John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 3. Even the sea monsters draw out the breast , etc.] Which some interpret of dragons; others of seals, or sea calves; but it is best to understand it of whales, as the word is rendered in ( Genesis 1:21); and elsewhere: and Bochart has proved, out of various writers, that these have breasts and milk; but that their breasts, or however their paps, are not manifest, but are hid as in cases, and must be drawn out: and so Jarchi observes that they draw their breasts out of a case, for their breasts have a covering, which they uncover: so Ben Melech. Aristotle says, that whales, as the dolphin, sea calf, and balaena, have breasts or paps, and milk, which he makes to be certain species of the whale; and each of these, he elsewhere says, have milk, and suckle their young: the dolphin and sturgeon, he observes have milk, and are sucked; and so the sea calf, he says f103 , lets out milk as a sheep, and has two breasts, and is sucked by its young, as four footed beasts are. Agreeably to which Aelianus relates, that the female dolphins have paps like women, and suckle their young, with great plenty of milk; and the balaena, he says f105 , is a creature like a dolphin, and has milk. And Pliny, speaking of the dolphins, observes f106 , that they bring forth their “whelps”, and so the young of this creature are called here in the next clause in the Hebrew text f107 , and nourish them with their breasts, as the balaena; and of the sea calves the same writer says f108 they feed their young with their paps; but the paps of these creatures are not manifest, as those of four footed beasts, as Aristotle observes; but are like two channels or pipes, out of which the milk flows, and the young are suckled; they give suck to their young ones ; as they do, when they are hungry; which is mentioned, as an aggravation of the case of the Jewish women, with respect to their behaviour towards their children, by reason of the famine, during the siege of Jerusalem; which here, and in the following verses, is described in the sad effects of it; and which had a further accomplishment at the destruction of the same city by the Romans: now, though the monsters suckled their young when hungry, yet these women did not suckle theirs; the daughter of my people [is become] cruel ; or, is “unto a cruel one” f109 : that is, is changed unto a cruel one, or is like unto one, and behaves as such, though of force and necessity: the meaning is, that the Jewish women, though before tenderhearted mothers, yet, by reason of the famine, having no milk in their breasts, could give none to their children, and so acted as if they were cruel to them; nay, in fact, instead of feeding them, they fed upon them, ( Lamentations 4:10); like the ostriches in the wilderness ; which lay their eggs, and leave them in places easily to be crushed and broken; and when they have any young ones, they are hardened against them, as if they were none of theirs, ( Job 39:13-17); and this seemed now to be the case of these women; or, “like the owls”, as the word is sometimes rendered; and which also leave their eggs, and for want of food will eat their young, as those women did.
So Ben Melech says, it is a bird which dwells in the wilderness, and causes a voice of hooping to be heard.
Matthew Henry Commentary
- Lamentation for the misery of Jerusalem.
Lam. 2:1-9 A sad representation is here made of the state of God' church, of Jacob and Israel; but the notice seems mostly to refer to the hand of the Lord in their calamities. Yet God is not an enemy to his people, when he is angry with them and corrects them. And gates an bars stand in no stead when God withdraws his protection. It is jus with God to cast down those by judgments, who debase themselves by sin and to deprive those of the benefit and comfort of sabbaths an ordinances, who have not duly valued nor observed them. What shoul they do with Bibles, who make no improvement of them? Those who misus God's prophets, justly lose them. It becomes necessary, though painful to turn the thoughts of the afflicted to the hand of God lifted u against them, and to their sins as the source of their miseries.
Lam. 2:10-22 Causes for lamentation are described. Multitudes perishe by famine. Even little children were slain by their mother's hands, an eaten, according to the threatening, Deut. 28:53. Multitudes fell by the sword. Their false prophets deceived them. And their neighbour laughed at them. It is a great sin to jest at others' miseries, an adds much affliction to the afflicted. Their enemies triumphed ove them. The enemies of the church are apt to take its shocks for it ruins; but they will find themselves deceived. Calls to lamentation ar given; and comforts for the cure of these lamentations are sought Prayer is a salve for every sore, even the sorest; a remedy for ever malady, even the most grievous. Our business in prayer is to refer ou case to the Lord, and leave it with him. His will be done. Let us fea God, and walk humbly before him, and take heed lest we fall _________________________________________________
Original Hebrew גם1571 תנין8568 חלצו2502 שׁד7699 היניקו3243 גוריהן1482 בת1323 עמי5971 לאכזר393 כי3283 ענים3283 במדבר׃4057
