Lamentations 5:8

“Servants have ruled over us, etc.] The Targum is, “the sons of Ham, who were given to be servants to the sons of Shem, they have ruled over us;” referring to the prophecy of Noah, (<010926>Genesis 9:26,27); or such as had been tributary to the Jews, as the Edomites; so Aben Ezra; the Babylon, an, are meant; and not the nobles and principal inhabitants only, but even their servants, had power and authority over the Jews and they were at their beck and command; which made their servitude the more disagreeable and intolerable: [there is] none that doth deliver [us] out of their hand; out of the hand of these servants.”

“Servants . . . ruled . . . us--Servants under the Chaldean governors ruled the Jews (Neh 5:15). Israel, once a "kingdom of priests" (Exo 19:6), is become like Canaan, "a servant of servants," according to the curse (Gen 9:25). The Chaldeans were designed to be "servants" of Shem, being descended from Ham (Gen 9:26). Now through the Jews' sin, their positions are reversed.”

“Servants - i. e. Slaves. A terrible degradation to a high-spirited Jew. return to 'Top of Page'”

“Servants: Gen 9:25; Deu 28:43; Neh 2:19, Neh 5:15; Pro 30:22 there: Job 5:4, Job 10:7; Psa 7:2, Psa 50:22; Isa 43:13; Hos 2:10; Zac 11:6 Lamentations 5:9”

“Further description of the miserable condition under which the congregation languishes. Lam 5:8. "Servants rule over us," etc. עבדים are not the Chaldean soldiers, who are in Kg2 24:10 designated the servants of Nebuchadnezzar (Pareau, Rosenmller, Maurer); still less the Chaldeans, in so far as they, till shortly before, had been the subjects of the Assyrians (Kalkschmidt); nor the Chaldean satraps, as servants of the king of Babylon (Thenius, Ewald); nor even "slaves who had been employed as overseers and taskmasters of the captives while on the march" (Ngelsbach); but the Chaldeans. These are called servants, partly because of the despotic rule under which they were placed, partly in the…”