The earnest prayer of A. M. cir. 3416. Ol. XLVIII. 1. LAMENTATIONS. 4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us. с the distressed Israelites. none that doth deliver us out of A. M. cir. 3416. their hand. 9 We gat our bread with the 5 Our necks are under per- peril of our lives because of secution: we labour, and have no rest. the sword of the wilderness. d 6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. g B. C. cir. 588. Ol. XLVIII. 1. Tarquinii Prisci, R. Roman., cir. annum 29. 10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine. k 11 They ravished the women in Zion, and 7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; the maids in the cities of Judah. and we have borne their iniquities. 8 Servants have ruled over us: there is verses, the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, yet the acrostic form is no longer observed. Perhaps any thing so technical was not thought proper when in agony and distress (under a sense of God's displeasure on account of sin) they prostrated themselves before him to ask for mercy. Be this as it may, no attempt appears to have been made to throw these verses into the form of the preceding chapters. It is properly a solemn prayer of all the people, stating their past and present sufferings, and praying for God's mercy. Behold our reproach.] hebita. But many MSS. of Kennicott's, and the oldest of my own, add the he paragogic, non hebitah, "Look down earnestly with commiseration;" for paragogic letters always increase the sense. Verse 2. Our inheritance is turned to strangers] The greater part of the Jews were either slain or carried away captive; and even those who were left under Gedaliah were not free, for they were vassals to the Chaldeans. Verse 4. We have drunken our water for money] I suppose the meaning of this is, that every thing was taxed by the Chaldeans, and that they kept the management in their own hands, so that wood and water were both sold, the people not being permitted to help themselves. They were now so lowly reduced by servitude, that they were obliged to pay dearly for those things which formerly were common and of no price. A poor Hindoo in the country never buys fire-wood, but when he comes to the city he is obliged to purchase his fuel, and considers it as a matter of great hardship. Verse 5. Our necks are under persecution] We feel the yoke of our bondage; we are driven to our work like the bullock, which has a yoke upon his neck. Verse 6. We have given the hand to the Egyptians] We have sought alliances both with the Egyptians and the Assyrians, and made covenants with them in order to get the necessaries of life. Or, wherever we are now driven, we are obliged to submit to the people of the countries in order to the preservation of our lives. Verse 7. Our fathers have sinned, and are not] Nations, as such, cannot be punished in the other world; therefore national judgments are to be looked for only in this life. The punishment which the Jewish nation had been meriting for a series of years came now upon them, because they copied and increased the sins of their fathers, and the cup of their iniquity was full. Thus the children might be said to bear the sins of the fathers, that is, in temporal punishment, for in no other way does God visit these upon the children. See Ezek. xviii. 1, &c. Verse 8. Servants have ruled over us] To be subject to such is the most painful and dishonourable bondage: - Quid domini faciant, audent cum talia fures? Virg. Ecl. iii. 16. "Since slaves so insolent are grown, What may not masters do?" Perhaps he here alludes to the Chaldean soldiers, whose will the wretched Jews were obliged to obey. Verse 9. We gat our bread with the peril of our lives] They could not go into the wilderness to feed their cattle, or to get the necessaries of life, without being harassed and plundered by marauding parties, and by these were often exposed to the peril of their lives. This was predicted by Moses, Deut. xxviii. 31. Verse 10. Our skin was black—because of the terribl fumine.] Because of the searching winds that burt up every green thing, destroying vegetation, and in consequence producing a famine. Verse 11. They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.] The evil mentioned here was predicted by Moses, Deut. xxviii. 30, £2, and by Jeremiah, chap. vi. 12. Verse 12. Princes are hanged up by their hand] is very probable that this was a species of punish ment. They were suspended from hooks in the wall by their hands till they died through torture and exhaustion. The body of Saul was fastened to the wall of Beth-shan, probably in the same way; but his head had already been taken off. They were hung in this way that they might be devoured by the fowls of the air. It was a custom with the Persians after they had slain, strangled, or beheaded their enemies, to hang their bodies upon poles, or empale them. In this way they treated Histiæus of Mile b с 16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned! 17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim. Judg. xvi. 21. b Job xix. 9. Ps. lxxxix. 39. C Heb. The crown of our head is fallen.- d Ch. i. 22. Ps. vi. 7. Ch. ii. 11. Ps. ix. 7. x. 16. xxix. 10. xc. 2. tum, and Leonidas of Lacedæmon. See Herodot. lib. vi. c. 30, lib. vii. c. 238. Verse 13. They took the young men to grind] This was the work of female slaves. See the note on Isai. xlvii. 2. A prayer for restoration. 18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it. A. M. cir. 3416. 19 Thou, O LORD, 'remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation. 20h Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time? i 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. 1 h Ps. cii. 12, 26, 27. cxlv. 13. Hab. i. 12. - Ps. xlv. 6.- us off altogether:" and adds, "ki ought certainly Verse 14. The elders have ceased from the gate] There is now no more justice administered to the people; they are under military law, or disposed of in every sense according to the caprice of their masters. Verse 16. The crown is fallen from our head] At feasts, marriages, &c., they used to crown themselves with garlands of flowers; all festivity of this kind On this ground he translates here, Pareau thinks no good sense can be made of this place unless we translate interrogatively, as in Jer. xiv. 19, was now at an end. Or it may refer to their having lost all sovereignty, being made slaves. Verse 18. The foxes walk upon it.] Foxes are very numerous in Palestine, see on Judges xv. 4. It was usual among the Hebrews to consider all desolated land to be the resort of wild beasts; which is, in fact, the case everywhere when the inhabitants are removed from a country. Verse 19. Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever] THOU sufferest no change. Thou didst once love us; O let that love be renewed towards us! Verse 21. Renew our days as of old.] Restore us to our former state. Let us regain our country, our temple, and all the divine offices of our religion; but, more especially, thy favour. Verse 22. But thou hast utterly rejected us] It appears as if thou hadst sealed our final reprobation, because thou showest against us exceeding great wrath. But convert us, O Lord, unto thee, and we shall be conterted. We are now greatly humbled, feel our sin, and see our folly: once more restore us, and we shall never again forsake thee! He heard the prayer; and at the end of seventy years they were restored to their own land. This last verse is well rendered in the first printed edition of our Bible, 1535:-Renue our daies as in olde tyme, for thou hast now banished us longe pnough, and bene sore displeased at us. My Old MS. Bible is not less nervous:-Newe thou our dais as fro the begynnyng: bot castand aweie thou hast put us out thou wrathedist ugein us hugely. Dr. Blayney translates, "For surely thou hast cast "Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? An enim prorsus nos rejecisses? Wilt thou be angry with us for ever?" Wilt thou extend thy wrath against us so as to show us no more mercy? This agrees well with the state and feelings of the complainants. MASORETIC NOTES. Number of verses in this Book, 154. In one of my oldest MSS., the twenty-first verse is repeated at the conclusion of the twenty-second verse. In another, yet older, there is only the first word of it, whashibenu, Convert us! Having given in the preceding preface and notes what I judge necessary to explain the principal difficulties in this very fine and affecting poem, very fitly termed THE LAMENTATIONS, as it justly stands at the head of every composition of the kind, I shall add but a few words, and these shall be by way of recapitulation chiefly. The Hebrews were accustomed to make lamentations or mourning songs upon the death of great men, princes, and heroes, who had distinguished themselves in arms; and upon any occasion of public miseries and calamities. Calmet thinks they had collections of these sorts of Lamentations: and refers in proof to 2 Chron. xxxv. 25: "And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah; and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamenta Concluding observations LAMENTATIONS. tions, to this day; and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the Lamentations." From this verse it is evident, that Jeremiah had composed a funeral elegy on Josiah: but, from the complexion of this Book, it is most evident that it was not composed on the death of Josiah, but upon the desolations of Jerusalem, &c., as has already been noted. His lamentation for Josiah is therefore lost. It appears also, that on particular occasions, perhaps anniversaries, these lamentations were sung by men and women singers, who performed their several parts; for these were all alternate or responsive songs. And it is very likely, that this book was sung in the same way; the men commencing with aleph, the women responding with a beth, and so on. Several of this sort of songs are still extant. We have those which David composed on the death of his son Absalom, and on the death of his friend Jonathan. And we have those made by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, on the desolation of Egypt, Tyre, Sidon, and Babylon. See Isai. xiv. 4, 5, xv., xvi.; Jer. vii. 29, ix. 10, xlviii. 32; Ezek. xix. 1, xxviii. 11, xxxii. 2; Jer. ix. 17. Besides these, we have fragments of others in different places; and references to some, which are now finally lost. In the two first chapters of this book, the prophet describes, principally, the calamities of the siege of Jerusalem. In the third, he deplores the persecutions which he himself had suffered; though he may in this be on this book. personifying the city and state; many of his own sufferings being illustrative of the calamities that fell generally upon the city and people at large. The fourth chapter is employed chiefly on the ruin and desolation of the city and temple; and upon the misfortunes of Zedekiah, of whom he speaks in a most respectful, tender, and affecting manner :"The anointed of Jehovah, the breath of our nostrils, was taken in their toils, Under whose shadow we said, We shall live among the nations." At the end he speaks of the cruelty of the Edomites, who had insulted Jerusalem in her miseries, and contributed to its demolition. These he threatens with the wrath of God. The fifth chapter is a kind of form of prayer for the Jews, in their dispersions and captivity. In the conclusion of it, he speaks of their fallen royalty; attributes all their calamities to their rebellion and wickedness; and acknowledges that there can be no end to their misery, but in their restoration to the divine favour. This last chapter was probably written some considerable time after the rest: for it supposes the temple to be so deserted, that the foxes walked undisturbed among its ruins, and that the people were already in captivity. The poem is a monument of the people's iniquity and rebellion; of the displeasure and judgment of GoD against them; and of the piety, eloquence, and incomparable ability of the poet. INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. EZEKIEL the prophet was the son of Buzi; and was of the sacerdotal race, as himself informs us, chap. i. 3, and was born at a place called Saresa, as the pseudo-Epiphanius tells us in his Lives of the Prophets. He was carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon, with Jeconiah king of Judah, and three thousand other captives of the principal inhabitants, and was sent into Mesopotamia, where he received the prophetic gift; which is supposed, from an obscure expression in his prophecies, chap. i. Î, to have taken place in the thirtieth year of his age. He had then been in captivity five years; and continued to prophesy about twenty-two years, from A. M. 3409 to A. M. 3430, which answers to the fourteenth year after the destruction of Jerusalem. About three months and ten days after this conquest of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar made another descent, and again besieged the city; and Jehoiachin, who succeeded his father Jehoiakim, was obliged to surrender. The victorious Chaldeans carried off all the inhabitants of note into Babylon, leaving none behind but the very poorest of the people. See 2 Kings xxiv. 8-16. These captives were fixed at Tel-abib, and other places on the river Chebar, which flows into the east side of the Euphrates at Carchemish, nearly two hundred miles northward of Babylon. There, as Archbishop Newcome observes, he was present in body, though, in visionary representation, he was sometimes taken to Jerusalem. With this same learned writer I am of opinion that, the better to understand the propriety and force of these divine revelations, the circumstances and dispositions of the Jews in their own country, and in their state of banishment, and the chief historical events of that period, should be stated and considered. Most writers on this Prophet have adopted this plan; and Archbishop Newcome's abstract of this history is sufficient for every purpose. 66 Zedekiah, uncle to the captive king Jehoiachin, was advanced by Nebuchadnezzar to the kingdom of Judah; and the tributary king bound himself to subjection by a solemn oath in the name of Jehovah, Ezek. xvii. 18. But notwithstanding the divine judgments which had overwhelmed Judah during the reigns of his two immediate predecessors, he did evil in the sight of God, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 12. Jerusalem became so idolatrous, impure, oppressive, and blood-thirsty, that God is represented as smiting his hands together through astonishment at such a scene of iniquity, chap. xxii. 13. The prophet Jeremiah was insulted, rejected, and persecuted; false prophets abounded, whose language was, 'Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon,' Jer. xxvii. 9. 'I have broken the yoke of the king 3049 INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL. of Babylon,' Jer. xxviii. 2. They even limited the restoration of the sacred vessels, and the return of Jehoiachin and his fellow-captives, to so short an interval as two years, Jer. xxviii. 3, 4. Zedekiah, blinded by his vices and these delusions, flattered by the embassies which he had received from Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon, Jer. xxvii. 3, and probably submitting with his accustomed timidity to the advice of evil counsellors, Jer. xxviii. 25, rebelled against his powerful conquerors, and sent ambassadors into Egypt for assistance, Ezek. xvii. 15. Hence arose a third invasion of the Chaldeans. Pharaohhophra, king of Egypt, did not advance to the assistance of Zedekiah till Jerusalem was besieged, Jer. xxxvii. 5. The Babylonians raised the siege with the design of distressing the Egyptians in their march, and of giving battle when advantage offered: but Pharaoh, with perfidy and pusillanimity, returned to his own country; and left the rebellious and perjured king of Judah to the rage of his enemies, Jer. xxxvii. 7. Before the siege was thus interrupted, Zedekiah endeavoured to conciliate the favour of God by complying so far with the Mosaic law as to proclaim the sabbatical year a year of liberty to Hebrew servants, Exod. xxi. 2. But such was his impiety, and so irresolute and fluctuating were his counsels, that, on the departure of the Chaldeans, he revoked his edict, Jer. xxxiv. 11; upon which God, by the prophet Jeremiah, proclaimed liberty to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and commissioned these messengers of his wrath to avenge himself on his people, Jer. xxxiv. 17. When the siege was resumed, we have a further instance of Zedekiah's extreme infatuation; his rejection of Jeremiah's counsel, given him by the authority of God, to preserve himself, his family, and his city, by a surrender to the Chaldeans. Thus, after a siege of eighteen months, Jerusalem was stormed and burnt, Jer. xxxix. 1, 2; Zedekiah was taken in his flight; his sons were slain before his eyes; his eyes were afterwards put out, agreeably to the savage custom of eastern conquerors; and he was carried in chains to Babylon, Jer. xxxix. 5—7. "The exiles on the river Chebar were far from being awakened to a devout acknowledgment of God's justice by the punishment inflicted on them: they continued rebellious and idolatrous, Ezek. ii. 3, xx. 39, they hearkened to false prophets and prophetesses, Ezek. xiii. 2, 17; and they were so alienated that he refused to be inquired of by them. In vain did Ezekiel endeavour to attract and win them by the charms of his flowing and insinuating eloquence; in vain did he assume a more vehement tone to awe and alarm them by heightened scenes of calamity and terror. "We know few particulars concerning the Jews at Babylon. They enjoyed the instruction and example of the prophet Daniel, who was carried away captive to that city in the third year of Jehoiakim, eight years before the captivity of Ezekiel, Dan. i. 1. Jeremiah cautioned them not to be deceived by their false prophets and diviners, Jer. xxix. 8, 9, 15, 21; against some of whom he denounced fearful judgments. He exhorted them to seek the peace of the city where they dwelt; to take wives, build houses, and plant gardens, till their restoration after seventy years, Jer. xxix. 5, 6, 7, 10. He also comforted them by a prediction of all the evil which God designed to inflict on Babylon: he assured them that none should remain in that proud city, but that it should be desolate for ever. The messenger, when he had read the book containing these denunciations, was commanded to bind a stone to it, and cast it into the Euphrates, and say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil which I will bring on her,' Jer. li. 59–64. It further appears, by divine hymns now extant, see Ps. lxxix., cii., cvi., and cxxxvii., that God vouchsafed to inspire some of these Babylonian captives with his Holy Spirit. Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah ruler of the people that remained in Judea, 2 Kings xxv. 23, Jer. xl. 5; and the scattered military commanders and their men, together with other Jews who had taken refuge in the neighbouring countries, Jer. xl. 7, 11, submitted to his government on the departure of the Chaldeans. The Jews employed themselves in gathering the fruits of the earth, Jer. xl. 12, and a calm succeeded the tempest of war: but it was soon interrupted by the turbulence of this devoted people. Ishmael slew Gedaliah; and compelled the wretched remains of the Jews in Mizpah, the seat of Gedaliah's government, to retire with him towards the country of the Ammonites, Jer. xli. 10; a people hostile to the Chaldeans, Jer. xxvii. 3. Johanan raised a force to revenge this mad and cruel act, Jer. xli. 11-15; pursued Ishmael, overtook him, and recovered from him the people whom he had forced to follow him but the assassin himself escaped with eight men to his place of refuge. The succeeding event furnishes another signal instance of human infatuation. Johanan, through |