They were woven together by His hands,
And thrust upon my neck.
He made my strength fail;
The Lord delivered me into the hands of those whom I am not able to withstand.
He has called an assembly against me
To crush my young men;
aThe Lord trampled as in a winepress
The virgin daughter of Judah.
My eye, amy eye overflows with water;
Because the comforter, who should restore my life,
Is far from me.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy prevailed.”
But no one comforts her;
The Lord has commanded concerning Jacob
That those baround him become his adversaries;
Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.
For I brebelled against His commandment.
Hear now, all peoples,
And behold my sorrow;
My virgins and my young men
Have gone into captivity.
But they deceived me;
My priests and my elders
Breathed their last in the city,
While they sought food
To restore their life.
My asoul is troubled;
My heart is overturned within me,
For I have been very rebellious.
bOutside the sword bereaves,
At home it is like death.
| << Lamentations 1:15 | Lamentations 1:17 >> |
Lamentations 1:12-16
The lamentation of the city, personified as a woman in grief over her fate.
Lamentations 1:13
It prevaileth - Or, hath subdued.
He hath turned me back - Judaea, like a hunted animal, endeavors to escape, but finds every outlet blocked by nets, and recoils from them with terror and a sense of utter hopelessness.
Lamentations 1:14
Bound by his hand - As the plowman binds the yoke upon the neck of oxen, so God compels Judah to bear the punishment of her sins.
They are wreathed, and ... - Or, they are knotted together, "they come up" etc. Judah' s sins are like the cords by which the pieces of the yoke are fastened together Jeremiah 27:2; they are knotted and twined like a bunch upon the neck, and bind the yoke around it so securely that it is impossible for her to shake it off.
He hath made ... - Or, it hath made "my strength" to stumble. The yoke of punishment thus imposed and securely fastened, bows down her strength by its weight, and makes her totter beneath it.
The Lord - The third distich of the verse begins here, and with it a new turn of the lamentation. The title Adonai (properly, my Lord) is in the Lamentations used by itself in fourteen places, while the name Yahweh is less prominent; as if in their punishment the people felt the lordship of the Deity more, and His covenant-love to them less.
Lamentations 1:15
The Lord hath trodden under foot - Or, 'ădonāy has made contemptible (i. e. put into the balance, made to go up as the lighter weight, and so made despicable) "my war-horses" (put metaphorically for heroes).
In the midst of me - They had not fallen gloriously in the battlefield, but remained ignominiously in the city.
Assembly - Or, "a solemn feast;" the word especially used of the great festivals Leviticus 23:2. 'ădonāy has proclaimed a festival, not for me, but against me.
The Lord hath trodden ... - Or, " 'ădonāy hath trodden the winepress for the virgin daughter of Judah." See Jeremiah 51:14 note. By slaying Judah' s young men in battle, God is trampling for her the winepress of His indignation.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Lamentations 1:16:
Psalms 119:136
Isaiah 22:4
Isaiah 53:4
| << Lamentations 1:15 | Lamentations 1:17 >> |
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