Lamentations 1:12-22 Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow, which is done to me… I. Let us, first, inquire into THE TRUE MEANING OF THESE WORDS; and, in order to that, examine the connection in which they stand. Jerusalem is here represented as speaking, in the character of a female person, and that of a widow, bitterly lamenting her desolate condition, and calling for compassion. Whether any sorrow was like unto her sorrow at this period, we cannot determine, nor is this material. It was, undoubtedly, very great; and it was not unnatural for them to suppose it peculiar and unexampled. This is a common ease, both with bodies of people and individuals. Persons, when exercised with heavy and complicated afflictions, are very apt to suppose no sufferings equal to their own, and no sorrow like theirs. It is also very common and very natural for persons under heavy afflictions to feel it as a high aggravation that they have none to sympathise with them under their troubles, or to show any disposition to afford them relief. 1. This is a very grievous and pitiable condition for any to be in. 2. To exercise sympathy towards the afflicted is what may most reasonably be expected, and the neglect of it is highly culpable. II. HOW APPLICABLE THE DESCRIPTION IN THE TEXT IS TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. III. THERE ARE MANY WHO MAY BE SAID TO PASS BY WITH UNCONCERN, AS IF ALL THIS WAS NOTHING TO THEM AND THEY HAD NO CONCERN IN IT. 1. What think yon of the great number of those who are called by the name of Christ, who never set themselves seriously to contemplate His sufferings: who never, or but seldom, attend the preaching of Christ crucified; or who, though they may sometimes hear the doctrine of the Cross, never bestow a serious thought about the ends and designs of the Saviour's sufferings, or the concern which they themselves have in them? 2. And what shall we say of those persons, who even profess faith in Christ and love to His name, and attend the ordinary worship of His house with apparent decency, who yet neglect to fulfil His dying command to commemorate His sufferings and death in that peculiar ordinance, in which we have a visible representation of them, designed to perpetuate the memory of them in the world, and affect the heart with a sense of His love. (S. Palmer.) Parallel Verses KJV: Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. |
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