Lamentations 2

The poet looks at the ruins of Jerusalem and sees God’s own hand in them. The Lord has acted like an enemy against His people, and every part of the city’s life has been broken: temple, walls, king, priests, prophets, and children. The chapter ends with a bold call to pour out tears in prayer and a plea that God would look at what has happened.

Lamentations 2:1

The poet opens with a cry of shock at how far Zion has fallen. God’s anger has darkened the city like a storm cloud. Israel’s glory is thrown down, and God has even left His footstool, the place where He met His people.

BSA: covered (“to becloud, with a dark cloud”): God’s anger hangs over the city like a thick, dark cloud, the opposite of the cloud of His glad presence. footstool (“a low stool”): The word points to the ark and temple, where God’s presence rested among His people.

Hebrew: אֵיכָה (ʾêkâ, H349) — “How! Alas!.” This is the cry of a mourner at a funeral, and it is the Hebrew name of the whole book. The poet is stunned that such a thing could happen.

See also: Psalm 132:7; 1 Chronicles 28:2.

Lamentations 2:2

The poet says it was God who did this, and without pity. Homes, fortress cities, kingdom and rulers were all brought down to the dust. What had been set apart for God was treated as common.

BSA: swallowed up (“completely destroyed, consumed”): The ruin is total, as though the land were gulped down whole. defiled (“profaned, polluted”): Israel’s kingdom was meant to be holy, and now it is treated as worthless.

Lamentations 2:3

A horn was the symbol of an animal’s strength, so cutting off every horn means Israel’s power is broken. God drew back His right hand, which should have defended His people. His anger blazed through the land like a fire that spreads on every side.

BSA: withdrawn (“turned back, drawn back”): God held back the strong hand that had once protected Israel, leaving her defenseless.

Hebrew: קֶרֶן (qeren, H7161) — “horn.” In Scripture a horn pictures strength and dignity, like the horns of a bull. To cut it off is to take away a nation’s power to stand.

Lamentations 2:4

The poet shows the Lord as a warrior with the bow already drawn, but aimed at His own people. Those most loved and admired fell. His wrath poured over Zion’s tent like fire. It is a shocking picture, because Israel’s God had always fought for her.

BSA: enemy (“a foe, an adversary”): God acts toward His rebellious people as an opponent would, and this is the heart of the poet’s grief. pleasing (“desirable, lovely”): The victims were the young and the beautiful, the ones the people treasured most.

Lamentations 2:5

The thought is repeated and sharpened: the Lord is like an enemy. Palaces and strongholds were devoured, and in their place God multiplied mourning. The poet does not hide how bitter it feels.

BSA: mourning (“sorrow, grief”): Grief did not simply appear. It piled up on Judah until it filled every home.

Lamentations 2:6

God treated His own dwelling like a flimsy garden shelter that is taken down after harvest. The feasts and Sabbaths that marked Israel’s life with Him were forgotten. In His anger He set aside both king and priest, the two highest offices.

BSA: forget (“be oblivious to, mislay”): Worship became so impossible that the sacred days simply slipped out of the people’s life. despised (“spurned, shown contempt”): Even the leaders’ offices could not protect them once God turned away.

Hebrew: מוֹעֵד (môʿēd, H4150) — “appointed meeting, set time.” The word means both the place and the appointed times where God had promised to meet His people. Here those meetings have been brought to an end.

Lamentations 2:7

God rejected His own altar and sanctuary and let enemies take the palace walls. The enemy’s shout inside the temple sounded like the happy noise of a festival day. The pilgrim songs are gone, and a conqueror’s roar fills the place instead.

BSA: rejected (“cast off, abandoned”): God Himself threw aside the place of sacrifice, which shows how deep the break had become.

See also: Psalm 74:4.

Lamentations 2:8

Nothing about the fall of the walls was an accident. God planned it and carried it out like a builder with a measuring line, marking what He would tear down. Even the stones seem to mourn together.

BSA: determined (“devised, to think or plan something”): The destruction came from God’s deliberate purpose and not from chance.

Hebrew: קָו (qāw, H6957) — “measuring line, cord.” A line like this is normally used to build. Here God uses it to measure exactly what will be pulled down, as in other warnings of judgment.

See also: 2 Kings 21:13.

Lamentations 2:9

The city’s defenses are gone, the gates buried and their bars broken. King and princes are in exile. Worse still, the law is not being taught and the prophets receive no word from God. The people have lost both protection and guidance.

BSA: law (“instruction, Torah”): The word means God’s teaching for His people, and without it they had no direction.

See also: Amos 8:11-12.

Lamentations 2:10

The old men who once sat in the gate to judge now sit silent on the ground. They throw dust on their heads and wear sackcloth, the customs of deep mourning. Even the young women, usually full of life, bow their heads to the earth.

BSA: sackcloth (“a coarse cloth or sack used for mourning”): Rough, scratchy cloth was worn on purpose, so that the body matched the grief of the heart.

Lamentations 2:11

Now the poet speaks personally. His eyes are worn out with crying and his insides are in turmoil. The worst sight is the babies and small children fainting in the city squares. His grief is for real children, and the ruined city is only the setting.

BSA: poured out (“like a libation, completely emptied”): His grief has drained him as completely as a drink offering is poured out on the ground.

Hebrew: כְּבֵדִי (kevēdî, H3516) — “my liver.” The Hebrew says that his liver is poured out on the ground. The liver was thought of as the heavy center of the body’s feelings, so the English renders it ‘heart’ for the sense.

Lamentations 2:12

The children ask their mothers for bread and wine, and their mothers have none. They sink down like wounded soldiers and die in their mothers’ arms. It is one of the most painful pictures in the Bible. It shows how war and hunger fall hardest on the helpless.

BSA: lives (“souls, living beings”): It is the whole life of each child that drains away, down to the last breath.

Lamentations 2:13

The poet searches for words of comfort and finds none, because nothing compares to this suffering. The wound is as wide and deep as the sea. No human can heal it. Healing must come from God, who alone can repair what He has broken.

BSA: heal (“mend, cure, restore”): The question is about real restoration, and the poet knows that only God can give it.

Hebrew: שֶׁבֶר (sheber, H7665) — “breaking, fracture.” The word is used for a broken limb or a broken city. It describes damage that cannot simply be patched.

See also: Jeremiah 8:22.

Lamentations 2:14

The prophets had told the people comforting, peaceful things. Their visions were empty and flimsy. They never named the people’s sin, which might have led to repentance and spared them exile. A message that only soothes cannot save.

BSA: expose (“reveal, uncover”): True prophets bring sin into the light so that the people can turn back. These prophets kept it hidden.

Hebrew: שָׁוְא (shāwʾ, H7723) — “emptiness, nothing.” The word means something with no substance. The prophets’ visions looked like words from God but had nothing behind them.

See also: Jeremiah 14:14; Ezekiel 13:10.

Lamentations 2:15

People walking past the ruins clap, hiss and shake their heads. They mock the city that was called the perfection of beauty and the joy of all the earth. Zion’s old glory is now the subject of their jokes.

BSA: hiss (“with scorn, in derision”): It is a sound of contempt, and it adds insult to the injury of the fall.

Hebrew: כְּלִילַת יֹפִי (kelîlat yofî, H3632) — “perfection of beauty.” The phrase describes a city so well formed that nothing seemed lacking. The enemies quote the old praise to make the ruin hurt more.

See also: Psalm 48:2.

Lamentations 2:16

Now the enemies speak. They open their mouths wide, grind their teeth and boast that they have swallowed Zion up. They are glad to have lived to see the day. The nations rejoice over what grieves God’s people.

Lamentations 2:17

The poet points out that this is not chance. The Lord did what He had planned and threatened long before. The warnings were given in the law. The enemies gloat only because God allowed it. That gives a hard fact, but also a hint of hope, since the God who judged can also restore.

BSA: planned (“devised, purposed”): God’s judgment was a purpose He had set, not a surprise. horn (“power, strength”): The enemies’ strength grew only because God permitted it.

Hebrew: אִמְרָתוֹ (ʾimrātô, H565) — “His word.” Here the ‘decree’ is literally His word, something God had spoken beforehand. His warnings in the law were now coming true.

See also: Leviticus 26:14-17; Deuteronomy 28:15.

Lamentations 2:18

The people’s hearts cry to the Lord, and the poet urges the city wall to weep. He calls on Zion to let its tears flow like a river without stopping. He directs the tears toward God, because grief spoken to God can become prayer.

BSA: wall (“barrier, means of protection”): The poet speaks to the broken defense as if it were a person who can weep.

Lamentations 2:19

The poet tells Zion to rise in the night and pray. Pour out the heart like water before the Lord, and lift the hands for the starving children. Honest, unhidden grief is welcome in God’s presence, and prayer for the helpless is never wasted.

BSA: Pour out (“shed, empty”): Prayer here means emptying the heart completely before God, holding nothing back.

Hebrew: שִׁפְכִי (shifkhî, H8210) — “pour out.” It is the word used for spilling water on the ground. The heart is to be emptied just as freely before the Lord.

See also: Psalm 62:8.

Lamentations 2:20

Zion now prays boldly, asking God to look and consider. Has anyone ever been treated like this? Mothers eat their own children, and priests and prophets are killed in the sanctuary. The prayer is bold because it speaks to the God who sees.

BSA: nurtured (“in tender care, with loving hands”): The children were the ones carried and cared for with tenderness, which makes their fate more terrible.

See also: Deuteronomy 28:53.

Lamentations 2:21

Young and old lie together in the street dust. The poet’s own young men and women have been killed by the sword. He tells God plainly that it happened on the day of His anger and that He showed no compassion. He does not pretend otherwise.

BSA: dust (“on the ground, in a state of humiliation”): The dead lie in the same dust as common street dirt, with no honor given to them.

Lamentations 2:22

God called the enemies from all sides as if to a feast day, and a feast of death followed. No one escaped on that day of the Lord’s anger. The poet ends with a personal loss: the children he had raised were destroyed. The chapter closes in sorrow and leaves the prayer with God.

BSA: summoned (“invited, called to come”): God is pictured as inviting the enemies, which shows His hand behind the attack.

Hebrew: מוֹעֵד (môʿēd, H4150) — “appointed feast, set time.” This is the same word used for Israel’s holy feasts. The day of terror has taken the place of the day of worship.