foregoing verse—into a black santis, as they call it, ferale carmen, a doleful ditty. Dabis eis scutum cordis, saith the Vulgate. And, indeed, the word rendered sorrow signifieth a shield or cover. It noteth, saith one, the cardiaca passio, { a} whereby the heart is so oppressed, and there is such a stopping, that it is as it were covered sicut scute, as with a shield; there is a lid, as it were, put over the heart to keep off the most refreshing cordials, and so the heart is suffocated with sorrow. {b} It is as if he should say, Put them into such a condition that no creature may yield them the least refreshment. Spira was in this condition.

Thy curse upon them.] All the curses written and unwritten in thy book. This is not more a prayer than a prophecy. How effectual Christ’s curse is, may be seen in the withered fig tree in the Gospel, presently dried up by the roots.

{a} A Lapide.

{b} Mr Burrough’s Hos. Operculum cordis, vel apostema cordis.

Ver. 66. Persecute and destroy them in anger.] Since they are thine and our implacable and irreformable enemies, be thou, Lord, implacably bent against them, to their utter destruction; and since they think us not worthy to breathe in the common air—whom thou hast made heirs of the world together with faithful Abraham our progenitor—destroy them from under these heavens of thine, in the compass and cope whereof thou reignest and rulest all.

From under the heavens of the Lord.] Do thou, O Christ—to whom the Father hath committed all judgment—root them out from under the heavens of thy heavenly Father. Thus some paraphrase the words, and observe therehence the mystery of the Trinity; like as they do from #Ge 19:24.

Chapter 4

Ver. 1. How is the gold become dim.?] How by way of wonderment again, as #La 1:1.—q.d., Quo tanto scelere hominum, et qua tanta indignatione Dei? {a} What have men done, and how hath God been provoked, that there are such strange alterations here all on the sudden? By gold, and fine gold, here understand the temple overlaid by Solomon with choice gold; or God’s people, his spiritual temple, who had now lost their lustre and dignity.

The stones of the sanctuary are poured out.] Come tumbling down from the demolished temple.

{a} Pet. a Figueir.

Ver. 2. The precious {a} sons of Zion.] Those porphyrogeniti, as the Greek emperor’s children were called, because born and bred up in a room made up of precious stones. Understand it of the Jews in general—God’s peculiar people, precious in his sight, and therefore honourable; {#Isa 43:4} of Zedekiah’s sons in particular, who—as did also the rest of the Jewish nobility, if Josephus {b} may be believed—powdered their hair with gold dust, to the end that they might glitter and sparkle against the beams of the sun. The precious children of the Church are all glorious within by means of the graces of the Spirit, that golden oil, {#Zec 4:12} and the blessings of God "out of Zion," {#Ps 134:3} which are far beyond all other the blessings of heaven and of earth.

As earthen pitchers.] Weak and worthless.

{a} πιμιοι.—Sept.

{b} Antiq., lib. viii. cap. 7.

Ver. 3. Even the sea monsters.] {a} Heb., Whales or seals, which, being amphibii, have both a willingness and a place convenient to suckle their whelps.

The daughter of my people is become cruel.] She is so perforce, being destitute of milk for want of food, but much more by feeding upon them. {#La 4:10 2:20} Oh, what a mercy is it to have meat! and how inexcusable are those unnatural mothers that neglect to nurse their children, not out of want, but wantonness! Surely as there is a blessing of the womb to bring forth, so of the breasts to give suck; {#Ge 49:25} and the dry breasts and barren womb have been taken for a curse, {#Ho 9:14} as some interpret that text.

{a} Lamiae.—Vulg.

Ver. 4. The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth.] For want of suck. That was a miracle which is recorded of the old woman of Bolton, in Lancashire, who took up a poor child that lay crying at the breasts of her dead mother—slain, among many others, by Prince Rupert’s party—and laying it to her own dry breasts, that had not yielded suck for above twenty years before, on purpose to still it, had milk came to nourish it, to the admiration and astonishment of all beholders. This and another like example of God’s good providence for the relief of little ones whom their mothers could not relieve, may be read of in Mr Clark’s "Mirror for Saints and Sinners," edit. 3, fol. 495, 507.

And no man breaketh it unto them.] The parents either not having it for them, or not having a heart to part with it to them.

Ver. 5. They that did feed delicately.] Such uncertainty there is of outward affluence. Our Richard II was famished to death. {a} Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter, grandchild to John of Gaunt, was seen to run on foot bare legged after the Duke of Burgundy’s train, begging his bread for God’s sake. This I saw, saith Philip de Comines. This Henry was brother-in-law to King Edward IV, from whom he fled.

They that were brought up in scarlet.] Qui nutriebantur in croceis seu cocceis, that were gorgeously arrayed, or, that rolling on their rich beds, wrapped themselves in costly quilts.

Embrace dunghills.] {b} There take up their lodgings, and there also are glad to find anything to feed on, though never so coarse and homely. The lapwing is made a hieroglyphic of infelicity, because he hath as a coronet upon the head, and yet feedeth upon the worst of excrements. It is pity that any child of God, washed in Christ’s blood, should bedabble his scarlet robe in the stinking guzzle of the world’s dunghill; that anyone who hath heretofore soared as an eagle should now creep on the ground as a beetle, or wallow as a swine in the mire of sensuality.

{a} Speed, lib. iii. cap. 4.

{b} In fimetis victum quaeritant prae inopia. -Jun.

Ver. 6. For the punishment of the iniquity of Zion is greater.] For Sodom was destroyed by angels, Zion by malicious men. The enemies were not enriched by Sodom, as they were by Zion. Sodom was destroyed in an instant; not so Zion, for she had her punishment piecemeal; first a long siege, and then the loss of all, after a world of miseries sustained in the siege. Julius Caesar was wont to say, It is better once to fall than always to hang in suspense. Augustus wished that he might die suddenly. His life he called a comedy, and said that he thought he had acted his part therein pretty handsomely. Now, if he might soon pass through death, he would hold it a happiness. Soldiers’ wish is thus set forth by the poet:

“ Quid enim? concurritur, horae

Momento aut cita mors venit aut victoria laeta.”

It is the ancient and manful fashion of the English (who are naturally most impatient with lingering mischiefs) to put their quarrels to the trial of the sword, as the chronicler observeth. {a}

{a} Speed, 963.

Ver. 7. Her Nazarites.] Who served God in a singular way of abstinence above other men. These had their rules given them, {#Nu 6:1-21} which while they observed,

They were purer than snow, whiter than milk.] Temperance is the mother of beauty, as luxury is of deformity. This is nothing to the Popish votaries, those epicures and abbey lubbers:

“ Quorum luxuriae totus non sufficit orbis.”

Some by Nazarites here understand their nobles, and such as wore coronets on their heads. Nezar is a crown; {#2Sa 1:10 2Ki 11:12} thus Joseph was a Nazarite; {#Ge 49:26} so Daniel and his three associates, in whom that was verified,

“ Gratior est pulchro veniens in corpore virtus.”

Ver. 8. Their visage is blacker than a coal.] Heb., Their visage is more darkened than blackness—scil., With famine, fear, grief, and care; those vultures have so fed upon them that all sightliness and loveliness is lost. Think the same of apostates, God may complain of such. {as #Mic 2:8}

Ver. 9. They that be slain with the sword are better.] They suffer less pain in dying; they are soon despatched. See on #La 4:6. But famine is a hard weapon.

“ Triste genus mortis miseris mortalibus omne:

Est tureen imprimis triste perire fame.”

For these pine away.] By a lingering death, as Drusus the Roman, to whom food being denied, he had eaten the stuffings of his bed, saith Suetonius; and our Richard II, who was tantalised and starved to death at Pomfret Castle, where his diet being served in and set before him in the wonted princely manner, he was not suffered either to taste or touch thereof. {a}

Stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.] Those "precious fruits of the earth," as James the apostle calleth them. {#Jas 5:7} These as a sword defend us from death; and the want of them, as a sword, runneth us through. In the time of Otho the emperor, there was so great a scarcity of bread grain in Germany for three years together that many thousands died of hunger; in remembrance of which great dearth there is yearly baked at Erfurt a little loaf, such as was then sold for much money. {b}

{a} Speed, 766.

{b} Melanchth.

Ver. 10. The hands of the pitiful women have sodden.] Sodden them rather than roasted them, lest they should be discovered by the smell, and so in danger to be despoiled of them, as it happened at the last siege by the Romans. Lege et luge. Assemble and mourne.

They were their meat.] In eadem viscera, ex quibus exierant, retrusi sunt; they returned into the same bowels whence they came forth.

Ver. 11. The Lord hath accomplished his fury.] Which he had long deferred, but now hath paid it home. Cave ne ira delata fiat duplicata.

He hath poured out his fierce anger.] As it were by whole buckets or pailfuls. God’s anger may be let out in minnows as there may be much poison in little drops. But woe be those on whom it is poured!

He hath kindled a fire in Zion.] His wrath is like fire, that furious element, which at first burneth a little upon a few boards; but when it prevaileth, it bursteth forth into a terrible flame.

Ver. 12. The kings of the earth, &c.] These, knowing how impregnable a piece Jerusalem was; how the Jebusites of old held out the tower of Zion against David; how long it had kept out Nebuchadnezzar—viz., for two years’ time almost; how it had been preserved by God against Sennacherib, &c., looked upon it as in a son insuperable, and could not but see a divine vengeance in the destruction of it.

Ver. 13. For the sins of her prophets.] These, these were the right cause of her ruin. Not that the people were not faulty—for they "loved to have it so" {#Jer 5:31} -but those were the ringleaders in that general defection.

Ver. 14. They have wandered as blind men in the streets.] Well might a certain expositor say, Hic versus cure sequentibus varie exponitur. The sense, in short, is this, saith one, that the Jews, misled by their prophets and priests, were so blind in knowledge that every example of sin led to evil, which, for want of grace, they could not refrain from.

Ver. 15. They cried unto them.] The enemies in a mockery said aloud unto the Jews.

Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart.] Mimesis {a} -q.d., You that are so pure, and (as people say profanely among us), so Pope holy, that none must come near you, but get away as far and as fast as they can, as if they were lepers, &c.

They said among the heathen.] The blind Ethnics, beholding the Jews’ wickedness, have judged that it was impossible God should suffer them any longer to live in his good land, since they would not live by his good laws.

{a} A figure of speech, whereby the supposed words or actions of another are imitated

Ver. 16. The anger of the Lord hath divided them.] Say the heathen still concerning the wicked Jews; continuatur enim hic instituta mimesis.

He will no more regard them.] Heb., Look after them—scil., Facie blenda ac benevola, in mercy; he hath utterly rejected them. For what reason?

They respected not the persons of the priests.] But vilely entreated them. See #2Ch 36:16. Sacerdotes apud omnes gentes sunt venerabiles ob ministerium.

Ver. 17. As for us, our eyes as yet failed.] With long and vain looking. {as #Ps 119:82,123} "For, As for us," some render, Cum adhuc essemus, while as yet we were—scil., a nation, for now we are none. Fuimus Troes.

In our watching we have watched for a nation, ] sc., For the Egyptians. {#Jer 2:18,36 37:7,8}

Ver. 18. They hunt our steps.] There is an elegance in the original, as if we should say, They hunt our haunts.

That we cannot go in our streets.] Because of their forts, from whence they shoot at us. Satan doth so much more—

“ Cui nomina mille,

Mille nocendi artes.”

Our end is come.] We are an undone people.

Ver. 19. Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles.] Those swiftest of all fowl, whom Pindarus therefore calleth the queen of birds as the dolphin of fishes, for like swiftness. The Egyptians, their pretended helpers, were slow as snails; the Chaldees swifter than eagles.

They pursued us.] Or, They chased us, or traced us, like bloodhounds.

They laid wait for us in the wilderness.] They met us at every turn, and left us no means of escape.

Ver. 20. The breath, of our nostrils.] King Zedekiah, in whose downfall we drew, as it were, our last breath. The Chaldee paraphrast understandeth it of Josiah, with whom, indeed, died all the prosperity of the Jews as with Epaminondas did that of the Thebans, and with Theodosius that of the Western Empire.

The anointed of the Lord.] Who yet, for his perfidy, was vilely cast away like Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil. {#2Sa 1:21}

Was taken in their pits.] A term taken from hunters (#Eze 12:13; see #La 4:20 Jer 52:8).

Under his shadow.] As the chickens do under the hen’s.

Ver. 21. Rejoice and be glad.] This is spoken to Edom by a certain ironic and bitter concession—-q.d., Do so if thou hast any mind to it; but thou shalt soon be made to change thy cheer. Thy flearing at us shall be soon turned into fearing for thyself, thy mirth into mourning.

That dwellest in the land of Uz.] Job’s country, called also Syria, saith R. Solomon, and haply from Seir. Evil is at next door by to those who rejoice at the evils of others.

The cup shall pass through unto thee.] The quaffing cup of God’s wrath. {#Jer 25:18,29}

And shalt make thyself naked.] {a} To the scorn of all, as drunkards, who are void of shame and common honesty, baring those parts that nature would have covered. See #Jer 49:10.

{a} Ut ebria et amotae mentis. as the intoxicated and the insane.

Ver. 22. The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion.] A word of comfort in the close of this doleful ditty. The Sun of righteousness loveth not to set in a cloud. See #Isa 40:1. Profane elegies have no comfort in them, as this hath.

He will no more carry thee away into captivity, ] i.e., No more in haste, after thy return from Babylon. Carried away they were again, many ages later, by the Romans, {a} whom to this day they therefore call "Edomites," and the Pope’s hierarchy "the wicked kingdom of Edom," which they say shall he certainly destroyed, as is here also foretold; and then shall they be brought back again to Jerusalem, and there resettled by their Messiah. See the Chaldee paraphrast upon this text.

He will discover thy sins, ] i.e., Punish thee soundly for them in the sight of all men. See on #Ps 32:1,2 Job 20:27.

{a} Accommodant huc #Isa 21:11, legentes pro Dumah Roma.

Chapter 5

Ver. 1. Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us.] This last chapter is a brief recapitulation {a} of what had been said in the four former, that they might be the better remembered and considered by the reader. The ancient Greek and Latin Bibles style it "Jeremiah’s prayer." Herein the prophet, or rather the Church, layeth open, as a lazar, {b} her sores and sufferings, and beggeth to be remembered and considered of God. Not that either forgetfulness or inobservance can be found in him, for all things, both past and future, are present with him, but these are metaphoric expressions, and he alloweth us to be his "remembrancers."

Consider, and behold.] Heb., Behold and see Affectum cum effectu coniuncture significat.

Our reproach.] This is that which man’s nature is most impatient for. To the saints it is so much the more grievous, because they do quarter arms with Christ.

{a} Propheta per ανακεφαλαιωσιν repetit omnia mala supra commemorate, et remedium petit a Domino. -Figueir.

{b} A poor and diseased person, usually one afflicted with a loathsome disease; esp. a leper.

Ver. 2. Our inheritance is turned to strangers.] So the Jews called all other nations, as the Greeks, barbarians. From hence to #La 5:19 there are so many verses, so many different complaints. While we are in this "vale of misery and valley of tears," we are sure of many ailments, and still to have somewhat to cry for.

Ver. 3. We are orphans and fatherless.] And so are become thy clients, just objects of thy pity. {#Ho 14:3}

Ver. 4. We have drunk our water for money.] Fire, water, and air are common good, quae iure naturae sunt omnium et singulorum, saith Cicero. {a} Lysimachus paid dear for a cup of water when he parted with his kingdom for it. Dives would have done as much in hell for a drop, and could not have it.

Our wood is sold to us.] This was strange to them—who had enough of their own growing, or might have it from the commons for fetching—but just upon them for their abuse of it to the service of the queen of heaven. {#Jer 7:18}

{a} Offic., i.

Ver. 5. Our necks are under persecution.] For that we would not stoop to the sweet yoke of thine obedience, but held it heavy, now, we are under an intolerable yoke of extreme slavery.

We labour, and have no rest.] Who once troubled God’s holy rest by bearing burdens, and working thereon. {#Jer 17:21} In many places among us God’s Sabbath is made the voider, and dunghill for all refuse businesses. The Sabbath of the Lord, the sanctified day of his rest, saith a reverend writer, {a} is shamelessly troubled and disquieted. The Sabbath was never so profaned, saith such another reverend man {b} yet living, with heart, hand, foot, tongue, pen, and press, as of late. And is it not just with God that those who would jostle his religious rest out of its right, should be restless in their condition? {as #La 5:5} Thus he. All wicked men, acted and agitated by the devil day and night, may well cry out as here, We labour, and have no rest; but they are not sensible of this woeful servitude.

{a} Bishop King on Jonah, lec, vii.

{b} Mr Ley’s Fast Sermon before Parliament, April 26, 1643.

Ver. 6. We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians.] Enemies to the Chaldeans, no less than they were to us; but hard hunger, that driveth the wolf out of the wood, hath made us glad to be beholden to them for bread; so ill have the cruel Chaldees relieved and rewarded us for our work.

Ver. 7. Our fathers have sinned, and are not.] They had their payment, but not comparable to ours, who have outsinned them, and do therefore justly bear the punishment of both their sins and our own too. Nobis foret iucundias semel emori, quam vitara invitara vivere.

Ver. 8. Servants have ruled over us.] And they are usually most insolent, as was Tobiah the servant. {#Ne 2:19} Cicero, after the defeat given to! Pompey, complaineth in a certain epistle, Lords we could not away with, and now we are forced to serve our fellow servant. This was Canaan’s curse, to be a servant of servants. {#Ge 9:25} {See Trapp on "Ge 9:25"}

Ver. 9. We gat our bread with the peril of our lives.] So did our good ancestors the bread of life, while their preachers also were glad to do as Jotham did, {#Jud 9:21} when they had delivered what they had to say, run away, and flee for their lives. See #2Sa 23:17.

Because of the sword of the wilderness.] Where rovers and robbers lay in wait for us; neither could we pass them without apparent peril.

Ver. 10. Our skin was black like an oven.] Or, As a chimney, {#Isa 31:9} being still beaten upon with the fire that is within it,

Because of the terrible famine.] Propter procellas famis, because of the tempests of famine, which, like a violent storm, beareth down all before it.

Ver. 11. They ravished the women in Zion.] Heb., They humbled, i.e., they dishonested: although Virgo invita vexari quidem potest, violari non potest. The Chaldee paraphraseth thus, The wives were ravished by the Romans, and the maids by the Chaldees; for the Jewish doctors do understand this book of the Lamentations concerning both the destructions of Jerusalem.

Ver. 12. Princes are hanged up by the hand.] Made to die a dog’s death, and, as some {a} will have it, by their own hands, αυτοχειρες.

The faces of the elders were not honoured.]

“ Magna fuit quondam capitis reverentia cani:

Inque suo precio ruga senilis erat, ”— Ovid.

But now it was otherwise with the Jewish elders, who haply were not worthy of their years, as we say; like as the princes had done wickedly with both hands earnestly, and were therefore not undeservedly hanged up hy the hand; but if Quakers among us might have their way, our families, saith one, would soon be like the cabins of the Lestringonians in Sicily, where everybody was at liberty, and none regarded or reverenced their seniors or superiors.

{a} Calvin.

Ver. 13. They took the young men to grind, ] i.e., To do any base and abject business. {#Ex 11:5 12:29} Frustra enim hic Hieronymus et alii Sodomiticum quid cogitant.

And the children fell under the wood.] Being not able to stand under such unreasonable burdens as were laid upon their backs.

Ver. 14. The elders have ceased from the gate.] Where they were wont to sit, {#Ge 34:20} to judge between party and party.

The young men from their music.] From their ordinary and honest recreations and disports.

Ver. 15. The joy of our heart is ceased.] Heb., Keepeth Sabbath, i.e., is vanished, and that because we made not God’s Sabbath our delight. {as #Isa 58:13}

Ver. 16. The crown is fallen from our head, ] i.e., All our glory, both of Church and State, because we refused to serve God, which indeed is to "reign in righteousness." Now neither is all this, nor any of this, spoken to exasperate or exulcerate people’s hearts to fret against God, or to faint under their pressures, but to put them upon the practice of true humiliation, that so they may not lose the fruit of their afflictions, whence the following passage.

Woe unto us that we have sinned!] Which, as it runneth sweetly and rhythmically in the original, so it pointeth us to that savoury and sovereign practice of lamenting our sins more than our miseries, and humbling ourselves to the utmost under the mighty hand of God, that he may lift up in due season.

Ver. 17. For this our heart is faint.] Ponit symbolum vere contritionis, we are sin sick even at heart; our sins are as so many daggers at our hearts, or bearded arrows in our flesh.

For these things our eyes are dim.] We have well nigh wept them out; whereby, nevertheless, our minds have been enlightened. Lachrymae sunt succus cordis contriti, seu liquores animae patientis.

Ver. 18. Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, ] q.d., Next unto our sins (which are our greatest sorrow), nothing troubleth us more than this, that the public exercises of piety are put down; Zion, the seat of God’s sanctuary, is desolate.

Ver. 19. Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever.] Alioqui totus totus desperassem, as that good man said once in like ease, Otherwise I should have but small joy of my life. But thou art everlasting, and invariable in essence, truth, will, and promises. This is mine anchor hold.

Thy throne from generation to generation, ] i.e., Thy most equal and righteous ordering of all things, utut nobis quaedam confusiuscule currere videantur, though some things may seem to us to be somewhat confusedly carried, and even to run on wheels, yet it shall one day appear that there was a wheel within a wheel, {#Eze 1:15,16} that is, an overruling and all disposing Providence.

Ver. 20. Wherefore dost thou forget us?] Since thy covenant runs otherwise. {#2Sa 7:14 La 5:1}

And forsakest us so long time?] Heb., To length of days. {as #Ps 23:6} Not for seventy years only, but to the end of the world; till "wrath is come upon us to the utmost." {as #1Th 2:16}

Ver. 21. Turn thou us unto thee.] That thou mayest turn thee to us. {as #Zec 1:3} Let there be a thorough reformation wrought in us, and then a gracious restoration wrought for us.

Ver. 22. But thou hast utterly rejected us.] This is a sad catastrophe, or close of this doleful ditty, {a} Sometimes God’s suppliants are put hard to it in the course of their prayers; the last grain of their faith and patience seemeth to be put into the scale. When the Son of man cometh with deliverance to his praying people, shall he find faith in the earth? Hard and scarce; and yet he comes oft when they have even done looking for him. He is seen in the mount; he helpeth those that are forsaken of their hopes: hallelujah. Sure it is that God cannot utterly reject his people whom he hath chosen. {#Ro 11:2-5} Tremellius rendereth it—and so the margin of our Bibles hath it, and I think better—For wilt thou utterly reject us, or be extremely wroth with us—scil., supra modulum nostrum -according to thine infinite power, and above all that we are able to bear? I cannot think it, neither doth it consist with thy covenant.

Here (as also at the end of Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, and Malachi) many of the Hebrew Bibles repeat the foregoing verse, Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, &c., yet without points, lest anything should seem added thereby to the holy Scriptures. {Hebrew Text Note} The reason hereof read in the end of the prophecy of Isaiah. {See Trapp on "Isa 66:24"} This is also here observed by the most renowned Mr Thomas Gataker, whom, for honour’s sake, I name, and to whose most accurate and elaborate annotations upon Isaiah and Jeremiah I have been not a little beholden all along. These he finished not long before his death, to the great glory of God and good of his Church. And of him, and this worthy work of his, I may fitly say, as a learned man doth of Magellan of Portugal (that great navigator), that the strait or sea now called by his name— Fretum Magellanicum—una navigatione simul et immortalem gloriam et mortem ei attulerit -was both his death and his never dying monument. {b}

“Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”— {#1Sa 7:12}

{a} Est aposiopesis ad pathos.

{b} Boxhorn Histor. Universal.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5