Lamentations 1:20

1:12-22 Jerusalem, sitting dejected on the ground, calls on those that passed by, to consider whether her example did not concern them. Her outward sufferings were great, but her inward sufferings were harder to bear, through the sense of guilt. Sorrow for sin must be great sorrow, and must affect the soul. Here we see the evil of sin, and may take warning to flee from the wrath to come. Whatever may be learned from the sufferings of Jerusalem, far more may be learned from the sufferings of Christ. Does he not from the cross speak to every one of us? Does he not say, Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Let all our sorrows lead us to the cross of Christ, lead us to mark his example, and cheerfully to follow him.

Thus she turns from one to another; sometimes she addresses strangers, people that pass by; sometimes she calls to her lovers; and at other times to God, which is best of all, to have pity and compassion on her in her distress; and from whom it may be most expected, who is a God of grace and mercy: my bowels are troubled; as the sea, agitated by winds, which casts up mire and dirt; or as any waters, moved by anything whatsoever, become thick and muddy; or like wine in fermentation; so the word (l), in the Arabic language, signifies, expressive of great disturbance, confusion, and uneasiness: mine heart is turned within me; has no rest nor peace: for I have grievously rebelled; against God and his word; her sins were greatly aggravated, and these lay heavy on her mind and conscience, and greatly distressed her: abroad the sword bereaveth; this, and what follows in the next clause, describe the state and condition of the Jews, while the city was besieged; without it, the sword of the Chaldeans bereaved mothers of their children, and children of their parents, and left them desolate: at home there is as death; within the city, and in the houses of it, the famine raged, which was as death, and worse than immediate death; it was a lingering one: or, "in the house was certain death" (m); for the "caph" here is not a mere note of similitude, but of certainty and reality; to abide at home was sure and certain death, nothing else could be expected.

Lamentations 1:20 . Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress — Take cognizance of my case, and use such means for my relief as thou pleasest. It is a matter of comfort to us, that the troubles which oppress our spirits are perfectly known to God, and that his eye is continually upon them. Abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death — Thus was Moses’s prediction, Deuteronomy 32:25 , fulfilled, The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also, with the man of gray hairs. Virgil describes a similar scene, when he says, “ — — Crudelis ubique Luctus, ubique pavor, et plurima mortis imago.” ÆN. 2:368. “All parts resound with tumults, plaints, and fears; And grisly death in sundry shapes appears.” DRYDEN. By death, in this clause, the pestilence is meant, as in Jeremiah 15:2 , where see the note: death acting, as it were, in propria persona, in its own proper person, and not by the instrumentality of another, as when a person is slain by the sword. So our great poet, in his description of a lazar-house, “ — — — — — — — — — — Despair ‘Tended the sick, busiest from couch to couch; And over them triumphant death his dart Shook — — — — — — .” PARADISE LOST, book 11. 50:489, &c.

Instead of, At home there is as death, Lowth proposes reading, there is certain death, observing, that the particle of similitude in the Scriptures sometimes implies a strong affirmation, as John 1:14 , We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, meaning such a glory as could belong to none but the Son of God.

20 . With description of her distress Zion combines prayer, appealing to Jehovah for redress. my bowels ] See on Jeremiah 31:20 . are troubled ] lit. are in a ferment . is turned ] cannot rest, is violently agitated. at home there is as death ] As violent death is imminent for those who stir abroad, so even those who remain within are like to die of pestilence. See Jeremiah 9:21 , and for note on this special sense of death Jeremiah 15:2 . The “as” (in Heb. a consonantal prefix) is hard to interpret and should perhaps be omitted.

Verse 20. - My bowels. The vital parts, especially the heart, as the seat of the affections, like σπλάγχνα . Are troubled; literally, are made to boil. So Job 30:27 , "My bowels boil" (a different word, however). Is turned; or, turns itself; i.e. palpitates violently. At home there is as death . So Jeremiah 9:21 , "For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces." By "death," when distinguished, as here, from "the sword," pestilence is meant; so e.g. in Jeremiah 15:2 ; Jeremiah 43:11 . But the poet says here, not that "there is death," but merely " as death ," i.e. a mild form of pestilence, not the famine typhus itself. Or, perhaps, he means "every form of death" (Virgil's "plurima mortis imago"). Lamentations 1:20

(20) Behold, O Lord . . . —Deserted by men, the mourner appeals to Jehovah. “Bowels” and “heart” are used almost as synonymous for the deepest emotions of the soul. The word for “troubled,” elsewhere ( Psalm 75:8 ) used of colour, might, perhaps, be better rendered inflamed. At home there is as death.—The “as” seems inserted to give the emphasis of the undefined. It is not death pure and simple that makes each home tremble, but the “plurima mortis imago” (Virg. Aen. ii. 369), the starvation, disease, exhaustion, which all were deadly, i.e. deathlike, in their working.

The petition is of the same nature as before, a petition for mercy, as the product of that pity and compassion which extreme misery begets in good souls, (and is ascribed unto God, though found in him in a much more perfect degree, Psalm 78:38 86:15 111:4 ) through the eyes affecting the heart. The argument the prophet useth is drawn from the misery this people was now in, which he expresseth metaphorically, telling us their bowels were troubled, their heart turned, signifying the more inward disturbance of their mind; or more plainly, and that both generally, saying they were in distress, and more particularly by the great judgments of the sword and famine, the sword in the field, the famine in the city; unless the sword alone be meant both without and within the gates of the city. In all this the church justifieth God, confessing this was but the righteous product of her sin, by which, she having formerly subjected herself to God, had grievously rebelled; for as all men are born subjects to God, so by their sins they are become rebels; so it is a great aggravation of men’s rebellion against the Lord, when they have formerly taken an oath of fealty to the Lord, and, as Moses said, avouched the Lord as their God.

20. bowels … troubled—(Job 30:27; Isa 16:11; Jer 4:19; 31:20). Extreme mental distress affects the bowels and the whole internal frame. heart … turned—(Ho 11:8); is agitated or fluttered. abroad … sword … at home … as death—(De 32:25; Eze 7:15). The "as" does not modify, but intensifies. "Abroad the sword bereaveth, at home as it were death itself" (personified), in the form of famine and pestilence (2Ki 25:3; Jer 14:18; 52:6). So Hab 2:5, "as death" [Michaelis]. Schin.