Lamentations - The Sermon Depository

een broken down as though they were melted. And then the Prophet
seems to allude to the previous hardness of the people, for their hearts had
been extremely stupified. As, then, they never had been flexible, whether
addressed by doctrine, or exhortations, or threatenings, he now by
implication brings forward in contrast with them the walls of the city, as
though he had said, “Hitherto no one of God’s servants could draw even
one tear from your eyes, so great was your hardness; but now the very
walls weep, for they dissolve, as though they would send forth rivers of
waters. Therefore the very stones turn to tears, because ye have hitherto
been hardened against God and all prophetic instruction.”
He afterwards adds, Spare not thyself, give not thyself rest day or night,
and let not the daughter of thine eye, or the pupil of thine eye, cease,
literally, be silent; but to be silent is metaphorically taken in the sense of
ceasing or resting. He intimates that there would be, nay, that there was
now, an occasion of continual lamentation; and hence he exhorted them to
weep day and night; as though he had said, that sorrow would continue
without intermission, as there would be no relaxation as to their evils. But
we must bear in mind what we have before said, that the Prophet did not
speak thus to embitter the sorrow of the people. We indeed know that the
minds of men are very tender and delicate while under evils, and then that
they rush headlong into impatience; but as they were not as yet led to true
repentance, he sets before them the punishment which God had inflicted,
that they might thereby be turned to consider their own sins. It follows, —
Lamentations 2:19
19. Arise, cry out in the night;
in the beginning of the watches
pour out thine heart like water
before the face of the Lord: lift
up thy hands toward him for
the life of thy young children,
that faint for hunger in the top
of every street.
19. Surge, Clama nocte principio
excubiarum (custodiarum ad verbum,
sed significat vigilias nocturnas;) effunde
tanquam aquas cor tuum coram facie
Domini; attolle ad ipsum manus tuas
propter Animam parvulorum tuorum,
qui deficiunt fame in capite omnium
compitorum.
The Prophet now explains himself more clearly, and confirms what I have
lately said, that he mentioned not the calamities of the people except for
this end, that those who were almost stupid might begin to raise up their
eyes to God, and also to examine their life, and willingly to condemn
themselves, that thus they might escape from the wrath of God.
The Prophet then bids them to rise and to cry. Doubtless they had been by
force constrained by their enemies to undertake a long journey: why then
does he bid them to rise, who had become fugitives from their own
country, and had been driven away like sheep? He regards, as I have said,
the slothfulness of their minds, because they were still lying torpid in their
sins. It was then necessary to rouse them from this insensibility; and this
is what the Prophet had in view by saying, Rise. F48 And then he bids them
to cry at the beginning of the watches, even when sleep begins to creep on,
and the time is quieter; for when men go to bed, then sleep comes on, and
that is the main rest. ut the Prophet bids here the Jews to cry, and in their
uneasiness to utter their complaints at the very time when others take their
rest. et he did not wish them heedlessly to pour forth into the air their
wailings, but bade them to present their prayers to God. hen as to the
circumstances of that time, he repeats what we have already seen, that so
great was their mass of evils, that it allowed the people no relaxation; in
short, he intimates that it was a continual sorrow.
But, as I have said, he would have the Jews not simply to cry, but after
having exhorted them to pour out their hearts like waters, he adds, before