Lamentacje Jeremiasza 1:19 Komentarz: Tze'enah Ure'enah & Rashi

“I have called out” [1:19]. Jerusalem says, I have called out to my lovers. That is to say, to those who portrayed themselves as lovers. These were the children of Ishmael, who went toward us as if they loved us. They brought jugs with spoiled drinks. Israel thought that it was good wine and drank because of great thirst. As soon as they put down the jugs the spoilage went into their intestines and they became swollen and died from it. The priests and the elders perished in the city because they desired bread to eat.¹⁰Lamentations Rabbah, 2.4

I cried out to those who appeared to love me. To those who pretend to be [my] lovers.⁶⁴I.e., the neighboring countries with the hope of forming an alliance.

But they deceived me. E.g., the children of Yishmael, who came out toward the exiles when the[ir] captors were leading them on the road nearby, and pretended that they were compassionate toward them. They brought for them various kinds of salty foods and inflated skin flasks. They thought that they [contained] wine, so they ate and became thirsty and wished to drink; but when they untied the flasks with their teeth, the air entered their intestines and they died. This is what Scripture says, “in the forest in Arabia shall you lodge, etc. Bring water for the thirsty, the inhabitants of the land of Tema greeted the wanderer with their bread.”⁶⁵Yeshayahuu 21:13-14.

To sustain their souls. In order that they should revive their souls.