SEV Biblia, Chapter 9:17
Así dijo el SEÑOR de los ejércitos: Considerad con atención, y llamad endecheras que vengan; y enviad por las sabias que vengan;
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 9:17
Verse 17. Call for the mourning women] Those whose office it was to make lamentations at funerals, and to bewail the dead, for which they received pay. This custom continues to the present in Asiatic countries. In Ireland this custom also prevails, which no doubt their ancestors brought from the east. I have often witnessed it, and have given a specimen of this elsewhere. See the note on Matt. ix. 23. The first lamentations for the dead consisted only in the sudden bursts of inexpressible grief, like that of David over his son Absalom, 2 Sam. xix. 4. But as men grew refined, it was not deemed sufficient for the surviving relatives to vent their sorrows in these natural, artless expressions of wo, but they endeavoured to join others as partners in their sorrows. This gave rise to the custom of hiring persons to weep at funerals, which the Phrygians and Greeks borrowed from the Hebrews. Women were generally employed on these occasions, because the tender passions being predominant in this sex, they succeeded better in their parts; and there were never wanting persons who would let out their services to hire on such occasions. Their lamentations were sung to the pipe as we learn from Matt. ix. 23. See the funeral ceremonies practiced at the burial of Hector, as described by Homer:- oi dÆ epei eisagagon kluta dwmata, ton men epeita trhtoiv en leceessi qesan, para dÆ eisan aoidouv, qrhnwn exarcouv, oi te stonoessan aoidhn oi men arÆ eqrhneon, epi de stenaconto gunaikev. Il. lib. 24., ver. 719.
"Arrived within the royal house, they stretched The breathless Hector on a sumptuous bed, And singers placed beside him, who should chant The strain funereal; they with many a groan The dirge began; and still at every close The female train with many a groan replied." COWPER.
St. Jerome tells us that even to his time this custom continued in Judea; that women at funerals, with dishevelled hair and naked breasts, endeavoured in a modulated voice to invite others to lament with them. The poem before us, from the seventeenth to the twenty-second verse, is both an illustration and confirmation of what has been delivered on this subject, and worthy of the reader's frequent perusal, on account of its affecting pathos, moral sentiments, and fine images, particularly in the twenty-first verse, where death is described in as animated a prosopopoeia as can be conceived. See Lototh's twenty-second Prelection, and Dodd. The nineteenth verse is supposed to be the funeral song of the women.
"How are we spoiled! We are greatly confounded! For we have forsaken the land; Because they have destroyed our dwellings."
Matthew Henry Commentary
The people are corrected, Jerusalem is destroyed. (Jer. 9:1-11) The captives suffer in a foreign land. (Jer. 9:12-22) God' loving-kindness, He threatens the enemies of his people. (Jer. 9:23-26)
Jer. 9:1-11 Jeremiah wept much, yet wished he could weep more, that he might rouse the people to a due sense of the hand of God. But even the desert, without communion with God, through Christ Jesus, and the influences of the Holy Spirit, must be a place for temptation and evil while, with these blessings, we may live in holiness in crowded cities The people accustomed their tongues to lies. So false were they, that brother could not be trusted. In trading and bargaining they said an thing for their own advantage, though they knew it to be false. But God marked their sin. Where no knowledge of God is, what good can be expected? He has many ways of turning a fruitful land into barrennes for the wickedness of those that dwell therein.
Jer. 9:12-22 In Zion the voice of joy and praise used to be heard while the people kept close to God; but sin has altered the sound, it is now the voice of lamentation. Unhumbled hearts lament their calamity, but not their sin, which is the cause of it. Let the doors be shut ever so fast, death steals upon us. It enters the palaces of princes and great men, though stately, strongly built, and guarded. No are those more safe that are abroad; death cuts off even the children from without, and the young men from the streets. Hearken to the wor of the Lord, and mourn with godly sorrow. This alone can bring tru comfort; and it can turn the heaviest afflictions into preciou mercies.
Jer. 9:23-26 In this world of sin and sorrow, ending soon in death an judgement, how foolish for men to glory in their knowledge, health strength, riches, or in any thing which leaves them under the dominio of sin and the wrath of God! and of which an account must hereafter be rendered; it will but increase their misery. Those are the true Israe who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have n confidence in the flesh. Let us prize the distinction which comes from God, and will last for ever. Let us seek it diligently __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
כה 3541 אמר 559 יהוה 3068 צבאות 6635 התבוננו 995 וקראו 7121 למקוננות 6969 ותבואינה 935 ואל 413 החכמות 2450 שׁלחו 7971 ותבואנה׃ 935
