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Lamentations
This
is another book of the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah held the office of
prophet. He is a product of grace. He was gregarious and he loved his
friends. But in his ministry he foretold how the Jewish and Gentile
nations would be ripped down and torn apart. What we call the Book of
Lamentations - meaning a wail of grief over the dead - in the Hebrew
actually meant 'how' (see Ecclesiastes 1:1 that begins 'how' - that
is the same Hebrew word). This is a book of lamenting the
administration of the 5th cycle of discipline to the Southern Kingdom
of Judah in circa 586 BC.
Jeremiah's name means 'the one who the Lord stabilizes'. He is from the tribe of Levi and in the line of priests. He lived in Anathoth 5 miles North of Jerusalem in a very tough area - the land of Benjamin. He administered in the rule of Josiah. Josiah was the last great king in Judah. Jeremiah had a ministry under 5 kings of the kingdom of Judah (Josiah, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin/ Jeconiah/Coniah, Jehoahaz, and Zedekiah) and then also Nebuchadnezzar - see II Chronicles Chapter 36). His ministry in the land was 40 years from 626 BC to 586BC.
Throughout the book of Jeremiah, the doctrine of 'category II love' - between the Right Man (RM) and his Right Woman (RW) - is used in an analogy to 'category I love' - between God and Israel here (and later Gentile believers also). The original RW to God as RM was the nation of Israel.
Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations after the book of Jeremiah.
Chapter
1
{Note:
The book of Jeremiah was his prophecy. This book is the funeral
dearth of his country about to go out under the 5th Cycle of
Discipline. The Title for the book in the Hebrew is the word for
'How'. But the book is about the lamentations of the people of Judah.}
1a~~How
deserted lies the city
once
so full of people!
{The Analogy}
1b~~How
like a widow is she {Judah}
who
was once great among the nations.
1c~~She
{Jerusalem - the capital of Judah}
was
queen among the provinces.
How
she has become a slave!
2a~~Bitterly
she {the widow in the analogy}
weeps
at night and her tears are on her cheeks
{'she' refers to a believer left behind without doctrine in her soul -
to handle the hard times of captivity - they rejected Jeremiah's
teaching.}
2b~~Among
all her lovers
there
is none to comfort her
{when your comfort comes from anything but bible doctrine,
this is your status}.
2c~~All
her friends have betrayed her!
{Judah was a fantastic trading nation at the time! All her 'friends'
disappeared when she was attacked by Chaldea}
2d~~They
are become her enemies
{fair-weather friends become your enemies if you lose everything!}.
{Historical
Data on the Southern Kingdom of Judea}
3a~~After
affliction and harsh labor
Judah
has gone into exile.
3b~~She
dwells among the nations.
She
finds no resting place.
All
who pursued her
have
overtaken her in the
midst
of her distress
{Chaldeans and the Egyptians who came to rescue her for payment
turned around and ran}.
4~~The
roads to Zion mourn
{the hill in Jerusalem where the temple stood},
No
one comes to her appointed feasts.
All
her gates are desolate
{no commerce in and out - economic depression and starvation}.
Her
priests groan.
Her
maidens grieve
{gang raped by the Chaldeans and Edomites is one reason}.
And
she is in bitter anguish
{indicates their fear that it could still happen again!}.
{Note: In captivity, the feasts are no more. For a long time they had been ritual without reality anyway. All of these categories of people were in anguish - all strong believers (the young bible students of Jeremiah - were taken to Babylon in chains. These were the unbelievers and the baby believers.}
5~~Her
foes have become her masters
{Chaldeans and later the Edomites and Arab bandits
raped and robbed}.
Her
enemies are at ease
{enjoying the prosperity of conquerors -
the natural result of allowing your military to weaken}.
For
Jehovah/God has brought her grief
because
of her many sins.
Her
children are gone into exile {see Psalm 119}
They
are captives before the foe.
6~~All
the splender has departed
from
the daughter of Zion.
Her
princes {aristocracy} are
like
deer that find no pasture.
In
weakness, they have fled
before
the pursuer.
7~~Jerusalem
remembers all her treasures
{all they USED to have and is all gone!}
that
were hers in the days of old.
When
her people fell into the hand of the enemy,
there
was no help for her.
The
enemies looked at her,
and
laughed at her in derision.
8~~Jerusalem
has sinned greatly
and
so has become unclean.
All
who honored her, despise her
{those nations who used to trade with her now despise her
she was the capital of Free Enterprise},
for
they have seen her nakedness
{Jerusalem was now in ruins}.
Yes,
she herself groans, and turns away.
{What
about the Survivors?}
9~~Her
filthiness clung to her skirts.
She
did not consider her future.
Her
fall was astounding.
There
was no one to comfort her
{every time you study doctrine you store up knowledge that brings
the believer comfort in times of hardships}.
Look
O Jehovah/God,
on
my affliction.
For
the enemy has triumphed.
10~~The
enemy laid hands on her treasures
{Jerusalem was the 'Wall Street' of the times}.
She
saw pagans/gentiles/heathen
enter
into her sanctuary . . .
{they entered and robbed the Temple of God}
those
You had forbidden
to
enter Your assembly.
11~~All
her people groan
as
they search for bread
{this was during the siege of Jerusalem}.
They
bartered their treasures for food
to
keep themselves alive
{these Jews looked at 'wealth' as a system of security and
it is NOT! Wealth is meaningless when people are starving!}.
Look,
O Jehovah/God, and consider.
For
I {personification of Jerusalem} am despised.
12a~~Is
it nothing to you,
all
you who pass by?
Look
around, and see.
{we can do this today. Look around and see Godless people in
Godless cities and ask - will wealth protect them?}
12b~~Is
any suffering like my suffering(?) . . .
that
was inflicted upon me . . .
that
Jehovah/God brought on me
in
the day of His fierce anger?
{Note: Humans have never seen suffering like that when God is administering the 5th cycle of discipline. Divine discipline is like this for a reason! Reject God and His Word and you will KNOW what you have brought on YOURSELF!}
{Description
of Apostate People Under 5th Cycle of Discipline}
13~~From
on High
He
has sent fire down into my bones
{instead of the Wall of Fire for mature believers
Apostate/Reversionists feel fire down in their bones},
He
has spread a net for my feet.
He
has turned me back.
He
has made me desolate . . .
faint
all day long.
14~~My
sins have been bound into a yoke of slavery.
And,
by His hands they were woven together.
They
have come back upon my neck.
And
the 'Adonay/Lord has sapped my strength,
and
has delivered me over to those
I
can not withstand.
15~~
The 'Adonay/Lord has rejected
all
the warriors in my midst
{there was a Jewish army but the politicians had
badly neglected it so it crumbled in war time}.
He
has summoned an army against me
to
crush my young men {Chaldeans did this}.
In
His winepress,
The
'Adonay/Lord has trampled
the
maiden/virgin {b@thuwlah} daughter of Judah
{administration of 5th cycle of discipline - see Leviticus Chapter 26
and Deuteronomy 28: 49-67}.
16~~This
is why I weep {says Jeremiah}.
My
eyes overflow with tears.
No
one is near to comfort me.
No
one to restore my spirit
{nephesh - means soul but is used for 'spiritual relation with God'}.
My
children {Jeremiah's congregation} are destitute,
because
the enemy has prevailed.
17~~
Zion stretches out her hands,
but
there is no one to comfort her.
Jehovah/God
has decreed for Jacob,
that
his neighbors become his foes.
Jerusalem
has become an unclean thing
among
them
{idiom: literally 'a woman menstruating'. A woman in her period,
was considered unclean and had to be separated from others
until this period was over}.
18~~
Jehovah/God is righteous.
For
I have rebelled
{rebellion in the soul}
against
His commandment.
Hear,
I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow.
My
maidens/virgins and my young men
have
gone into captivity/exile
{Daniel and other young people's hostage taking}.
19~~
I called for my allies/lovers {'ahab} . . .
{refers to Egypt - after the death of Josiah}
{but}
they deceived me.
My
priests and my elders
'gave
up the ghost'/perish {gava`}
in
the city {Jerusalem}
{reason? - natural result of their apostasy - reap what they
sowed},
while
they seek for food
to
keep themselves alive
{idiom: literally : 'to relieve their souls'}.
20~~
Behold, O Jehovah/God.
For
I am in distress. {why?}
My
emotions/bowels are troubled/tormented
{describing when the emotion is dominating the soul}.
My
'right lobe'/heart is turned/disturbed within me
{when the bowels rule, the heart can not think}.
I
have been most rebellious
{Jeremiah using 1st person to personify the people of
Israel at the time God administered the 5th cycle of discipline}.
Outside
the sword bereaves
{describes the siege of Jerusalem},
at
home there is only death
{587BC siege resulted in mass starvation and death}.
21~~People
have heard my {Jerusalem's} groaning.
But
there is no one to comfort me.
All
of my enemies have heard of my distress.
They
rejoice at what you have done.
May
You bring the day that you have announced,
so
that they may become like me
{their day of reckoning will also come some day}.
22~~
Let all their wickedness come before You.
Deal
with them as You have dealt with me,
because
of all my sins.
For
groans are many,
and
my heart/'right lobe' is faint.
{Note: Jeremiah is saying the people of Jerusalem were praying imprecatory prayers against the foes inflicting great pain on them.}
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