Matthew Henry on Lamentations 5:1-16
Is any afflicted? let him pray; and let him in prayer pour out his complaint to God, and make known before him his trouble. The people of God do so here; being overwhelmed with grief, they give vent to their sorrows at the footstool of the throne of grace, and so give themselves ease. They complain not of evils feared, but of evils felt: "Remember what has come upon us, Lam 5:1. What was of old threatened against us, and was long in the coming, has now at length come upon us, and we are ready to sink under it. Remember what is past, consider and behold what is present, and let not all the trouble we are in seem little to thee, and not worth taking notice of," Neh 9:32. Note, As it is a great…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Lamentations 5:8
Servants . . . ruled . . . us--Servants under the Chaldean governors ruled the Jews (Neh 5:15). Israel, once a "kingdom of priests" (Exo 19:6), is become like Canaan, "a servant of servants," according to the curse (Gen 9:25). The Chaldeans were designed to be "servants" of Shem, being descended from Ham (Gen 9:26). Now through the Jews' sin, their positions are reversed.
Adam Clarke on Lamentations 5:8
Servants have ruled over us - To be subject to such is the most painful and dishonorable bondage: -
Quio domini faciant,
audent cum talia fures?
Virg. Ecl. 3:16.
"Since slaves so insolent are grown,
What may not masters do?"
Perhaps he here alludes to the Chaldean soldiers, whose will the wretched Jews were obliged to obey.
John Gill on Lamentations 5:8
Servants have ruled over us,.... The Targum is,
"the sons of Ham, who were given to be servants to the sons of Shem, they have ruled over us;''
referring to the prophecy of Noah, Genesis 9:26; or such as had been tributary to the Jews, as the Edomites; so Aben Ezra; the Babylon, an, are meant; and not the nobles and principal inhabitants only, but even their servants, had power and authority over the Jews and they were at their beck and command; which made their servitude the more disagreeable and intolerable:
there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand; out of the hand of these servants.
