<< Lamentations 1 >>
Wesley's Notes


1:1 A widow - She that had a king, or rather a God, that was an husband to her, now was forsaken of God, and her king taken from her.
1:3 Because - Because of the servitude and oppression exercised among them: oppression by their rulers, and servitude more generally; keeping their servants beyond the year of jubilee, when they ought to be set at liberty. The straits - Those that pursued them overtook them in places where they could not escape.
1:4 She - Persons of all ages and ranks are in bitterness.
1:10 Pleasant things - Has laid violent hands on them. The things of the sanctuary were always pleasant things to those that feared God.
1:11 Bread - Even in a land that ordinarily flowed with milk and honey, they were at a loss for bread to eat. Given - And gave any thing for something to satisfy their hunger. Vile - Miserable or contemptible.
1:12 Is it nothing - The prophet speaks in the name of the Jewish church.
1:13 Fire - A judgment as consuming, and afflictive as fire.
1:14 Is bound - Put upon my neck on account of my transgressions. Wreathed - My punishments are twisted as cords; I have a complication of judgments upon me, sword, famine, pestilence, captivity.
1:15 An assembly - God had called an assembly of Chaldeans against the city, to crush the inhabitants of it. Trodden - God had trodden upon the Jews as men use to stamp grapes in a wine - press.
1:16 The comforter - God.
1:17 Jerusalem - Is become loathsome and filthy.
1:19 Deceived - They did not answer my expectation.
1:20 Death - By famine and pestilence.
1:21 They - The neighbouring nations. Like me - But thou hast foretold their destruction also, and hast by me proclaimed it: and thou shalt in that day bring them into as sad a condition as I am in now.

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