48. Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS called by the Greeks {περιψήματα}. Paul says, that he and his associates were the offscouring ({περιψήματα}) of the world. (1 Corinthians 4:13.) He means that they were despised as offscourings or scrapings. The word is derived from sweeping.
Whatever, then, is cleaned off by sweeping or scouring, that is, the filth of the house or the floor, is called {,}סחיsachi. What the Prophet had in view is not obscure; for he means that the degradation of the people was not hidden, but open Go all nations, as though God had erected a theater in Judea, and there exhibited a remarkable and an unusual example of his vengeance. To the same purpose is what he adds, ---
Lamentations 3:46
46. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
46. Aperuerunt super nos os suum omnes inimici nostri.
He repeats what he had said, that the people were an offscouring, or scrapings, or sweepings, and also a refuse. The last word is, indeed, in the infinitive mood,
{,}מאוסmaus, but it is to be taken as a noun. They had become all this, because they had as many enemies as neighbors; for we know that the Jews were hated by all the neighboring nations. They had become, then, a refuse and filth among all people, for with an open mouth they spoke furiously against them. For the open mouth means that they spoke insolently, and took the liberty of cursing them all, as it has been stated elsewhere. Now it was the bitterest thing to the miserable people, when they found that the reproaches and taunts of enemies were added to their calamities: for we know how grievously does reproach wound those who are already afflicted.
Lamentations 3:47
47. Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
47. Pavor et fovea fuit nobis, destructio (alii vertunt, deceptio,) et contritio.
The Prophet largely dwells on the grievousness of the calamity which had happened. He compares here the anxieties into which the people had been brought, to a pitfall and dread. There is a striking alliteration in the words {}פחדand {,}פחת pechet and peched. But the meaning is, that the people had been reduced to such straits, that there was no outlet for them; as the case is with us, when we are filled with dread, and look here and there, and see nothing but pitfalls on every side; then we are at our wits' end. Such then was the state of the people, as Jeremiah shews: filled with dread, they sought refuge, but saw pitfalls on every side.
He afterwards mentions desolation or destruction, and sorrow. It is probably a mistake in Jerome's version, where the first; word is rendered ``prophesying.'' Some think that he was led astray by the letter {,}שshin, which he seems to have read with a point on the left side; and he took the word as coming from {}נשאnusha.
But another conjecture seems more correct, that the transcribers have committed a mistake; for what I have said is most appropriate to the passage, even that the people were overwhelmed with all kinds of evils, because there was nothing to be seen but desolation and sorrow, or bruising, or breach, {,}שברshaber. It now follows,
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Lamentations 3:48
48. Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter