BIBLES NET. COM
Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
on the Whole Bible
Back to Biblesnet.com Home Page
|
[Previous] |
Matthew Henry |
L A M E N T A T I O N S.
CHAP. V.
This chapter, though it has the same number of verses with the 1st,
2nd, and 4th, is not alphabetical, as they were, but the scope of it is
the same with that of all the foregoing elegies. We have in it,
I. A representation of the present calamitous state of God’s people in
their captivity,
II. A protestation of their concern for God’s sanctuary, as that which
lay nearer their heart than any secular interest of their own,
III. A humble supplication to God and expostulation with him, for the
returns of mercy
(ver. 19-22);
for those that lament and do not pray sin in their lamentations. Some
ancient versions call this chapter, “The Prayer of Jeremiah.”
| An Appeal to God; Complicated Sorrows. | B. C. 588. |
|
|
|
1 Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold
our reproach.
2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto
us.
5 Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no
rest.
6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the
Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne
their iniquities.
8 Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth
deliver us out of their hand.
9 We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the
sword of the wilderness.
10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible
famine.
11 They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the
cities of Judah.
12 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders
were not honoured.
13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell
under the wood.
14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from
their music.
15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into
mourning.
16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we
have sinned!
Is any afflicted? let him pray; and let him in prayer pour out
his complaint to God, and make known before him his trouble. The people
of God do so here; being overwhelmed with grief, they give vent to
their sorrows at the footstool of the throne of grace, and so give
themselves ease. They complain not of evils feared, but of evils felt:
“Remember what has come upon us,
v. 1.
What was of old threatened against us, and was long in the coming, has
now at length come upon us, and we are ready to sink under it.
Remember what is past, consider and behold what is
present, and let not all the trouble we are in seem little to
thee, and not worth taking notice of,”
Note, As it is a great comfort to us, so it ought to be a sufficient
one, in our troubles, that God sees, and considers, and remembers, all
that has come upon us; and in our prayers we need only to
recommend our case to his gracious and compassionate consideration. The
one word in which all their grievances are summer up is reproach:
Consider, and behold our reproach. The troubles they were in
compared with their former dignity and plenty, were a greater reproach
to them than they would have been to any other people, especially
considering their relation to God and dependence upon him, and his
former appearances for them; and therefore this they complain of very
sensibly, because, as it was a reproach, it reflected upon the name and
honour of that God who had owned them for his people. And what wilt
thou do unto thy great name?
I. They acknowledge the reproach of sin which they bear, the
reproach of their youth (which Ephraim bemoans himself for,
of the early days of their nation. This comes in in the midst of their
complaints
(v. 7),
but may well be put in the front of them: Our fathers have sinned
and are not; they are dead and gone, but we have borne their
iniquities. This is not here a peevish complaint, nor an imputation
of unrighteousness to God, like that which we have,
Jer. xxxi. 29, Ezek. xviii. 2.
The fathers did eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on
edge, and therefore the ways of the Lord are not equal. But
it is a penitent confession of the sins of their ancestors, which they
themselves also had persisted in, for which they now justly suffered;
the judgments God brought upon them were so very great that it appeared
that God had in them an eye to the sins of their ancestors (because
they had not been remarkably punished in this world) as well as to
their own sins; and thus God was justified both in his connivance at
their ancestors (he laid up their iniquity for their children)
and in his severity with them, on whom he visited that iniquity,
Thus they do here,
1. Submit themselves to the divine justice: “Lord, thou art just in all
that is brought upon us, for we are a seed of evil doers, children of
wrath, and heirs of the curse; we are sinful, and we have it by kind.”
Note, The sins which God looks back upon in punishing we must look back
upon in repenting, and must take notice of all that which will help to
justify God in correcting us.
2. They refer themselves to the divine pity: “Lord, our fathers have
sinned, and we justly smart for their sins; but they are
not; they were taken away from the evil to come; they lived not to
see and share in these miseries that have come upon us, and we
are left to bear their iniquities. Now, though herein God is
righteous, yet it must be owned that our case is pitiable, and worthy
of compassion.” Note, If we be penitent and patient under what we
suffer for the sins of our fathers, we may expect that he who punishes
will pity, and will soon return in mercy to us.
II. They represent the reproach of trouble which they bear, in divers
particulars, which tend much to their disgrace.
1. They are disseised of that good land which God gave them, and their
enemies have got possession of it,
v. 2.
Canaan was their inheritance; it was theirs by promise. God gave it to
them and their seed, and they held it by grant from his crown,
but now, “It is turned to strangers; those possess it who have no right
to it, who are strangers to the commonwealth of Israel and aliens
from the covenants of promise; they dwell in the houses that we
built, and this is our reproach.” It is the happiness of all God’s
spiritual Israel that the heavenly Canaan is an inheritance that they
cannot be disseised of, that shall never be turned to strangers.
2. Their state and nation are brought into a condition like that of
widows and orphans
(v. 3):
“We are fatherless (that is, helpless); we have none to protect
us, to provide for us, to take any care of us. Our king, who is the
father of the country, is cut off; nay, God our Father seems to have
forsaken us and cast us off; our mothers, our cities, that were
as fruitful mothers in Israel, are now as widows, are as
wives whose husbands are dead, destitute of comfort, and exposed to
wrong and injury, and this is our reproach; for we who made a figure
are now looked on with contempt.”
3. They are put hard to it to provide necessaries for themselves and
their families, whereas once they lived in abundance and had plenty of
every thing. Water used to be free and easily come by, but now
(v. 4),
We have drunk our water for money, and the saying is no longer
true, Usus communis aquarum—Water is free to all. So
hardly did their oppressors use them that they could not have a draught
of fair water but they must purchase it either with money or with work.
Formerly they had fuel too for the fetching; but now, “Our wood is
sold to us, and we pay dearly for every faggot.” Now were they
punished for employing their children to gather wood for fire with
which to bake cakes for the queen of heaven,
Jer. vii. 18.
They were perfectly proscribed by their oppressors, were forbidden the
use both of fire and water, according to the ancient form, Interdico
tibi aqua et igni—I forbid thee the use of water and fire.
But what must they do for bread? Truly that was as hard to come at as
any thing, for
(1.) Some of them sold their liberty for it
(v. 6):
“We have given the hand to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians,
have made the best bargain we could with them, to serve them, that we
might be satisfied with bread. We were glad to submit to the
meanest employment, upon the hardest terms, to get a sorry livelihood;
we have yielded ourselves to be their vassals, have parted with all to
them, as the Egyptians did to Pharaoh in the years of famine, that we
might have something for ourselves and families to subsist on.” The
neighbouring nations used to trade with Judah for wheat
for it was a fruitful land; but now it eats up the inhabitants,
and they are glad to make court to the Egyptians and Assyrians.
(2.) Others of them ventured their lives for it
(v. 9):
We got our bread with the peril of our lives; when, being
straitened by the siege and all provisions cut off, they either sallied
or stole out of the city, to fetch in some supply, they were in danger
of falling into the hands of the besiegers and being put to the sword,
the sword of the wilderness it is called, or of the plain
(for so the word signifies), the besiegers lying dispersed every where
in the plains that were about the city. Let us take occasion hence to
bless God for the plenty that we enjoy, that we get our bread so
easily, scarcely with the sweat of our face, much less with the
peril of our lives; and for the peace we enjoy, that we can go out,
and enjoy not only the necessary productions, but the pleasures of the
country, without any fear of the sword of the wilderness.
4. Those are brought into slavery who were a free people, and not only
their own masters, but masters of all about them, and this is as much
as any thing their reproach
(v. 5):
Our necks are under the grievous and intolerable yoke of
persecution (the iron yoke which Jeremiah foretold should be
laid upon them,
we are used like beasts in the yoke, that wholly serve their owners,
and are at the command of their drivers. That which aggravated the
servitude was,
(1.) That their labours were incessant, like those of Israel in Egypt,
who were daily tasked, nay, overtasked: We labour and have no
rest, neither leave nor leisure to rest. The oxen in the yoke are
unyoked at night and have rest; so they have, by a particular provision
of the law, on the sabbath day; but the poor captives in Babylon, who
were compelled to work for their living, laboured and had no
rest, no night’s rest, no sabbath-rest; they were quite tired out
with continual toil.
(2.) That their masters were insufferable
(v. 8):
Servants have ruled over us; and nothing is more vexatious than
a servant when he reigns,
Prov. xxx. 22.
They were not only the great men of the Chaldeans that commanded them,
but even the meanest of their servants abused them at pleasure, and
insulted over them; and they must be at their beck too. The curse of
Canaan had now become the doom of Judah: A servant of servants shall
he be. They would not be ruled by their God, and by his servants
the prophets, whose rule was gentle and gracious, and therefore justly
are they ruled with rigour by their enemies and their servants.
(3.) That they saw no probable way for the redress of their grievances:
“There is none that doth deliver us out of their hand; not only
none to rescue us out of our captivity, but none to check and restrain
the insolence of the servants that abuse us and trample upon us,” which
one would think their masters should have done, because it was a
usurpation of their authority; but, it should seem, they connived at it
and encouraged it, and, as if they were not worthy of the correction of
gentlemen, they are turned over to the footmen to be spurned by them.
Well might they pray, Lord, consider and behold our
reproach.
5. Those who used to be feasted are now famished
(v. 10):
Our skin was black like an oven, dried and parched too,
because of the terrible famine, the storms of famine (so
the word is); for, though famine comes gradually upon a people, yet it
comes violently, and bears down all before it, and there is no
resisting it; and this also is their disgrace; hence we read of the
reproach of famine, which in captivity their received among the
heathen,
6. All sorts of people, even those whose persons and characters were
most inviolable, were abused and dishonoured.
(1.) The women were ravished, even the women in
Zion, that holy mountain,
The committing of such abominable wickednesses there is very justly and
sadly complained of.
(2.) The great men were not only put to death, but put to ignominious
deaths. Princes were hanged, as if they had been slaves, by
the hands of the Chaldeans
(v. 12),
who took a pride in doing this barbarous execution with their own
hands. Some think that the dead bodies of the princes, after they
were slain with the sword, were hung up, as the bodies of Saul’s sons,
in disgrace to them, and as it were to expiate the nation’s guilt.
(3.) No respect was shown to magistrates and those in authority: The
faces of elders, elders in age, elders in office, were not
honoured. This will be particularly remembered against the
Chaldeans another day.
Upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.
(4.) The tenderness of youth was no more considered than the gravity of
old age
(v. 13):
They took the young men to grind at the hand-mills, nay, perhaps
at the horse-mills. The young men have carried the grist (so
some), have carried the mill, or mill-stones, so others.
They loaded them as if they had been beasts of burden, and so broke
their backs while they were young, and made the rest of their lives the
more miserable. Nay, they made the little children carry
their wood home for fuel, and laid such burdens upon them that they
fell down under them, so very inhuman were these cruel
taskmasters!
7. An end was put to all their gladness, and their joy was quite
extinguished
(v. 14):
The young men, who used to be disposed to mirth, have ceased
from their music, have hung their harps upon the willow-trees.
It does indeed well become old men to cease from their music; it is
time to lay it by with a gracious contempt when all the daughters of
music are brought low; but it speaks some great calamity upon a
people when their young men are made to cease from it. It was so with
the body of the people
(v. 15):
The joy of their heart ceased; they never knew what joy was
since the enemy came in upon them like a flood, for ever since deep
called unto deep, and one wave flowed in upon the neck of another,
so that they were quite overwhelmed: Our dance is turned into
mourning, instead of leaping for joy, as formerly, we sink and lie
down in sorrow. This may refer especially to the joy of their solemn
feasts, and the dancing used in them
which was not only modest, but sacred, dancing; this was turned into
mourning, which was doubled on their festival days, in remembrance
of their former pleasant things.
8. An end was put to all their glory.
(1.) The public administration of justice was their glory, but that was
gone: The elders have ceased from the gate
(v. 14);
the course of justice, which used to run down like a river, is now
stopped; the courts of justice, which used to be kept with so much
solemnity, are put down; for the judges are slain, or carried captive.
(2.) The royal dignity was their glory, but that also was gone: The
crown has fallen from our head, not only the king himself
fallen into disgrace, but the crown; he has no successor; the
regalia are all lost. Note, Earthly crowns are fading falling things;
but, blessed be God, there is a crown of glory that fades not
away, that never falls, a kingdom that cannot be moved. Upon
this complaint, but with reference to all the foregoing complaints,
they make that penitent acknowledgment, “Woe unto us that we have
sinned! Alas for us! Our case is very deplorable, and it is all
owing to ourselves; we are undone, and, which aggravates the matter, we
are undone by our own hands. God is righteous, for we have
sinned.” Note, All our woes are owing to our own sin and folly. If
the crown of our head be fallen (for so the words run), if we
lose our excellency and become mean, we may thank ourselves, we have by
our own iniquity profaned our crown and laid our honour in the
dust.
| Unchangeableness of God; Prayer for Mercy and Grace. | B. C. 588. |
|
|
|
17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are
dim.
18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the
foxes walk upon it.
19 Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation
to generation.
20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so
long time?
21 Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned;
renew our days as of old.
22 But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth
against us.
Here,
I. The people of God express the deep concern they had for the ruins of
the temple, more than for any other of their calamities; the interests
of God’s house lay nearer their hearts than those of their own
(v. 17, 18):
For this our heart is faint, and sinks under the load of its own
heaviness; for these things our eyes are dim, and our sight is
gone, as is usual in a deliquium, or fainting fit. “It is because of
the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the holy mountain, and the
temple built upon that mountain. For other desolations our hearts
grieve and our eyes weep; but for this our hearts faint and our eyes
are dim.” Note, Nothing lies so heavily upon the spirits of good people
as that which threatens the ruin of religion or weakens its interests;
and it is a comfort if we can appeal to God that that afflicts us more
than any temporal affliction to ourselves. “The people have polluted
the mountain of Zion with their sins, and therefore God has
justly made it desolate, to such a degree that the foxes walk
upon it as freely and commonly as they do in the woods.” It is sad
indeed when the mountain of Zion has become a portion for
foxes
but sin had first made it so,
II. They comfort themselves with the doctrine of God’s eternity, and
the perpetuity of his government
(v. 19):
But thou, O Lord! remainest for ever. This they are taught to
do by that psalm which is entitled, A prayer of the afflicted,
Ps. cii. 27, 28.
When all our creature-comforts are removed from us, and our hearts fail
us, we may then encourage ourselves with the belief,
1. Of God’s eternity: Thou remainest for ever. What shakes the
world gives no disturbance to him who made it; whatever revolutions
there are on earth there is no change in the Eternal Mind; God is still
the same, and remains for ever infinitely wise and holy, just
and good; with him there is no variableness nor shadow of
turning.
2. Of the never-failing continuance of his dominion: Thy throne is
from generation to generation; the throne of glory, the throne of
grace, and the throne of government, are all unchangeable, immovable;
and this is matter of comfort to us when the crown has fallen from
our head. When the thrones of princes, that should be our
protectors, are brought to the dust, and buried in it, God’s throne
continues still; he still rules the world, and rules it for the good of
the church. The Lord reigns, reigns for ever, even thy God, O
Zion!
III. They humbly expostulate with God concerning the low condition they
were now in, and the frowns of heaven they were now under
(v. 20):
“Wherefore dost thou forsake us so long time, as if we were
quite deprived of the tokens of thy presence? Wherefore dost thou
defer our deliverance, as if thou hadst utterly abandoned us? Thou art
the same, and, though the throne of thy sanctuary is demolished, thy
throne in heaven is unshaken. But wilt thou not be the same to us?” Not
as if they thought God had forgotten and forsaken them, much less
feared his forgetting and forsaking them for ever; but thus they
express the value they had for his favour and presence, which they
thought it long that they were deprived of the evidence and comfort of.
The
may be read as such an expostulation, and so the margin reads it:
“For wilt thou utterly reject us? Wilt thou be perpetually wroth
with us, not only not smile upon us and remember us in mercy, but
frown upon us and lay us under the tokens of thy wrath, not only not
draw nigh to us, but cast us out of thy presence and forbid us to draw
nigh unto thee? How ill this be reconciled with thy goodness and
faithfulness, and the stability of thy covenant?” We read it, “But
thou hast rejected us; thou hast given us cause to fear that thou
hast. Lord, how long shall we be in this temptation?” Note, Thou we may
not quarrel with God, yet we may plead with him; and, though we may not
conclude that he has cast off, yet we may (with the prophet,
humbly reason with him concerning his judgments, especially the
continuance of the desolations of his sanctuary.
IV. They earnestly pray to God for mercy and grace: “Lord, do not
reject us for ever, but turn thou us unto thee; renew our
days,”
Though these words are not put last, yet the Rabbin, because they would
not have the book to conclude with those melancholy words
(v. 22),
repeat this prayer again, that the sun may not set under a cloud, and
so make these the last words both in writing and reading this chapter.
They here pray,
1. For converting grace to prepare and qualify them for mercy: Turn
us to thee, O Lord! They had complained that God had forsaken and
forgotten them, and then their prayer is not, Turn thou to us,
but, Turn us to thee, which implies an acknowledgment that the
cause of the distance was in themselves. God never leaves any till they
first leave him, nor stands afar off from any longer than while they
stand afar off from him; if therefore he turn them to him in a way of
duty, no doubt but he will quickly return to them in a way of mercy.
This agrees with that repeated prayer
Turn us again, and then cause thy face to shine. Turn us from
our idols to thyself, by a sincere repentance and reformation,
and then we shall be turned. This implies a further
acknowledgment of their own weakness and inability to turn themselves.
There is in our nature a proneness to backslide from God, but no
disposition to return to him till his grace works in us both to will
and to do. So necessary is that grace that we may truly say,
Turn us or we shall not be turned, but shall wander endlessly;
and so powerful and effectual is that grace that we may as truly say,
Turn us, and we shall be turned; for it is a day of power,
almighty power, in which God’s people are made a willing people,
Ps. cx. 3.
2. For restoring mercy: Turn us to thee, and then renew our
days as of old, put us into the same happy state that our ancestors
were in long ago and that they continued long in; let it be with us as
it was at the first, and at the beginning,
Isa. i. 26.
Note, If God by his grace renew our hearts, he will be his favour
renew our days, so that we shall renew our youth as the
eagle,
Ps. ciii. 5.
Those that repent, and do their first works, shall rejoice, and
recover their first comforts. God’s mercies to his people have been
ever of old
(Ps. xxv. 6);
and therefore they may hope, even then when he seems to have forsaken
and forgotten them, that the mercy which was from everlasting
will be to everlasting.
|
[Previous] |
Matthew Henry |
|
Back to Bibles Net . Com – Online Christian Library Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary – Free Download |
Copyright 2008. Bibles Net. Com. All Rights Reserved.