This is an exceedingly touching book as recording the feelings of the prophet over the awful desolation of Judah and scattering of her people. The predictions of Jeremiah had been fulfilled to the letter, and Jerusalem—the city of the Great King—lay ruined before the prophet's eyes, her palaces, her glorious temple, her walls, gates, and bulwarks being utterly destroyed. He had witnessed the assaults of the enemy, the capture of the city, the slaughter of the inhabitants, and the captivity of others. Judah was without a king, throne, or temple, the ruin was complete; the destruction thorough and unsparing. The strains in which all this is told, express intense anguish of spirit. The misery, consequent upon the Chaldean's successful capture of Judah, leads the prophet to bewail and lament over the scene of desolation, in which "every letter is written with a tear, and every word is the sound of a broken heart" How touching the language!—"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."
But while here, we have a heart breaking itself over the afflictions of God's people, it is important to note, that the weeping prophet fully recognizes God as having in righteous judgment effected the terrible desolation, whoever had been the means instrumentally in accomplishing it (Lam. 2:1-81How 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! 2The 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. 3He 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. 4He 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. 5The 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. 6And 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. 7The 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. 8The 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. (Lamentations 2:1‑8)); it is well to recognize this principle, namely, to withdraw the eye from the instrument in accomplishing the disciplinary work and purpose of God, to ascribe righteousness to Him, with full confession of personal sin, while feeling for the miseries resting on others.
Both Jeremiah and Christ wept and lamented over guilty Jerusalem (Matt. 23; Luke 19:4141And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, (Luke 19:41)); but in this, as in all else, Christ exceedeth.
The first, second, and fourth chapters, each containing 22 verses, are alphabetically arranged, according to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet; the third chapter of 66 verses, mostly consisting of one clause, is singularly arranged, every third verse beginning with the Hebrew alphabet in alphabetical order—a letter for every three verses; the fifth chapter contains 22 verses, but is not arranged as the others.
These lamentations originally constituted one book with the prophecy of Jeremiah, but their importance demands an examination apart.
GENERAL DIVISIONS.
1.-Jerusalem's utter desolation. Lam. 1
2.-The Lord the author of Jerusalem's desolation. Lam. 2.
3.-The prophet identifying himself with the miseries and afflictions of God's people. Lam. 3
4.-The Lord as having judged His people and will judge their enemies is before the mind of the prophet.
Lam. 4
5.-The Lord's tenderness, compassion, and unchangeableness are appealed to in confidence. Lam. 5
NOTE.
The Chaldean were a "bitter and hasty" people; and Zedekiah—who had sworn by Jehovah to be a true and faithful vassal of the mighty heathen monarch, Nebuchadnezzar—certainly stirred up the slumbering passions of the Babylonian. Relying upon Egypt's help, Zedekiah despised the name of Jehovah by whom he had sworn, and threw off his allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar. The Chaldean commenced the siege of Jerusalem in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign (2 Kings 25:11And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about. (2 Kings 25:1)). The defense was a bold and protracted one. Egypt, the only hope of the despairing people, did march an army to the relief, which compelled Nebuchadnezzar to raise the siege, but the respite was but of short duration (Jer. 378And the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire. (Jeremiah 37:8).), and the siege was renewed with increased vigor. The city was completely invested on all sides. Even then, had the king and nobles accepted the counsels of Jeremiah and gone out, submitting themselves to the clemency of the Babylonian, the city and people would have been spared (Jer. 38:22Thus saith the Lord, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live. (Jeremiah 38:2)); but, alas! the word of Jehovah was set at naught, and the weeping prophet committed to the filthy dungeons of Jerusalem. Soon, however, famine and pestilence desolated the city, and the besiegers making a breach in the walls, the invaders poured into the doomed city, wreaking their vengeance on the truly miserable and infatuated people. No mercy was shown. The streets of Jerusalem ran with blood, and her sanctuary courts were polluted with the slain of her people. Neither youth, beauty, age, or sex, moved the heart or arrested the relentless arm of the Chaldean. The city was taken after a siege of about eighteen months (Jer. 39:1,21In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it. 2And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up. (Jeremiah 39:1‑2)). The king and princes vainly attempted to escape. They were captured, and Zedekiah's sons cruelly slain before him; and, by a refinement of cruelty, made the last object he ever beheld. His eyes were then put out, and he was taken, heavily fettered, to Babylon, where he lingered in prison till his death. Upwards of threescore of the nobles and chief men were cruelly massacred at Riblah. A month after the capture of the city (compare 2 Kings 25:33And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. (2 Kings 25:3). with 2 Kings 25:88And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: (2 Kings 25:8)), the captain of the Chaldean army burned the temple and the palaces, and laid the whole city in ruins. The desolation was complete; hence these mournful elegies.