Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Lamentations 1:4
The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she [is] in bitterness.
4. The ways of Zion do mourn ] The approaches to Jerusalem are meant. They are desolate, without the usual throng of those coming up to the feasts.
For the thought of inanimate objects as sympathising with human affairs cp.
“Call it not vain they do not err,
Who say, that, when the Poet dies,
Mute Nature mourns her worshipper,
And celebrates his obsequies.”
Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto V.
All her gates are desolate ] See on Jer 14:2.
her priests do sigh ] in the absence of sacrifices, their livelihood has disappeared.
Her virgins are afflicted ] They are mentioned as taking part in religious ceremonies. See Exo 15:20; Jdg 21:21; Psa 68:25; Jer 31:13. It is clear from this passage that when the poem was written, there was no attempt at worship on the Temple site, though it may have continued for a while after the destruction of the city (see on Jer 41:5).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Zion, as the holy city, is the symbol of the religious life of the people, just as Judah in the previous verse represents their national life. The virgins took a prominent part in all religious festivals Jer 31:13; Exo 15:20.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Lam 1:4
The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts.
The decay of religion mournful
1. The overthrow of the commonwealth bringeth with it the overthrow of the Churchs outward peace.
2. When the things that God hath given us here are not applied to the appointed use, we have just cause to mourn, seeing our sins have caused the let thereof (Deu 28:15-68; Isa 13:19, etc.).
3. The earth and earthly things do often admonish men of their sins, either by denying that comfort which naturally they bring with them (Lev 18:25), or bringing grief or punishment with them (Mic 2:10).
(1) God hath made all His creatures as written books, wherein man may read his sins.
(2) That man may have no show of excuse left him at that great day of account.
4. All Gods creatures mourn when God is disobeyed, and rejoice when He is obeyed by His people.
5. The service of God is not tied to any place, but upon condition of their obedience that dwell therein (Jer 26:4).
6. It is a great grief to Gods ministers to be deprived of their ministry or to see it unprofitable to the Church.
(1) God is greatly dishonoured thereby.
(2) It giveth occasion of interrupting all good things among the people, and matter of all kinds of sin.
7. The ministers must be guides to the people, to lead them to mourning (when there is cause), as also to all other duties.
8. They that seem most exempt from it must mourn at the decay of religion.
(1) This reproves them that lay not to heart the distress of Gods people for the truth, thinking it sufficient that themselves live in safety.
(2) It teaches us to strive to be grieved when we hear of the decay of true religion in any place, though it be safe where we are.
9. The greatest loss that can befall Gods people is the loss of the exercise of the Word and Sacraments. Because God hath appointed them to be the means of begetting and confirming faith in us. (J. Udall.)
All her gates are desolate.
Religious desolation
A pathetic picture indeed is this, that the feast is spread and no man comes to the banqueting table; every gate is open in token of welcome and hospitality, yet no wandering soul asks for admittance; the priests once so noble in the service of song, the virgins once so beautiful as images of innocence, now stand with hands thrown down, with eyes full of tears, with hearts sighing in expressive silence their bitterness and disappointment. All this can God do even to His chosen place, and to altars on which He has written His name. Officialism is no guarantee of spiritual perpetuity. Pomp and ceremony, with all their mechanical and external decorations and attractions, are no pledge of the presence of the Spirit of the Living God. The sanctuary is nothing but for the Lords presence. Eloquent preaching is but eloquent noise if the Spirit of the Lord be not in it, giving it intellectual value, spiritual dignity, and practical usefulness. Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord; because men have forgotten this doctrine, they have trusted to themselves and have seen their hopes perishing in complete and bitter disappointment. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. The ways of Zion do mourn] A fine prosopopoeia. The ways in which the people trod coming to the sacred solemnities, being now no longer frequented, are represented as shedding tears; and the gates themselves partake of the general distress. All poets of eminence among the Greeks and Romans have recourse to this image. So Moschus, in his Epitaph on Bion, ver. 1-3: –
,
.
, , . . .
“Ye winds, with grief your waving summits bow,
Ye Dorian fountains, murmur as ye flow;
From weeping urns your copious sorrows shed,
And bid the rivers mourn for Bion dead.
Ye shady groves, in robes of sable hue,
Bewail, ye plants, in pearly drops of dew;
Ye drooping flowers, diffuse a languid breath,
And die with sorrow, at sweet Bion’s death.”
FAWKES.
So Virgil, AEn. vii., ver. 759: –
Te nemus Anguitiae, vitrea te Fucinus unda
Te liquidi flevere lacus.
“For thee, wide echoing, sighed th’ Anguitian woods;
For thee, in murmurs, wept thy native floods.”
And more particularly on the death of Daphnis, Eclog. v. ver. 24: –
Non ulli pastos illis egere diebus
Frigida, Daphni, boves ad flumina: nulla neque amnem
Libavit quadrupes, nec graminis attigit herbam.
Daphni, tuum Poenos etiam ingemuisse leones
Interitum, montesque feri, sylvaeque loquuntur.
“The swains forgot their sheep, nor near the brink
Of running waters brought their herds to drink:
The thirsty cattle of themselves abstained
From water, and their grassy fare disdained.
The death of Daphnis woods and hills deplore;
The Libyan lions hear, and hearing roar.”
DRYDEN.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The ways that lead to the temple have as unlovely a complexion as mourners, being overgrown, by reason that none goeth up as usually to the feasts of the passover, of tabernacles, &c. Either all the gates of Jerusalem, or the temple, or all her cities, are very thin of people, the places that use to be so full. Her priests that were wont to be so fully employed at festivals receiving the peoples oblations, and offering sacrifices, they mourn, having now nothing to do. The virgins who in those feasts were wont to play with timbrels, Psa 68:25, they now mourn, and persons of all ages and ranks are in bitterness.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. feaststhe passover,pentecost (or the feast of weeks), and the feast of tabernacles.
gatesonce the place ofconcourse.
He.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The ways of Zion do mourn,…. Being unoccupied, as in Jud 5:6; or unfrequented: this is said by a rhetorical figure; as ways may be said to rejoice, or look pleasant and cheerful, when there are many passengers in them, going to and fro; so they may be said to mourn, or to look dull and melancholy, when no person is met with, or seen in them; thus Jerusalem and the temple being destroyed, the ways which led from the one to the other, and in which used to be seen great numbers going up to the worship of God, which was pleasant to behold,
Ps 42:4; now not one walking in them, and all overgrown with grass; and those roads which led from the several parts of the land to Jerusalem, whither the ten tribes went up to worship three times in the year, and used to travel in companies, which made it delightful and comfortable, and pleasant to look at, now none to be seen upon them; which was matter of grief to those that wished well to Zion; as it is to all truly godly persons to observe that the ways and worship of God are not frequented; that there are few inquiring the way to Zion above, or travelling in the road to heaven; as also when there are few that worship God in Zion below, or ask the way unto it, or walk in the ordinances of it:
because none come to the solemn feasts. Aben Ezra understands this of the sanctuary itself; which sense Abendana mentions; expressed by the word here used; and so called, because all Israel were convened here; but the Targum and Jarchi more rightly interpret it of the feasts, the three solemn feasts of the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles, at which all the males in Israel were obliged to appear; but now, the temple and city being in ruins, none came to them, which was a very distressing case; as it is to good men, when upon whatever occasion, either through persecution, or through sloth and negligence, the ministry of the word, and the administration of ordinances, particularly the Lord’s supper, the solemn feasts under the Gospel dispensation, are not attended to:
all her gates are desolate; the gates of the temple; none passing through them into it to worship God, pray unto him, praise him, or offer sacrifice; or the gates of the city, none going to and fro in them; nor the elders sitting there in council, as in courts of judicature, to try causes, and do justice and judgment:
her priests sigh; the temple burnt; altars destroyed, and no sacrifices brought to be offered; and so no employment for them, and consequently no bread; but utterly deprived of their livelihood, and had good reason to sigh. The Targum adds,
“because the offerings ceased:”
her virgins are afflicted; or, “are sorrowful” m; are in grief and mourning, that used to be brisk and gay, and to play with timbrels at their festivals; so the Targum paraphrases it,
“the virgins mourn because they cease to go out on the fifteenth of Ab, and on the day of atonement, which was the tenth of Tisri, to dance in the dances:”
and she [is] in bitterness; that is, Zion; or the congregation of Israel is in bitterness of spirit, in great affliction and distress; her name might be rightly called Marah; see Ru 1:20.
m “moestae”, Junius Tremellius, Michaelis “moerent”, Piscator; “moestitia affectae sunt”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Zion (i.e., Jerusalem, as the holy city) is laid waste; feasts and rejoicing have disappeared from it. “The ways of Zion” are neither the streets of Jerusalem (Rosenmller), which are called , nor the highways or main roads leading to Zion from different directions (Thenius, who erroneously assumes that the temple, which was situated on Moriah, together with its fore-courts, could only be reached through Zion), but the roads or highways leading to Jerusalem. These are “mourning,” i.e., in plain language, desolate, deserted, because there are no longer any going up to Jerusalem to observe the feasts. For this same reason the gates of Zion (i.e., the city gates) are also in ruins, because there is no longer any one going out and in through them, and men no longer assemble there. The reason why the priests and the virgins are here conjoined as representatives of the inhabitants of Jerusalem is, that lamentation is made over the cessation of the religious feasts. The virgins are here considered as those who enlivened the national festivals by playing, singing, and dancing: Jer 31:13; Psa 68:26; Jdg 21:19, Jdg 21:21; Exo 15:20. (Niphal of ) is used here, as in Zep 2:13, of sorrow over the cessation of the festivals. Following the arbitrary rendering, , of the lxx, Ewald would alter the word in the text into , “carried captive.” But there is no necessity for this: he does not observe that this rendering does not harmonize with the parallelism of the clauses, and that means to drive away, but not to lead captive.
(Note: See, however, 1Sa 20:2, with Keil’s own rendering, and Isa 20:4, with Delitzsch’s translation. – Tr.)
, “and she (Zion) herself” is in bitterness (cf. Rth 1:13, Rth 1:20), i.e., she feels bitter sorrow. In Lam 1:6, Lam 1:7, are mentioned the causes of this grief.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Jeremiah refers here to another cause of sorrow, that the worship of God had ceased, it having been interrupted; nay, it seemed to have become extinct for ever. He then says that the ways of Sion mourned, because none came to the feasts. The words are figurative, for we know that feelings belong not to ways; but the Prophet ascribes feeling to what is inanimate. And this sort of personification is more emphatical than if he had introduced the people as mourning. But when the Jews saw that God’s worship had fallen, it was more grievous than to find themselves bereaved of children or of wives, or plundered of all their goods; for the more precious God’s worship was to them, and the more religion was thought of, in which consisted the eternal salvation of their souls, the more severe and mournful was it to see the Church, so scattered, that God could no longer be worshipped and invoked.
It is indeed true that God’s worship was not tied to ceremonies; for Daniel never ceased to pray, and he was heard no less in his exile than if he came to the sacrifices with great solemnity to make an offering in the Temple. This is no doubt true; but as God had not in vain instituted these duties and rites of religion, the Prophet exhibits the thing itself by its symbols. As, then, feasts were testimonies of God’s grace, it was the same as though the Jews were called together by a standard being lifted up, and as though God appeared in the midst of them. Hence the Prophet, referring to these external symbols, shews that the worship of God had in a manner ceased.
Her gates are solitary, or desolate; her priests are in mourning, her virgins in afflictions; she is in bitterness. (125) Now this passage reminds us, that when God afflicts his Church, however grievous it may be to see innocent men slain, blood shed promiscuously, the sexes, men and women, killed indiscriminately; and though it be a sad spectacle to see houses robbed and plundered, fields laid waste, and al! things in a confusion, yet when all these things are compared with the abolition of God’s worship, this passage reminds us that all these things ought to appear light to us. Though David greatly deplored his condition, because he was banished from the Temple, and did not as usual lead thither the assembly, when he was not the only one ejected from the sanctuary of God; yet when the sanctuary itself was destroyed, together with the altar, when there were no sacrifices, no thanksgiving, no praises; in short, no prayer, it was surely much more bitter.
This lamentation of the Prophet ought then to be carefully noticed, when he says, that the ways of Sion mourned, that no one went up to the feasts. What follows I pass over; I shall hereafter dwell more on these things when we advance towards the end of the narrative.
(125) Participles are used throughout this verse, which express the present state of things, —
The ways of Sion are mourning, for none are coming to the feasts; All her gates are made desolate, her priests are sighing; Her virgins are afflicted, and she, bitterness is to her.
—
Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
EXEGETICAL NOTES.
() Lam. 1:4 introduces another view personifying the religious condition: not the banished people, not the fallen city, but the dwelling-place of the Holy One of Israel is forsaken and overthrown. The ways of Zion, not the streets in Jerusalem leading up to the Temple, but the roads from all quarters of the land, which found their termini in the Holy hill, are mournful, for they are entirely deserted; being without those who go to a solemn assembly, none come to appear before the Lord in His courts at set times, as He had enjoined His worshippers to do; all her gates, which Jehovah loveth, are desolate, broken down; no one goes up to or lingers about them. The Temple has lost its sanctity and is open to all intruders. The glory has departed from it: her priests are sighing; her virgins are afflicted. The reason why the priests and the virgins are here conjoined is that lamentation is made over the cessation of the religious feasts. The virgins are here considered as those who enlivened the national festivals by playing, singing, and dancing (Psa. 68:26; Jer. 31:13) (Keil). And she is in bitterness herself, as if all was lost religiously as well as politically.
HOMILETICS
LAMENTATION OVER A FORSAKEN SANCTUARY
(Lam. 1:4)
I. Because its thoroughfares are no longer thronged with worshippers. The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts; all her gates are desolate. Those were happy days when the roads leading up to Jerusalem were crowded with eager worshippers, coming to the three great annual festivalsthe Passover, Pentecost, and Feast of Tabernacles. The city was jubilant in song, and full to overflowing with life and movement. Now the very roads are represented as mourning, as if they missed the tread of the pilgrims feet; and the gates look in vain for the travellers they had so often welcomed. All her gates are desolate.
It is a dispiriting spectacle to see a closed sanctuary, with weeds and grasses growing about the entrance; the more so when we have seen the same sanctuary filled with delighted worshippers. When men forsake the house of God, God forsakes it too, and it is then desolate indeed.
II. Because the office of the ministry is obsolete. Her priests sighsigh not only for want of bread, because the offerings, which were their means of livelihood, fail; but because their life-work is useless, because the people lapse into ignorance and sin, because the worship of Jehovah is neglected and dishonoured. The true minister is wholly consecrated to his sacred calling; it is the theme of his earnest prayers, his constant study, and exercises his best powers. Life to him is bereft of its holiest motive, its sweetest relish, when it is baulked of its loftiest purpose. It is time to sigh when the priests, the Lords ministers, sigh.
III. Because the training of the young is neglected. Her virgins are afflicted. The virgins are mentioned because they took a prominent part in all religious festivals (Jer. 31:13; Exo. 15:20; Psa. 68:25); and therefore special notice is taken of the educative loss to them occasioned by disused ordinances. Neglect in the religious training of the young means grave peril to the moral stamina of the community. Religion is the mightiest force in the formation of youthful character. The men and women of the future will be what the Church makes them in their younger years. It has been saidPeople fancy that we cannot become wise without becoming old also; but in truth, as years accumulate, it is hard to keep as wise as we were. Man becomes, in the different stages of his life, a different being, but he cannot say that he will surely be better as he grows onwards. In certain matters he is as likely to be right in his twentieth as in his sixtieth year. The young will carry with them through life the influences for good or evil that have been brought to bear upon them in their early days.
IV. Because the city is deprived of religious ordinances. And she is in bitterness. It is a beautiful and touching conception to impersonate the metropolis of Judah as a disconsolate female, troubled with the evident cessation of Divine worship and the universal neglect of religious duties. As is the Church, so will be the city; as is the state of religion, so will be the people. The glory of a city is gone when religious ordinances are abandoned. No loss should be lamented more bitterly than the loss of religion.
LESSONS.
1. A closed temple anywhere is a pitiable sight.
2. Where religious privileges are withdrawn the people suffer.
3. Love of worship will always crowd the sanctuary.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Lam. 1:4. Her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted. A dispirited ministry.
1. Because the sanctuary is destroyed.
2. Because the worshippers are scattered and uncared for.
3. Because its maintenance is withdrawn.
4. Because the joyous song of the young is turned to sorrow. Her virgins are afflicted.
5. Because of conscious imperfections and unfaithfulness.
She is in bitterness. A city in sorrow.
1. Because its reputation is dishonoured.
2. Because its resources are crippled, its people dispersed, its commerce interrupted, its institutions destroyed.
3. Because the public worship of God is abandoned.
4. Because its future seems hopeless.
ILLUSTRATIONS.Dead and dying Churches. A barque on her voyage from Hong-Kong fell in with a British ship, the Guiding Star, helplessly floating about with a fever-stricken crew. When found, only one member of the crew was able to work. The captain, the first mate, the steward, and a seaman had died. Five men were lying helpless, though still alive, and the boatswain had gone mad from the want of proper attention. The Guiding Star was towed to Batavia, where the survivors were placed under medical treatment. Are there not Churches to-day that are morally in a similar plightdrifting hospitals, officered with the dead and dying! It will be a mercy if they are spiritually rescued before they become sepulchres, entombing the hopelessly dead.The Scottish Pulpit.
The true man superior to his surroundings.The scientist, while admitting the influence of geographical surroundings in shaping the history and character of nations, admits that nothing would be more erroneous than to suppose that Nature alone acts in determining the conditions of life and of races. Mans activity must be associated with Nature. A country may be prominent and fertile, and yet occupied by a race of men utterly unfit to develop its resources. After all, man is greater than Nature, and it is his lofty mission to subdue it. The energy of the Netherlands turned a swamp into a garden, while their Spanish oppressors, with inexhaustible resources in soil and mineral, sank into decay. We are apt to lay too much stress upon the operation of the law of environment, and to ignore individual responsibility. Plant within man the vital principles of Christianity, and he will soon change his environment.The Scottish Pulpit.
Ministers not only finger-posts, but guides. There ought to be no hiatus between our declarations and our spiritual conduct. We must not only be finger-posts, but guides, Lest having preached to others, we ourselves become castaways.
The love of Christ and His Apostles twelve
He taught, but first he followed it himself.
If we are the channels of good to our fellows, it behoves us to clear away all that might impede the flowing, and defile the purity, of the stream of truth from God.
Youth needs instruction. Narcissus, a beautiful youth, though he would not love them that loved him, yet afterwards fell in love with his own shadow. Ah! how many young men in these days, who were once lovely and hopeful, are now fallen in love with their own and others shadows, with high, empty, airy notions, and with strange, monstrous speculations, to their own damnation. A youth deprived of instruction and left to his natural development is a pitiable object, and is menaced by many perils.
Work a remedy for misery. Nothing is more remarkable in the Apostles than their unbroken mental health. The histories of religious communities are full of instances of ecstasies and hysterical delusions; but never do we find among our Lords followers anything approaching to a spiritual craze. This health of theirs came in great measure from their being constantly employed about matters of which their hearts were full. The busy man has neither time nor inclination to nurse delusive fancies. Hard, honest, practical work is a panacea for many ills. Underneath a fresco of the 13th century discovered at Cortona, in Italy, is inscribed the motto, Sum misero nisi teneam ligonemI am miserable unless I hold a spade.The Scottish Pulpit.
The uses of suffering.
Through long days did Anguish,
And sad nights did Pain
Forge my shield, Endurance,
Bright and free from stain.
Doubt in misty caverns,
Mid dark horrors sought,
Till my peerless jewel,
Faith, to me she brought.
Sorrow that I wearied
Should remain so long,
Wreathed my starry glory,
The bright crown of song.
Strife, that racked my spirit
Without hope or rest,
Left the blooming flower,
Patience, in my breast.
Proctor.
Love in sorrow. Always through the darkest part of every life there runs, though we may sometimes fail to see it, the golden thread of love, so that even the worst man on earth is not wholly cut off from God, since He will, by some means or other, eternally try to draw him out of death into life. We are astounded now and then to read that some cold-blooded murderer, some man guilty of a hideous crime, will ask in his last moments to see a child who loved him devotedly, and whom he also loved. We are astonished just because we do not understand the untiring heart of the Almighty Father, who in His goodness often gives to the vilest sinner the love of a pure-hearted woman or child. So true is the beautiful old Latin saying, Mergere nos patitur, sed non submergere ChristusChrist lets us sink, may be, but not drown.Edna Lyall.
A city in sorrow. In 1576 Antwerp was stormed by the Spaniards with fire and sword. Never was there a more monstrous massacre, even in the blood-stained annals of the Netherlands. In the course of three days eight thousand human beings were murdered. The Spaniards seemed to cast off even the vizard of humanity. Hell seemed emptied of its fiends. Night fell upon the scene before the soldiers were masters of the city; but worse horrors began after the contest was ended. This army of brigands had come thither with a definite, practical purpose, for it was not blood thirst, nor lust, nor revenge which impelled them, but greediness for gold. Torture was employed to discover hidden treasure; and, after all had been given, if the sum seemed too little, the proprietors were brutally punished for their poverty or their supposed dissimulation. Women, children, and old men were killed in countless numbers, and still, through all this havoc, directly over the heads of the struggling throng, suspended in mid-air above the din and smoke of the conflict, there sounded, every half-quarter of every hour, as if in gentle mockery, from the belfry of the cathedral, the tender and melodious chimes.Motleys Dutch Republic.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(4) The ways of Zion do mourn.The words paint what we may call the religious desolation of Jerusalem. The roads leading to it, the gates by which it was entered, were no longer thronged with pilgrims and worshippers. Virgins are joined with priests as taking part in the hymns and rejoicing processions of the great festivals (Exo. 15:20; Psa. 68:25; Jdg. 21:19-21; Jer. 31:13).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Ways of Zion That is, the roads and highways leading to Zion.
Do mourn Because they are no longer trodden by the pilgrims going up to the solemn feasts, the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles. Virgins are mentioned as bearing a part in the religious services. See Jer 31:13, and Psa 68:25.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lam 1:4. The ways of Zion do mourn This verse seems evidently and beyond dispute to fix the subject of this poem to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple; the prophet lamenting in it the total desolation of the holy city, and the cessation of all religious services and ceremonies there.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
“Handfuls of Purpose”
For All Gleaners
“The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.” Lam 1:4
This is the description of a religious desolation. Once the roads leading to Zion were thronged with ardent pilgrims, urging onward in a spirit of worship and homage and rapturous love; now not a pilgrim is to be seen near the gates which open upon the holy place. Virgins and priests are alike left without official occupation; no broken heart seeks ease in Zion, no tormented spirit brings its sorrow to be healed. All men have turned in other directions for light and hope and safety. A pathetic picture indeed is this, that the feast is spread and no man comes to the banqueting-table; every gate is open in token of welcome and hospitality, yet no wandering soul asks for admittance; the priests once so noble in the service of song, the virgins once so beautiful as images of innocence, now stand with hands thrown down, with eyes full of tears, with hearts sighing in expressive silence their bitterness and disappointment. All this can God do even to his chosen place, and to altars on which he has written his name. Officialism is no guarantee of spiritual perpetuity. Pomp and ceremony, with all their mechanical and external decorations and attractions, are no pledge of the presence of the Spirit of the Living God. On many temples we may write Ichabod. The temples are as large as ever, and yet they are full of emptiness: every ceremony may be gone through with punctilious care, but the Lord himself has withdrawn, and service is turned into mockery. Here is a lesson for all persons who care for the sanctuary and for the extension of its redeeming influence. The sanctuary is nothing but for the Lord’s presence. Eloquent preaching is but eloquent noise if the Spirit of the Lord be not in it, giving it intellectual value, spiritual dignity, and practical usefulness. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord; because men have forgotten this doctrine they have trusted to themselves and have seen their hopes perishing in complete and bitter disappointment. One wonders how all this has come to pass in Judah, and how this sorrow has befallen sacred and beautiful Zion. We need not wonder long, for the answer is given in these words “For the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.” That is the reason. When did we ever find other explanation of human suffering? When did God ever willingly chastise the children of men? When did the Lord say that merely to display his power he would shake his rod over the nations and torment them with great pain? Never. Whenever judgment has gone forth it has been in the cause of righteousness, it has been to avenge some offence against the laws of heaven, which are not arbitrary laws, established for the mere glory of the Potentate, but they are what may be called laws of health, laws of sanity, laws of progress, laws of pureness, laws of equity, to sin against these laws is to go to the bottomless pit. Why disguise the result when all history has made it so plain? Why spoil by mocking euphemism what is so direct and patent even to the judgment of reason itself, to say nothing of that nobler imagination which bears the distinctive name of faith? Always transgression is the high-road to the grave. Men say this and acknowledge it, and. yet they repeat the offence as if no intimation of consequences had been given to them. What can remain for such people but increasing hardness of heart, until their sense of God’s existence has faded out of the mind?
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Lam 1:4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she [is] in bitterness.
Ver. 4. The ways of Zion do mourn. ] So they seem to do because unfrequented, overgrown with grass, and out of their kindly order.
Her priests sigh.
The virgins were afflicted.
And she is in bitterness.
a Cultus Dei desertus est, et omnia luctifica. – Jun.
The ways. Not streets in the city, but the roads leading thereto.
mourn. Figure of speech Prosopopoeia. App-6.
solemn feasts = appointed feasts. See note on Psa 74:8 (same word).
bitterness = bitter for her. Instead of festal joy, Compare Jer 7:34; Jer 16:9; Jer 25:10; Jer 31:13; Jer 33:11.
ways: Lam 2:6, Lam 2:7, Lam 5:13, Isa 24:4-6, Jer 14:2, Mic 3:12
all her gates: Lam 2:9, Jer 9:11, Jer 10:22, Jer 33:10-12
her priests: Lam 1:11, Lam 1:12, Lam 1:18-20, Lam 2:10, Lam 2:11, Lam 2:19-21, Isa 32:9-14, Joe 1:8-13
Reciprocal: Lev 23:2 – the feasts Lev 26:22 – your high Jdg 5:6 – the highways Psa 144:14 – no breaking in Isa 3:26 – her gates Isa 24:12 – General Isa 27:10 – the defenced Isa 33:8 – highways Lam 1:8 – she sigheth Lam 3:47 – desolation Lam 5:14 – elders Eze 5:14 – I will Joe 1:9 – the priests Zep 3:18 – sorrowful
Lam 1:4. Ways of Zion means the roads leading to the city where the national feasts had been observed. They mourned (figuratively speaking) because no one was passing over them to attend the feasts. The rest of the verse is on the same subject.
Lam 1:4-6. The ways of Zion do mourn The highways leading to Zion, which used to be thronged with people going to the solemn feasts before the Lord, now, as it were, mourned on account of no persons travelling in them for that purpose. All her gates are desolate The gates of Jerusalem, or of the temple: few or none passing through them, the city and country being depopulated; and there are no longer any courts of judicature, or assemblies of people, held in her gates. Her priests sigh Because no victims, or other oblations, are offered, the temple and altar being destroyed. Her virgins are afflicted Her calamities afflict the young as well as the old, and persons of all ages and ranks are in bitterness. Her adversaries are the chief Her enemies have got the advantage over her, and she is become their vassal. This was a judgment that Moses threatened to them if they proved disobedient, Deu 28:43; namely, that their enemies should be the head, and they the tail. For the Lord hath afflicted her Hath fulfilled his threatenings, denounced in case of disobedience. For the multitude of her transgressions The procuring, provoking cause of all her calamities: for whoever may be made the instruments, God is the author of all these troubles: it is the Lord that has afflicted her, and he has done it as a righteous judge, because of her transgressions, which have been very many as well as very great. Hence her children, her inhabitants, are gone into captivity before the enemy Are forced into slavery by the Chaldeans, as cattle are driven in herds by them that sell them. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed All the glory of Gods sanctuary, and the comely order of his worship, and all the beauty of holiness. Her princes are like harts, &c. That upon the first alarm betake themselves to flight, and make no resistance: they are become dispirited, have lost their courage, given way and fled before their enemies.
1:4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come {f} to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she [is] in bitterness.
(f) As they used to come up with mirth and joy, Psa 42:4 .
No Judahites came to the feasts in Jerusalem because they were in exile. Consequently the roads mourned that pilgrims did not cover them with joyful song. Jerusalem’s gates missed the constant flow of people in and out of the city. The gates were where people congregated to transact business, to carry out legal transactions, and to socialize. The few priests and virgins left there were lonely and miserable.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)