The Song of Solomon : and the Lamentations of Jeremiah

THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH
present lies in this, that there had been lovers whose
consolations would now have been a solace ; the bitter-
ness of the enmity now experienced is its having been
distilled from the dregs of poisoned friendship. Against
the protests of her faithful prophets Jerusalem had
courted alliance with her heathen neighbours, only to
be cruelly deserted in her hour of need. It is the
old story of friendship with the world, keenly accentu-
ated in the life of Israel, because this favoured people
had already seen glimpses of a rich, rare privilege,
the friendship of Heaven. This is the irony of the
situation ; it is the tragic irony of all Hebrew history.
Why were these people so blindly infatuated that they
would be perpetually forsaking the living waters, and
hewing out to themselves broken cisterns that could
hold no water? The question is only surpassed by
that of the similar folly on the part of those of us who
follow their example in spite of the warning their fate
affords, failing to see that true friendship is too exact-
ing for ties spun from mere convenience or superficial
pleasantness to bear the strain of its more serious
claims.
Passing on from the poetic image to a more direct
view of the drear facts of the case, the author describes
the hardships of the fugitives— people who had fled to
Egypt, the retreat of Jeremiah and his companions.
This must be the bearing of the passage which our
translators render
—
"Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because
of great servitude."
For if the topic were the captivity at Babylon it would
be difficult to see how " affliction " and " great servitude "
could be treated as the causes of that disaster ; were