Daphni, tuum Poenos etiam ingemuisse leones
Interitum, montesque feri, sylvaeque loquuntur. "The swains forgot their sheep, nor near the brink
Of running waters brought their herds to drink:
The thirsty cattle of themselves abstained
From water, and their grassy fare disdained.
The death of Daphnis woods and hills deplore;
The Libyan lions hear, and hearing roar."
Dryden.
Verse 5
Her adversaries are the chief - They have now supreme dominion over the whole land.
Verse 7
Did mock at her Sabbaths - משבתה mishbatteha. Some contend that Sabbaths are not intended here. The Septuagint has κατοικεσια αυτης, "her habitation;" the Chaldee, על טובהא al tubaha, "her good things;" the Syriac, al toboroh, "her breach." The Vulgate and Arabic agree with the Hebrew. Some of my oldest MSS. have the word in the plural number, משבתיה mishbatteyha, "her Sabbaths." A multitude of Kennicott's MSS. have the same reading. The Jews were despised by the heathen for keeping the Sabbath. Juvenal mocks them on that account: - - cui septima quaeque fuit lux
Ignava et partem vitae non attigit ullam.
Sat. v. "To whom every seventh day was a blank, and formed not any part of their life."
St. Augustine represents Seneca as doing the same: -
Inutiliter id eos facere affirmans, quod septimani ferme partem aetatis suae perdent vacando, et multa in tempore urgentia non agendo laedantur. "That they lost the seventh part of their life in keeping their Sabbaths; and injured themselves by abstaining from the performance of many necessary things in such times."
He did not consider that the Roman calendar and customs gave them many more idle days than God had prescribed in Sabbaths to the Jews. The Sabbath is a most wise and beneficent ordinance.
Verse 9
She remembereth not her last end - Although evident marks of her pollution appeared about her, and the land was defiled by her sinfulness even to its utmost borders, she had no thought or consideration of what must be the consequence of all this at the last. - Blayney.
Verse 11
They have given their pleasant things - Jerusalem is compared to a woman brought into great straits, who parts with her jewels and trinkets in order to purchase by them the necessaries of life.
Verse 12
Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? - The desolations and distress brought upon this city and its inhabitants had scarcely any parallel. Excessive abuse of God's accumulated mercies calls for singular and exemplary punishment.
Verse 14
The yoke of my transgressions - I am now tied and bound by the chain of my sins; and it is so wreathed, so doubled and twisted round me, that I cannot free myself. A fine representation of the miseries of a penitent soul, which feels that nothing but the pitifulness of God's mercy can loose it.
Verse 15
Called an assembly - The Chaldean army, composed of various nations, which God commissioned to destroy Jerusalem.
Verse 17
Zion spreadeth forth her hands - Extending the hands is the form in supplication.
Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman - To whom none dared to approach, either to help or comfort, because of the law, [Lev 15:19-27].
Verse 19
I called for my lovers - My allies; the Egyptians and others.
Verse 20
Abroad the sword bereaveth - War is through the country; and at home death; the pestilence and famine rage in the city; calamity in every shape is fallen upon me.
Virgil represents the calamities of Troy under the same image: - - Nec soli poenas dant sanguine Teucri:
Quondam etiam victis redit in praecordia virtus;
Victoresque cadunt Danai. Crudelis ubique
Luctus, ubique Pavor, et plurima mortis imago.
Aeneid. lib. 2:366. "Not only Trojans fall; but, in their turn,
The vanquished triumph, and the victors mourn.
Ours take new courage from despair and night;
Confused the fortune is, confused the fight.
All parts resound with tumults, plaints, and fears;
And grisly death in sundry shapes appears."
Dryden.