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What shall I testify to you? what shall I liken to you, daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare to you, that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? For your breach is great like the sea: who can heal you?
Verse Takeaways
1
A Sorrow Like the Sea
The prophet asks a series of rhetorical questions to express a heartbreaking truth: Jerusalem's suffering was unique and without historical parallel. Commentators explain that the inability to find a comparison was meant to show the sheer scale of the disaster. The city's 'breach' or ruin is described as being 'great like the sea,' signifying a vast, overwhelming, and seemingly measureless calamity.
See 3 Verse Takeaways
Book Overview
Lamentations
Author
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Composition
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6
18th Century
Presbyterian
Equal - that is, “compare.” Zion’s breach, that is, her destruction, is measureless, like the ocean.
19th Century
Anglican
What thing shall I take to witness ... —Practically, the question is the same as what follows, and implies that there was…
16th Century
Protestant
When we wish to alleviate grief, we are accustomed to bring examples that have some likeness to the case before us. For when anyone seeks to comfor…
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17th Century
Reformed Baptist
What thing shall I take to witness for you ? &c.] What argument can be made use of? what proof or evidence can be given? …
Causes for lamentation are described. Multitudes perished by famine. Even little children were slain by their mother's hands and eaten, according t…
13th Century
Catholic
The author now presents what followed the destruction, specifically, the things that usually happen after the work is complete.
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