Tag: lamentations

  • Lamentations of our past in a Lenten path forward

    Lamentations of our past in a Lenten path forward

    Jeremiah tells us [in Lamentations 3,4 & 5]:

    I am the man who has seen affliction
    Because of the rod of His wrath..

    Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.

    Source: TalkofJesus.com category Old Testament History

    Kinoth-Ecah How? :אֵיכָה

    How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people!

    how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces,

    how is she become tributary!

    Lamentations 1:1 KJV – the sorrows of Zion

    stone wall "city of David" in Hebrew and English in Jerusalem
    Zion צִיּוֹן
    Gaza Israel war damage
    Gaza, Israel July 2018 CE

    The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts:

    all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

    Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions:

    her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.

    the Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:4-5 KJV


    Get the picture? Jerusalem completely destroyed and its people led captive into Babylon – 605-597 B.C.

    In A.D.70 it would be ROME that would again destroy a Jerusalem built under the Caesars by its Herodian kings who again rejected God. 

    Commentary on Lamentations

    timeline of prophets after David

    As noted in my introduction and outline to this SERIES for Lent 2025 CE, although JEREMIAH belongs to the timeline as a PROPHET predicting the destruction of Jerusalem by the LORD, Lamentations – written AFTER its fall — (like the Psalms) belongs with the Scriptures.


    Matthew Henry

    An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of
    The Lamentations of Jeremiah

    Since what Solomon says, though contrary to the common opinion of the world, is certainly true, that sorrow is better than laughter, and it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting,

    we should come to the reading and consideration of the melancholy chapters of this book, not only willingly, but with an expectation to edify ourselves by them;

    and, that we may do this, we must compose ourselves to a holy sadness and resolve to weep with the weeping prophet.

    stone carving of the prophet Jeremiah reading Bible - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel are major Prophets of the Old Testament
    Jeremiah by Michelangelo
    • from the first word Ecah-How
    • Jewish commentators call it, as the Greeks do, and we from them, Kinoth-Lamentations.

    As we have sacred odes or songs of joy, so have we sacred elegies or songs of lamentation;

    such variety of methods has Infinite Wisdom taken to work upon us and move our affections, and so soften our hearts and make them susceptible of the impressions of divine truths, as the wax of the seal.

    We have not only piped unto you, but have mourned likewise, Mt. 11:17.

    Reverend Matthew Henry, minister of the Gospel in Chester, England,

    About Reverend Matthew Henry:

    Born 1662 the year that the Act of Uniformity was enacted, which saw over 2,000 Anglican clergymen ejected from their pulpits.

    In 1686, Matthew Henry was invited by a local Nonconformist minister to establish an assembly in Chester, England, While in Chester, Matthew Henry founded the Presbyterian Chapel on Trinity Street.

    June 22nd 1714, he went to be with God.


    The Lord Has Destroyed Without Pity

    ESV HEADING – Lamentations 2

    The elders of the daughter of Zion
    sit upon the ground, and keep silence:
    they have cast up dust upon their heads;
    they have girded themselves with sackcloth:
    the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

    Lamentations 2:10
    Authorized (King James) Version


    “I am the man:” – Before and After

    I'll remind us again of my discovery that the Hebrew Bible [Tanakh] includes Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) Nevi'im (Prophets) and in a later section Eichah in Ketuvim (Scriptures).

    HERE we must see the Prophet in both his earlier identification with a chosen people turned against the LORD and later as a man suffering along with them after the prophesies had come true.

    You have persuaded me, O YHWH, and I am persuaded;

    You have hardened me, and prevail, “

    ” I have been for a laughter all the day,”” Everyone is mocking at me,

    Jeremiah 20:7 LSV

    Yet now the Prophet identifies with them as he surveys God’s people under the wrath and punishment of the LORD.

    Lam 3:1 – I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

    2 He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light …

    17 -18 And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. And I said,

    My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:

    What HOPELESSNESS! What travail! 

    And HERE we find the thread connected to ASH WEDNESDAY and LENT — a dark and narrow inescapable path out of a dark garden toward a Cross overlooking Jerusalem’s refuse.


    Crushed – dāḵā‘ : דָּכָא

    Before we proceed and also show where Jeremiah uses this word both here and earlier in his prophesy, let's consider its DEFINITION: 

    Strong’s H1792 – dāḵā’ –

    dakā'- 
    ----------------
    * Lexicon numbers of Hebrew parts of speech in  Strong's H???? will help you apply these to English, Greek (G????) and other translations.

    verb – A primitive root (compare דָּכָה (H1794)) another verb (same pronunciation) [A primitive root (compare דַּךְ (H1790)-adjective, and דָּכָא (H1792))-another verb]


    To crush, be crushed, be contrite, be broken

    – be shattered, to be made contrite, (Hithpael) to allow oneself to be crushed

    • Have you found this most appropriate thread for the contrition of Lent?

    They are not humbled [H1792 – the same Hebrew word] even unto this day,

    neither have they feared,

    nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.

    From the Prophesy of Jeremiah 44:10 KJV (Hebrew visible in the link)

    Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah.

    Jeremiah 44:11 KJV

    Humble your-SELVES or be CRUSHED!

    Jeremiah, who served as both a priest and a prophet for decades even before 568 B.C. 

    The warning of the LORD is clear, yet still ignored. The Nation claimed for G_d already DIVIDED (captive Israel and soon to be captive Judah) — in spite of Jeremiah’s strong rebukes continues to reject the will of the LORD.

    Therefore, when Jeremiah wrote or dictated Lamentations during or soon after Jerusalem’s fall in 586 B.C. we observe that it is too late, for the LORD has crushed His own disobedient Nation.


    Lamentations 3:31-35 BSB


    To crush underfoot

    This phrase evokes imagery of oppression and domination, often used in the context of military conquest or tyrannical rule. In biblical times, crushing underfoot symbolized complete subjugation and defeat.

    .. as a metaphor for the spiritual and emotional oppression experienced by the people.

    In a broader biblical context, it reflects the consequences of sin and rebellion against God, as seen in other scriptures..

    Commentary ‘ Doth not the Lord look on this? 

    (34-36) To crush . . .—The triplet of verses forms one sentence dependent upon the final clause, “The Lord approveth not,” literally, doth not look on. ..The three forms of evil specified are (1) the cruel treatment of prisoners of war, such as Jeremiah had witnessed daily at the hands of the Chaldeans; (2) the perversion of justice in a public tribunal acting in the name of God (Exodus 23:6); (3) every form even of private injustice.

    Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers


    HOW has Christ been sent to the CROSS?


    garden in darkness

    Consider Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane :

    as prophesied by Isaiah


    But he was pierced because of our rebellion,

    crushed because of our iniquities;

    punishment for our peace was on him,

    and we are healed by his wounds.

    We all went astray like sheep;

    we all have turned to our own way;

    and the LORD has punished him

    for the iniquity of us all.

    Isaiah 53:5-6 CSB


    Talk of JESUS .com

    a crushed worker

    Are you a CRUSHED worker for the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour CHRIST JESUS, who was crushed for us?

    Talk of JESUS .com logo with earth Mark 16:15 Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel
    TalkofJESUS.com

  • COVID – the Affliction of Social Distancing – 2

    COVID – the Affliction of Social Distancing – 2

    Affliction

    Our hearts in this year of our Lord 2021 still struggle with the affliction of COVID and restless crowds of displaced people displaced from work. All the world suffers a great loss of normalcy as we cry out, “HOW?”

    COVID – the Affliction of Social Distancing – 1 + talk of Jesus .com
    How lonely sits the city that was full of people! Lamentations 1:1 and 2020 city with few people

    We will return to our 21st century lamentations of COVID, but now return to the 6th century B.C. question of the people of Judah:

    “How?”

    Previously, in case you missed part 1:

    Even though the Lord warned those with ears to hear in advance, their unexpected suffering is real.

    Eicha – Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah

    • 1:3 Judah has gone into exile under affliction H6040 And under harsh servitude..
    • 1:7 In the days of her affliction H6040 and homelessness Jerusalem remembers all her precious things That were from the days of old..
    • 1:9 She did not consider her future. Therefore she has fallen astonishingly; She has no comforter. “See, O LORD, my affliction, H6040..

    Strong’s H6040 עֳנִי

    • affliction, poverty, misery;
      • from H6031; depression, i.e. misery:—afflicted(-ion), trouble.

    That’s it! .. with this COVID affliction of A.D. 2020, 2021 and perhaps years of a generation to come, isn’t it?

    Jeremiah tells us [in Lamentations 3]:

    I am the man who has seen affliction H6040
    Because of the rod of His wrath.
    .

    Remember my affliction H6040 and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.

    Like Jeremiah, we ask: Does the Lord our God not hear our laments of this present affliction?

    Lamentations 4 & 5

    Hear this 6th c. B.C. prayer with contrition of crushed spirit and acceptance of just punishment for guilt.

    Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach..

    The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!

    Lamentations 5:1,16 KJV

    Where is our A.D. 2021 confession of sin against the Lord?

    Indeed, the nations are unclean before the Lord our God.

    θλῖψις – Strong’s G2347

    Not that we require more synonyms for our sufferings, but the NT Greek brings with it hope of the Good News of Jesus Christ our Savior.

    TRIBULATION or affliction

    • a pressing, pressing together, pressure
    • metaph. oppression, affliction, tribulation, distress, straits
      • From θλίβω (G2346); to press (as grapes), press hard upon
      • a compressed way; narrow straitened, contracted
      • metaph. to trouble, afflict, distress
      • Four years ago I addressed this root & persecution in Tribulation? Cheer up.

    Behold the hour is coming

    This prophesy of Jesus Christ may not sound any more encouraging than the affliction of COVID or our isolation in social distancing; but you with ears to hear, listen to this metaphor of the Lord Jesus for the time ahead.

    The Gospel of John

    “Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish G2347 because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. – John 16:21 NASB

    Does the Lord’s metaphor not apply to these early pangs of pain in these last days?

    Jesus continues in His metaphor of labor pain applying it personally to His own approaching Crucifixion for our sins in Jerusalem, which of course is followed by the Lord’s triumphal resurrection!

    The Disciples would once again know their Lord in His risen flesh!

    COVID may be one cause of our present affliction, but social distancing will not cure the condition of our dejected demeanors of heart and soul.

    “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. – John 16:22 NASB

    The Lord assures the Apostles that they will be ALONE.

    While Jesus is isolated in death they will think that HE is ALONE. But HE is not.

    Jesus will be with the Father.

    “Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.

    John 16:32 NASB

    SCATTERED.. AND ALONE! Sure sounds like our contemporary SOCIAL DISTANCING.

    “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, G2347 but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

    John 16:33 NASB Strong’s G2347thlipsis: tribulation, affliction, trouble

    COVID – an affliction of God’s Judgment?

    Jesus and the Apostles guide the Church to the narrow path along the valley of the shadow of death.

    Perhaps the time has come and is now here for Christians to witness Light into the darkness of these foreboding days of COVID’s crumbling impact on the unclean social environment of the world.

    Roger Harned – talk of Jesus .com challenge to the socially distanced church of A.D. 2021
    to be continued...
    NEXT: letter to a church persevering through suffering

  • COVID – the Affliction of Social Distancing

    COVID – the Affliction of Social Distancing

    Solomon’s Jerusalem – the end of an era

    Until the death of Solomon in 931 B.C., a glorious city of Jerusalem overlooked a great empire blessed by the LORD God, but then the politics of Israel divided the great land.

    In just a few generations Israel (Samaria) succumbed in 722 B.C. and Judah when Jerusalem was sieged and the Temple burned in ~586 B.C.

    Prophesy: Affliction Now!

    אֵיכָה יָשְׁבָה בָדָד הָעִיר רַבָּתִי עָם הָיְתָה כְּאַלְמָנָה רַּבָּתִי בַגּוֹיִם שָׂרָתִי בַּמְּדִינוֹת הָיְתָה לָמַֽס׃ ס

    Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah Eicha 1:1 WLC

    Our Loud Cries, “HOW?”

    Jerusalem falls [~586 B.C.]. Three years later the Jews and Jeremiah are forced to depart to Egypt. For forty years from (ca. 645–605 B.C.) Jeremiah had preached to Judah of the LORD’s judgment against it.

    The Septuagint [Greek O.T.] introduces the crying out loud of Lamentations:

    esile to babylon

    “And it came to pass, after Israel had been carried away captive…Jeremiah sat weeping [cf. 3:48, 49, etc.]…lamented…and said…”

    Introduction to Eicha (Lamentations) 1 :: Septuagint (LXX)

    How lonely sits the city
    That was full of people!
    She has become like a widow
    Who was once great among the nations!
    She who was a princess among the provinces
    Has become a forced laborer!

    Lamentations 1:1 NASB

    Lamentations for the lonely cities

    You may have felt that recently for a virtually empty NYC New Year’s Eve broadcast. Or perhaps the closed shops of your town caused anxiety that maybe you should where a mask in public.

    What we knew as home and comfort, security and blessing — all those things have changed until God knows when.

    The affliction of our hearts in this year of our Lord 2021 still struggles with COVID and countless crowds of displaced people have NO place to work. Some will be evicted from their meager subsistence in cold rooms rented from the rich princes of our darkness.

    All the world suffers a great loss of normalcy as we cry out, “HOW?”

    Will we find hope in our despair?

    For in A.D. 2021, we feel just as lonely and afflicted as those forced from Jerusalem in 586 B.C. and also in A.D. 70, Jews and Christians into a crumbling Roman Empire.

    Our journey into this unknown world of COVID doesn’t look so hopeful just now.

    excerpts from Lamentations

    She weeps bitterly in the night,
    And her tears are on her cheeks;
    She has no one to comfort her..
    3 Judah has gone into exile out of affliction..

    All her gates are deserted..

    Her little ones have gone away
    As captives led by the enemy.
    6 All of her splendor
    Is gone from the daughter of Zion;
    Her leaders have become like deer
    That have found no pasture,
    And they have fled without strength
    From the pursuer.

    Social Distancing

    Fleeing from the world’s uncleanness

    garden statue girl with flag and pumpkin "Give Thanks to the Lord"

    It was never just the Jews fleeing Jerusalem or multi-ethnic victims of a holocaust perpetrated by a 20th century thousand-year empire who suffered affliction.

    Solomon suggested that there is nothing new under the sun.

    Sieges of our empty cities of our empires in the time of Assyria or Rome, the U.S. or China, and even current afflictions of our political princes and their followers or victims do not surprise Almighty God.

    In every era some in all nations some will succumb to war and hunger. Souls suffering by circumstance must flee from the wrath that is to come.

    A pandemic of sin forces social distancing from the love of the LORD and each other. Throughout the self-idolatrous nations of their ‘mother earth,’ a covert COVID infested world will do what is right in their own eyes.

    Wail out from the depths of your soul

    The funeral dirge of your affliction

    For it is not only for the sins of Jerusalem

    But for the afflictions of the world

    Fleeing from the Lord God.

    Roger@ talkofJesus.com Jan. A.D. 2021

    to be continued...
    
    NEXT: in COVID - the Affliction of Social Distancing - part 2
    we will define affliction & look to Scripture for our cure.

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