Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 4.djvu/565



Since what Solomon says, though contrary to the common opinion of the world, is certainly true, that Sorrow is better than laughter, and, It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, we should come to the reading and consideration of the melancholy chapters of this book, not only willingly, but with an expectation to edify ourselves by them; which that we may do, we must compose ourselves to a holy sadness, and resolve to weep with the weeping prophet. Let us consider,

I. The title of this book; in the Hebrew it has none, but is called, (as the books of Moses are,) from the first word, Ecah—How; but the Jewish commentators call it, as the Greeks do, and we from them, Kinoth—Lamentations. As we have sacred odes or songs of joy, so have we sacred elegies or songs of lamentation; such variety of methods has Infinite Wisdom taken to work upon us, and move our affections, and so soften our hearts, and make them susceptible of the impressions of divine truths, as the wax of the seal. We have not only piped unto you, but have mourned likewise, Matth. xi. 17.

II. The penman of this book; it was Jeremiah the prophet, who is here Jeremiah the poet, and vates signifies both; therefore this book is fitly adjoined to the book of his prophecy, and is as an appendix to it. We had there at large the predictions of the desolations of Judah and Jerusalem, and then the history of them, to show how punctually the predictions were accomplished, for the confirming of our faith: now here we have the expressions of his sorrow upon occasion of them, to show that he was very sincere in the protestations he had often made, that he did not desire the woful day, but that, on the contrary, the prospect of it filled him with bitterness. When he saw these calamities at a distance, he wished his head waters, and his eyes fountains of tears; and when they came, he made it to appear that he did not dissemble in that wish, and that he was far from being disaffected to his country, which was the crime his enemies charged him with. Though his country had been very unkind to him, and though the ruin of it was both a proof that he was a true prophet, and a punishment of them for prosecuting him as a false prophet, which would have tempted him to rejoice in it, yet he sadly lamented it, and herein showed a better temper than that which Jonah was of with respect to Nineveh.

III. The occasion of these Lamentations was the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by the Chaldean army, and the dissolution of the Jewish state both civil and ecclesiastical thereby. Some of the Rabbins will have these to be the Lamentations which Jeremiah penned upon occasion of the death of Josiah, which are mentioned, 2 Chron. xxxv. 25. But though it is true that that opened the door to all the following calamities, yet these Lamentations seem to be penned in the sight, not in foresight, of those calamities; when they were already come, not when they were at a distance; and there is nothing of Josiah in them, and his praise, as was, no question, in the Lamentations for him. No, it is Jerusalem's funeral that this is an elegy upon. Others of them will have these Lamentations to be contained in the roll which Baruch wrote from Jeremiah's mouth, and which Jehoiakim burnt, and they suggest, that at first there were in it only the 1st, 2d, and 4th chapters, but that the 3d and 5th were the many like words that were afterward added; but this is a groundless fancy; that roll is expressly said to be a repetition and summary of the prophet's sermons, Jer. xxxvi. 2.

IV. The composition of it: it is not only poetical, but alphabetical, all except the 5th chapter, as some of David's psalms are; each verse begins with a several letter in the order of the Hebrew alphabet, the 1st aleph, the 2nd beth, &c. but the third chapter is a triple alphabet, the three first beginning with aleph, the three next with beth, &c. which was a help to memory, (it being designed that these mournful ditties should be got by heart,) and was an elegance in writing then valued, and therefore not now to be despised. They observe, that in the 2d, 3d, and 4th chapters, the letter pe is put before ajin, which in all the Hebrew alphabets follows it; for a reason of which Dr. Lightfoot offers this conjecture. That the letter ajin, which is the numeral letter for LXX., was thus, by being displaced, made remarkable, to put them in mind of the seventy years, at the end of which God would turn again their captivity.

V. The use of it: of great use, no doubt, it was to the pious Jews in their sufferings, furnishing them with spiritual language to express their natural grief by; helping to preserve the lively remembrance of Zion among them, and their children that never saw it, when they were in Babylon; directing their tears into the right channel; for they are here taught to mourn for sin, and mourn to God; and withal encouraging their hopes, that God would yet return, and have mercy upon them; and it is of use to us, to affect us with godly sorrow for the calamities of the church of God, as becomes those that are living members of it, and are resolved to take our lot with it.