Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary

Select a resource above

1. Jerusalem's Misery

¹ This chapter is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.How deserted lies the city,
   once so full of people!
How like a widow is she,
   who once was great among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces
   has now become a slave.

    ² Bitterly she weeps at night,
   tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers
   there is no one to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed her;
   they have become her enemies.

    ³ After affliction and harsh labor,
   Judah has gone into exile.
She dwells among the nations;
   she finds no resting place.
All who pursue her have overtaken her
   in the midst of her distress.

    ⁴ The roads to Zion mourn,
   for no one comes to her appointed festivals.
All her gateways are desolate,
   her priests groan,
her young women grieve,
   and she is in bitter anguish.

    ⁵ Her foes have become her masters;
   her enemies are at ease.
The LORD has brought her grief
   because of her many sins.
Her children have gone into exile,
   captive before the foe.

    ⁶ All the splendor has departed
   from Daughter Zion.
Her princes are like deer
   that find no pasture;
in weakness they have fled
   before the pursuer.

    ⁷ In the days of her affliction and wandering
   Jerusalem remembers all the treasures
   that were hers in days of old.
When her people fell into enemy hands,
   there was no one to help her.
Her enemies looked at her
   and laughed at her destruction.

    ⁸ Jerusalem has sinned greatly
   and so has become unclean.
All who honored her despise her,
   for they have all seen her naked;
she herself groans
   and turns away.

    ⁹ Her filthiness clung to her skirts;
   she did not consider her future.
Her fall was astounding;
   there was none to comfort her.
“Look, LORD, on my affliction,
   for the enemy has triumphed.”

    ¹⁰ The enemy laid hands
   on all her treasures;
she saw pagan nations
   enter her sanctuary—
those you had forbidden
   to enter your assembly.

    ¹¹ All her people groan
   as they search for bread;
they barter their treasures for food
   to keep themselves alive.
“Look, LORD, and consider,
   for I am despised.”

    ¹² “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
   Look around and see.
Is any suffering like my suffering
   that was inflicted on me,
that the LORD brought on me
   in the day of his fierce anger?

    ¹³ “From on high he sent fire,
   sent it down into my bones.
He spread a net for my feet
   and turned me back.
He made me desolate,
   faint all the day long.

    ¹⁴ “My sins have been bound into a yoke Most Hebrew manuscripts; many Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint He kept watch over my sins;
   by his hands they were woven together.
They have been hung on my neck,
   and the Lord has sapped my strength.
He has given me into the hands
   of those I cannot withstand.

    ¹⁵ “The Lord has rejected
   all the warriors in my midst;
he has summoned an army against me
   to Or has set a time for me / when he will crush my young men.
In his winepress the Lord has trampled
   Virgin Daughter Judah.

    ¹⁶ “This is why I weep
   and my eyes overflow with tears.
No one is near to comfort me,
   no one to restore my spirit.
My children are destitute
   because the enemy has prevailed.”

    ¹⁷ Zion stretches out her hands,
   but there is no one to comfort her.
The LORD has decreed for Jacob
   that his neighbors become his foes;
Jerusalem has become
   an unclean thing among them.

    ¹⁸ “The LORD is righteous,
   yet I rebelled against his command.
Listen, all you peoples;
   look on my suffering.
My young men and young women
   have gone into exile.

    ¹⁹ “I called to my allies
   but they betrayed me.
My priests and my elders
   perished in the city
while they searched for food
   to keep themselves alive.

    ²⁰ “See, LORD, how distressed I am!
   I am in torment within,
and in my heart I am disturbed,
   for I have been most rebellious.
Outside, the sword bereaves;
   inside, there is only death.

    ²¹ “People have heard my groaning,
   but there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my distress;
   they rejoice at what you have done.
May you bring the day you have announced
   so they may become like me.

    ²² “Let all their wickedness come before you;
   deal with them
as you have dealt with me
   because of all my sins.
My groans are many
   and my heart is faint.”

The Prophet proceeds with the same subject, that God’s vengeance had raged most dreadfully agsinst Jerusalem. But employing a metaphor she says, that fire had been sent to her bones. They who interpret bones of fortified places, weaken the meaning of the Prophet. I take bones in their proper sense, ss though it was said, that God’s fire had penetrated into the inmost parts. This way of speaking often occurs in Scripture. By bones is denoted strength or valor. Hence David sometimes deplored, that his bones were vexed or troubled. (Psalm 6:2.) And Hezekiah said in his song

“As a lion he hath broken my bones.” (Isaiah 37:13.)

In the same sense the Prophet now says, that fire had been sent by God, which ruled in his bones, that is, which not only burnt the skin and the flesh, but also consumed the bones. רדה, rede, means also to take away or to receive: but as the former rendering is most commonly taken, I am disposed to follow it — that fire ruled in his bones

There is another similitude added, that God had spread a net before her feet; and thus he had taken away every means of escape. She intimates (for it is Jerusalem who speaks) that she had been ensnared by God’s judgments, so that she was bound over to ruin, as though she had fallen into toils or snares. It is stated in the third place, that she was desolate all the day, so that she sorrowed perpetually. By all the day is meant continually. It is then said, that she sorrowed without end, beyond measure, because she had been turned back by the nets of God, and her bones had been consumed by celestial fire: for the expression from above, ממרום, memerumn, is emphatical, for the Prophet means that it was no common or human burning; because what is ascribed to God exceeds what is human or earthly. It is, then, as though he had said, that it had been such a vengeance as betokened the dreadful power of God; for it was the same as though God had thundered from heaven. We now perceive the import of the words. It follows, —