Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing [of it]; I was dismayed at the seeing [of it].
Ver. 3. Therefore are my loins filled with pains.] I, Babylon, or I, Belshazzar, am in a woe case. This is here set forth by a notable hypotyposis, ac si res ipsa iam tum gereretur, persona regis in se per mimesin assumpta, a acting Belshazzar's part. (as Daniel 5:5,6, where we may read this prophecy punctually fulfilled)
I was bowed down at the hearing of it.] Belshazzar's senses were sorely afflicted: how much more shall it be so in hell? The prophet here elegantly imitateth his groans and outcries, O dolorem lumborum! O torsiones! O cordis amissionem! O tremorem et terrorem! b Oh the doleful woe and "alas" of the damned spirits!
a Zeged.
b Oecolamp.