They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! - These words were no doubt the burden of some funeral dirge. Alas! a brother, who was our lord or governor, is gone. Alas, our sister! his Queen, who has lost her glory in losing her husband. הדה hodah is feminine, and must refer to the glory of the queen.
The mournings in the east, and lamentations for the dead, are loud, vehement, and distressing. For a child or a parent grief is expressed in a variety of impassioned sentences, each ending with a burden like that in the text, "Ah my child!" "Ah my mother!" as the prophet in this place: אחי הוי hoi achi, "Ah my brother!" אחות הוי hoi achoth, "Ah sister!" אדון הוי hoi adon, "Ah lord!" הדה הוי hoi hodah "Ah the glory." Mr. Ward, in his Manners and Customs of the Hindoos, gives two examples of lamentation; one of a mother for the death of her son, one of a daughter for her departed mother. "When a woman," says he, "is overwhelmed with grief for the death of her child, she utters her grief in some such language as the following: -
Ah, my Hureedas, where is he gone? - 'Ah my child, my child!'
My golden image, Hureedas, who has taken? - 'Ah my child, my child!'
I nourished and reared him, where is he gone? - 'Ah my child, my child!'
Take me with thee. - 'Ah my child, my child!'
He played round me like a golden top. - 'Ah my child, my child!'
Like his face I never saw one. - 'Ah my child, my child!'
The infant continually cried, Ma Ma! - 'Ah my child, my child!'
Ah my child, crying, Ma! come into my lap. - 'Ah my child, my child!'
Who shall now drink milk? - 'Ah my child, my child!'
Who shall now stay in my lap? - 'Ah my child, my child!'
Our support is gone! - 'Ah my child, my child!'
"The lamentations for a mother are in some such strains as these: -
Mother! where is she gone? - 'Ah my mother, my mother!'
You are gone, but what have you left for me? - 'Ah my mother, my mother!'
Whom shall I now call mother, mother? - 'Ah my mother, my mother!'
Where shall I find such a mother? - 'Ah my mother, my mother!'"
From the above we may conclude that the funeral lamentations, to which the prophet refers, generally ended in this way, in each of the verses or interrogatories.
There is another intimation of this ancient and universal custom in 1 Kings 13:30, where the old prophet, who had deceived the man of God, and who was afterwards slain by a lion, is represented as mourning over him, and saying, אחי הוי hoi achi, "Alas, my brother!" this being the burden of the lamentation which he had used on this occasion. Similar instances may be seen in other places, Jeremiah 30:7; Ezekiel 6:11; Joel 1:15; and particularly Amos 5:16, Amos 5:17, and Revelation 18:10-19.
Boldly by name is the judgment at length pronounced upon Jehoiakim. Dreaded by all around him, he shall soon lie an unheeded corpse, with no one to lament. No loving relative shall make such wailing as when a brother or sister is carried to the grave; nor shall he have the respect of his subjects, Ah Lord! or, Ah his glory!
The prophet made plain the fact that our heavenly Father allows His judgments to fall, “that the nations may know themselves to be but men.” Psalm 9:20. “If ye walk contrary unto Me, and will not hearken unto Me,” the Lord had forewarned His people, “I, even I, ... will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.” Leviticus 26:21, 28, 33. PK 429.1
At the very time messages of impending doom were urged upon princes and people, their ruler, Jehoiakim, who should have been a wise spiritual leader, foremost in confession of sin and in reformation and good works, was spending his time in selfish pleasure. “I will build me a wide house and large chambers,” he proposed; and this house, “ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion” (Jeremiah 22:14), was built with money and labor secured through fraud and oppression. PK 429.2
The wrath of the prophet was aroused, and he was inspired to pronounce judgment upon the faithless ruler. “Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong,” he declared; “that useth his neighbor's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work.... Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? Did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know Me? saith the Lord. But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it. PK 429.3
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