The loss of all her magnificence (Lamentations 1:7) brings to the remembrance of the sorrowing city, in her trouble, the former days of her now departed glory. "Jerusalem" is not the totality of those who are carried away (Thenius), but the city personified as the daughter of Zion (cf. Lamentations 1:6). "The days of her affliction," etc., is not the direct object of "remembers," as Pareau and Kalkschmidt assume, with the lxx; the object is "all her pleasant things." If "the days of her affliction" were also intended to be the object, "all her pleasant things" would be preceded by the copula w, which Pareau indeed supplies, but arbitrarily. Moreover, the combination of the days of misery with the glory of bygone days is inappropriate, because Jerusalem feels her present misery directly, and does not need first to call them to remembrance. "The days of her affliction," etc., is the accusative of duration. Living through the times of her adversity, Jerusalem thinks of former happy times, and this remembrance increases her sorrow. מרוּדים occurs only here, in Lamentations 3:19 and in Isaiah 58:7 : in meaning it is connected with רוּד, vagari, and signifies roaming, - not voluntary, but compulsory, - rejection, persecution; while the adjective מרוּדים, found in Isaiah, is, as regards its form, taken from מרד, which is cognate with רוּד. מחמדּים or מחמוּדים (Lamentations 1:11, Kethib) is perhaps used in a more general sense than מחמדּים, Lamentations 2:4 and Lamentations 1:11 (Qeri), an signifies what is costly, splendid, viz., gracious gifts, both of a temporal and spiritual kind, which Israel formerly possessed, while מחמדּים signifies costly treasures. "The days of old" are the times of Moses and Joshua, of David and Solomon. In the words, "when her people fell," etc., the days of misery are more exactly specified. The suffix in ראוּה refers to Jerusalem. צרים are the foes into whose power Jerusalem fell helplessly, not specially the escorts of those who were carried away (Thenius). They made a mockery of her משׁבּתּים. This word is ἅπ. λεγ. It is not identical in meaning with ,שׁבּתותsabbata (Vulgate, Luther, etc.), though connected with it; nor does it signify deletiones, destructions (Gesenius), but cessationes. This last rendering, however, is not to be taken according to the explanation of Rosenm׬ller: quod cessasset omnis ille decor, qui nominatus este ante, principatus et prosper rerum status; but rather as L. Cappellus in his nott. crit. expresses it: quod nunc terra ejus deserta jacet nec colitur et quasi cessat et feriatur, though he does not quite exhaust the meaning. As Gerlach rightly remarks, the expression is "evidently used with reference to the threatenings given in the law, Leviticus 26:34-35, that the land would observe its Sabbaths, - that it will keep them during the whole period of the desolation, when Israel is in the land of his enemies." We must not, however, restrict the reference merely to the uncultivated state of the fields, but extend it so that it shall be applied to cessation from all kinds of employment, even those connected with the worship of God, which were necessary for the hallowing of the Sabbath. The mockery of enemies does not apply to the Jewish celebration of the Sabbath (to which Grotius refers the words), but to the cessation of the public worship of the Lord, inasmuch as the heathen, by destroying Jerusalem and the temple, fancied they had not only put an end to the worship of God of the Jews, but also conquered the God of Israel as a helpless national deity, and made a mock of Israel's faith in Jahveh as the only true God.

Lamentations 1:13 Parallel Commentaries

above

Lamentations 2:3,4 He has cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy...

Deuteronomy 32:21-25 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities...

Job 30:30 My skin is black on me, and my bones are burned with heat.

Psalm 22:14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the middle of my bowels.

Psalm 31:10 For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones are consumed.

Psalm 102:3-5 For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth...

Nahum 1:6 Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire...

Habakkuk 3:16 When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself...

2 Thessalonians 1:8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Hebrews 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.

he hath spread

Lamentations 4:17-20 As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us...

Job 18:8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks on a snare.

Job 19:6 Know now that God has overthrown me, and has compassed me with his net.

Psalm 66:11 You brought us into the net; you laid affliction on our loins.

Ezekiel 12:13 My net also will I spread on him, and he shall be taken in my snare: and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans...

Ezekiel 17:20 And I will spread my net on him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon...

Ezekiel 32:3 Thus said the Lord GOD; I will therefore spread out my net over you with a company of many people...

Hosea 7:12 When they shall go, I will spread my net on them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them...

he hath turned

Psalm 35:4 Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.

Psalm 70:2,3 Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul: let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt...

Psalm 129:5 Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.

Isaiah 42:17 They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, You are our gods.

desolate

Lamentations 1:22 Let all their wickedness come before you; and do to them, as you have done to me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many...

Lamentations 5:17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.

Deuteronomy 28:65 And among these nations shall you find no ease, neither shall the sole of your foot have rest...

Jeremiah 4:19-29 My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart makes a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because you have heard...