hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden
JOHN CALVIN
It is added, He hath made to fall, or weakened, etc. The verb {,}כשלcashel, in
Hilphil, means, as it is well known, to stumble, or to cause to stumble or fall. He hath, then, weakened my strength; the Lord hath given me up into the hand of my enemies, from whom I shall not be able to rise; that is, he hath so subjugated me, and so laid me prostrate under the hands of my enemies, that there is no hope of rising again. Were any one to ask, ``Why then does she pray, and again will pray often?'' the answer is, that when she says here, that she will not be able to rise again, the reference is made to the outward state of things: in the meantime, the grace of
God is not taken to the account. and this goes beyond all human means. She then says, that according, to the thoughts of the flesh, she had no hope, because there appeared to be no means of rising. But yet she did not despair, but that God would at length, by His almighty power, cause her to rise from fatal ruin. And this is a mode of speaking that ought to be borne in mind; for hope sees things which are hidden. But at the same time the faithful speak according to the common appearance of things, and when they seem to despair, they regard what falls under their own observation and judgment. So then Jerusalem now says that she could not rise, except God manifested his extraordinary power, which far exceeds all human means. It follows,
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Lamentations 1:15
15. The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.
15. Calcavit omnes fortes meos Dominus in medio mei; vocavit super me diem
(hoc est, edixit statum diem, alii vertunt congregationem; et {,}מועדtam coetum ipsum significat, quam condictum tempus,) ad conterendos adolescentes meos (vel, electos;) torcular calcavit Adonai super virginem (vel, puellam,) filiam Jehudah.
She first says, that all her valiant men had been trodden underfoot. Now we know how much the Jews trusted in their men even to the very time when they were wholly subdued. As then they had shewed so much insolence and pride towards the prophets, it hence became a cause of greater sorrow, when Jerusalem herself saw that she was destitute of every protection, and that her valiant men were trodden under foot. She says, in the midst of me. And this ought to be observed; for if they had fallen on the field of battle, if they had been taken in the fields by their enemies, such a thing would not have been so grievous: but that they had been thus laid prostrate, in the very bosom of the city, was indeed a token of vengeance from above. We now see that this circumstance was not superfluous, that all the valiant men of Jerusalem were laid prostrate in the midst of her.
It is then said that it was the fixed time, when God destroyed her chosen men, or her youth. Should it seem preferable to take {,}מועדmuod, as meaning a confollowed them. It is rendered impersonally by the Sept., ``there has been watching,'' but by the Vulg., ``he hath watched.'' To
over transgressions,'' is similar to ``watch upon (or over) the evil,'' in Daniel 9:14; it is to watch over them in order to punish them. The whole verse I render thus, --- 14. He hath watched over my transgressions, by his hand they are twined; His yoke is upon my neck, he hath made to fail my strength; Yea, given me hath the Lord into the hands of the oppressor, I cannot stand. The word ``hands'' is in a construct form, which shews that there is a word left out. ``I cannot stand,'' i.e., against the oppressor; I cannot resist. The future is used in the sense of the present; literally it is, ``I shall not be able to stand,'' or resist. So it is exactly in Welsh; it is the future, but understood as expressing what is present. In the first line, ``his hand'' is connected in all the versions with ``twined,'' or wreathed together. --- Ed.