pro omnibus filiabus urbis meae.)
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS otherwise tears would draw us to despair, and despair would become the cause of fury; for we see that the ungodly murmur against God.
Thus, then, ought we to weep, in order that we may at the same time cherish hope while we wait for God to look down on us and to see our miseries from heaven.
The word heaven, is not added uselessly, because men in their evils, when they seek God, are filled with terror, for they do not think that they can ascend to him: hence, then, it is, that they despond, for they imagine that God is too remote from them. The Prophet therefore anticipates here this false notion, and says that we ought nevertheless to wait until God looks down from heaven; which corresponds with what is said in the Psalms: that God is high and yet has respect to low things.
(Psalm 113:4-6.) Though, then, the majesty of God is elevated above all the heavens, yet this does not prevent him familiarly to regard what is low and despised in the world. At length it follows, ---
Lamentations 3:51
51. Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.
51. Oculus meus dolore afficit animam meam propter omes filias urbis meae (vel pro omnibus filiabus urbis meae.)
He had said, that his eye flowed down, and then, that it was like a fountain, from which many streams or rivers flowed: he now adopts another mode of speaking, that his eyes grieved his soul; and it is a sign of the greatest sorrow when he who weeps seeks some relief, and is at the same time overpowered by that external feeling. For many indulge in grief and inflame themselves; then the soul of man is like a fan to rouse the burning. But when we weep and our eyes shed tears, and when the mind in a manner exhausts itself, it is a proof of the greatest grief. And this great. grief
Jeremiah wished to express by saying, that his eye troubled or grieved his soul
The latter part is explained in two ways: sonic render thus, ``Because of all the daughters of my city.'' But though this meaning is generally taken, I yet prefer the opinion of those who render the words thus, ``More than all the daughters of my city,'' for {,}מןmen, denotes a comparison, as it is also a causative. He says, then, that he was given to grief more than all the young women. As the female sex, as it is well known, are more tender and softer than men, the Prophet amplifies his lamentation by this comparison, that in weeping he exceeded all the young women of the city, so that he had almost forgotten his manhood. Had he said, the daughters of the people, it might be explained as before, as referring either to the cities, or to the whole people, that is, the whole community. But when he mentions all the daughters of his city, I cannot otherwise take the passage but as setting forth a comparison, that is, that he could not moderate his grief, but was so seized with it as women are, and also young girls, whose hearts, as it has been already said, are still more tender. 560 The rest to-morrow.
version, — 49. Mine eye hath poured down, and it will not cease, With any intermissions, 50. Until Jehovah look down And see from heaven. To "see" here, as in Lamentations 3:36, means to regard, so as to interfere in the affairs of men. "with any," etc., literally, "With no," etc. But the English language not admit of the two negatives, though the Welsh will. — Ed.
560The versions and the Targ. give the first meaning, "because of the daughters of my city;" and the last words, "of my city," seem to favor it; for had women as a sex been intended, they would not have been thus designated. — Ed.