pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS want of everything. 487 He adds that at length they went away, that is, they fled before their pursuers without strength. He intimates by these words that they dared not to contend with their enemies, but that they were so frightened that they fled, and thus proved that they were wholly disheartened and lifeless. It follows, ---
Lamentations 1:7
7. Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.
7. Recordata est Jerusalem diebus afflictionis suae et penuriae suae, omnium desiderabilium suorum quae fuerunt a diebus antiquis, cum caderet populus ejus in manu hostis et nullus auxiliator ei: viderunt hostes, subsannarunt (vel, riserunt) super sabbatio (vel, cessatione) ejus.
He confirms the former verse when he says, that Jerusalem remembered her desirable things when she was afflicted by God's hand, and reduced to extreme want.
And he in-intimates by these words, that when Jerusalem was in its splendor, it did not sufficiently consider the blessings of God; for the despisers of God cram themselves with whatever flows from his bounty, and yet do not acknowledge him; for ingratitude is like an abyss which absorbs all the fullness of God's blessings. Then the Prophet intimates that when Jerusalem flourished in wealth and in abundance of all things, when it was adorned with singular gifts, she became as it were inebriated, and never considered as she ought to have done, the benefits which God had bestowed on her. And now, when she was reduced to want and surrounded with extreme miseries, she remembered her desirable things, even the glory before mentioned; for by desirable things he means those gifts in which Jerusalem excelled as long as God manifested himself as a bountiful Father towards it.
I wonder how all have given this version, ``Jerusalem remembered the days,'' etc.
Some rightly explain the passage, but all agree in giving a wrong version. But the meaning is sufficiently evident, Jerusalem remembered her desirable things in the days of her affliction and of her want, or of her groaning, or of her transmigration; for some derive the word from {,}רודrud, which means to complain, or to migrate.
Hence they render it ``exile,'' or migration. But others render it ``complaint.'' Others, again, derive it from {,}מרדmered, which sometimes means to fail, and render it ``want,'' or indigence. Why some have translated it ``iniquities'' I know not, and there is no reason for such a version. I do not approve of ``complaint;'' exile or want is the best word. 488
The days of affliction he more clearly expresses, when he says, When the people fell into the hand of the enemy, and there was no helper. We now see what
487The idea here is somewhat different: the princes are compared to harts reduced and enfeebled by famine, so that they were driven by their enemies like a herd of tame cattle. — Ed.
488The versions and the Targ. are evidently wrong here, and are not consistent with one another. There is no meaning except {{בbe considered as understood before ,{`` }ימיdays.'' The only difference among critics is about the meaning of .{}מרודThere is no different reading. It is rendered ``rejections --- {ἀπωσμῶν},'' by the
Sept., ``prevarication'' by the Vulg., and ``punishment'' by the Syr Parkhurst and Blayney derive it from ,{}ירדto come down, to descend. It means the descending or abasement's to which Jerusalem had been subjected, and has the same meaning in
Lamentations 3:19. ``In the days of her affliction and of her abasement's.'' --- Ed