Lamentations 1:21

21 They heard how I was groaning, with no one to comfort me. All my enemies heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it. Bring on the day you have announced, and let them be as I am.

Lamentations 1:21 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 1:21

They have heard that I sigh: [there is] none to comfort me,
&c.] That is, the nations, as the Targum; the neighbouring ones, those that were her confederates and allies; the same with her lovers, as before, as Aben Ezra observes; these being near her, knew full well her sorrowful and distressed condition, being as it were within the hearing of her sighs and groans; and yet none of them offered to help her, or so much as to speak a comfortable word to her: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble;
not only her friends, but foes; meaning the Tyrians, Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites, and as the following description of them shows; for it must design others from the Chaldeans, that were the immediate cause of it: they are glad that thou hast done [it];
brought all this ruin and destruction on Jerusalem, which could never have been done, if the Lord had not willed it; and at this the above mentioned nations rejoiced; see ( Ezekiel 25:3 ) ( Obadiah 1:12 ) ; there being a considerable stop on the word glad, it may be rendered, as by some, "they are glad; but thou hast done it" F14; not they, but thou; and therefore must be patiently bore, and quietly submitted to, it being the Lord's doing: thou wilt bring the day [that] thou hast called;
the time of, he destruction of, he Chaldeans, who had the chief hand in the ruin of the Jewish nation, and of those that rejoiced at it; which time was fixed by the Lord, and proclaimed and published by his prophets, and would certainly and exactly come, as and when it was pointed out: some F15 take it to be a wish or prayer, that God would bring it, as he had declared; though others interpret it in a quite different sense, "thou hast brought the day" F16; meaning on herself, the determined destruction; so the Targum,

``thou hast brought upon me the day of vengeance; thou hast called a time upon me to my desolation:''
and they shall be like unto me;
in the same distressed, desolate, and sorrowful condition, being brought to ruin and destruction; which afterwards was the case of the Chaldeans, and all the other nations.
FOOTNOTES:

F14 (tyve hta yk) "laetati sunt; sed tu fecisti", Grotius.
F15 "Utinam induceres diem", so some in Vatablus.
F16 (Mwy tabx) "adduxisti diem", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; "induxisti [aut] inducis", Vatablus.

Lamentations 1:21 In-Context

19 I called to my lovers but they deceived me; my priests and elders perished in the city while seeking food to revive their strength.
20 See, O Lord, how distressed I am; my stomach churns, my heart is wrung within me, because I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword bereaves; in the house it is like death.
21 They heard how I was groaning, with no one to comfort me. All my enemies heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it. Bring on the day you have announced, and let them be as I am.
22 Let all their evil doing come before you; and deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my transgressions; for my groans are many and my heart is faint.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.