See the book home page for a discussion of the literary structure.
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| 1 ¶ How hath the Lord
covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from
heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool
in the day of his anger!
2 The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof. |
His
anger It appears again in verses 3, 6, 21, 22.
Beauty Should be "glory." Footstool From is6601 we see that the earth is His footstool and heaven is his throne. Here it may be seen as the place on earth where He would dwell. Thus the temple ps13207, ps09905. |
| .3
He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn
back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob
like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
4 He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire. |
Horn
... right hand A symbol of power, de3317,
jb1605, ps01802, da0808, am0613.
In the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion According to the original Hebrew, this phrase belongs at the end of the sentence. Slaying in the temple is not appropriate ne0610,11. |
| .5
The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed
up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased
in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
.6 And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. |
5 -
As an enemy He was never the enemy of His people but he allowed
the enemy nations to punish them.
5 - Swallowed ... strong holds "Verses 5-8 portray progressive steps in the destruction of the city: the palaces and forts, the Temple, the altar, and the walls. Four weeks after the capture of Jerusalem the Babylonian commander, Nebuzar-adan, had burned the Temple, the royal palace, the leading residences and broken down the walls (Jer. 52:12-14; SDABC p. 551). |
| .7
The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath
given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have
made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.
8 The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together. |
Abhorred his sanctuary See ez0806ff, lu1334f. |
| .9
Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars:
her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her
prophets also find no vision from the LORD.
.10 ¶ The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. |
Her prophets ez0726. |
| .11
Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured
upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because
the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.
12 They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom. |
Bowels
Considered the center of emotions.
Liver Thought to be the heaviest organ and hence to represent the abdominal organs – the bowels. |
| .13
What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to
thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort
thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea:
who can heal thee?
14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment. |
Daughter of Jerusalem This city is often described as a woman. See 2ki1921. |
| .15
All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head
at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The
perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?
16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it. |
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| 17 The LORD hath done
that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded
in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath
caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine
adversaries.
18 Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease. |
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| .19
Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine
heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward
him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top
of every street.
.20 Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? |
Beginning
of the watches The night was divided into three periods or watches
jg0719,
ex1424.
Top of every street Apparently where the narrow street opened to a plaza. Eat their fruit See ps12703. |
| 21 The young and the
old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen
by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast
killed, and not pitied.
.22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed. |
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22 - Solemn day Compare la0105. |
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