Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Lamentations 1:6
And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts [that] find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
6. majesty ] mg. less well, beauty. Exhaustion from hunger and fatigue has taken the place of dignity and wealth.
Her princes are become like harts ] The most natural reference is to the flight and capture of Zedekiah and his princes, Jer 39:4 f. Cp. Jer 52:10. The LXX and Vulg. for “harts” read (with different vowel punctuation) rams, a word used elsewhere (e.g. Exo 15:15; see mg.) for leaders. But the figure needs an animal which is hunted. Budde therefore accepts the Targ. “stags.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Her princes … – Jeremiah had before his mind the sad flight of Zedekiah and his men of war, and their capture within a few miles of Jerusalem Jer 39:4-5.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Lam 1:6
And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed.
Departing glory
1. The Church of God doth esteem the exercises of religion e most excellent and glorious thing that can be had in this life.
(1) They are notable signs of Gods favour and presence.
(2) There is more true comfort in them than in the whole world besides.
2. The weakening of the rulers is the height of misery upon the rest of the members of that body.
3. That people hath a heavy judgment upon them whose guides are destitute and deprived of necessary courage.
4. They that have the greatest outward privilege do often come the soonest into distress when God punisheth for sin (Amo 6:7). (J. Udall.)
Sin ruinous and destructive
We do our utmost to protect great buildings from fire and tempest, and yet all the time those buildings are liable to another peril not less severe–the subtle decay of the very framework of the structure itself. The tissue of the wood silently and mysteriously deteriorates, and calamity as dire as a conflagration is precipitated. The whole of the magnificent roofing of the church of St. Paul in Rome had to be taken out at enormous expense because of the dry rot. Scientific men, by microscopic and chemical methods, have investigated the causes of this premature decay, and after patient search they have discovered not only the fungi which destroy the wood tissue, but also the spore that acts as the seed of the fungus. So this obscure, malign vegetation goes on in the heart of the wood, destroying the glory and strength of minister and palace. Character is liable to a similar danger. All evils do not come from the outside. Some of the worst possibilities of loss, weakness, and ruin emerge from within; the destroying agents work obscurely and stealthily, and are almost unsuspected until they nave wrought fatal mischief.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
All the inhabitants of Zion have lost their former beauty; whatsoever splendour the city had, whether from the multitude or gallantry of her inhabitants, it is all gone; her nobles are become thin and ill-favoured, like beasts almost starved, their enemies pursue them to destroy them, and they have no strength to oppose or resist them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. beauty . . . departedhertemple, throne, and priesthood.
harts that find no pastureananimal timid and fleet, especially when seeking and not able to “findpasture.”
Zain.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed,…. The kingdom removed; the priesthood ceased; the temple, their beautiful house, burnt; the palaces of their king and nobles demolished; and everything in church and state that was glorious were now no more:
her princes are become like harts [that] find no pasture; that are heartless and without courage, fearful and timorous, as harts are, especially when destitute of food. The Targum is
“her princes run about for food, as harts run about in the wilderness, and find no place fit for pasture:”
and they are gone without strength before the pursuer; having no spirit nor courage to oppose the enemy, nor strength to flee from him, they fell into his hands, and so were carried captive; see Jer 52:8. Jarchi observes, that the word for “pursuer” has here all its letters, and nowhere else; and so denotes the full pursuit of the enemy, and the complete victory obtained by him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He continues the same subject. He says here that the daughter of Sion was denuded of all her ornaments. Now, we know what was the honor or dignity of that people; for Moses, in order to set forth the greatness of God’s grace, exclaims,
“
What nation so illustrious under heaven!” (Deu 4:7.)
As, then, the singular gifts of God had been conferred on that people, it was a very sad spectacle to see that city, which once possessed the highest glory, robbed of all its honor and covered with disgrace, as we shall hereafter see. He then says that all her glory was taken away from the daughter of Sion.
Now, there is no need to enumerate all the kinds of honor or glory which belonged to the city Jerusalem. But it may be said first, that God had chosen there a habitation for himself; and then a sacerdotal kingdom was there, — the people were holy to God — they were his heritage, — there God had deposited his covenant, — he deemed all the Jews his children, and his will was that they should in return count him as their Father. As, then, they had been enriched with so many ornaments and so superior, it is no wonder that the Prophet deplored the state of the city when stripped of all its glory.
He then adds, that her princes were like famished harts for harts, as they are by nature swift, when pressed by want run as though they were flying. Since then the swiftness of that animal is so great, the Prophet says that the princes, who were wont to walk with so much gravity and to carry the appearance of great authority, had become swift, like harts oppressed with hunger; for they also labored under the want of everything. (127) He adds that at length they went away, that is, they fled before their pursuers without strength. He intimates by these words that they dared not to contend with their enemies, but that they were so frightened that they fled, and thus proved that they were wholly disheartened and lifeless. It follows, —
(127) The idea here is somewhat different: the princes are compared to harts reduced and enfeebled by famine, so that they were driven by their enemies like a herd of tame cattle. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) Her princes are become like harts . . .Probably a reference to the flight and capture of Zedekiah (2Ki. 25:5; Jer. 39:5), who, with his sons and princes, fell into the hands of the Chaldans, like fainting and stricken deer.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Like harts Like helpless, frightened deer, they flee exhausted before the pursuer in a desert land where they find no pasture.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lam 1:6. Like harts Like rams,And they go without strength before him who driveth them.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Lam 1:6 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts [that] find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
Ver. 6. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed. ] Her glory, as Isa 5:14 that is chiefly the temple, and the service of God in it. It is now Ichabod with her. The beauty and bulwark of a nation are God’s holy ordinances.
Her princes are become like harts,
Before the pursuer.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
like harts. See note on Lam 1:3.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
from: 2Ki 19:21, Psa 48:2, Psa 48:3, Isa 1:21, Isa 4:5, Isa 12:6, Zep 3:14-17
all: Lam 2:1-7, 2Sa 4:11, 2Sa 4:12, Psa 50:2, Psa 96:9, Psa 132:12, Psa 132:13, Jer 52:8, Jer 52:11, Jer 52:13, Eze 7:20-22, Eze 11:22, Eze 11:23, Eze 24:21, Eze 24:25
her princes: Lev 26:36, Lev 26:37, Deu 28:25, Deu 32:30, Jos 7:12, Jos 7:13, Psa 44:9-11, Jer 29:4, Jer 48:41, Jer 51:30-32, Jer 52:7
harts: Jer 14:5, Jer 14:6, Jer 47:3
Reciprocal: Isa 23:10 – no more Lam 1:16 – my children Lam 1:18 – my virgins Rom 5:6 – without
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lam 1:6. The beauty referred to was the national and religious excellence of the city of Zion. The hart is of the deer family and is timid, especially when he is pursued in a wilderness in which he had become impoverished through the want of food. The princes or leaders are compared to this creature because they had been pursued by the enemies from a foreign land.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1:6 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty hath departed: her princes are become {h} like harts [that] find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
(h) As men pined away with sorrow and that have no courage.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Once majestic, Jerusalem now sat humiliated. Her leaders, including Zedekiah and his advisers, had fled like frightened stags that could find no pasture-even though they had been strong in the past (cf. 2Ki 24:1; 2Ki 24:12; 2Ki 25:4-5; Jer 39:4-5).