Lamentations 2:13

13 Quel témoignage présenterai-je? A quoi te comparerai-je, fille de Jérusalem? Et à qui t'égalerai-je, pour te consoler, vierge, fille de Sion? Car ta plaie est grande comme la mer; qui est-ce qui te guérira?

Lamentations 2:13 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 2:13

What thing shall I take to witness for thee?
&c.] What argument can be made use of? what proof or evidence can be given? what witnesses can be called to convince thee, and make it a clear case to time, that ever any people or nation was in such distress and calamity, what with sword, famine, pestilence, and captivity, as thou art? what thing shall I liken thee to, O daughter of Jerusalem?
what kingdom or nation ever suffered the like? no example can be given, no instance that comes up to it; not the Egyptians, when the ten plagues were inflicted on them; not the Canaanites, when conquered and drove out by Joshua; not the Philistines, Moabites, Edomites, and Syrians, when subdued by David; or any other people: what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter
of Zion?
for this is one way that friends comfort the afflicted, by telling them that such an one's case was as bad, and worse, than theirs; and therefore bid them be of good heart; bear their affliction patiently; before long it will be over; but nothing of this kind could be said here; no, nor any hope given it would be otherwise; they could not say their case was like others, or that it was not desperate: for thy breach [is] great like the sea;
as large and as wide as that: Zion's troubles were a sea of trouble; her afflictions as numerous and as boisterous as the waves of the sea; and as salt, as disagreeable, and as intolerable, as the waters of it: or her breach was great, like the breach of the sea; when it overflows its banks, or breaks through its bounds, there is no stopping it, but it grows wider and wider: who can heal thee?
it was not in the power of man, in her own power, or of her allies, to recover her out of the hands of the enemy; to restore her civil or church state; her wound was incurable; none but God could be her physician. The Targum is,

``for thy breach is great as the greatness of the breach of the waves of the sea in the time of its tempest; and who is the physician that can heal thee of thy infirmity?''

Lamentations 2:13 In-Context

11 Mes yeux se consument dans les larmes; mes entrailles bouillonnent, et mon foie se répand sur la terre, à cause de la plaie de la fille de mon peuple, parce que les petits enfants et ceux qui sont à la mamelle défaillent dans les places de la ville.

12 Ils disaient à leurs mères: Où est le froment et le vin? lorsqu'ils défaillaient comme des blessés à mort dans les places de la ville, et rendaient l'âme sur le sein de leurs mères.

13 Quel témoignage présenterai-je? A quoi te comparerai-je, fille de Jérusalem? Et à qui t'égalerai-je, pour te consoler, vierge, fille de Sion? Car ta plaie est grande comme la mer; qui est-ce qui te guérira?

14 Tes prophètes ont eu pour toi des visions mensongères et vaines; ils ne t'ont point découvert ton iniquité, pour détourner ta captivité, mais ils ont eu pour toi des oracles de mensonge et d'égarement.

15 Tous les passants battent des mains à ton sujet; ils sifflent, ils branlent la tête, contre la fille de Jérusalem. Est-ce là, disent-ils, la ville qu'on appelait la parfaite en beauté, la joie de toute la terre?