Read & Study the Bible Online - Bible Portal
Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Lamentations 1:1-11

Those that have any disposition to weep with those that weep, one would think, should scarcely be able to refrain from tears at the reading of these verses, so very pathetic are the lamentations here. I. The miseries of Jerusalem are here complained of as very pressing and by many circumstances very much aggravated. Let us take a view of these miseries. 1. As to their civil state. (1.) A city that was populous is now depopulated, Lam. 2:1. It is spoken of by way of wonder?Who would have... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Lamentations 1:1

How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people !.... These are the words of Jeremiah; so the Targum introduces them, "Jeremiah the prophet and high priest said;' and began thus, "how"; not inquiring the reasons of this distress and ruin; but as amazed and astonished at it; and commiserating the sad case of the city of Jerusalem, which a little time ago was exceeding populous; had thousands of inhabitants in it; besides those that came from other parts to see it, or trade with... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Lamentations 1:1

How doth the city sit solitary - Sitting down, with the elbow on the knee, and the head supported by the hand, without any company, unless an oppressor near, - all these were signs of mourning and distress. The coin struck by Vespasian on the capture of Jerusalem, on the obverse of which there is a palm-tree, the emblem of Judea, and under it a woman, the emblem of Jerusalem, sitting, leaning as before described, with the legend Judea capta , illustrates this expression as well as that in ... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Lamentations 1:1

Verse 1 The Prophet could not sufficiently express the greatness of the calamity, except by expressing his astonishment. He then assumes the person of one who on seeing something new and unexpected is filled with amazement. It was indeed a thing incredible; for as it was a place chosen for God to dwell in, and as the city Jerusalem was not only the royal throne of God, but also as it were his earthly sanctuary, the city might have been thought exempted from all danger. Since it had been said, ... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Lamentations 1:1

How . The characteristic introductory word of an elegy (comp. Isaiah 1:21 ; Isaiah 14:4 , Isaiah 14:12 ), and adopted by the early Jewish divines as the title of the Book of Lamentations. It is repeated at the opening of Lamentations 2:1-22 and Lamentations 4:1-22 . Sit solitary. Jerusalem is poetically personified and distinguished from the persons who accidentally compose her population. She is "solitary," not as having retired into solitude, but as deserted by her inhabitants... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Lamentations 1:1

The solitary city. The first elegy on the desolation of Jerusalem opens with a lament over her solitariness, widowhood, and humiliation. I. THE SOLITARINESS . 1 . How it is to be measured. 2 . Why it is most sad . The loss of men is the great trouble. Fine buildings have been thrown down, marble statues broken, gold and precious stones stolen. But these are not the worst evils. Had all remained untouched, still the trouble would have been heart rending. The people are... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Lamentations 1:1

Widowhood-the emblem of loneliness. I. THE FORCE OF THE EMBLEM . Another emblem might have been used. Or the statement as to loneliness might have been left in its simplicity without any comparison at all. Why, then, this particular emblem? Because it sets forth the separation between two parties to a peculiar connection—a connection intended to have all the permanence which anything in this earth can have. Of the husband and wife it is to be said that "they twain have become one... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Lamentations 1:1-2

The fate of Jerusalem is described in language which resembles here and there that used in Isaiah of fallen Babylon ( Isaiah 47:1 , Isaiah 47:8 ). It is probably the finest passage in the whole bock, and has inspired some grand lines in Mr. Swinburne's picture of the republican mater dolorosa— "Who is she that sits by the way, by the wild wayside, In a rust-stained garment, the robes of a cast-off bride, In the dust, in the rainfall, sitting with soiled feet bare, With the night... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Lamentations 1:1-2

The contrasts of adversity. The keynote of this strain of sorrow, this poetical and pathetic dirge, is struck in the opening words of the composition. The heart of the prophet laments over the captured and ruined city. How natural that the present should recall the past! Jerusalem, now in the hands of the Chaldeans, was once, in the days of David and of Solomon, the scene of glory and the seat of empire, the joy of the whole earth. So much the sadder is the contrast, the deeper the fall,... read more

Group of Brands