Lamentations 1:19

19 I called for my lovers, they -- they have deceived me, My priests and my elders in the city have expired; When they have sought food for themselves, Then they give back their soul.

Lamentations 1:19 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 1:19

I called for my lovers, [but] they deceived me
Either her idols, with whom she had committed spiritual adultery, that is, idolatry; but these could not answer her expectations, and help her: or the Egyptians, that courted her friendship, and with whom she was in alliance, and in whom she trusted; and these, in the times of her distress, she called upon to make good their engagements, but they disappointed her, and stood not to their covenant and promises, but left her to stand and fall by herself; this Jerusalem said, according to the Targum, when she was delivered into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar; but these words, "they deceived me", it makes to be the Romans, that came with Titus and Vespasian, and built bulwarks against Jerusalem: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city;
or died in the city of Jerusalem; not by the sword of the enemy, but through famine; and so, in the Arabic language, the word <arabic> ^F9 signifies to labour under famine, and want of food, and perish through it; and if this was the case of their priests that officiated in holy things, and of their elders or civil magistrates, what must be the case of the common people? while they sought their meat to relieve their souls;
or "fetch ^F11 [them] back"; which were just fainting and dying away through hunger; and who did expire while they were begging their bread, or inquiring in one place after another where they could get any, either freely or for money.

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 <arabic> "esurivit et fame ac inedia laboravit", Golius, col. 556.
F11 (Mvpn ta wbyvyw) "et reducerent animam suam", Montanus.

Lamentations 1:19 In-Context

17 Spread forth hath Zion her hands, There is no comforter for her, Jehovah hath charged concerning Jacob, His neighbours [are] his adversaries, Jerusalem hath become impure among them.

18 Righteous is Jehovah, For His mouth I have provoked. Hear, I pray you, all ye peoples, and see my pain, My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

19 I called for my lovers, they -- they have deceived me, My priests and my elders in the city have expired; When they have sought food for themselves, Then they give back their soul.

20 See, O Jehovah, for distress [is] to me, My bowels have been troubled, Turned hath been my heart in my midst, For I have greatly provoked, From without bereaved hath the sword, In the house [it is] as death.

21 They have heard that I have sighed, There is no comforter for me, All my enemies have heard of my calamity, They have rejoiced that Thou hast done [it], Thou hast brought in the day Thou hast called, And they are like to me.