Lamentazioni 1:17

17 Sion stende le mani… non v’è alcuno che la consoli; l’Eterno ha comandato ai nemici di Giacobbe di circondarlo da tutte le parti. Gerusalemme è, in mezzo a loro, come una cosa impura.

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 entro il mio recinto tutti i miei prodi; ha convocato contro di me una gran raunanza, per schiacciare i miei giovani; il Signore ha calcato, come in un tino, la vergine figliuola di Giuda.

16 Per questo, io piango; i miei occhi, i miei occhi si struggono in lacrime, perché lungi da me è il consolatore, che potrebbe rianimarmi la vita. I miei figliuoli son desolati, perché il nemico ha trionfato".

17 Sion stende le mani… non v’è alcuno che la consoli; l’Eterno ha comandato ai nemici di Giacobbe di circondarlo da tutte le parti. Gerusalemme è, in mezzo a loro, come una cosa impura.

18 "L’Eterno è giusto, poiché io mi son ribellata alla sua parola. Deh, ascoltate, o popoli tutti, e vedete il mio dolore! Le mie vergini ed i miei giovani sono andati in cattività.

19 Io ho chiamato i miei amanti, ma essi m’hanno ingannata; i miei sacerdoti e i miei anziani hanno esalato l’anima nella città, mentre cercavan del cibo per rianimarsi la vita.