159 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Waters flowed over mine head,.... As in a pit or dungeon, where there is not only mire and clay, but much water, into which persons being put, sink, and are covered therewith; see Psalms 69:1; this is to be understood metaphorically of the waters of afflictions, which overflowed and overwhelmed the people of the Jews. Jarchi interprets it of the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
I called upon thy name, O Lord,.... As in times past, so in the present distress; when all hope was gone, and all help failed, still there was a God to go to, and call upon: out of the low dungeon; or "dungeon of lownesses" (r); the lowest dungeon, the deepest distress, a man or people could be in; yet then and there it is not too late to call...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou hast heard my voice,.... Either in times past, when he cried unto him, and was delivered; and this was an encouragement to call upon him again in such extremity, who had shown himself to be a God hearing and answering prayer; hence it follows: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry; turn not a deaf ear to me, who hast been wont to hear...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou drewest near in the day [that] I called upon thee,.... When persons draw nigh to God in a way of duty, and particularly in this of prayer, and calling on his name; he draws nigh to them in a way of grace and mercy, and manifests himself to them, and works salvation for them. The Targum is, "thou didst cause an angel to draw near to deliver me...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
O Lord, thou hast pleaded the cause of my soul,.... Or, causes of "my soul", or "life" (u); such as concerned his soul and life: not one only, but many of them; and this respects not Jeremiah only, and the Lord's pleading his cause against Zedekiah and his nobles; but the people of the Jews in former times, when in Egypt, and in the times of the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong,.... Or, "my perverseness" (w); not that he or they had been guilty of; but the wrong that was done to him and them by their enemies; how perverse and ill natured they had been to them; how badly they had used them; what injuries they had done them; none of which escaped the omniscience of God, to which the appeal...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou hast seen all their vengeance,.... The spirit of revenge in them; their wrath and fury, and how they burn with a desire of doing mischief; as well as their revengeful actions, carriage, and behaviour: [and] all their imaginations against me; their secret contrivances of mischief, their plots and schemes they devise to do hurt unto me.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord,.... Their reproachful words uttered against the prophet and his people, against God himself; their spiteful language, their taunts, and scoffs and jeers: [and] all their imaginations against me; those he not only saw, as they appeared in their actions; but heard them, as they were expressed by their words;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The lips of those that rose up against me,.... This is to be connected with the preceding words; and expresses the same thing in different language. The sense is, that the Lord heard the words which dropped from the lips of his enemies; their sarcasms, flouts, and jeers; their bitter reflections, severe invectives, and scornful language: and their...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Behold their sitting down, and their rising up,.... All their actions; the whole course of their lives; all which fell under the divine omniscience, Psalms 139:2; but that is not barely here meant; but that he would take particular notice hereof, and punish for the same. It may have respect both to their lying down at night, and rising in the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Render unto them a recompence, O Lord, according to the work of their hands. The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render this, and the following verses, not as petitions, but as prophecies of what should be; but they seem rather to be expressed by way of request; and here, that God would deal with them according to the law of retaliation, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Give them sorrow of heart,.... That which will cause sorrow of heart; such judgments and punishments as will be grievous to them. Some have observed a likeness between the word here used and that translated "music", Lamentations 3:63; and think some respect may be had to it; that whereas the people of God had been matter of mirth and music to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Persecute and destroy them in anger,.... As they have persecuted the people of God, do thou persecute them; and never leave pursuing them untie thou hast made a full end of them, as the effect of vindictive wrath and vengeance: from under the heavens of the Lord; which are made by him, and in which he dwells; let them not have the benefit of them,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Lamentations 4 The prophet begins this chapter with a complaint of the ill usage of the dear children of God, and precious sons of Zion, Lamentations 4:1; relates the dreadful effects of the famine during the siege of Jerusalem, Lamentations 4:3; the taking and destruction of that city he imputes to the wrath of God; and represents...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
How is the gold become dim!.... Or "covered" (b); or hid with rust, dust, or dirt; so that it can scarcely be discerned: [how] is the most fine gold changed! this may be literally true of the gold of the temple; and so the Targum calls it "the gold of the house of the sanctuary;'' with which that was overlaid, and many things in it, 1 Kings 6:21;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold,.... This explains what is meant in Lamentations 4:1; by gold, fine gold, and stones of the sanctuary; not Josiah and his sons, as some Jewish interpreters; but all the sons of Zion, or children of God; not the inhabitants of Zion literally, but spiritually; see Zechariah 9:13. Zion is the church;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Even the sea monsters draw out the breast,.... Which some interpret of dragons; others of seals, or sea calves; but it is best to understand it of whales, as the word is rendered in Genesis 1:21; and elsewhere: and Bochart (d) has proved, out of various writers, that these have breasts and milk; but that their breasts, or however their paps, are...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst,.... Through want of the milk of the breast, which is both food and drink unto it: the young children ask bread; of their parents as usual, not knowing how the case was, that there was a famine in the city; these are such as were more grown, were weaned from the milk, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets,.... That were brought up in the king's palace, or in the houses of noblemen; or, however, born of parents rich and wealthy, and had been used to good living, and had fared sumptuously and deliciously every day, were now wandering about in the streets in the most forlorn and distressed...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people,.... In the long siege of their city, and the evils that attended it, especially the sore famine: is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom; which was destroyed at once by fire from heaven: or it may be rendered, "the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the...