sicut dolor meus, qui factus est mihi, quia affixit me (vel, dolore affecit) Jehova in die
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS to a good hope, and also opened the door to prayers, were dictated by the Spirit of
God. Otherwise, when men indulge in grief, and torment themselves, they become exasperated; and then to be kindled by this irritation is a kind of madness. The
Prophet, therefore, in order to moderate the intensity of sorrow, and the raging of impatience, recalls again the faithful to prayer. And when Jerusalem asks God to see and to look, there is an emphasis intended in using the two words; and the reason given does also more fully shew this, because she had become vile; 497 so that the
Church set nothing else before God, to turn him to mercy, but her own miseries. She did not, then, bring forward her own services, but only deplored her own miseries, in order that she might obtain the favor of God. It follows, ---
Lamentations 1:12
12. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
12. Non ad voc omnes qui transitis per viam? Aspicite et videte, an sit dolor sicut dolor meus, qui factus est mihi, quia affixit me (vel, dolore affecit) Jehova in die excandescentiae irae suae.
The beginning of the verse is variously explained. Some read it interrogatively,
it nothing to you who pass by the way?'' Others more simply, ``I see that I am not cared for by you; to you my sorrow is nothing.'' Some again read thus, ``Let it not be a sorrow to you;'' and others, ``Let not sorrow be upon you,'' that is, let not what I have happen to you; so that it is a prayer expressive of benevolence.
What I prefer is the interrogation, Is it nothing to you who pass by the way? for the letter, {,}הHe, the note of a question, is often omitted. But were it read affirmatively, the meaning would not be unsuitable: ``It does not concern you who pass by,'' as though Jerusalem, in its lamentations, felt grieved that all those who passed by were not touched either with pity or with sorrow. 498
But she addressed those who passed by, that she might more fully set forth the greatness of her calamity. For. had she directed her words to neighbors alone, there would not have been so much force in them; but when she spoke to strangers, she thus shewed that her calamity was so great, that it ought to have roused the sympathy of men from the remotest parts, even while on their journey. And she asks them to look and see. The order is inverted, for she said before, ``See, Jehovah, and look.'' Then Jerusalem asked God, first to turn his eyes to see her calamities, and then attentively to notice them: but now for another purpose she says, look ye and see, that is, consider how evident is my calamity, which otherwise might have been in a measure hidden from you. Look ye, she says, is there a sorrow like my sorrow?
she adds, which is come to me: some render the words actively, ``which Jehovah has brought on me;'' but the other version is more correct, for it is more literal. Jerome's rendering is, ``who has gleaned me;'' and {}צעללolal, means sometimes to glean, nor do I wish to reject this interpretation. But what follows is incorrectly rendered, as in a former instance, by Jerome, ``of which Jehovah has spoken:'' for he derived the
497That is, she was treated as vile or worthless: "dishonored" is the Sept. — Ed. 498It is evidently taken as {{לוby the Sept., the Vulg., and the Targ.; but as a negative by the Syr., and the sentence is taken as a question: and this gives the best meaning. --- Ed