Lamentazioni 1:17

17 Sion distribuisce il pane a sè stessa con le sue proprie mani; Non ha niuno che la consoli. Il Signore ha data commessione contro a Giacobbe; I suoi nemici son d’intorno a lui; Gerusalemme è in mezzo di essi come una donna immonda.

Lamentazioni 1:17 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 1:17

Zion spreadeth forth her hands
Either as submitting to the conqueror, and imploring mercy; or rather as calling to her friends to help and relieve her. The Targum is,

``Zion spreadeth out her hands through distress, as a woman spreads out her hands upon the seat to bring forth;''

see ( Jeremiah 4:31 ) . Some render the words, "Zion breaks with her hands" ^F6; that is, breaks bread; and Joseph Kimchi observes, that it was the custom of comforters to break bread to the mourner; but here she herself breaks it with her hands, because there was none to comfort her: [and there is] none to comfort her;
to speak a word of comfort to her, or to help her out of her trouble; her children gone into captivity; her friends and lovers at a distance; and God himself departed from her; (See Gill on Lamentations 1:16); the Lord hath commanded concerning Jacob, [that] his adversaries
[should be] round about him;
that he should be surrounded by them, and carried captive, and should be in the midst of them in captivity: this was the decree and determination of God; and, agreeably to it, he ordered it in his providence that the Chaldeans should come against him, encompass him, and overcome him; and that because he had slighted and broken the commandments of the Lord; and therefore was justly dealt with, as is acknowledged in ( Lamentations 1:18 ) . So the Targum,

``the Lord gave to the house of Jacob commandments, and a law to keep, but they transgressed the decree of his word; therefore his enemies encompassed the house of Jacob round about:''

Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them;
reckoned filthy and unclean, abominable and nauseous; whom none cared to come near, but shunned, despised, and abhorred; as the Jews separated from the Gentiles, and would not converse with them; so neither now would the Chaldeans with the Jews; but treat them as the offscouring of all things.

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 (hydyb Nwyu hvrp) "frangit Sion manibus suis", sub. "panem", Vatablus.

Lamentazioni 1:17 In-Context

15 Il Signore ha atterrati tutti i miei possenti uomini in mezzo di me; Egli ha bandito contro a me un termine assegnato, Per rompere i miei giovani; Il Signore ha calcato, come in un tino, la vergine figliuola di Giuda.

16 Per queste cose piango; l’occhio, l’occhio mio si strugge in acqua; Perciocchè ogni consolatore, che mi ristori l’anima, si è allontanato da me; I miei figliuoli son deserti; Perciocchè il nemico è stato vittorioso.

17 Sion distribuisce il pane a sè stessa con le sue proprie mani; Non ha niuno che la consoli. Il Signore ha data commessione contro a Giacobbe; I suoi nemici son d’intorno a lui; Gerusalemme è in mezzo di essi come una donna immonda.

18 Il Signore è giusto; Perciocchè io sono stata ribelle alla sua bocca. Deh! ascoltate, e vedete la mia doglia, o popoli tutti; Le mie vergini, e i miei giovani, sono andati in cattività.

19 Io ho chiamati i miei amanti, ma essi mi hanno ingannata; I miei sacerdoti, ed i miei anziani sono spirati nella città; Perciocchè si han cercato del cibo, Per ristorar l’anima loro.