The two words {,}אם} {כי ki am, are differently explained: some render them,
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS ancient testimonies of God's favor towards his people, he hence gathered, that God would extend the same goodness and kindness to posterity. It follows, ---
Lamentations 5:22
22. But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
22. Nisi (vel, sed, vel, quod si) rejiciendo rejecisti nos excanduisti contra nos valde.
The two words {,}כי{ }אםki am, are differently explained: some render them,
if,'' or ``certainly if,'' and thus separate the verse into two parts, ``Surely if thou hast rejected us, thou art very angry;'' but this is a forced meaning, not intended, as I think, by the Prophet. And these seem to have been compelled by necessity to pervert the Prophet's words; because it appears hard simply to declare that the people had been wholly rejected by God. As, then, this harshness offended them, they contrived this comment, ``If thou hast rejected us, thou art very angry.'' But as
I have said, this exposition I do not approve of, because it is a very forced one; and the greater part of interpreters follow what I stated in the first place, for they take
{,}כי{ }אםki am, adversatively. The two particles are often connected together, and rendered, ``though'' or although, --- ``Though thou hast rejected us:'' and hence the last verse has been repeated.
For the Jews labor under this superstition, that when a book ends with a hard and severe sentence, or one containing a dreadful threatening, grating to the ears, in order to avoid the sad omen, they repeat the last verse but one. So they do at the end of Isaiah, and at the end of Malachi. As Isaiah says, ``It shall be a horror (or abomination) to all flesh;'' they therefore repeat the previous verse. So in Malachi; as he says, ``Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse --- {,}חרםcherem,'' they think that as he pronounces there an anathema, it is a sort of charm that may absorb this curse, to have the previous verse repeated after it. There is, then, no doubt but that they took this passage in the same sense, ``Though thou hast rejected us,'' etc.
If this explanation be approved, we must hold that the Prophet here exceeded due limits, as also the faithful, in their prayers, do not always so restrain themselves, but that some heat bubbles up; for we see how David, in the Psalms, too often shewed this kind of feeling; and it is hence evident, that his mind was not always sufficiently calm. We must then say, that the Prophet was impelled by a turbulent feeling when he uttered these words.
But {,}כי{ }אםki am, may also be rendered, ``Unless,'' or except' and it is singular that no one has perceived this, though it be not an unsuitable meaning, ``Except it may be thou rejecting hast rejected us, and hast become very angry with us,'' or above measure angry; for {,}עד{ }מאדod mad in Hebrew, means the same as above measure (supra modum) in Latin. Though the Prophet seems to speak doubtingly, by laying down t, his condition, there is vet no doubt but that he struggled against all unbelief, when he said, Except it may be; for he reasons from what is impossible,
thou us to thee and we shall be turned, renew our days as formerly; except it may be thou hast rejected us:'' but this was impossible. Then, as I have said, the
Prophet here strengthens himself by setting up a shield against all the assaults of