SEV Biblia, Chapter 4:3
Guímel : Aun los dragones sacan la mama, dan de mamar a sus chiquitos. La hija de mi pueblo es cruel, como los avestruces en el desierto.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Lamentations 4:3
Verse 3. Even the sea monsters draw out the breast] The whales give suck to their young ones. The word ynt tannin, signifies all large and cruel creatures, whether aquatic or terrestrial; and need not here be restrained to the former sort. My Old MS. Bible translates curiously: Not and the cruel bestis that ben clepid Lamya, and thei nakeden ther tetis, geve ther whelpis souken. Like the ostriches in the wilderness.] For her carelessness about her eggs, and her inattention to her young, the ostrich is proverbial.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 3. Even the sea monsters draw out the breast , etc.] Which some interpret of dragons; others of seals, or sea calves; but it is best to understand it of whales, as the word is rendered in ( Genesis 1:21); and elsewhere: and Bochart has proved, out of various writers, that these have breasts and milk; but that their breasts, or however their paps, are not manifest, but are hid as in cases, and must be drawn out: and so Jarchi observes that they draw their breasts out of a case, for their breasts have a covering, which they uncover: so Ben Melech. Aristotle says, that whales, as the dolphin, sea calf, and balaena, have breasts or paps, and milk, which he makes to be certain species of the whale; and each of these, he elsewhere says, have milk, and suckle their young: the dolphin and sturgeon, he observes have milk, and are sucked; and so the sea calf, he says f103 , lets out milk as a sheep, and has two breasts, and is sucked by its young, as four footed beasts are. Agreeably to which Aelianus relates, that the female dolphins have paps like women, and suckle their young, with great plenty of milk; and the balaena, he says f105 , is a creature like a dolphin, and has milk. And Pliny, speaking of the dolphins, observes f106 , that they bring forth their “whelps”, and so the young of this creature are called here in the next clause in the Hebrew text f107 , and nourish them with their breasts, as the balaena; and of the sea calves the same writer says f108 they feed their young with their paps; but the paps of these creatures are not manifest, as those of four footed beasts, as Aristotle observes; but are like two channels or pipes, out of which the milk flows, and the young are suckled; they give suck to their young ones ; as they do, when they are hungry; which is mentioned, as an aggravation of the case of the Jewish women, with respect to their behaviour towards their children, by reason of the famine, during the siege of Jerusalem; which here, and in the following verses, is described in the sad effects of it; and which had a further accomplishment at the destruction of the same city by the Romans: now, though the monsters suckled their young when hungry, yet these women did not suckle theirs; the daughter of my people [is become] cruel ; or, is “unto a cruel one” f109 : that is, is changed unto a cruel one, or is like unto one, and behaves as such, though of force and necessity: the meaning is, that the Jewish women, though before tenderhearted mothers, yet, by reason of the famine, having no milk in their breasts, could give none to their children, and so acted as if they were cruel to them; nay, in fact, instead of feeding them, they fed upon them, ( Lamentations 4:10); like the ostriches in the wilderness ; which lay their eggs, and leave them in places easily to be crushed and broken; and when they have any young ones, they are hardened against them, as if they were none of theirs, ( Job 39:13-17); and this seemed now to be the case of these women; or, “like the owls”, as the word is sometimes rendered; and which also leave their eggs, and for want of food will eat their young, as those women did.
So Ben Melech says, it is a bird which dwells in the wilderness, and causes a voice of hooping to be heard.
Matthew Henry Commentary
The deplorable state of the nation is contrasted with its ancien prosperity.
Lam. 4:1-12 What a change is here! Sin tarnishes the beauty of the mos exalted powers and the most excellent gifts; but that gold, tried in the fire, which Christ bestows, never will be taken from us; it outward appearance may be dimmed, but its real value can never be changed. The horrors of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem ar again described. Beholding the sad consequences of sin in the church of old, let us seriously consider to what the same causes may justly brin down the church now. But, Lord, though we have gone from thee in rebellion, yet turn to us, and turn our hearts to thee, that we ma fear thy name. Come to us, bless us with awakening, converting renewing, confirming grace.
Lam. 4:13-20 Nothing ripens a people more for ruin, nor fills the measure faster, than the sins of priests and prophets. The king himsel cannot escape, for Divine vengeance pursues him. Our anointed Kin alone is the life of our souls; we may safely live under his shadow and rejoice in Him in the midst of our enemies, for He is the true God and eternal life.
Lam. 4:21,22 Here it is foretold that an end should be put to Zion' troubles. Not the fulness of punishment deserved, but of what God ha determined to inflict. An end shall be put to Edom's triumphs. All the troubles of the church and of the believer will soon be accomplished And the doom of their enemies approaches. The Lord will bring their sins to light, and they shall lie down in eternal sorrow. Edom her represents all the enemies of the church. And the corruption, and sin of Israel, which the prophet has proved to be universal, justifies the judgments of the Lord. It shows the need of that grace in Christ Jesus which the sin and corruption of all mankind make so necessary __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
גם 1571 תנין 8568 חלצו 2502 שׁד 7699 היניקו 3243 גוריהן 1482 בת 1323 עמי 5971 לאכזר 393 כי 3283 ענים 3283 במדבר׃ 4057
