“To our necks we have been pursued; we are exhausted, and we have no respite” (Lamentations 5:5).“To our necks we have been pursued.” Hadrian, may his bones be crushed, commanded and said: ‘If we come and we find hair on a Jew, we will remove his head from him.’5Hadrian decreed that the Jews must have their heads shaved as a sign of degradation. Defying this decree was punishable by death. That is what is written: “To our necks we have been pursued.”Another matter, “to our necks we have been pursued,” it is because we betrayed with our necks on a day of trouble. “We are exhausted, and we have no respite.” Nebuchadnezzar, may his bones be crushed, commanded Nevuzaradan and said to him: ‘The God of these accepts penitents, and His hand is outstretched to accept penitents. When you conquer them, do not allow them to pray, so they will not repent and their God will then have mercy on them, and this man6Nebuchadnezzar is referring to himself. will have his downfall with black face.7In shame. Do not underestimate them.’ When he conquered them, when one of them would stand, he would take him, dismember him, and cast him before them. They would be forced to walk against their will.8They were not permitted to stop walking. This is implied in the verse “we have no respite” (Etz Yosef). Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Nevuzaradan is Aryokh. Why is his name called Aryokh? It is because he would roar at the captives like a lion [arye] until they reached the Euphrates. When they reached the Euphrates, he said to his legions: ‘Allow them to rest, as from here on, their God will no longer return to them.’ That is what is written: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and also wept” (Psalms 137:1). Until there, we did not sit.