Lamentations 5
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11. So in just retribution Babylon itself should fare in the end. Jerusalem shall for the last time suffer these woes before her final restoration ( Zechariah 14:2 ).
12. hanged . . . by their hand--a piece of wanton cruelty invented by the Chaldeans. GROTIUS translates, "Princes were hung by the hand of the enemy"; hanging was a usual mode of execution ( Genesis 40:19 ).
elders--officials ( Lamentations 4:16 ).
13. young men . . . grind--The work of the lowest female slave was laid on young men ( Judges 16:21 , Job 31:10 ).
children fell under . . . wood--Mere children had to bear burdens of wood so heavy that they sank beneath them.
14. Aged men in the East meet in the open space round the gate to decide judicial trials and to hold social converse ( Job 29:7 Job 29:8 ).
16. The crown--all our glory, the kingdom and the priesthood ( Job 19:9 , Psalms 89:39 Psalms 89:44 ).
17. ( Lamentations 1:22 , 2:11 ).
18. foxes--They frequent desolate places where they can freely and fearlessly roam.
19. ( Psalms 102:12 ). The perpetuity of God's rule over human affairs, however He may seem to let His people be oppressed for a time, is their ground of hope of restoration.
20. for ever--that is, for "so long a time."
21. ( Psalms 80:3 , Jeremiah 31:18 ). "Restore us to favor with Thee, and so we shall be restored to our old position" [GROTIUS]. Jeremiah is not speaking of spiritual conversion, but of that outward turning whereby God receives men into His fatherly favor, manifested in bestowing prosperity [CALVIN]. Still, as Israel is a type of the Church, temporal goods typify spiritual blessings; and so the sinner may use this prayer for God to convert him.
22. Rather, "Unless haply Thou hast utterly rejected us, and art beyond measure wroth against us," that is, Unless Thou art implacable, which is impossible, hear our prayer [CALVIN]. Or, as Margin, "For wouldest Thou utterly reject us?" &c.--No; that cannot be. The Jews, in this book, and in Isaiah and Malachi, to avoid the ill-omen of a mournful closing sentence, repeat the verse immediately preceding the last [CALVIN].