Lamentations
Lamentations
1. Jerermiah asked the Lord to consider their plight:
- See, O Lord, and consider, for I am become vile (卑賤). (1:11)
- Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou has done this. (2:20)
- Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us. Consider and behold our reproach. (5:1)
2. The Lord fulfilled his prophesy upon Israel for her sins.
- The Lord hath done that which he had devised. He hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old. (2:17)
- Our end is near; our days are fulfilled, for our end is come. (4:18)
- The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion. He will no more carry thee away into captivity. (4:22)
3. There is hope for salvation because the Lord has mercy (3:22,32) and compassion (3:22,32).
- [耶和華啊，求你] Remembering my affliction and my misery, the wormwood (茵蔯) and the gall (苦膽). My soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me (我心想念這些，就在裡面憂悶). This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassion fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore I will hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seek him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. (3:19-26)
- There may be hope …For the Lord will not cast off for ever. But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. (3:29-32)
- The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion. He will no more carry thee away into captivity. (4:22)
4. Pray and turn to the Lord
- Arise, cry out in the night. In the beginning of the watches (每逢交更的時候), pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children that faint for hunger in the top of every street. (2:19)
- Let us search and try our ways (深深考察自己的行為) and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. (3:40-41)
- Turn thou us unto thee (求你使我們向你回轉), O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. (5:21)
5. Bring revenge upon the enemies
- Thou will bring the day that thou has called, and they (my enemies) shall be like unto me (「他們(仇敵)就像我一樣」). Let all their wickedness come before thee, and do unto them as thou has done unto me for all my transgressions. (1:21-22)
- Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwell in the land of Uz (烏斯地). The cup also shall pass through unto thee. Thou shall be drunken and shall make thyself naked…He will visit (追討) thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins. (4:21-22) (The Book of Obadiah speaks of Edom’s sin against Judah and the Lord’s revenge upon her.)