21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay has taken hold on me.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
As the hardness of the people was so great, that the threatenings we have observed did not touch them, the Prophet now ascribes to himself what he had before attributed to them. We then see how the Prophet varies his mode of speaking; but it was necessary, for he was at a loss to find a way to address them sufficiently strong to penetrate into their stony and even iron hearts. We need not wonder, then, that there are so many figurative terms used by the Prophet; for it was needful to set before them God's judgment in various ways, that the people might be awakened out of their torpid state. He then says, that he was bruised for the bruising of his people. He was no doubt ridiculed by most of them: "Oh! thou grievest for thine own evils; it is well and prosperous with us: who has asked thee for this pity? Think not, then, that thou canst gain any favor with us, for we are contented with our lot. Weep rather for thine own calamities, if thou hast any at home; but suffer us at the same time to enjoy our pleasures, since God is propitious and indulgent to us." Thus then was the Prophet derided; but yet he warns the obstinate people, that they might be less excusable: he says, that he was rendered black; for sorrow brings blackness with it, and makes dark the face of man: it is a metaphorical expression. He says at last, that he was astonished [1] The astonishment with which he was seized he no doubt sets down as being the opposite of the people's torpor and insensibility, for they had no fear for themselves. It follows --
1 - To keep throughout the metaphorical character of this verse, it ought to be rendered thus, -- For the bruising of the daughter of my people I was bruised, I became black; Desolation possessed me. But taking the words as applied to the mind, divested of metaphor, we must render them thus, -- For the sorrow of the daughter of my people I sorrowed, I mourned; Astonishment possessed me. And this "astonishment" he explains in the next verse: there were means of restoration, and yet the people were not restored; at this he was astonished. -- Ed.
For the hurt hurt - literally, "Because of the breaking broken." These are the words of the prophet, whose heart is crushed by the cry of his countrymen.
I am black - Or, I go mourning.
For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I (q) hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.
(q) The prophet speaks this.
For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt,.... These are the words, not of God, as Jerom; nor of Jerusalem, as the Targum; but of the prophet, as Kimchi observes, expressing his sympathy with the people in their affliction: and they may be rendered, "for the breach of the daughter of my people" (o), which was made when the city was broken up and destroyed, Jeremiah 52:7.
I am broken; in heart and spirit:
I am black; with grief and sorrow. The Targum is,
"my face is covered with blackness, black as a pot.''
Astonishment hath taken hold on me; at the miseries that were come upon his people; and there was no remedy for them, which occasion the following words.
(o) "super contritione", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; "super confractione", Schmidt; "ob fractionem", Cocceius.
black--sad in visage with grief (Joel 2:6).
Am I hurt - The prophet here shews how deeply he is affected with the peoples misery. Black - I am as those that are clad in deep mourning.
*More commentary available at chapter level.