Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Lamentations 1:11

All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile.

11. The people have already given up their most valuable possessions, that they had hitherto hoarded, for bread. There is therefore nothing now between them and starvation.

meat ] food. Cp. note on “oblations,” Jer 17:26.

vile ] See on Jer 15:19.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Sigh … seek – Are sighing … are seeking. The words are present participles, describing the condition of the people. After a siege lasting a year and a half the whole country, far and near, would be exhausted.

To relieve the soul – See the margin, i. e. to bring back life to them. They bring out their jewels and precious articles to obtain with them at least a meal.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Lam 1:11

All her people sigh, they seek bread.

Grief at losses

I. It is awful for the godly to be grieved with and take to heart their worldly losses–

(1) Because the things of this life are Gods blessings.

(2) They are necessary to support us here, and (being well used) to make us the fitter to serve Him.

2. For the preservation of the life, we must be willing to forego the dearest of these outward blessings.

(1) Because life is the most precious of all earthly things, they being given for the use of it, and not it for them.

(2) God hath given greater charge to preserve it than them.

3. In all our miseries we must seek relief only at Gods hands.

(1) He hath so commanded (Psa 50:15, etc.).

(2) All power to help is in His hands alone (2Ch 20:6).

4. No extremity can drive the godly from trusting in God, and praying to Him (Job 13:15; Psa 44:17). (J. Udall)

They have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul.—

Surrender of luxuries for necessaries

Our forefathers gave five marks or more for a good book; a load of hay for a few chapters of St. James or of St. Paul, in English, saith Mr. Foxe. The Queen of Castile sold her jewels to furnish Columbus for his discovering voyage to the West Indies, when he had showed his maps, though our Henry VII, loath to part with money, slighted his offers, and thereby the gold mines were found and gained to the Spanish crown. Let no man think much to part with his pleasant things for his precious soul, or to sacrifice all that he hath to the service of his life, which, next to his soul, should be most dear to him. Our ancestors in Queen Marys days were glad to eat the bread of their souls in peril of their lives. (J. Trapp.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 11. They have given their pleasant things] Jerusalem is compared to a woman brought into great straits, who parts with her jewels and trinkets in order to purchase by them the necessaries of life.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

He speaketh probably with reference to the siege, after which the people had scarcely any pleasant things to exchange for bread. The whole body of the people was in a sad condition; and in a land that ordinarily flowed with milk and honey, they were at loss for bread to eat, and gave any thing for something to satisfy their hunger.

See, O Lord, and consider; for I am become vile: the prophet sends up a sudden ejaculation to God, much like that Lam 1:9. The argument he useth is drawn from the misery the people were in, expressed under the notion of being become vile, that is, miserable or contemptible.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

11. (Jer 37:21;Jer 38:9; Jer 52:6).

given . . . pleasant thingsfor meat (2Ki 6:25;Job 2:4).

relieve . . . soulliterally,”to cause the soul or life to return.”

for I am become vileHersins and consequent sorrows are made the plea in craving God’s mercy.Compare the like plea in Ps 25:11.

Lamed.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

All her people sigh,…. Not her priests only, La 1:4; but all the common people, because of their affliction, particularly for want of bread. So the Targum,

“all the people of Jerusalem sigh because of the famine;”

for it follows:

they seek bread; to eat, as the Targum; inquire where it is to be had, but in vain:

they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: or, “to cause the soul to return” x; to fetch it back when fainting and swooning away through famine; and therefore would give anything for food; part with their rich clothes, jewels, and precious stones; with whatsoever they had that was valuable in their cabinets or coffers, that they might have meat to keep from fainting and dying; to refresh and recruit their spirits spent with hunger:

see, O Lord, and consider; for I am become vile; mean, base, and contemptible, in the eyes of men, through penury and want of food; through poverty, affliction, and distress; and therefore desires the Lord would consider her case, and look with pity and compassion on her.

x “ad reducendum animam”, Montanus, Piscator.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Besides this disgrace, famine also comes on her. All her people, i.e., the whole of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, sigh after bread, and part with their jewels for food, merely to prolong their life. The participles , , are not to be translated by preterites; they express a permanent condition of things, and the words are not to be restricted in their reference to the famine during the siege of the city (Jer 37:21; Jer 38:9; Jer 52:6). Even after it was reduced, the want of provisions may have continued; so that the inhabitants of the city, starved into a surrender, delivered up their most valuable things to those who plundered them, for victuals to be obtained from these enemies. Yet it is not correct to refer the words to the present sad condition of those who were left behind, as distinguished from their condition during the siege and immediately after the taking of the city (Gerlach). This cannot be inferred from the participles. The use of these is fully accounted for by the fact that the writer sets forth, as present, the whole of the misery that came on Jerusalem during the siege, and which did not immediately cease with the capture of the city; he describes it as a state of matters that still continues. As to , see on Lam 1:7. , “to bring back the soul,” the life, i.e., by giving food to revive one who is nearly fainting, to keep in his life (= ); cf. Rth 4:15; 1Sa 30:12, and in a spiritual sense, Psa 19:8; Psa 23:3. In the third member of the verse, the sigh which is uttered as a prayer ( Lam 1:9) is repeated in an intensified form; and the way is thus prepared for the transition to the lamentation and suppliant request of Jerusalem, which forms the second half of the poem.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

The Prophet here complains that all the citizens of Jerusalem were constantly groaning through want and famine. He first says, that all were sighing. The word “people” is collective, and hence he uses the plural number, נאנחיםץ , nanechim. Then he says that they were all sighing; but he expresses also the reason, because they were seeking bread. To seek bread is indeed common to all; but by this word he intimates extreme want., as though he had said, that they begged their bread. He then compares them to beggars, who go about here and there to seek bread.

He says also, that they gave the most precious things for meat, to recover the soul. Here he refers more clearly to famine, for he says that in a manner they suffered want. Others render the last clause, “to refresh the soul,” which is not unsuitable. But the Prophet no doubt meant to denote a deficiency as to the support of life, when he said, that they gave whatever precious thing they had to restore their souls, as it were from death to life.

A prayer follows, See, Jehovah, and look, for I am become vile. We said yesterday, that the complaints which humbled the faithful, and, at the same time, raised them to a good hope, and also opened the door to prayers, were dictated by the Spirit of God. Otherwise, when men indulge in grief, and torment themselves, they become exasperated; and then to be kindled by this irritation is a kind of madness. The Prophet, therefore, in order to moderate the intensity of sorrow, and the raging of impatience, recalls again the faithful to prayer. And when Jerusalem asks God to see and to look, there is an emphasis intended in using the two words; and the reason given does also more fully shew this, because she had become vile; (137) so that the Church set nothing else before God, to turn him to mercy, but her own miseries. She did not, then, bring forward her own services, but only deplored her own miseries, in order that she might obtain the favor of God. It follows, —

(137) That is, she was treated as vile or worthless: “dishonored” is the S ept. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(11) All her people sigh. . . .The words which describe the famine at Jerusalem are in the present tense, either as painting the sufferings of the past with the vividness of the historic present, or because the sufferings still continued even after the capture of the city. The remnant that was left had to bring out their treasures, jewels, and the like, and offer them for bread.

To relieve the soul.Better, to revive, literally, to bring back.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

11. Have given their pleasant things for meat, etc. An eloquent suggestion of the terrible exigencies of the siege. “All that a man hath, will he give for his life.”

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Lam 1:11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile.

Ver. 11. All her people sigh. ] And so think to ease their grief.

They shall seek bread. ] The staff of life, which, without repair by nutrition, would be soon extinct so in the spiritual life, which made Job prefer the Word before his “necessary food.” There is a “famine of the Word” which is much worse; Amo 8:11 Isa 6:9-10 pray against it, and prevent it.

They have given their pleasant things for meat. ] Which must be had at any rate; much more must the food of the soul. Our forefathers gave five marks, or more, for a good book; a load of hay for a few chapters of St James, or of St Paul, in English, saith Mr Foxe. a The Queen of Castile sold her jewels to furnish Columbus for his discovering voyage to the West Indies, when he had showed his maps, though our Henry VII, loath to part with money, slighted his proffers, and thereby the golden mines were found and gained to the Spanish crown. b Let no man think much to part with his pleasant things for his precious soul, or to sacrifice all that he hath to the service of his life, which, next to his soul, should be most dear unto him. Our ancestors in Queen Mary’s days were glad to eat the bread of their souls in peril of their lives.

To relieve the soul. ] Heb., To make the soul come again; for A nimantis cuiusque vita in fuga est, Life must be fetched again by food when it is fainting away.

See, O Lord, and consider. ] Quam delicata epulatrix facta sim; to what hard meat I am held, to how strait an allowance; see it, and be sensible of my prisoner’s pittance, and how I have made many a meal’s meat upon the promises when I have wanted bread, as that good woman once said.

a Acts and Mon., 750.

b Keckerm., Praefat. Geograph.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)