Lamentations 1:14

14 "My sins have been bound into a yoke, knit together by his hand. It weighs down on my neck, and it saps my strength. Adonai has put me into the power of those I cannot withstand.

Lamentations 1:14 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 1:14

The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand
That is, the punishment of her sins was laid upon her by the Lord himself; his hand was in it; it came from him; the Chaldeans were only instruments; and a heavy yoke this was. So the Targum renders it,

``the yoke of my rebellions is made heavy by his hand:''

they are wreathed, [and] come upon my neck;
or, "twisted together" ^F2; as lines to make a cord; or as several cords to make a rope; or as branches of trees or withes are implicated and entwined; and so the Targum,

``they are twisted together as the branches of a vine.''

It denotes the complication of judgments upon the Jewish nation for their sins, with which they were holden as with cords; and which were like ropes about their necks, very heavy and distressing to them, and from which they could not deliver themselves. Mr. Broughton thinks the apostle has reference to this passage; and explains it by the sin that easily besets, or cunningly wraps about, ( Hebrews 12:1 ) ; he hath made my strength to fall;
by the weight of punishment laid upon her, which she could not stand up under, but sunk and fell: this may be understood of her strong and mighty men; her men of valour and courage, who yet stumbled and fell: the Lord hath delivered me into [their] hands, [from whom] I am not
able to rise up;
meaning the Chaldeans; nor were the Jews at last delivered from them by their own strength, but by the means of Cyrus the Persian conquering Babylon.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (wgrtvy) "involutae", Vatablus; "perplexae", Pagninus, Montanus, Calvin; "contortae", Piscator, Grotius, Michaelis.

Lamentations 1:14 In-Context

12 "May it not happen to you, all you passers-by! Just look, and see if there is any pain like the pain inflicted on me, which ADONAI made me suffer on the day of his blazing anger.

13 "From on high, he sent down fire deep into my bones; he spread a net to catch my feet; he turned me back; he left me desolate, in misery all day long.

14 "My sins have been bound into a yoke, knit together by his hand. It weighs down on my neck, and it saps my strength. Adonai has put me into the power of those I cannot withstand.

15 "All the strong men within my walls Adonai has rejected. He has set a specific time for crushing my young men. Adonai has trodden, like grapes in a winepress, the virgin daughter of Y'hudah.

16 "Because of these things, I weep; my eyes, my eyes stream with tears; for anyone who could comfort me and revive my courage is far away. My children are in a state of shock, because the enemy has prevailed."