imus ad panem nostrum ob siccitatem deserti (alii vertunt, a facie gladii, in deserto.)
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS
It is, then, for this indignity that Jeremiah now expostulates, and says that servants ruled over them. There is, indeed, no doubt but that they were driven into exile by some of the lowest; for the Chaldeans thought it right to exercise towards them every kind of cruelty. But it was yet a very mournful thing for God's children to be the slaves of servants; for they were before a sacerdotal kingdom, and God had so taken them under his protection, that their condition was better and more desirable than that of any other kingdom. As, then, they had been robbed of their liberty, and not only so, but also made subject to servants, the change was sad in the extreme. 589 Therefore the Prophet sought another occasion to plead for mercy, when he said that they were ruled by servants. It now follows, ---
Lamentations 5:9
9. We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
9. In anima nostra (alii vertunt, in periculo vitae nostrae, vel, cum periculo) adduximus ad panem nostrum ob siccitatem deserti (alii vertunt, a facie gladii, in deserto.)
The word {,}חרבchereb, means drought as well as sword. As the Prophet is speaking of famine and the desert,, I have no doubt but that dryness or drought is sword the word means here; and I wonder that the word sword had occurred to any; they could not have regarded the context.
He then says that the people sought bread with the soul, that is, at the hazard of their own life. If danger be preferred, I do not object. But as he simply says, with the soul, he seems to express this, that for food they hazarded their own life. Food, indeed, is the support of life, for why is bread sought but for sustaining life? But the hungry so rush headlong to procure food, that they expose themselves to thousand dangers, and they also weary themselves with many labors; and this is to seek bread with their soul, that is, when men not only anxiously labor to procure food, but pour forth as it were their own blood, as when one undertakes a long journey to get some support, lie is almost lifeless when he reaches the distant hospital. As, then, the Jews nowhere found food, the Prophet says that they sought bread with their life, that is, at the hazard of life. This is the view I prefer.
He then adds, For the dryness of the wilderness. What has the sword to do with wilderness? We see that this is wholly unsuitable; there was then no reason why interpreters should pervert this word. But what he calls the dryness of the wilderness was the want by which the people were distressed, as though they were in the wilderness. This is said by way of comparison, --- that on account of the dryness of the desert, that is, on account of sterility, they were under the necessity of exposing their life to death, only that they might anywhere find bread. 590
It may also be, that the Prophet meant, that they were fugitives, and thus went in hunger through woods and forest, when they dared not to go forth into the open country lest the enemy should meet them. But what I have said is most suitable,
589See Nehemiah 5:15. — Ed. 590The versions and the Targ. render the word, "sword;" and so do Gataker, Blayney, and Henderson. And by "the sword of the desert" are to be understood freebooters who carried swords and made incursions from desert places. At the risk of our life we got our bread, On account of the sword of the desert — Ed.