Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness. Lover and friend - I have no comfort, and neither friend nor neiphbour to sympathize with me.
Mine acquaintance into darkness - All have forsaken me; or מידעי מחשך meyuddai machsach, "Darkness is my companion." Perhaps he may refer to the death of his acquaintances; all were gone; there was none left to console him! That man has a dismal lot who has outlived all his old friends and acquaintances; well may such complain. In the removal of their friends they see little else than the triumphs of death. Khosroo, an eminent Persian poet, handles this painful subject with great delicacy and beauty in the following lines: -
Ruftem sauee khuteereh bekerestem bezar
Az Hijereh Doostan ke aseer fana shudend:
Guftem Eeshah Kuja shudend? ve Khatyr
Dad az sada jouab Eeshan Kuja!
"Weeping, I passed the place where lay my friends
Captured by death; in accents wild Icried,
Where are they? And stern Fate, by Echoes voice,
Returned in solemn sound the sad Where are they?"
J. B. C.
Commentary on the Bible, by Adam Clarke [1831].