Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembers not her latter end; therefore she came down awesomely: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy has magnified himself.
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
End in her prosperity, to avert this misfortune. (Haydock)
Idolatry is a spiritual adultery, (Worthington) and one of the worst species of filth. (Haydock)
HER FILTHINESS: he bewails her in a threefold way: since she has sinned against the Lord, since she has not repented, since she after the stings of conscience did not want to return to the Lord, whence: AND SHE HAS NOT REMEBERED HER END &c.
BEHOLD, O LORD: the fourteenth topic of complaint, in which they are implored, who hear, in a humble and sincere address, to have mercy.
Historical interpretation. HER FILTHINESS &c: as if: Jerusalem has become unstable and, exhausted after a long journey, carries HER FILTHINESS ON HER FEET, because she laments more over interior man than over exterior. The feet of the synagogue are the teachers of the law, who ought to lead her along the way, who is Christ, but these feet have been soiled by the filth of crime. AND SHE HAS NOT REMEMBERED HER END, that is Christ, who is the end of the law, unto justice to every one that believes.
Therefore SHE IS VIOLENTLY CAST DOWN. Hence Jerusalem cries out with her own voice: BEHOLD, O LORD &c. For inde...
Teth- ‘good’, whence: BEHOLD, O LORD, MY AFFLICTION &c; for it is good for the sinner to know himself and exclaim with penitence and sighs: BEHOLD, O LORD
her feet- teachers, by whom she should have been carried, or desires.
her end- Christ or the future judgement or the captivity.
cast down- from the throne of the kingdom.
a comforter- the Holy Spirit.
behold O Lord- the captive’s own voice; that you may show pity.
my affliction- not my iniquity.
the enemy- being haughty against you.
Then: "she took no thought of her doom as to her death, or the divine judgment. As the Book of Sirach 7:36 admonishes: "In all you do, remember the end of your life, and then you will never sin."
Secondly, is considered the penalty for sinning. As stated: "therefore her fall is terrible". That is, from a dignified status into an extreme misery. As Psalm 59(58):ll declares: "make them totter by thy power, and bring them down, O Lord, our shield!"
Thirdly, divine mercy is displayed. As Verse 9 finally says: "O Lord, behold my affliction for the enemy has triumphed!" And, as Psalm ll9(ll8):l53 declares: "Look on my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget thy law".
