cause the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS gregation, I do not object; yet I do not approve of this meaning, for it seems forced.
It agrees better with the context to regard it as the fixed time, the time before appointed by God to destroy all the strong men. 500
There is then another metaphor used, --- that God had trodden the winepress as to the daughter of Zion. This figure occurs elsewhere, as in Isaiah 63:1,
is this that cometh from Edom? and why are his garments red?''
For the Prophet wonders how God could come forth from Edom, sprinkled with blood. God answers, ``The winepress have I trod alone;'' that is, because he had avenged the wrongs done to his people. For we know that the Idumeans had always been incensed against the miserable Jews. Then God, in order to shew that lie was the defender of his Church, says that he came from Edom, and was sprinkled and even made wet with blood. As when any one is red with wine after having toiled in the winepress, so also is the representation in this place. We have also seen in
Jeremiah 51:33, that Babylon was like a threshing-floor. The metaphor, indeed, is different, but bears a likeness to the present. As, then, God is said to tread, or to thresh, when he afflicts any land, so he is said to tread the winepress, as here. 501
It follows, ---
Lamentations 1:16
16. For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.
16. Propter id ego plorans, oculus meus, oculus meus, descendunt aquae, (hoc est, defluit in aquas,) quia remotus est a me consolator, qui animam revocet, (vel, recreat animam, {);}משיבFuerunt filii mei desolati, quia praevaluit hostis.
He describes at large the calamities of Jerusalem. But it is no wonder that the
Prophet, thus lengthened his discourse; for we know that those who are heavily oppressed never satisfy themselves with mourning and lamentations. If, indeed, we duly consider how great the evils were, the Prophet will not appear to us wordy, nor will his prolixity be wearisome to us. For when any one compares the flourishing state of Jerusalem with that desolate ruin which the Prophet laments, it will surely appear to him that no words, however many, can fully express what it really was; nay, though the expressions may seem hyperbolical, yet they do not exceed the greatness of that calamity. This point is briefly adverted to, lest any one should be wearied with those various modes of expression which the Prophet employs, when yet he might have at once said that Jerusalem was destroyed.
He says, For this will I weep. He throughout sustains the person of a woman; for
Jerusalem herself speaks, and not Jeremiah. I, she says, for this will weep; mine eye mine eye! it shall descend into waters. Others read, ``Waters will descend from mine
500If the word be rendered "assembly," or congregation, the meaning is, the assembly of the Chaldeans, and an allusion, as Gataker says, is made to the calling of the people to their feasts. It is rendered "time" by the Sept. and the Vulg., but "assembly" by the Syr. To call against or upon one a fixed time, is no suitable expression. Our version is no doubt right; and with it agree Blayney and Henderson. — Ed.
501The words are as follows, — The winepress has the Lord trodden as to the virgin, the daughter of Judah. The {{לsometimes means ``as to,'' or, with respect to. ``The daughter of Judah'' is in apposition with ``virgin.'' --- Ed