The Song of Solomon : and the Lamentations of Jeremiah

THE
CHAPTER Vll
GOD AS AN ENEMY
elegist, as we have seen, attributes the
troubles of the Jews to the will and action of
God. In the second poem he even ventures further,
and with daring logic presses this idea to its ultimate
issues. If God is tormenting His people in fierce
anger it must be because He is their enemy—so the
sad-hearted patriot reasons. The course of Providence
does not shape itself to him as a merciful chastisement,
as a veiled blessing ; its motive seems to be distinctly
unfriendly. He drives his dreadful conclusion home
with great amplitude of details. In order to appreciate
the force of it let us look at the illustrative passage
in two ways— first, in view of the calamities inflicted on
Jerusalem, all of which are here ascribed to God, and
then with regard to those thoughts and purposes of their
Divine Author which appear to be revealed in them.
First, then, we have the earthly side of the process.
The daughter of Zion is covered with a cloud. ^ The
metaphor would be more striking in the brilliant East
than it is to us in our habitually sombre climate.
There it would suggest unwonted gloom—the loss of
the customary light of heaven, rare distress, and ex-