What can I say for you? To what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may console you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? For your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can ever heal you? Sermons
I. THE AFFECTIONATE AND ADMIRING LANGUAGE BY WHICH THE PROPHET DESIGNATES THE AFFLICTED CITY. Not a word of insult or of contempt, but, on the contrary, language evincing the deepest, the fondest interest. The population that had so despised his prophecy and had treated him so ill is here personified in language apparently more appropriate to times of prosperity. Jeremiah bewails the state of the daughter of Jerusalem, the virgin daughter of Zion. II. THE TENDER COMMISERATION OF THE PROPHET WITH THE CITY'S WOES. 1. He pronounces the sorrows of Jerusalem unequalled. It is a common mode of expressing sympathy to assure the afflicted that others have the same griefs and trials to endure. No such consolation is offered here; the prophet looks around in vain for a case so distressing. The breach is "great like the sea." This is either a figure drawn from the vastness of the ocean, with which the great woe of Judah is compared; or it depicts the enemy as rushing in upon Jerusalem, as the sea in its fury makes a breach in the wall of a low lying territory, and, sweeping the defences away by irresistible force, creates a desolation, so that a waste of waters is beheld where villages and fruitful fields once smiled in peace and plenty. 2. He pronounces the sorrows of Jerusalem irremediable. A mortal wound has been inflicted, which no leechcraft can heal. If Jerusalem is again to flourish it must be by a revival from the dead. For nothing now can save her. APPLICATION. 1. The captive city is a picture of the desolation and misery to which (sooner or later) sin will surely bring all those who submit themselves to it. 2. The commiseration shown by the prophet is an example of the state of mind with which the pious should contemplate the ravages of sin and the wretchedness of sinful men. 3. The gospel forbids despondency over even the most utter debasement and humiliation of man. "There is balm in Gilead; there is a Physician there." - T.
Mine eyes do fail with tears. 1. The true ministers of God do take the miseries of the Church to heart in the greatest measure.2. Our sorrow, humiliation, earnest prayer, and all other means of extraordinary calling upon God, must increase in us, so long as God's heavy hand is upon us. 3. Hearty sorrow for spiritual miseries distempereth the whole body. 4. The sorrows of the soul will easily consume the body. 5. A lively member is grieved with the hurt of the body, or any member thereof. 6. The ministers of Christ should have a tender affection to the members of the Church, as a man hath to his daughter. 7. There is no outward thing so much cause of sorrow, as the miseries laid upon our children in our sight. (J. Udall.) (Hartley Aspen.) They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? 1. It is the greatest grief that can be, to have them whom we would gladly pleasure, seek that at our hands which we cannot help them unto.2. When God would have us profit by any work of His, He will let us see the true cause of it. 3. The grief that is seen with the eye is the heaviest unto us of all other things that fall upon our friends. 4. When God meaneth to humble us, He will use most effectual means to bring it to pass. (J. Udall.) What thing shall I take to witness for thee? Ministers must be studious in the Word, to find out everything that may fit the Church's present condition (Isaiah 50:4; Matthew 13:52).2. It is the greatest grief that can be, to fall into a trouble that hath not been laid upon others before. 3. That minister loveth us best, that dealeth most plainly with us. 4. The visible state of the Church of God may come to be of a desperate condition, every way vexed more and more. (J. Udall.) People Jacob, JeremiahPlaces Jerusalem, ZionTopics Able, Admonish, Breach, Comfort, Compare, Comparison, Daughter, Deep, Destruction, Equal, Example, Heal, Healing, Jerusalem, Liken, O, Restore, Ruin, Testify, Vast, Virgin, Witness, Wound, ZionOutline 1. Jeremiah laments the misery of Jerusalem20. He complains thereof to God Dictionary of Bible Themes Lamentations 2:13Library Watch-Night Service"Ye virgin souls, arise! With all the dead awake; Unto salvation wise; Oil in your vessels take: Upstarting at the MIDNIGHT CRY, Behold Your heavenly bridegroom nigh." Two brethren then offered prayer for the Church and the World, that the new year might be clothed with glory by the spread of the knowledge of Jesus.--Then followed the EXPOSITION Psalm 90:1-22 "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Yea Jehovah, WE, they children, can say that thou hast been our home, our safe … Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856 Chel. The Court of the Women. Appendix ix. List of Old Testament Passages Messianically Applied in Ancient Rabbinic Writings Departure from Ireland. Death and Burial at Clairvaux. That the Ruler Should be Discreet in Keeping Silence, Profitable in Speech. Lii. Concerning Hypocrisy, Worldly Anxiety, Watchfulness, and his Approaching Passion. Lamentations Links Lamentations 2:13 NIVLamentations 2:13 NLT Lamentations 2:13 ESV Lamentations 2:13 NASB Lamentations 2:13 KJV Lamentations 2:13 Bible Apps Lamentations 2:13 Parallel Lamentations 2:13 Biblia Paralela Lamentations 2:13 Chinese Bible Lamentations 2:13 French Bible Lamentations 2:13 German Bible Lamentations 2:13 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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