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Lamentations 2

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God’s Fierce Wrath Destroys Zion 1–9

1
How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger! ​
2
The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof. ​
3
He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about. ​
4
He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire. ​
5
The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
6
And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. ​
7
The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast. ​
8
The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together. ​
9
Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD. ​

The Suffering of the People 10–12

10
The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. ​
11
Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. ​
12
They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.

Unprecedented Ruin and Scorn 13–17

13
What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee? ​
14
Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment. ​
15
All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth? ​
16
All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.
17
The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries. ​

A Call to Continuous Lament and Prayer 18–22

18
Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease. ​
19
Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street. ​
20
Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? ​
21
The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.
22
Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Lamentations 2

Verse 1

his footstool — The footstool is the ark and the house built for it: David had 'in mine heart to build an house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and for the footstool of our God' (1 Chr 28:2). 'Covered… with a cloud' is one Hebrew verb, found only here. 'The Lord' is Adonai, the title also in vv.2, 5, 7, 18, 19 and 20.

Verse 2

hath not pitied — Chamal, to spare; 'not pitied' returns in vv.17 and 21. 'Swallowed up' is bala', used again in vv.5, 8 and 16. 'Polluted' is chalal, to profane, the verb of Ps 89:39, 'thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground'. The Lord is the subject of every verb in the verse.

Verse 3

the horn of Israel — The horn is strength: 'The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken' (Jer 48:25); 'All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off' (Ps 75:10). Here the LORD cuts off Israel's own. He draws back 'his right hand from before the enemy', the hand that Ps 74:11 asks him not to withdraw. In v.17 he sets up 'the horn of thine adversaries'.

Verse 4

he hath bent his bow like an enemy — The Lord acts as an adversary (tsar): bow bent, right hand set, fury 'poured out' (shaphak) 'like fire'. The same verb returns for the poet's liver (v.11) and the city's heart (v.19). Jeremiah had spoken it: 'mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place… and it shall burn' (Jer 7:20).

Verse 6

the solemn feasts and sabbaths — Moed, an appointed time, is the word behind both 'places of the assembly' and 'solemn feasts' here, and in 'the feasts of the LORD' (Lev 23:2). The tabernacle is taken away 'as if it were of a garden': sok, a booth of interlaced boughs, like 'a lodge in a garden of cucumbers' (Isa 1:8). King and priest are both despised.

Verse 7

he hath abhorred his sanctuary — Na'ar, to spurn, found only here and in Ps 89:39 ('made void the covenant'). 'Cast off' is zanach, the verb of Lam 3:31, 'the Lord will not cast off for ever'. The enemy's noise 'in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast' recalls Ps 74:4: 'Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations' (moed).

Verse 8

he hath stretched out a line — The measuring line served destruction as it served building: 'I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria' (2 Kgs 21:13). For rebuilding the same image returns: 'a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem' (Zech 1:16). The LORD 'hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying' (bala', swallowing up); the rampart and wall 'lament'.

Verse 9

the law is no more — The king and princes are 'among the Gentiles' (goyim), the torah is not found, and the prophets 'find no vision from the LORD'. The condition had been foretold: 'Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law' (2 Chr 15:3), 'many days without a king, and without a prince' (Hos 3:4). Cf. Ps 74:9.

Verse 10

sit upon the ground, and keep silence — The postures of mourning: the ground, silence, dust on the head, sackcloth. Job's friends 'sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him' (Job 2:13) and sprinkled 'dust upon their heads toward heaven' (2:12). The elders and the 'virgins' (bethulah) are the old and young of the city.

Verse 11

my liver is poured upon the earth — Kaved, the liver, the heaviest of the organs; 'bowels' (me'eh) are the inward parts. The verb is shaphak, as in v.4 for the Lord's fury. Job says of the LORD's attack, 'he poureth out my gall upon the ground' (Job 16:13). The cause is named: children and 'sucklings' that 'swoon in the streets of the city'.

Verse 13

who can heal thee? — Three questions of comparison (to take to witness, to liken, to equal), and a breach 'great like the sea'. Jeremiah asks of the same wound, 'Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?' (Jer 8:22), and the LORD promises Zion, 'I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds' (Jer 30:17). Compare 1:12.

Verse 14

they have not discovered thine iniquity — Galah, to uncover. The prophets saw 'vain' (shav, emptiness) and 'foolish things' and never uncovered the sin that would have turned the captivity. Jeremiah: 'The prophets prophesy falsely' (Jer 5:31); Ezekiel: 'seeing vanity, and divining lies' (Ezek 22:28). A prophet's charge was 'shew my people their transgression' (Isa 58:1).

Verse 15

All that pass by clap their hands — The gestures of scorn at a ruined city: 'a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head' (Jer 18:16). The taunt quotes Zion's titles, 'the perfection of beauty' (Ps 50:2) and 'the joy of the whole earth' (Ps 48:2). At the cross, 'they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads' (Matt 27:39).

Verse 17

The LORD hath done that which he had devised — Zamam, to plan. He 'hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old': 'all these curses shall come upon thee' (Deut 28:15), and 'I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation' (Lev 26:31). The fathers who 'returned' in Zech 1:6 confess, 'so hath he dealt with us'.

Verse 18

the apple of thine eye — The wall of Zion is addressed as if it were the city, as in v.8, where the wall and rampart 'lament'. 'Apple' is bath, literally 'daughter' of the eye, the pupil; Ps 17:8 has the same phrase. The tears run 'like a river day and night', as Jeremiah wished: 'that I might weep day and night' (Jer 9:1). The cry goes to the Lord, Adonai.

Verse 19

pour out thine heart like water — Shaphak again (vv.4, 11), now as prayer: 'pour out your heart before him' (Ps 62:8); Hannah 'poured out my soul before the LORD' (1 Sam 1:15). The cry is raised in the night, 'in the beginning of the watches', with hands lifted 'for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street'.

Verse 20

children of a span long — Tippuchim, handbreadths, occurs only here. The horror is the one foretold in the covenant curses: 'ye shall eat the flesh of your sons' (Lev 26:29) and 'the fruit of thine own body… in the siege' (Deut 28:53); Lam 4:10 returns to it. 'Behold, O LORD, and consider' lays the LORD's own acts before him in prayer.

Verse 22

my terrors round about — Magor, terror, the 'fear… on every side' of Jer 6:25 and Ps 31:13. The LORD 'called' them 'as in a solemn day' (moed, the word for the feasts in v.6): the terrors are summoned as to a festival. 'Remained' is sarid, the survivor, the 'remnant' of Isa 1:9; none was left of 'those that I have swaddled and brought up'.