OF THE
L A M E N T A T I O N S O F
J E R E M I A H.
SINCE what Solomon says, though contrary to the
common opinion of the world, is certainly true, that sorrow is
better than laughter, and it is better to go to the house of
mourning than to the house of feasting, we should come to the
reading and consideration of the melancholy chapters of this book, not
only willingly, but with an expectation to edify ourselves by them;
and, that we may do this, we must compose ourselves to a holy sadness
and resolve to weep with the weeping prophet. Let us consider,
I. The title of this book; in the Hebrew it has one, but is called (as
the books of Moses are) from the first word Ecah--How;
but the Jewish commentators call it, as the Greeks do, and we from
them, Kinoth--Lamentations. As we have sacred odes or
songs of joy, so have we sacred elegies or songs of lamentation; such
variety of methods has Infinite Wisdom taken to work upon us and move
our affections, and so soften our hearts and make them susceptible of
the impressions of divine truths, as the wax of the seal. We have not
only piped unto you, but have mourned likewise,
Matthew 11:17.
II. The penman of this book; it was Jeremiah the prophet, who is here
Jeremiah the poet, and vates signifies both; therefore this book
is fitly adjoined to the book of his prophecy, and is as an appendix to
it. We had there at large the predictions of the desolations of Judah
and Jerusalem, and then the history of them, to show how punctually the
predictions were accomplished, for the confirming of our faith: now
here we have the expressions of his sorrow upon occasion of them, to
show that he was very sincere in the protestations he had often made
that he did not desire the woeful day, but that, on the contrary, the
prospect of it filled him with bitterness. When he saw these calamities
at a distance, he wished that his head were waters and his eyes
fountains of tears; and, when they came, he made it to appear that
he did not dissemble in that wish, and that he was far from being
disaffected to his country, which was the crime his enemies charged him
with. Though his country had been very unkind to him, and though the
ruin of it was both a proof that he was a true prophet and a punishment
of them for prosecuting him as a false prophet, which might have
tempted him to rejoice in it, yet he sadly lamented it, and herein
showed a better temper than that which Jonah was of with respect to
Nineveh.
III. The occasion of these Lamentations was the destruction of Judah
and Jerusalem by the Chaldean army and the dissolution of the Jewish
state both civil and ecclesiastical thereby. Some of the rabbies will
have these to be the Lamentations which Jeremiah penned upon occasion
of the death of Josiah, which are mentioned
2 Chronicles 35:25.
But, though it is true that that opened the door to all the following
calamities, yet these Lamentations seem to be penned in the sight, not
in the foresight, of those calamities--when they had already come, not
when they were at a distance; and these is nothing of Josiah in them,
and his praise, as was no question, in the lamentations for him. No, it
is Jerusalem's funeral that this is an elegy upon. Others of them will
have these Lamentations to be contained in the roll which Baruch wrote
from Jeremiah's mouth, and which Jehoiakim burnt, and they suggest that
at first there were in it only the 1st, 2nd, and 4th chapters, but that
the 3rd and 5th were the many like words that were afterwards
added; but this is a groundless fancy; that roll is expressly said to
be a repetition and summary of the prophet's sermons,
Jeremiah 36:2.
IV. The composition of it; it is not only poetical, but alphabetical,
all except the 5th chapter, as some of David's psalms are; each verse
begins with a several letter in the order of the Hebrew alphabet, the
first aleph, the second beth, &c., but the 3rd chapter is
a triple alphabet, the first three beginning with aleph, the
next three with beth, &c., which was a help to memory (it being
designed that these mournful ditties should be got by heart) and was an
elegance in writing then valued and therefore not now to be despised.
They observe that in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chapters, the letter
pe is put before ain, which in all the Hebrew alphabets
follows it, for a reason of which Dr. Lightfoot offers this conjecture,
That the letter ajin, which is the numeral letter for LXX., was
thus, by being displaced, made remarkable, to put them in mind of the
seventy years at the end of which God would turn again their captivity.
V. The use of it: of great use, no doubt, it was to the pious Jews in
their sufferings, furnishing them with spiritual language to express
their natural grief by, helping to preserve the lively remembrance of
Zion among them, and their children that never saw it, when they were
in Babylon, directing their tears into the right channel (for they are
here taught to mourn for sin and mourn to God), and withal encouraging
their hopes that God would yet return and have mercy upon them; and it
is of use to us, to affect us with godly sorrow for the calamities of
the church of God, as becomes those that are living members of it and
are resolved to take our lot with it.
Co
Matthew Henry "Verse by Verse Commentary for 'Lamentations' Matthew Henry Bible Commentary".
.