Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Lamentations 1:12

Clarke's Commentary

Verse 12. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? — The desolations and distress brought upon this city and its inhabitants had scarcely any parallel. Excessive abuse of God's accumulated mercies calls for singular and exemplary punishment.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

THE FIVE POEMS

Desolation in Jerusalem (1:1-22)

Jerusalem, once a busy commercial city, is now empty. She is like a woman who has lost her husband, like a princess who has become a slave. The nations (her ‘lovers’) who she thought would help her have proved useless, some even treacherous (1:1-3).
When Jerusalem’s hour of crisis came, all her leaders fled, leaving the people to be attacked, plundered and taken captive. Now that all the usual activities of daily life have ceased, there remain only the memories of the pleasant way of life she once enjoyed - and the memory of how her enemies laughed at her downfall (4-7).
The reason for Jerusalem’s desolation is her sin. In her idolatry and wickedness she had acted like an immoral woman; now she has been treated like one (8-9). Babylonian soldiers not only entered the temple (something that was forbidden to foreigners) but also plundered its precious metals and took its sacred treasures. The starving people in the crushed city try to trade their personal possessions with the enemy soldiers in a desperate effort to obtain bread (10-11).
In anguish the personified city asks those who pass by if they feel any pity for her because of the suffering God has sent her. She has been attacked, burnt, and left in a condition of hopeless ruin (12-13). Her sins have weighed her down as a heavy yoke weighs down on the neck of a working animal. Consequently, when God sent the enemy armies against her, she was so weak and helpless that she was unable to withstand them (14-16).
Although she does not receive the sympathy for which she cries out, she is not bitter against God. She knows God has justly punished her for her sins. She warns others to learn from her experience (17-18). When she called for help, none came. Some of the people starved to death in the siege, others were killed or taken captive when the city finally fell (19-20).
Jerusalem’s grief is made worse by the mockery of her neighbours. They rejoice over the fall of Jerusalem, yet they themselves are wicked. She prays that God will carry out justice against them as he has carried it out against Judah (21-22).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

GOD HAS BOUND THE YOKE OF MY SINS UPON ME

"See, O Jehovah, and Behold, for I am abject. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is brought upon me, Wherewith Jehovah hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. From on high hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them; He hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back. He hath made me desolate and faint all the day. The yoke of my transgression is bound by his hand; They are knit together, they are come upon my neck; he hath made my strength to fail: The Lord hath delivered me into their hands, Against whom I am not able to stand."

"From here to the end of the chapter the emphasis is upon God's responsibility in the things that have happened to Jerusalem."Anthony L. Ash, Jeremiah and Lamentations (Abilene, Texas: A.C.U. Press, 1987), p. 341.

"In the day of his fierce anger" This day had already arrived for Jerusalem, but there is also a consciousness here of a similar day that shall arrive for the pagan nations that have humiliated Jerusalem; and the last half of the chapter will also emphasize that fact. "Most modern commentators ignore the severity of the divine nature. They fail to see that real goodness does not indulge evil."Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 697.

"The yoke of my transgressions… are come upon my neck" "This is a powerful example of a people reaping what they have sown."Ibid. In the days of their kings, as for example in the case of Solomon, they had enslaved the residue of the peoples of Canaan; now they themselves were enslaved. The metaphor employed here is from the plowman. "As he binds the yoke upon the necks of the oxen, so God compels Judah (and all men) to bear the burden of their sins."Barnes' Notes on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1989 reprint of 1878 Edition), op. cit., p. 285.

"These words are a torrential flood of pent-up emotions; but there is no resentment; she freely confesses that she has rebelled against God, allowing that he is in the right; and she appeals to him as her only hope."The Teachers' Bible Commentary, p. 485.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

The lamentation of the city, personified as a woman in grief over her fate.

Lamentations 1:13

It prevaileth - Or, hath subdued.

He hath turned me back - Judaea, like a hunted animal, endeavors to escape, but finds every outlet blocked by nets, and recoils from them with terror and a sense of utter hopelessness.

Lamentations 1:14

Bound by his hand - As the plowman binds the yoke upon the neck of oxen, so God compels Judah to bear the punishment of her sins.

They are wreathed, and ... - Or, they are knotted together, “they come up” etc. Judah’s sins are like the cords by which the pieces of the yoke are fastened together Jeremiah 27:2; they are knotted and twined like a bunch upon the neck, and bind the yoke around it so securely that it is impossible for her to shake it off.

He hath made ... - Or, it hath made “my strength” to stumble. The yoke of punishment thus imposed and securely fastened, bows down her strength by its weight, and makes her totter beneath it.

The Lord - The third distich of the verse begins here, and with it a new turn of the lamentation. The title Adonai (properly, my Lord) is in the Lamentations used by itself in fourteen places, while the name Yahweh is less prominent; as if in their punishment the people felt the lordship of the Deity more, and His covenant-love to them less.

Lamentations 1:15

The Lord hath trodden under foot - Or, אדני 'ădonāy has made contemptible (i. e. put into the balance, made to go up as the lighter weight, and so made despicable) “my war-horses” (put metaphorically for heroes).

In the midst of me - They had not fallen gloriously in the battlefield, but remained ignominiously in the city.

Assembly - Or, “a solemn feast;” the word especially used of the great festivals Leviticus 23:2. אדני 'ădonāy has proclaimed a festival, not for me, but against me.

The Lord hath trodden ... - Or, “אדני 'ădonāy hath trodden the winepress for the virgin daughter of Judah.” See Jeremiah 51:14 note. By slaying Judah’s young men in battle, God is trampling for her the winepress of His indignation.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

The beginning of the verse is variously explained. Some read it interrogatively, “Is it nothing to you who pass by the way?” Others more simply, “I see that I am not cared for by you; to you my sorrow is nothing.” Some again read thus, “Let it not be a sorrow to you;” and others, “Let not sorrow be upon you,” that is, let not what I have happen to you; so that it is a prayer expressive of benevolence.

What I prefer is the interrogation, Is it nothing to you who pass by the way ? for the letter, ה, He, the note of a question, is often omitted. But were it read affirmatively, the meaning would not be unsuitable: “It does not concern you who pass by,” as though Jerusalem, in its lamentations, felt grieved that all those who passed by were not touched either with pity or with sorrow. ⁽¹³⁸⁾

But she addressed those who passed by, that she might more fully set forth the greatness of her calamity. For. had she directed her words to neighbors alone, there would not have been so much force in them; but when she spoke to strangers, she thus shewed that her calamity was so great, that it ought to have roused the sympathy of men from the remotest parts, even while on their journey. And she asks them to look and see. The order is inverted, for she said before, “See, Jehovah, and look.” Then Jerusalem asked God, first to turn his eyes to see her calamities, and then attentively to notice them: but now for another purpose she says, look ye and see, that is, consider how evident is my calamity, which otherwise might have been in a measure hidden from you. Look ye, she says, is there a sorrow like my sorrow? she adds, which is come to me: some render the words actively, “which Jehovah has brought on me;” but the other version is more correct, for it is more literal. Jerome’s rendering is, “who has gleaned me;” and צעלל olal, means sometimes to glean, nor do I wish to reject this interpretation. But what follows is incorrectly rendered, as in a former instance, by Jerome, “of which Jehovah has spoken:” for he derived the verb, as before stated, from הגה, ege; but it comes from יגה, ige, as it is evident from the letter ו, vau, being inserted. There is then no doubt but that the Church intimates that God was the author of that sorrow which she deplored.

And it is necessary to know this, lest men should be carried away into excesses in their mourning, as it frequently happens. For the majesty of God imposes a check, when we perceive that we have to do with him. Simple and bare knowledge of this is not, indeed, sufficient, for, as it has been said, the ungodly, while they know that their sorrows proceed from God, yet murmur against him: but it is nevertheless the beginning of patience and meekness when we have a regard to God. It was, then, for this reason that Jerusalem said that she had been afflicted by God.

And it is added, In the day of the indignation of his wrath. Here the Prophet wished to express the grievousness of God’s vengeance, by mentioning the indignation of wrath. Some render חרום, cherun, “fury;” but as the word “fury” is too harsh, the word “indignation,” or great heat (excandescentia) is not unsuitable. We must, however, bear in mind the design of the Prophet, which was to shew that God’s vengeance had been so dreadful, as though his wrath had all been on a flame against Jerusalem: and this is more fully confirmed in the following verse, —

(138) It is evidently taken as לו by the Sept. , the Vulg. , and the Targ. ; but as a negative by the Syr. , and the sentence is taken as a question: and this gives the best meaning. — Ed

Smith's Bible Commentary

Shall we turn now in our Bibles to the book of Lamentations.

The book of Lamentations in the Hebrew Bible does not appear in the same place that it appears in our Bibles. In the Hebrew Bible it appears with a group of books: Esther, and Ruth, Job, and Ezra. It was written by Jeremiah, and that is why in our Bibles they inserted it after the book of Jeremiah, because it is almost sort of an epilogue to the book of Jeremiah, in that it follows the destruction of the city of Jerusalem.

There is on the site of Golgotha a cave that is called Jeremiah's Grotto. This cave known as Jeremiah's Grotto comprises a part of the face of the skull; hence the name Golgotha. Because as you look at the cliff, with these caves that are there in the cliff, they take the appearance of a skull. One of these caves is called Jeremiah's Grotto. It is interesting that from those caves there on the site of Golgotha, you have a tremendous view of the city of Jerusalem, for Golgotha is actually the top of what was once Mount Moriah. And it looks down over the city of Jerusalem.

Tradition declares that Jeremiah sat in this grotto when he wrote the book of Lamentations, and there he wept and cried over the desolation of the city of Jerusalem as he saw its ruins, as he saw the walls destroyed, as he saw the buildings leveled. And from this vantage, he wrote this book.

In the Septuagint, which is a translation of the scriptures into Greek that was done by seventy Hebrew scholars about 200 B.C., they prefaced the book of Lamentations with these words, "And it came to pass, that after Israel had been carried away captive, and Jerusalem made desolate, Jeremiah sat weeping and lamented this lament over Jerusalem and said, 'How doth the city sit solitary.'" So, they have that as a prologue to the book of Lamentations, and it was picked up and put in the Vulgate.

The book of Lamentations is a favorite style of Hebrew poetry in four of the chapters. They are as known as an acrostic, and they were written in order to facilitate the memorization, in that you'll notice that in the first three chapters there are twenty two verses in each chapter. In the original Hebrew poetry, these twenty two verses were actually twenty two lines of the poem, and each line began with a succeeding letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So the first line began with Aleph, and then with Beth, and then with Gimel, and then with Daleth, and on through the Hebrew alphabet, each line with the succeeding letter of the Hebrew alphabet in the first three chapters...in the first two chapters.

In the third chapter, you'll notice that there are sixty six verses. The first three lines begin with Aleph, the next three with Beth, the next three with Gimel. And so it was in triplets, actually, thus the sixty six verses. The fourth chapter, again each line beginning with the succeeding letter of the Greek alphabet. And even though the fifth chapter has twenty two verses, it is not in an acrostic. It doesn't follow this same pattern of each line beginning with the successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. But they would often write their poems that way in order to help you in memorizing the poem, because you knew that the next line began with the next letter of the alphabet in succeeding order.

This is a funeral dirge. It is a lament of Jeremiah over Jerusalem after the destruction. And the book of Lamentations is read each year in the synagogue on the fourth day of the ninth month. So, around August the fourth, this particular lament or book is read in the Jewish synagogues as they commemorate the anniversary of the destruction of Solomon's temple in 586 B.C.

With that as a background, let us go into the first chapter, as Jeremiah declares,

How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and the princess among the providences, how is she become a tributary! ( Lamentations 1:1 )

The city is empty. It is now sitting solitary. The inhabitants have either been slain or carried away captive. There is a weird silence over this once prosperous, beautiful city, as it lies there now in rubble.

She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies ( Lamentations 1:2 ).

Jerusalem was once as a princess. Actually, tribute was paid to Solomon and to his kingdom, but now Jerusalem has become a tributary paying tribute to others. Those that she trusted in, Egypt and others have now become her enemies.

Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwells among the heathen, she finds no rest: in all of her persecutors overtook her between the straits. The ways [or the paths] on the way to Zion do mourn, because none come to her solemn feasts ( Lamentations 1:3-4 ):

It must be a weird, awesome feeling to look over the ruins of a once great and prosperous city. Can you imagine, say sitting on Mount Wilson and overlooking the Los Angeles basin and nobody living there? No freeways jammed with cars. No industries belching out their smoke, just everything with a deathly silence. Imagine how you would feel, you know, having seen all of the activities and all, that go on in that great basin, and suddenly to look at it and see the whole thing silent and empty. It must be an awesome kind of a feeling to see such a thing.

That's what Jeremiah... he had grown up in this city. He had seen the streets full of people. He had watched the worshippers at the temple and all. He had seen the pilgrims gather for their feasts, but now it's all silent. Now it's empty and the ways or the paths on the way to Jerusalem are mourning because no one is coming to the solemn feasts anymore.

all of her gates are desolate ( Lamentations 1:4 ):

The gates of Jerusalem are interesting places because there is always so many people passing in and out of the gates. A lot of times in Jerusalem just... if you don't have anything to do, it's interesting just to go at the gates of the city and just watch the people come and go through the gates. They're always just bustling with activity, and now it's silent. The gates are desolate.

her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, she is in bitterness. Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper, for the LORD hath afflicted her ( Lamentations 1:4-5 )

And then he gives the reason:

for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. And from the daughter of Zion all of her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, they are gone without strength before the pursuer. Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and her miseries all of her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her and did mock at her sabbaths. Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she is removed ( Lamentations 1:5-8 ):

Again, not blaming God, which is so often our mistake when calamity comes. "Why did God allow this to happen to us?" But recognizing that the blame was upon the people because of their transgression and because they had grievously sinned against God. "Therefore she is removed."

all that honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sighed, and turned backward. Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembered not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy has magnified himself. The adversary has spread out his hand upon all of her pleasant things: for she has seen the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation ( Lamentations 1:8-10 ).

And so the heathen came right into the temple, into the Holy of Holies and they destroyed the temple of God. A stranger wasn't to come within the sanctuary, and yet they have seen them come in and destroy it.

All of her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile ( Lamentations 1:11 ).

They spent all of their money, actually, and given all of their treasures for bread.

Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. From above hath he set fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: and he hath made me desolate and faint all the day. The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up. The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as a winepress. For these things I weep ( Lamentations 1:12-16 );

Thus, the lamentation, the weeping of Jeremiah as he sees the destruction that has come, the mighty men destroyed, the virgins ravished by the enemy, the young men crushed and the young girls trodden. "For these things I weep."

my eye runs down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed. Zion spread forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the LORD hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them. The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandments: hear, I pray you, all the people, and behold my sorrow, my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity ( Lamentations 1:16-18 ).

And so he sort of personifies Jerusalem, and lets Jerusalem cry out declaring the righteousness of God in judgment, "The Lord is righteous." For they were guilty of having rebelled against God. The Lord is always righteous in judgment, and yet it seems that that is an area where we always want to fault God. And we always hear sort of insinuations that God is unrighteous in judgment. "How can a God of love condemn a man to hell?" You know, and you've heard the rest of it. And the idea is that God is not really righteous when He judges. But that's one thing you can be certain of, and that is the righteousness of God in judgment.

In the book of Revelation, as God is bringing His judgment upon the earth, there are voices that come from the altar saying, "Holy and true art Thy judgments, oh Lord." And then in one place where God turns the fresh water upon the earth to blood, there are voices that declare, "Oh, that's great. They shed the blood of Your saints so You've given them blood to drink," and testifying of the properness of that particular judgment that God brings upon the earth at that time.

But God will judge. God has declared He will judge. And thus you can be sure that God is going to judge this world. God is going to judge the wicked. But God, when He judges the wicked, will be absolutely righteous in His judgment. People may complain about it now, but when God makes His judgment there can be no complaint, for the Lord is righteous. They had rebelled against the Lord. They rebelled against His commandment.

He said,

I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and my elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls ( Lamentations 1:19 ).

They died of starvation while they were looking for food.

Behold, O LORD, for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death. They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it: and thou will bring the day that thou has called, and they shall be like unto me. Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou has done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint ( Lamentations 1:20-22 ). "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Jerusalem bewailed the lack of concern that her desolate condition drew from onlookers in this classic expression of grief. Her pain was uniquely great because the Lord had poured out His wrath on her.

". . . real goodness is not indulgent of evil." [Note: Price, p. 697.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

1. Jerusalem’s call to onlookers 1:12-19

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

B. Jerusalem’s sorrow over her own condition 1:12-22

In contrast to the first half of the lament, these verses present the picture of an inside observer looking out. Lamentations 1:12-19 record Jerusalem’s call to people who had observed her desolation, and Lamentations 1:20-22 contain her call to the Lord.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

[Is it] nothing to you, all ye that pass by?.... O ye strangers and travellers that pass by, and see my distress, does it not at all concern you? does it not in the least affect you? can you look upon it, and have no commiseration? or is there nothing to be learned from hence by you, that may be instructive and useful to you? Some consider the words as deprecating; may the like things never befall you that have befallen me, O ye passengers; be ye who ye will; I can never wish the greatest stranger, much less a friend, to suffer what I do; nay, I pray God they never may: others, as adjuring. So the Targum,

"I adjure you, all ye that pass by the way, turn aside hither:''

or as calling; so the words may be rendered, "O all ye that pass by" y; and Sanctius thinks it is an allusion to epitaphs on tombs, which call upon travellers to stop and read the character of the deceased; what were his troubles, and how he came to his end; and so what follows is Jerusalem's epitaph:

behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me; as it is natural for everyone to think their own affliction greatest, and that none have that occasion of grief and sorrow as they have; though there is no affliction befalls us but what is common unto men; and when it comes to be compared with others, perhaps will appear lighter than theirs:

wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me, in the day of his fierce anger; signifying, that her affliction was not a common one; it was not from the hand of man only, but from the hand of God; and not in the ordinary way of his providence; but as the effect of his wrath and fury, in all the fierceness of it.

y לוא אליכם כל "O vos omnes", V. L.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      12 Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.   13 From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day.   14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up.   15 The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.   16 For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.   17 Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the LORD hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them.   18 The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.   19 I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls.   20 Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.   21 They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me.   22 Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.

      The complaints here are, for substance, the same with those in the foregoing part of the chapter; but in these verses the prophet, in the name of the lamenting church, does more particularly acknowledge the hand of god in these calamities, and the righteousness of his hand.

      I. The church in distress here magnifies her affliction, and yet no more than there was cause for; her groaning was not heavier than her strokes. She appeals to all spectators: See if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow,Lamentations 2:12; Lamentations 2:12. This might perhaps be truly said of Jerusalem's griefs; but we are apt to apply it too sensibly to ourselves when we are in trouble and more than there is cause for. Because we feel most from our own burden, and cannot be persuaded to reconcile ourselves to it, we are ready to cry out, Surely never was sorrow like unto our sorrow; whereas, if our troubles were to be thrown into a common stock with those of others, and then an equal dividend made, share and share alike, rather than stand to that we should each of us say, "Pray, give me my own again."

      II. She here looks beyond the instruments to the author of her troubles, and owns them all to be directed, determined, and disposed of by him: "It is the Lord that has afflicted me, and he has afflicted me because he is angry with me; the greatness of his displeasure may be measured by the greatness of my distress; it is in the day of his fierce anger," Lamentations 2:12; Lamentations 2:12. Afflictions cannot but be very much our griefs when we see them arising from God's wrath; so the church does here. 1. She is as one in a fever, and the fever is of God's sending: "He has sent fire into my bones (Lamentations 2:13; Lamentations 2:13), a preternatural heat, which prevails against them, so that they are burnt like a hearth (Psalms 102:3), pained and wasted, and dried away." 2. She is as one in a net, which the more he struggles to get out of the more he is entangled in, and this net is of God's spreading. "The enemies could not have succeeded in their stratagems had not God spread a net for my feet." 3. She is as one in a wilderness, whose way is embarrassed, solitary, and tiresome: "He has turned me back, that I cannot go on, has made me desolate, that I have nothing to support me with, but am faint all the day." 4. She is as one in a yoke, not yoked for service, but for penance, tied neck and heels together (Lamentations 2:14; Lamentations 2:14): The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand. Observe, We never are entangled in any yoke but what is framed out of our own transgressions. The sinner is holden with the cords of his own sins,Proverbs 5:22. The yoke of Christ's commands is an easy yoke (Matthew 11:30), but that of our own transgressions is a heavy one. God is said to bind this yoke when he charges guilt upon us, and brings us into those inward and outward troubles which our sins have deserved; when conscience, as his deputy, binds us over to his judgment, then the yoke is bound and wreathed by the hand of his justice, and nothing but the hand of his pardoning mercy will unbind it. 5. She is as one in the dirt, and he it is that has trodden under foot all her mighty men, that has disabled them to stand, and overthrown them by one judgment after another, and so left them to be trampled upon by their proud conquerors, Lamentations 2:15; Lamentations 2:15. Nay, she is as one in a wine-press, not only trodden down, but trodden to pieces, crushed as grapes in the wine-press of God's wrath, and her blood pressed out as wine, and it is God that has thus trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah. 6. She is in the hand of her enemies, and it is the Lord that has delivered her into their hands (Lamentations 2:14; Lamentations 2:14): He has made my strength to fall, so that I am not able to make head against them; nay, not only not able to rise up against them, but not able to rise up from them, and then he has delivered me into their hands; nay (Lamentations 2:15; Lamentations 2:15), he has called an assembly against me, to crush my young men, and such an assembly as it is in vain to think of opposing; and again (Lamentations 2:17; Lamentations 2:17), The Lord has commanded concerning Jacob that his adversaries should be round about him. He that has many a time commanded deliverances for Jacob (Psalms 44:4) now commands an invasion against Jacob, because Jacob has disobeyed the commands of his law.

      III. She justly demands a share in the pity and compassion of those that were the spectators of her misery (Lamentations 2:12; Lamentations 2:12): "Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? Can you look upon me without concern? What! are your hearts as adamants and your eyes as marbles, that you cannot bestow upon me one compassionate thought, or look, or tear? Are not you also in the body? Is it nothing to you that your neighbor's house is on fire?" There are those to whom Zion's sorrows and ruins are nothing; they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. How pathetically does she beg their compassion! (Lamentations 2:18; Lamentations 2:18): "Hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: hear my complaints, and see what cause I have for them." This is a request like that of Job (Job 19:21; Job 19:21), Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O you my friends! It helps to make a burden sit lighter if our friends sympathize with us, and mingle their tears with ours, for this is an evidence that, though we are in affliction, we are not in contempt, which is commonly as much dreaded in an affliction as any thing.

      IV. She justifies her own grief, though it was very extreme, for these calamities (Lamentations 2:16; Lamentations 2:16): "For these things I weep, I weep in the night (Lamentations 2:2; Lamentations 2:2), when none sees; my eye, my eye, runs down with water." Note, This world is a vale of tears to the people of God. Zion's sons are often Zion's mourners. Zion spreads forth her hands (Lamentations 2:17; Lamentations 2:17), which is here an expression rather of despair than of desire; she flings out her hands as giving up all for gone. Let us see how she accounts for this passionate grief. 1. Her God has withdrawn from her; and Micah, that had but gods of gold, when they were stolen from him cried out, What have I more? And what is it that you say unto me? What aileth thee? The church here grieves excessively; for, says she, the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me. God is the comforter; he used to be so to her; he only can administer effectual comforts; it is his word that speaks them; it is his Spirit that speaks them to us. His are strong consolations, able to relieve the soul, to bring it back when it is gone, and we cannot of ourselves fetch it again; but now he has departed in displeasure, he is far from me, and beholds me afar off. Note, It is no marvel that the souls of the saints faint away, when God, who is the only Comforter that can relieve them, keeps at a distance. 2. Her children are removed from her, and are in no capacity to help her: it is for them that she weeps, as Rachel for hers, because they were not, and therefore she refuses to be comforted. Her children were desolate, because the enemy prevailed against them; there is none of all her sons to take her by the hand (Isaiah 51:18); they cannot help themselves, and how should they help her? Both the damsels and the youths, that were her joy and hope, have gone into captivity,Lamentations 2:18; Lamentations 2:18. It is said of the Chaldeans that they had no compassion upon young men nor maidens, not on the fair sex, not on the blooming age, 2 Chronicles 36:17. 3. Her friends failed her; some would not and others could not give her any relief. She spread forth her hands, as begging relief, but there is none to comfort her (Lamentations 2:17; Lamentations 2:17), none that can do it, none that cares to do it; she called for her lovers, and, to engage them to help her, called them her lovers, but they deceived her (Lamentations 2:19; Lamentations 2:19), they proved like the brooks in summer to the thirsty traveller, Job 6:15. Note, Those creatures that we set our hearts upon and raise our expectations from we are commonly deceived and disappointed in. Her idols were her lovers. Egypt and Assyria were her confidants. But they deceived her. Those that made court to her in her prosperity were shy of her, and strange to her, in her adversity. Happy are those that have made God their friend and keep themselves in his love, for he will not deceive them! 4. Those whose office it was to guide her were disabled from doing her any service. The priests and the elders, that should have appeared at the head of affairs, died for hunger (Lamentations 2:19; Lamentations 2:19); they gave up the ghost, or were ready to expire, while they sought their meat; they went a begging for bread to keep them alive. The famine is sore indeed in the land when there is no bread to the wise, when priests and elders are starved. The priests and elders should have been her comforters; but how should they comfort others when they themselves were comfortless? "They have heard that I sigh, which should have summoned them to my assistance; but there is none to comfort me. Lover and friend hast thou put far from me." 5. Her enemies were too hard for her, and they insulted over her; they have prevailed,Lamentations 2:16; Lamentations 2:16. Abroad the sword bereaves and slays all that comes in its way, and at home all provisions are cut off by the besiegers, so that there is as death, that is, famine, which is as bad as the pestilence, or worse--the sword without and terror within,Deuteronomy 32:25. And as the enemies, that were the instruments of the calamity, were very barbarous, so were those that were the standers by, the Edomites and Ammonites, that bore ill will to Israel: They have heard of my trouble, and are glad that thou hast done it (Lamentations 2:21; Lamentations 2:21); they rejoice in the trouble itself; they rejoice that it is God's doing; it pleases them to find that God and his Israel have fallen out, and they act accordingly with a great deal of strangeness towards them. Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them, that they are afraid of touching and are shy of, Lamentations 2:17; Lamentations 2:17. Upon all these accounts it cannot be wondered at, nor can she be blamed, that her sighs are many, in grieving for what is, and that her heart is faint (Lamentations 2:22; Lamentations 2:22) in fear of what is yet further likely to be.

      V. She justifies God in all that is brought upon her, acknowledging that her sins had deserved these severe chastenings. The yoke that lies so heavily, and binds so hard, is the yoke of her transgressions,Lamentations 2:14; Lamentations 2:14. The fetters we are held in are of our own making, and it is with our own rod that we are beaten. When the church had spoken here as if she thought the Lord severe she does well to correct herself, at least to explain herself, but acknowledging (Lamentations 2:18; Lamentations 2:18), The Lord is righteous. He does us no wrong in dealing thus with us, nor can we charge him with any injustice in it; how unrighteous soever men are, we are sure that the Lord is righteous, and manifests his justice, though they contradict all the laws of theirs. Note, Whatever our troubles are, which God is pleased to inflict upon us, we must own that therein he is righteous; we understand neither him nor ourselves if we do not own it, 2 Chronicles 12:6. She owns the equity of God's actions, but owning the iniquity of her own: I have rebelled against his commandments (Lamentations 2:18; Lamentations 2:18); and again (Lamentations 2:20; Lamentations 2:20), I have grievously rebelled. We cannot speak ill enough of sin, and we must always speak worst of our own sin, must call it rebellion, grievous rebellion; and very grievous sins is to all true penitents. It is this that lies more heavily upon her than the afflictions she was under: "My bowels are troubled; they work within me as the troubled sea; my heart is turned within me, is restless, is turned upside down; for I have grievously rebelled." Note, Sorrow for our sin must be great sorrow and must affect the soul.

      VI. She appeals both to the mercy and to the justice of God in her present case. 1. She appeals to the mercy of God concerning her own sorrows, which had made her the proper object of his compassion (Lamentations 2:20; Lamentations 2:20): "Behold, O Lord! for I am in distress; take cognizance of my case, and take such order for my relief as thou pleasest." Note, It is matter of comfort to us that the troubles which oppress our spirits are open before God's eye. 2. She appeals to the justice of God concerning the injuries that her enemies did her (Lamentations 2:21; Lamentations 2:22): "Thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, the day that is fixed in the counsels of God and published in the prophecies, when my enemies, that now prosecute me, shall be made like unto me, when the cup of trembling, now put into my hands, shall be put into theirs." It may be read as a prayer, "Let the day appointed come," and so it goes on, "Let their wickedness come before thee, let it come to be remembered, let it come to be reckoned for; take vengeance on them for all the wrongs they have done to me (Psalms 109:14; Psalms 109:15); hasten the time when thou wilt do to them for their transgressions as thou hast done to me for mine." This prayer amounts to a protestation against all thoughts of a coalition with them, and to a prediction of their ruin, subscribing to that which God had in his word spoken of it. Note, Our prayers may and must agree with God's word; and what day God has here called we are to call for, and no other. And though we are bound in charity to forgive our enemies, and to pray for them, yet we may in faith pray for the accomplishment of that which God has spoken against his and his church's enemies, that will not repent to give him glory.