Lamentations 1:12

“[Is it] nothing to you, all ye that pass by? etc.] O ye strangers and travellers that pass by, and see my distress, does it not at all concern you? does it not in the least affect you? can you look upon it, and have no commiseration? or is there nothing to be learned from hence by you, that may be instructive and useful to you? Some consider the words as deprecating; may the like things never befall you that have befallen me, O ye passengers; be ye who ye will; I can never wish the greatest stranger, much less a friend, to suffer what I do; nay, I pray God they never may: others, as adjuring. So the Targum, “I adjure you, all ye that pass by the way, turn aside hither:” or as calling; so the…”

“The pathetic appeal of Jerusalem, not only to her neighbors, but even to the strangers "passing by," as her sorrow is such as should excite the compassion even of those unconnected with her. She here prefigures Christ, whom the language is prophetically made to suit, more than Jerusalem. Compare Israel, that is, Messiah, Isa 49:3. Compare with "pass by," Mat 27:39; Mar 15:29. As to Jerusalem, Dan 9:12. M AURER, from the Arabic idiom, translates, "do not go off on your way," that is, stop, whoever ye are that pass by. English Version is simpler.”

“The lamentation of the city, personified as a woman in grief over her fate. Lamentations 1:13 It prevaileth - Or, hath subdued. He hath turned me back - Judaea, like a hunted animal, endeavors to escape, but finds every outlet blocked by nets, and recoils from them with terror and a sense of utter hopelessness. Lamentations 1:14 Bound by his hand - As the plowman binds the yoke upon the neck of oxen, so God compels Judah to bear the punishment of her sins. They are wreathed, and ... - Or, they are knotted together, “they come up” etc. Judah’s sins are like the cords by which the pieces of the yoke are fastened together Jeremiah 27:2; they are knotted and twined like a bunch upon the neck,…”

“Is it nothing - The prophet speaks in the name of the Jewish church. Lamentations 1:13”

“Is it nothing: or, It is nothing pass by: Heb. pass by the way if: The church in distress here magnifies her affliction; and yet no more than there was cause for her groaning was not heavier than her strokes. She appeals to all spectators - see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow. This might truly be said of the griefs which were suffered in Jerusalem of old; but Christians are apt to apply these words too sensibly and sensitively to themselves, when they are in trouble, and sometimes more than there is reasonable cause to warrant. All men feel most from their own burden, and cannot be persuaded to reconcile themselves to it; how often do thy cry out in the words we are illustrating!…”

“The lamentation of the city. - Lam 1:12. The first words, לוא אליכם, are difficult to explain. The lxx have οἱ πρὸς ὑμᾶς; but the reading ought certainly to be οἴ π. ὑ.. The Vulgate is, o vos omnes; the Chaldee, adjuro vos omnes. They all seem to have taken לוא as an exclamation. Hence Le Clerc and others would read לוּא; but in this case one would require to supply a verb: thus, Le Clerc renders utinam adspiciatis, or, "O that my cry might reach you!" But these insertions are very suspicious. The same holds true of the explanation offered by J. D. Michaelis in his edition of Lowth on Hebrew Poetry, Lect. xxii.: non vobis, transeuntes in via, haec acclamo (viz., the closing words of…”