Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Lamentations 1:21
They have heard that I sigh: [there is] none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done [it]: thou wilt bring the day [that] thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me.
21. The second and third lines are metrically irregular, as failing to fulfil the conditions of the “limping rhythm” of the inah. (See Intr. p. 321 f.) Lhr accordingly transposes “They are glad done it” and “Thou wilt bring proclaimed.”
They have heard ] This verb has perhaps been assimilated to the “have heard” of the next line. If so, by a very slight change in MT., we get an imperative, Hear thou. Cp. the imperative “Behold” at the commencement of Lam 1:20.
Thou wilt bring ] lit. Thou hast brought (a prophetic perfect). The day here spoken of is the day of retribution for Judah’s enemies. Cp. Jer 25:17-26, in which passage Jerusalem and the neighbouring nations are all united in the same figure, as drinking in common of the cup of God’s wrath. For the use of “day” in the sense of destined time Greenup quotes Chaucer, Channones Yemannes Tale, II. I5 f.
The arrangement of the second and third lines of the v. in MT. is metrically irregular. Lhr is probably right in transposing two clauses, and thus reading,
“All mine enemies have heard of my trouble, thou hast brought the day that thou didst proclaim;
They are glad that thou hast done it, let them be like unto me.”
He thus makes “the day” to be that of Judah’s fall as foretold by the prophets, and makes the last clause expressive of a wish. It has also been suggested that for “Thou wilt bring” we should read the imperative, Bring thou.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They have heard … – Or, They heard that I sigh, that I have no comforter.
Thou wilt bring the day … – literally, thou hast brought the day thou hast proclaimed, and they shall be like unto me. The day of Judahs punishment was the proof that the nations now triumphing over Jerusalems fall would certainly be visited.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 21. They have heard that I sigh] My affliction is public enough; but no one comes to comfort me.
They are glad that thou hast done it] On the contrary, they exult in my misery; and they see that THOU hast done what they were incapable of performing.
Thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me.] Babylon shall be visited in her turn; and thy judgments poured out upon her shall equal her state with my own. See the last six chapters of the preceding prophecy for the accomplishment of this prediction.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The nations contiguous to me, Egypt, &c., those that before courted me, as pretended friends, have been no strangers to my bitter afflictions, that have brought forth sighs from me; but there is none of them can or will comfort me, but give me over as in a desperate case. The Edomites, Ob 1, &c., and Moabites, and other heathen nations, with whom I have had hostility, they are glad at the great misery that hath befallen me. But thou hast declared thy pleasure for their destruction also, and hast by me proclaimed it, Jer 49:1, and thou shalt in that day bring them into as sad a condition as the church of the Jews are now in. As they seldom in themselves feel those miseries which they have felt and compassionated in others; so men hardly escape their own share at last in those evils which they have rejoiced to see brought upon Gods people.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. they are glad that thou hastdone itbecause they thought that therefore Judah isirretrievably ruined (Jer 40:3).
the day . . . called(but)thou wilt bring on them the day of calamity which thou hastannounced, namely, by the prophets (Jer 50:1-46;Jer 48:27).
like . . . meincalamities (Psa 137:8; Psa 137:9;Jer 51:25, &c.).
Tau.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They have heard that I sigh: [there is] none to comfort me,…. That is, the nations, as the Targum; the neighbouring ones, those that were her confederates and allies; the same with her lovers, as before, as Aben Ezra observes; these being near her, knew full well her sorrowful and distressed condition, being as it were within the hearing of her sighs and groans; and yet none of them offered to help her, or so much as to speak a comfortable word to her:
all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; not only her friends, but foes; meaning the Tyrians, Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites, and as the following description of them shows; for it must design others from the Chaldeans, that were the immediate cause of it:
they are glad that thou hast done [it]; brought all this ruin and destruction on Jerusalem, which could never have been done, if the Lord had not willed it; and at this the above mentioned nations rejoiced; see Eze 25:3; there being a considerable stop on the word glad, it may be rendered, as by some, “they are glad; but thou hast done it” n; not they, but thou; and therefore must be patiently bore, and quietly submitted to, it being the Lord’s doing:
thou wilt bring the day [that] thou hast called; the time of, he destruction of, he Chaldeans, who had the chief hand in the ruin of the Jewish nation, and of those that rejoiced at it; which time was fixed by the Lord, and proclaimed and published by his prophets, and would certainly and exactly come, as and when it was pointed out: some o take it to be a wish or prayer, that God would bring it, as he had declared; though others interpret it in a quite different sense, “thou hast brought the day” p; meaning on herself, the determined destruction; so the Targum,
“thou hast brought upon me the day of vengeance; thou hast called a time upon me to my desolation:”
and they shall be like unto me; in the same distressed, desolate, and sorrowful condition, being brought to ruin and destruction; which afterwards was the case of the Chaldeans, and all the other nations.
n “laetati sunt; sed tu fecisti”, Grotius. o “Utinam induceres diem”, so some in Vatablus. p “adduxisti diem”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; “induxisti [aut] inducis”, Vatablus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The verb שמעו, shemou, is put down twice, but at the beginning without a nominative case: hence the sentence is defective, until in the second clause the word איבי aibi, is expressed. Jeremiah evidently says, that enemies had heard of the evils under which the people labored, even that they were sighing, and that no one showed them any kindness; for it is commonly the case that sympathy is manifested towards the miserable. By this circumstance he amplifies the grievousness of their punishment, there being no one, as before said, to administer any consolation. But it is repeated, that enemies had heard; for as there is nothing more bitter than reproaches, we seek in adversities to withdraw ourselves in a manner from the observation of men; but our evil is especially doubled, when we become a spectacle to enemies; for they derive joy from our adversities, and then exult over us. When, therefore, the chosen people said, that enemies had heard, they thus showed that nothing could be added to their miseries: They have heard, then, that I was sighing and that no one comforted me. Who had heard? all mine enemies; and they have rejoiced that thou hast done it
Jeremiah seems to intimate, that their enemies, being fully persuaded that God was displeased with his people, did on this account more freely rejoice; and at the same time they believed that it was all over with those miserable people with whom God was displeased. But I know not whether this view is well grounded. I indeed do not reject it, nor will I dispute with any one who may hold that the enemies rejoiced, because they thought that God was become the enemy of that people, whom he had before chosen and also protected: nor is this view unsuitable; for the reprobate then fully triumph when they can boast that God is adverse to us. But when no such thought comes to their minds, they yet cease not to rejoice when they see that we are oppressed and afflicted. Though, then, they may not think of God’s hand, yet they rejoice that it is done; that is, they rejoice that we are distressed, though they understand not who the author is. We may then take the meaning simply to be, that the enemies of the Church rejoiced at that calamity, without considering who the author of it was.
But, why is it expressed that God had done it ? even to shew that while the ungodly think that fortune is unfavorable to us, it; is our duty to cast our eyes on God, for we ought not to judge of things according to their blindness. As, then, they ascribe not to God the glory due to him when they do not acknowledge him as judge, it ever behooves us to see by the eyes of faith what is hid from the natural perceptions of men, even that nothing happens to us except through the righteous judgment of God. Though, then, enemies had not wisdom to know how it was that the Church was afflicted, yet it behooved the Church itself to use by means of faith such a language as this, that God had done it; they rejoiced that thou hast done it
And it follows, Thou hast brought the day which thou hast called, or proclaimed; for קרא, kora, has sometimes this meaning. (147) In short, the faithful now confess not only that they were afflicted by God’s hand, but also that what the prophets had so often threatened, and what had been despised, was now fulfilled. For we have seen with what pertinacity that people rejected the threatenings given by the prophets: God had often exhorted them to repent, and also had proclaimed or fixed a time for them, but without effect. Therefore the faithful now reflect on what had not been sufficiently known before, even that the day was brought which had been often proclaimed. And thus they confessed, not only that they were worthy of punishment., but that it was the proper time for them to be chastised, as they had not repented after having been so often warned.
He adds, But they themselves shall be as I am. Here the future tense may be considered as optative, for presently a prayer follows which confirms this view. But we may also take the meaning to be simply this, — that the faithful began to take courage, as they looked forward to the time when God would render to the wicked according to their proud and disdainful exultation’s. It follows, —
(147) Our version is wrong in rendering this clause in the future tense. The reference is not to the day of vengeance to the Babylonians, but to the day of vengeance which God had brought on his own people. The versions, except the Syr. , give the verb in the past tense.
There are here two instances of כי being carried on to the next clause, —
21. Heard have they that I sigh, that I have no comforter: All mine enemies have heard of my evil; they have rejoiced That thou hast done it, that thou hast brought the day thou hast announced; But they shall be like myself.
—
Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(21) They are glad that thou hast done it . . .Historically the words refer to the conduct of nations like the Edomites, as described in Psa. 137:7.
Thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called.Better, proclaimed. By some commentators the first verb is taken as a perfect, Thou hast brought, and the day is that of vengeance upon Judah. With the rendering of the Authorised version the clause coheres better with that which follows, and the day is that of the punishment of the exulting foes.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Lam 1:21. There is none to comfort me Grief is timorous and suspicious, fertile in inventing torments for itself, scarcely brooking the least neglect, but entirely impatient of the least mockery or contempt. The prophet has beautifully expressed this circumstance in the passage before us. See Lam 1:7. The day, spoken of in the latter part of this verse, means that appointed for the execution of God’s judgments upon the Babylonians and other enemies of the Jews, according to the predictions of Jeremiah in the 46th and following chapters of his prophesy. The next verse might be rendered, All their wickedness shall come before thee, and thou wilt do unto them as, &c. See Bishop Lowth’s 23rd Prelection, and Calmet. Instead of, Do unto them, &c. Schultens reads, Exhaust thou them, as thou hast exhausted me.
REFLECTIONS.1st, With plaintive notes of woe the prophet’s mournful muse begins, and bids each reader drop the sympathetic tear.
1. He bewails the desolations of Jerusalem: how changed from all her former glory, into what an abyss of wretchedness fallen: he is amazed at what he beheld, and, commiserating her afflicted case, breaks forth, How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! Silence reigns in the once thronged streets; and brooding over the ruins, with anguish too big for utterance, in melancholy solitude, Jerusalem, as a disconsolate widow, sits on the ground, deserted of God, her king a captive, her inhabitants dead with famine, pestilence, or the sword, or kept under the yoke of servitude in a strange land: a princess once among the nations, courted, respected, and obeyed; now bound with captive bands, an ignominious tributary to a heathen lord. No marvel that tears incessant furrow her cheeks; and as if too short the day for sorrow such as her’s, all night they flow, without a comforter, without a friend to pity her, and, by partaking, to alleviate her anguish. Her lovers, who in the days of her prosperity with warm professions testified their regard, desert her in the day of her calamity; and her treacherous friends throw off the mask, and act as open enemies. Her children groan in servitude; subject to the caprice and tyranny of heathen masters, and finding no rest, no end of toil, no peace of mind, no settled abode. Hemmed in like a beast in the toils, her persecutors have seized her, without the possibility of escape. Her adversaries are the chief; her enemies prosper: and no wonder, since the Lord hath afflicted her, whose wrath, on account of her manifold iniquities, is the cause of all her sufferings. Like harts famished for want of pasture, and weak as those timorous animals, her princes are unable to fight or fly, and fall an easy prey, despised now by those who honoured her; stripped of all her wealth and ornaments, her nakedness appears; and, confounded, she sighs and turns backward, as if to hide her shame. Pining with famine, and sunk in despondence, her people seek bread, and gladly part with all their jewels and pleasant things to procure the smallest refreshment; so low are they reduced, from that plenty wherein they once rioted, and which they so grievously abused. Note; (1.) They who wilfully depart from God, the soul’s true rest, may not hope to find rest in any thing beside. (2.) All afflictions are doubly heavy when we see them as coming from God, not in mercy, but in wrath. (3.) Men’s sins will surely bring them into straits, when too late they will bewail their folly. (4.) Affluence abused is the ready way to pining want.
2. Great were these miseries under which the state groaned; yet greater anguish to the gracious soul it was, to behold the sacred service of the temple interrupted. Unfrequented now, the ways of Zion mourn: her gates, no longer thronged by those who hasted to her solemn feasts, are deserted, desolate. Her priest sigh; no sacrifice bleeds, no incense smokes upon the altar; destitute of their portion, famishing through want: her virgins are afflicted; their songs of joy sunk into mourning and woe; and she is in bitterness, overwhelmed with anguish and distress. Her beauty is departed; not only her king and nobles captives, and her country wasted, but, above all, the beautiful house of her sanctuary in ruins. With sacrilegious hands her enemies have seized all her pleasant things, her ark, her altars; and those, who might not even enter the congregation, now riot in the very sanctuary, plunder and spoil its sacred treasures, and, adding insult to their ravages, mocked at their sabbaths; or, as some think, in derision laid upon them on that day heavier burdens. And, what aggravated all, was, the remembrance of the happy days of old, fled, to appearance for ever fled, and nothing now remaining but affliction and misery. Note; (1.) Nothing affects a good man’s heart so deeply as the decay of vital godliness. (2.) To hear God dishonoured, his worship and ordinances despised and ridiculed, is bitter to the pious soul. (3.) The remembrance of the communion that we have enjoyed with God, and the comforts that we have tasted, serve but to aggravate our griefs, when by our unfaithfulness we have provoked God to withdraw, and leave us to our misery.
3. He laments over their sins, the cause of these desolations; for God is righteous in these his judgments. Her transgressions are multiplied, and very grievous, numberless, and aggravated. Her filthiness is in her skirts, open and avowed: careless and secure, she remembereth not her last end, nor considers in what misery her iniquities will issue: and having been most oppressive herself, the rich afflicting their poor brethren, and making their servitude heavy, justly therefore she is devoted to the yoke, and her fall wonderful, as her provocations were excessive. Note; (1.) Sin and ruin are inseparable. (2.) No sins are so aggravated as those of God’s professing people.
4. Zion is introduced, breaking forth into an earnest cry to God under her sufferings. O Lord, behold my affliction, with an eye of pity and compassion, since every other comforter is no more: see, O Lord, and consider; for I am become vile, reduced to the most abject misery, and ready to sink into despair, if thou dost not interpose. Note; (1.) The only relief for the miserable is earnest application to the merciful God. When all other compassions fail, his fail not. (2.) If God afflicts his believing people, it is in order to excite their more fervent applications to him, and make them know more of the wonders of his grace.
2nd, The same complaints are continued.
1. She demands some compassion from the spectators of her misery, in the view of the heavy hand of God upon her, whom she acknowledges to be the author of her troubles. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? can you unconcerned behold these desolations, and not drop a tear over these ruins? see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow; so bitter and overwhelming. How ready are we all in distress to think our own burden peculiarly heavy, when in fact we only share the calamities common to men: yet it must be owned, that her case was deplorable indeed. In anger, in fierce anger, the Lord had afflicted her; a sense of this added bitterness to every burden; his fire is kindled in her palaces, or burns with fiercer flames within her guilty conscience. Entangled in his net, she could not flee away, but falls backward, faint, and unable to oppose the desolations of her Chaldean foe. Under complicated judgments, her yoke was made heavy, and her foul transgressions the cause of all; she was delivered into her enemies’ hands, without the possibility of escaping. Her warriors, her valiant youth, and all her inhabitants, like grapes in the wine-press, are trodden under foot by the Babylonish army, and their blood shed on every side. Note; Whatever judgments weigh us down, we may be assured that our transgressions have wreathed the yoke, and bound on the burden.
2. She bewails with floods of tears her bitter anguish; and surely there is a cause for them. For these things I weep; both for her sin and her suffering; and particularly, [1.] Because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me. When God departs, our misery must needs be great: all other afflictions are made light by the sense of his presence and love; but when the comforter, the only comforter of the sinful soul, is far from us, and nothing appears but wrath and despair, then is our wretchedness as complete as it can be out of hell. [2.] Because her children are desolate, in captivity, or destroyed by the sword of the merciless enemy; unable to comfort her; yea, their sad fate is the cause of her torment. [3.] Because she could not find a friend. In vain she spread forth her hands, entreating help, and pleading for compassion: her lovers, who promised once so fair, deceived her, yea, shunned her, as if her touch communicated defilement, and none either cared or dared to interpose, when the destruction was by the divine decree, and her adversaries acted under his commission. Note; (1.) When God is our friend, we shall never want a comforter; if he be our enemy, none can comfort us. (2.) Creature-confidences are sure to fail us in the day of calamity. (3.) Because of the terrible famine. My priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls; and if these were perishing for want, how much more the people in general? (4.) Because of the desolations that she beheld. Abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death, inevitable from the famine and the pestilence. (5.) Because of her insulting enemies. They heard of her trouble, and with malicious pleasure rejoiced in it, and for these things her tears run down without intermission.
3. She justifies God in these his judgments. The Lord is righteous; however faithless her friends, or inhuman her foes, her sufferings were no more than she deserved: for I have rebelled, grievously rebelled, against his commandment. Note; True penitents ever acknowledge the justice of God in punishing them; and never desire to excuse themselves, but speak of their sins with every aggravation.
4. She presents her miserable case to the God of all mercy. Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress; deeply afflicted, not only with her sufferings, but from a sense of her sins: my bowels are troubled, mine heart is turned within me; distracted and torn, uneasy and restless; and when the soul thus broken and contrite approaches God, he will not despise our prayer.
5. She expects and intreats that God would visit her enemies. Thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called; the time fixed in God’s counsels for their punishment; and they shall be like unto me, in suffering; and as she believes this will come, she prays that it may. Let all their wickedness come before thee; be remembered and avenged: and do unto them as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions; as equally guilty, let them meet the same scourge, and heavy indeed that had been, as her anguish testified; for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint. Note; (1.) They who are alike guilty, may expect to be alike miserable. (2.) Though all private resentment is forbidden, we may pray to see God glorified in the ruin of his own and his people’s enemies, that are obstinately, incorrigibly impenitent.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Lam 1:21 They have heard that I sigh: [there is] none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done [it]: thou wilt bring the day [that] thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me.
Ver. 21. They have heard that I sigh,. ] My friends have, and yet they pity me not: this was a great vexation, and is much complained of. See Lam 1:2 ; Lam 1:16-17 ; Lam 1:19 .
All mine enemies have heard of my trouble: they are glad.] This is the devil’s disease: the wicked compose comedies out of the saints’ tragedies, and revel in their ruins. But God’s people, in this case, have a double comfort: (1.) That God hath done it, and not the enemy; that he hath a holy hand in all the troubles that befall them. (2.) That their enemies shall not escape scot-free, but be soundly punished.
That thou hast done it.
Thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called.
And they shall be like unto me.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the day: i.e. the day of vengeance of Jer 25:17-26.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
have heard that: Lam 1:2, Lam 1:8, Lam 1:11, Lam 1:12, Lam 1:16, Lam 1:22
they are: Lam 2:15, Lam 4:21, Lam 4:22, Psa 35:15, Psa 38:16, Psa 137:7, Jer 48:27, Jer 50:11, Eze 25:3, Eze 25:6, Eze 25:8, Eze 25:15, Eze 26:2, Oba 1:12, Oba 1:13
thou wilt: Isa 13:1 – Isa 14:32, Isa 47:1-15, Jer 25:17-29, Jer 46:1 – Jer 51:64, Eze 25:1 – Eze 32:32, Amo 1:1-15
the day: Psa 37:13, Joe 3:14
called: or, proclaimed
they shall: Lam 4:22, Deu 32:41-43, Psa 137:8, Psa 137:9, Isa 51:22, Isa 51:23, Jer 50:15, Jer 50:29, Jer 50:31, Jer 51:24, Jer 51:49, Mic 7:9, Mic 7:10, Hab 2:15-17, Rev 18:6
Reciprocal: Isa 52:5 – make Isa 54:11 – not comforted Jer 30:16 – General Jer 48:26 – and he also Jer 50:27 – their day Lam 1:9 – she had Lam 1:17 – none Eze 31:11 – I have driven Hag 1:11 – I called Joh 11:19 – to comfort
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lam 1:21. The first half of this verse continues Judah’s complaint of her enemies, and she even mentions the attitude of the enemies who had been the instrument in God’s hand for the chastisement of His people. The rest of the verse is against that instrument because God never would tolerate any jubilant attitude from those whose services had been used for the punishment of the unfaithful nation.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Lam 1:21-22. They have heard that I sigh The nations contiguous to me, Egypt and others, that before pretended to be my friends and allies, have been no strangers to my bitter afflictions, which have forced sighs from me; but there is none to comfort me None of them can or will relieve my distress, but abandon me as in a desperate situation. They are glad that thou hast done it They have even expressed gladness at the calamities that have befallen me; and they please themselves with the thought that thou our God, of whose favour and protection we used to boast, shouldst forsake us, and give us up as a prey to our enemies. Thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, &c. The day when thou wilt execute thy judgments upon the Babylonians, and our other enemies and false friends, will certainly come at the time thou hast determined for that purpose. We have here again the like turn of phrase as in the first line of this period; for the meaning evidently is, that the enemies of Jerusalem would in the end find little cause for their triumph, since the same Almighty Being, who had caused her evil day to come, had declared that, after a while, they should also suffer the like fate. Thou that hast brought the day [of adversity upon me] hast pronounced, that they shall become even as I. Blaney. Let all their wickedness come before thee Let it appear that though thou hast chastened us for our sins, our enemies have still greater ones to answer and be punished for.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jerusalem’s enemies had heard of her calamity and had rejoiced over it. The city wished that God’s predicted judgment of these enemies would come soon and that they would become like Jerusalem.