Verse-by-Verse Bible CommentaryLamentations 3:48
My eyes run down with streams of water Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. Jump to: Clarke Commentary • Gill's Exposition • Commentary Critical and Explanatory • Calvin's Commentary • Trapp's Commentary • Coke's Commentary • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes • Ellicott's Commentary • Treasury of Knowledge • The People's Bible Other Authors
Adam Clarke CommentaryMine eye runneth down - I weep incessantly. Copyright Statement Bibliography John Gill's Exposition of the Whole BibleMine eye runneth down with rivers of waters,.... Denoting the greatness of his grief and trouble at the afflictions of his people, and the vast profusion of tears on that account. Here the prophet speaks in his own person, expressing the anguish of his soul he felt, and the floods of tears he shed: for the destruction of the daughter of my people; for those that were slain of them, or carried captive; see Jeremiah 9:1. The Targum is, "for the destruction of the congregation of my people.' Copyright Statement Bibliography Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible(Jeremiah 4:19). Copyright Statement Bibliography Calvin's Commentary on the BibleInterpreters give different explanations of the beginning of this verse: some render it thus, “My eye comes down unto rivers of waters;” others, “My eye flows down unto rivers of waters,” or, “rivers of waters flow down.” But as I have explained elsewhere, the Prophet rather means, that his eye came down like rivers; and to come down, or to descend, is a metaphor for flowing down; for water, as it is well known, descends when it flows. And there is a change of number when he says, “My eye descends;” there is also raider-stood the particle of comparison, כ, caph (198) The meaning is, that his eyes descended or flowed down as rivers. The last: word properly signifies divisions, but; he means that many streams flowed down, as though they were so many rivers. For the bruising, or the breach, of my people: the Prophet speaks here in his own person, though there is no doubt but that he exhorts all others to join him in his sorrow. For the faithful would not have prayed to God with sufficient ardor, had they not been dreadfully broken and confounded; had not the calamity deeply affected them, as it ought to have done, there would have been no serious attention to prayer. This is the reason why the Prophet here mentions his own weepings, and groanings, and tears, even that he might rouse himself to prayer, and lead others also. It follows, — Streams of water does mine eyes bring down — Ed Copyright Statement Bibliography John Trapp Complete CommentaryLamentations 3:48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. Ver. 48. Mine eye runneth down.] Heb., Mine eye descendeth; i.e., falleth, as it were, wholly away. See Lamentations 1:16; Lamentations 2:18. Copyright Statement Bibliography Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy BibleLamentations 3:48. Runneth down with— Bathes in. Schultens. Copyright Statement Bibliography E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible NotesMine eye runneth down. Compare Luke 19:41. App-85. eye = tears: "eye" being put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Adjunct), for the tears which flow from it. Copyright Statement Bibliography Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(48) Mine eye . . .—A stronger utterance of the thought of Lamentations 1:16; Lamentations 2:18; Psalms 119:136. Copyright Statement Bibliography Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeMine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Copyright Statement Bibliography The People's Bible by Joseph Parker"Handfuls of Purpose" For All Gleaners "Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people."— Lamentations 3:48. Thus the prophet does not live for himself, he lives the larger life of philanthropy and sympathy. There are men who separate themselves from the race and think of themselves only in their petty individualism; so long as they are personally comfortable they ignore the misery of society. No Christian man should reason in this way, for such reasoning has not in it one spark of the pity of Christ. We are to look upon ourselves as brethren, as put in trust with a common citizenship, and as bearing one another"s burdens as well as sharing one another"s joys. He is not a Christian man who is not moved towards joy by the laughter of childhood, and who is not depressed by the moan of human woe. When a man has bread, and another man is in want of bread, he is bound to give what he has, because the bread is not his only, it belongs to mankind. Christianity above all things seeks to dispel and utterly drive away all selfishness. We are to have all things in common in a larger than a merely mechanical sense. The strong man is to feel that his strength belongs to the weak; the rich man is to know that he is the trustee of the poor; the wise man is to know that he holds his wisdom as an open treasure on which those who are in need of wisdom can freely draw. Probably we cannot realise the whole ideal in all its detail: we must not however degrade the ideal to our capacity, but strenuously endeavour to enlarge our capacity so as to include the ideal. There are those who take a hopeful view of the world simply because they take care to walk in flowery places: they take a golden path through the world and only go abroad when the sun is shining and the birds are singing; then they exclaim, What a lovely world it is and how foolish are they who seek to darken a place made glorious by its Maker! If they would go out at other times and take other paths, how much would their view be changed, and how greatly would their tone be transformed! The prophet wept over a process which he describes as "destruction": now this word does not always imply what is meant by violence or wreckage or visible ruin: there is another destruction—a destruction of bloom, of fine feeling, of tender sensitiveness, of will power; a destruction of old ideals, and an overthrow of early conceptions of prayer and worship, of love and sacrifice. The more truly spiritual we are, the more penetrating will be our judgment of the processes of destruction. There was a time when we could only see trees that were uptorn, walls that were thrown down, towers that were dismantled: but now, being led by the Spirit, being daily taught by the Holy Ghost, we see that many a tree that is apparently rooted in the ground is perishing for lack of knowledge; many a wall that is apparently standing upright on its foundation is beginning to moulder at the top; and many a tower that seems to be as lofty as ever is giving way at the base and may any night be thrown down by some sharp blast of wind. It is not enough therefore from a Christian standpoint to take rough views of life, and to make hurried and general summaries of human experience: the Holy Spirit is in us as a spirit of penetration and discrimination, insisting upon fine and often exhaustive analyses: we are to be in our degree as is the word of the living God itself, sharp and powerful, keener than any two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of the joints and marrow. Christianity is not distinguished by its rough judgments, but by its fine analyses. Christianity does not deal with promiscuous conduct, with all its common and obvious issues; it deals with life, thought, purpose, with the very intents of the heart. Copyright Statement Bibliography |
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