Lamentations - The Sermon Depository

word, hdyn, nide, ought properly to be applied to their exile, when the
Jews became unfixed and vagrant. F11 It is added, that she was despised and
treated reproachfully by all who before esteemed and honored her. This
also did not a little increase the grievousness of her calamity; she had been
repudiated by her friends, by whom she had before been valued and
honored. The reason is mentioned, because they saw her nakedness. But
the word properly means turpitude or ignominy. It is at length added, that
she even groaned and turned backward; that is, that she was so oppressed
with grief, that there was no hope of a remedy; for to turn backward means
the same as to be deprived of all hope of restoration. F12 It now follows, —
Lamentations 1:9
9. Her filthiness is in her skirts; she
remembereth not her last end;
therefore she came down
wonderfully; she had no comfort. O
Lord, behold my affliction; for the
enemy hath magnified himself.
9. Ignominia ejus in fimbriis ejus,
non est recordata finis sui; et
descendit mirabiliter, nemo
consolator ei; vide, Jehova, afflic
tionem meam, quia magnifice se
effert hostis (ad verbum,
magnificatus est hostis.)
He continues here, as I think, the same subject; he had said at the end of
the last verse that turpitude or baseness had been seen at Jerusalem; and
now he says that it was on the very fringes or skirts. The Prophet seems
to allude to menstruous women who hide their uncleanness as much as
they can; but. such a thing is of no avail, as nature must have its course. In
short, the Prophet intimates that the Jews had become filthy in no
common degree, being so afflicted that their uncleanness appeared on their
skirts. This seems to be the Prophet’s meaning. Interpreters think that
Jeremiah speaks of the sins of the people, but they are mistaken; for I
doubt not but that the reference is to their punishment. They say that
filthiness was on the skirts, because the people had shamelessly
prostituted themselves to all kinds of wickedness, and that they
remembered not their end, because they had become altogether foolish,
according to what is said in the song of Moses,
“O that they were wise, and would foresee their end?
(Deuteronomy 32 29.)
But let any one duly consider the design of the Prophet, and he will readily
agree with me that he speaks not of guilt, but on the contrary of
punishment. F13
The Prophet then says that the reproach of the Jews was on their skirts,
because they could not hide their disgrace, For shame often makes men to
hide their evils and silently to bear them, because they are unwilling to
expose themselves to the mockery of their enemies. But the Prophet says
that the miseries of the people could not be kept hidden, but that they
appeared to all, as the case is with women subject to an overflow — it
issues forth to the extremities of their garments.
And when he says that she remembered not her end, I understand this to
mean, that the Jews were so overwhelmed with despair, that they did not
raise up their thoughts to God’s promises; for it is no ordinary source of
comfort, and what even common sense dictates to us, to take breath in
extreme evils, and to extend our thoughts farther, for misery will not
always oppress us — some change for the better will happen. As then
men are wont thus to sustain themselves in adversities, he says that the
Jews remembered not their end; that is, they were so demented by their
sorrow, that they became stupified, and entertained no hope as to the
future. In short, by these words, he denotes extreme despair; for the Jews
were so stupified that they could not raise up their minds to any hope.
And the reason is expressed, because they had come down wonderfully,
that is, because they had been cast down in an extraordinary manner. A