Lamentations 2
ZerrCBCA BROKEN PEOPLELam_2:1-22 In content, form and theology chapter 2 is a continuation of chapter 1. Like chapter 1, the second chapter is also a national lament but the focus here is on the entire nation rather than just on the city of Jerusalem. The poem is in acrostic form which is almost identical to that used in the first chapter except that the sixteenth and seventeenth letters of the Hebrew alphabet are transposed. Since this transposition does not interrupt the train of thought it must be viewed as intentional rather than accidental as suggested by some commentators. The same phenomenon occurs again in chapters three and four. Theologically this chapter again emphasizes the fact that Judah’s punishment came as a result of sin and that the punishment was entirely justified.
In Lamentations 2:1-10 the prophet describes the divine judgment upon his people. In Lamentations 2:11-16 he expresses his sincere sympathy for his people in their sufferings. He exhorts them to present their case before God (Lamentations 2:17-19) and sets the example for them by offering a model prayer on their behalf (Lamentations 2:20-22).THE PROPHET’S OF THE UPON HIS PEOPLELam_2:1-10(Lamentations 2:1) How sad that the Lord in His anger has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud! He has cast down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel! He did not remember His footstool in the day of His anger. (Lamentations 2:2) The Lord has swallowed up without mercy all the inhabitants of Jacob. He has cast down in His wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah, bringing them to the ground. He defiled the kingdom and her princes. (Lamentations 2:3) He has cut off in His burning wrath all the horn of Israel. He has withdrawn His right hand in the face of the enemy. He has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob consuming all around. (Lamentations 2:4) He has bent his bow like an enemy, standing with His right hand like a foe. He has slain all that were pleasant to the eye. In the tents of the daughter of Zion he has poured out his wrath like fire. (Lamentations 2:5) The Lord has become like an enemy, swallowing up Israel. He has swallowed up her palaces, destroyed his strongholds. He has caused mourning and lamentation to increase in the daughter of Judah. (Lamentations 2:6) He has torn down His tabernacle like that of a garden, destroying His meeting place. The LORD has caused solemn assembly and sabbath to be forgotten in Zion. In His fierce indignation He has repudiated both king and priest. (Lamentations 2:7)The LORD has scorned His altar, disowned His sanctuary. He has given into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces. They made noise in the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed feast. (Lamentations 2:8) The LORD determined to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He stretched out the measuring line; He did not withdraw His hand from devouring. He has caused the rampart and wall to lament; they languish together. (Lamentations 2:9) Her gates have sunk into the earth; He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations where there is no law; even her prophets have not been able to find a vision from the LORD.(Lamentations 2:10)The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they cast dust upon their heads having put on sackcloth. The maidens of Jerusalem have brought their heads down to the ground.It is striking the way the prophet emphasizes in Lamentations 2:1-10 that the destruction of his people was an act of divine judgment. In spite of the fact that God administered the stroke against Judah the prophet is not bitter. He knows that the judgment was proper and appropriate in view of the terrible sin of his countrymen. The detailed account of these verses points to the fact that the writer was an eyewitness to the catastrophe which he describes. The first ten verses of chapter two should be read with the warning of Heb 10:31 constantly before the reader: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Jeremiah almost exhausts the possibilities of human language in describing the burning wrath of a holy God against His apostate people. A great cloud of calamity settled down over the daughter of Zion in the day of His wrath. Like a star falling from the heavens so the glory of Israel fell to earth that day. God did not even spare His own footstool, the Temple or perhaps the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant. It is possible that the phrases “daughter of Zion,” “glory of Israel,” and “His footstool” are to be regarded as progressive phrases designating the nation as a whole, the city of Jerusalem and the Temple or alternatively, Jerusalem, the Temple and the ark of the covenant. The Lord has consumed the dwelling places and destroyed the strongholds of His people.
He has caused the princes of the land to be profaned i.e, captured, mutilated, and slain by ungodly forces (Lamentations 2:2). He has cut off the horn (power) of Israel by withdrawing His powerful right hand of defense as the enemy approached. He has caused the territory of Jacob to be put to the torch (Lamentations 2:3). After the capture of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. the city was burned to the ground (Jeremiah 52:13). Judean resistance to the Chaldean onslaught of 587 B.C. was useless from the start because the real adversary was none other than God Himself. Through the instrumentality of Nebuchadnezzar’s soldiers the divine archer drew His bow against Jerusalem and slew “all that were pleasant to the eye” i.e., the finest young men of the Judean army. Even in the tent of the daughter of Zion (the Temple) He poured out His fiery wrath (Lamentations 2:4). It is none other than the Lord who has caused all the destruction and death and resulting lamentation in the land (Lamentations 2:5). He has not hesitated in destroying His tabernacle, His meeting place, any more than a gardener might destroy a watchman’s booth when the harvest season was over. The mockery of Judah’s festivals and sabbaths He has brought to an abrupt halt.
Even the kings and priests, normally spared the indignities of war, have felt the blast of divine indignation and judgment (Lamentations 2:6). How can the Lord allow the sacred city to be so humiliated? Because the Lord has scorned His altar and disowned His sanctuary. It takes more than outward ritual to prevent divine judgment. The Lord has turned the city over to the enemies of Judah. A shout has been heard in the precincts of the Temple— not the shout of joyous worshipers but of looting enemy soldiers (Lamentations 2:7). The destruction of Jerusalem was no afterthought; it had been predetermined by God. The Lord had marked off the city for destruction with a measuring line. The outer defenses of the city, the rampart and wall, had fallen to the enemy after incessant bombardment (Lamentations 2:8). The heavy gates of the city and the powerful beams which secured them during siege have been battered to the ground. Zion’s king and princes are in exile among the heathen who know not the law of God. The prophets are without vision (Lamentations 2:9). The sagacious elders of Jerusalem have no advice or counsel to offer. They sit silently with sackcloth about their loins and dust upon their head as a sign of bitter mourning. The bright young maidens of Judah hang their heads in remorse (Lamentations 2:10). THE PROPHET’S SINCERE FOR HIS PEOPLE Lamentations 2:11-16 (Lamentations 2:11) MY eyes are spent with weeping, my inward parts are troubled, my heart is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies have fainted in the streets of the city. (Lamentations 2:12) To their mothers they said, Where is the grain and wine? as they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out upon the bosom of their mothers.(Lamentations 2:13)What shall I testify to you? To what shall I liken you in order to comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For vast as the sea is your destruction! Who shall heal you? (Lamentations 2:14) Your prophets have seen for you falsehood and foolishness; they have not exposed your iniquity in order to reverse your fortunes but have seen for you false and misleading oracles.(Lamentations 2:15)All who pass by clap their hands at you. They hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying is this the city which was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth? (Lamentations 2:16) All your enemies rail against you, hissing and gnashing their teeth. They have said, We have swallowed her up! Ah, this is the day we longed for; we have found it! We have seen it!
In Lamentations 2:1-10 the prophet described what he saw when Jerusalem fell in 587 B.C. In Lamentations 2:11-16 he describes whet he felt as he looked upon the pathetic plight of his kinsmen. His eyes shed tears till they could shed no more. His inward parts (lit., bowels) and heart (lit., liver) were overwhelmed by anguish. The tender-hearted prophet is particularly upset as he recalls the agonizing death of starvation to which the innocent babes and infants were subjected (Lamentations 2:11). He hears their pitiful cry for food which had to remain unanswered.
He sees them dying, some in the streets where they have been abandoned by their despairing mothers, others clutching to the breasts of their mothers who are helpless to do anything to preserve the young life (Lamentations 2:12). The prophet tries desperately to think of a word of instruction, edification or comfort which he can bring to those people who had to live through the horrible days of Jerusalem’s fall. He tries to think of some like catastrophe with which to compare the present plight of his people. Search as he may he cannot find any tragedy equaling the destruction of the daughter of Zion. Her ruin is as unlimited and unfathomable as the ocean itself. The lament of the prophet reaches a climax with the question asked at the end of Lam 2:13, “Who shall heal you?” Certainly Zion’s wound, by human standards, is incurable. The prophets are certainly not able to help for they have never been able To correctly assess the situation in Zion. For a number of years they have actually encouraged the national hypocrisy and wickedness of their false and foolish visions. They have made no effort to expose iniquity, encourage repentance which would permit God to reverse the miserable condition of Zion. Their false and misleading oracles (lit., whitewash job) could not heal the wound of Zion (Lamentations 2:14). Much less could the caravaneers and travelers who passed along the busy highways do anything to aid Zion.
They have actually joined in the mockery of the fallen city by contemptuously clapping their hands, hissing and wagging their heads. Having looked upon the city which had been renown for its beauty they jeer, “Is this the city which was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?” (Lamentations 2:15). Still less would neighboring nations be able to heal the broken nation of Judah. They had actually been looking forward to the day when Jerusalem would fall and they would be able to swallow up the territory she once possessed (Lamentations 2:16). Who then can heal the wound of Zion? THE PROPHET’S TO HIS PEOPLE Lamentations 2:17-19 (Lamentations 2:17)The LORD has done what He planned. He has fulfilled His word which He decreed in days of old. He has torn down without pity, made the enemy re joice over you and exalted the horn of your foes.(Lamentations 2:18)Their heart cried unto the Lord! O wall of the daughter of Zion! Let tears run down like a river both day and night! Give yourself not rest! Let not the pupils of your eyes cease! (Lamentations 2:19) Arise! Cry in the night at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord! Lift up your hands unto Him for the sake of your children who faint for hunger at the head of every street.
In preparing to answer his own question, “who can heal you,” the prophet reminds the people of a basic fact. The destruction of Zion was not due to the power and cunning of Zion’s enemies but was in fact the fulfillment of threats made centuries earlier (cf. Deuteronomy 28:15 ff.). By disobeying the commandments of God the people had violated the terms of the covenant and thus had incurred the penalties for disobedience specified therein. This is the real reason Israel had been brought so low and the “horn” or strength of their enemies had been exalted (Lamentations 2:17). Because the Lord is responsible for the destruction of Zion He alone can restore her fortunes.
In bold personification the prophet calls upon the broken wall of Jerusalem to cry unto the Lord in supplication day and night. Without respite those walls should continue their pleadings with the Lord for reconstruction (Lamentations 2:18). The people must continue to pray right on through the night. The beginning of the three night watches, sunset, should find them still pouring out their heart like water before the Lord and lifting up their hands toward heaven in expectation of receiving divine blessing. If they become weary in the work of prayer they should remember the little children who are suffering immeasurably on every street of the ruined city (Lamentations 2:19). Jeremiah makes no promises but his exhortation implies that God will hear the agonizing cry of His penitent people just as he heard their cry when they suffered during the Egyptian bondage (cf. Exodus 3:7).
THE PROPHET’S PRAYER FOR HIS PEOPLE Lamentations 2:20-22 (Lamentations 2:20)Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom You have done this! Shall women eat their offspring, babes who are carried in the arms? Shall priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?(Lamentations 2:21)On the ground in the streets lie the young and old. My maidens and young men have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of Your anger, slaughtering without mercy. (Lamentations 2:22) You called, as in the days of a solemn assembly, my terrors round about. On the day of the anger of the LORD there was not one who escaped or survived. Those I carried in the arms and raised up my enemy has consumed.
In Lamentations 2:20-22 the prophet prays the prayer he has been urging the nation to pray and in so doing teaches them how to properly approach the throne of God. These verses remind one of Jer 14:17-19. The prophet boldly presents all the cogent arguments of which he can think in his effort to influence God to aid the people of Judah. First, he asks God to consider that it is His own people who are suffering (cf. Exodus 32:11-13). Divine judgment has caused the people of Judah to sink into the lowest kind of human behavior, cannibalism.
Surely God will intervene when men are driven to the point of consuming one another! Priests and prophets who have been anointed to the service of the Lord are being slain in the sacred precincts of the Temple (Lamentations 2:20). Surely God will intervene when religious massacre is taking place! Young and old, male and female, lie dead on the streets of Jerusalem, slain by the sword of the divinely appointed enemy of Zion (Lamentations 2:21). Surely God will intervene when outrage is committed in public without regard to sex or age. The terrors of war— famine, sword and pestilence— have been summoned by God against Judah just as He might summon His worshipers to a festival.
In that day of the Lord’s anger no one escaped or survived. The enemy has even consumed the babes in arms! (Lamentations 2:22). So the prayer ends as it began, with a reference to the slaughter of the innocents. This rehearsal of Judah’s tale of woe is an implied request for mercy and deliverance. The matter is left in the hands of the Lord in the firm belief that the Judge of all the earth will surely do what is right.
Questions For Lamentations Chapter Two
- Does this chapter reflect a bitterness toward God be cause He has allowed and permitted the destruction of Zion?
- In what sense was God responsible for the calamity of 587 B.C.? Lamentations 2:1-10.
- What is meant by the phrases “daughter of Zion,” 222222222222222222222222222222 “glory of Israel,” and “his footstool?” Lamentations 2:1.
- From what sources would Zion not find healing? Lamentations 2:13-16.
- What is the poet encouraging his people to do in Lamentations 2:17-19?
- What arguments does the prophet present in Lamentations 2:20¬22 to influence God to aid His distressed people?
THE DIVINE OF (THE SECOND LAMENT) Lamentations 2 One of the striking features of this lament is its emphasis on God’s initiative in bringing destruction on Jerusalem and its people. Jeremiah saw Him as the One ultimately responsible for what had happened because He was angry over their sins. Many different words describing Yahweh’s hostility against His people appear in this chapter. This lament also describes in greater detail than chapter 1 the nature of the calamity that had befallen Judah. Whereas in chapter 1 the city is the main focus of the prophet’s sorrow, in chapter 2 it is more the temple. In both chapters, the narrator and Zion speak.
The tone changes from shame and despair in chapter 1 to anger in chapter 2. This second poem contains a new and more bitter lamentation regarding the fall of Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah; and it is distinguished from the first, partly by the bitterness of the complaint, but chiefly by the fact that while, in the first, the oppressed, helpless, and comfortless condition of Jerusalem is the main feature,— here, on the other hand, it is the judgment which the Lord, in His wrath, has decreed against Jerusalem and Judah, that forms the leading thought in the complaint, as is shown by the prominence repeatedly given to the wrath, rage, burning wrath, etc. (Lamentations 1:1 ff.). One of the reasons Lamentations is so effective in its ministry to those who are suffering is that it deals head-on with the anger of God. Although God’s anger is referred to in other chapters (Lamentations 1:12; Lamentations 3:1; Lamentations 3:43; Lamentations 3:66; Lamentations 4:11; Lamentations 5:22), in Lamentations 2 we find a most detailed and resolute treatment of this difficult matter. In fact, before we have gone ten verses into the chapter there are forty descriptions of God’s judgment and anger. Few if any aspects of life eluded His anger. GOD’S ANGERLam_2:1-10 We are, as it were, witnessing in slow motion the physical demolition of the city. There are about forty descriptions of divine judgment, which fell upon every aspect of the Jews’ life: home, religion, society, physical, mental and spiritual. Some of the blackest phrases of the book appear here . . Deuteronomy 27— 28 [esp. Deuteronomy 28:25-68; cf. Leviticus 26:14-39] sets forth specific consequences for sin, many of which are found in Lamentations, especially in Lamentations 2 Lam 2:1 –This chapter, like chapter 1, begins with ’eka, “Alas!” Jeremiah pictured the sovereign Lord (Heb. ‘adonay) overshadowing Jerusalem, personified as a young woman, with a dark cloud because of His anger. The Lord had cast the city from the heights of glory to the depths of ignominy (cf. Isaiah 14:12). It had been as a “footstool” for His feet, but He had not given it preferential treatment in His anger. The footstool may be a reference to the ark of the covenant (cf. 1 Chronicles 28:2; Psalms 99:5) or the temple, but it probably refers to Jerusalem, as does “the glory of Israel,” though some take the latter as referring to the temple. It was perhaps “cast from heaven to earth” in the sense that this “glory” had now lost its connection with heaven. Lamentations 2:2 –The Lord had devoured the cities of the Judahites without sparing them, and had overpowered their strongholds. He humbled the kingdom of Judah and its princes. Notice the increasingly narrow focus of God’s anger: from all the “inhabitants,” to the “strongholds” (fortified cities), to the “princes” of the nation. Lamentations 2:3 –In His fierce anger He also broke the strength of Israel, and had not restrained her enemy. He had judged Jacob severely, as when someone burns something up (cf. Exodus 13:21-22; Exodus 15:6-7; Exodus 15:12; Deuteronomy 4:24; Deuteronomy 29:22-23; Hebrews 12:29). Lamentations 2:4 –He had also attacked His people like an archer, and had slain them— even though they were His favored nation. The fire of His anger had burned her habitations. He destroyed everything that they valued. “All that were pleasant to the eye” may refer to the children of Jerusalem. The “tent” probably refers to the temple (cf. Psalms 15:1; Psalms 27:5; Psalms 61:4; Psalms 78:60). Lamentations 2:5 –Yahweh had become like an enemy to His people, consuming and destroying the vast majority of them, and causing mourning and moaning among them all (cf. Leviticus 26:17; Leviticus 26:25; Leviticus 26:34; Leviticus 26:36-41; Deuteronomy 28:25; Deuteronomy 28:31; Deuteronomy 28:68). Lamentations 2:6 –He tore down His own temple like a temporary booth— the kind that farmers erected in their fields for a short time and then demolished. He caused the ending of feasts and Sabbath observances in Zion, and showed no regard for the kings and priests of Judah. He had made it impossible for His people to worship Him corporately. Lamentations 2:7 –He rejected the altar of burnt offerings and the temple, having delivered the temple precincts to the Babylonians. Israel’s enemy, rather than the Judahites, now made noise in the temple. To many in the ancient world the destruction of YHWH’s temple was proof that he was not as strong as the gods of the invaders. But the poet is emphatic that weakness on God’s part was not the reason for the loss of the sanctuary— Adonai himself lay behind the destruction of his temple. Lamentations 2:8 –The Lord also destroyed Jerusalem’s walls and broke down her defenses with His “hand.” What a “hand” the Lord must have to be able to crush Jerusalem’s walls and defense towers! Ordinarily, the builder stretches out a line to build a straight wall, but here God stretches out a line to destroy the wall. The expression implies intentional planning on God’s part, which makes his action seem more cruel. Lamentations 2:9 –The city gates with their bars were no longer effective in keeping Jerusalem safe, and the king (Jehoiakim) and his advisers had gone into exile. The Mosaic Law now failed to govern the Israelites since they could no longer observe its cultic ordinances. Yahweh had also stopped giving His prophets revelations of His will. “. . . when Jerusalem was destroyed, Israel received no prophetic communication, . . . God the Lord did not then send them a message to comfort and sustain them. This judgment of silence is manifest in the book of Lamentations as a whole, in which YHWH is the one actor that the implied reader is desperate to hear speak, and thus YHWH’s lack of voice is very conspicuous. Lamentations 2:10 –The most respected leaders of the Israelites had suffered humiliation, and now sat on the ground with dust on their heads, signs of mourning. Girding with sackcloth and bowing to the ground also expressed grief over what the Lord had done. Thus the Lord broke down the old male elders of the nation and its young female virgins, representing all the people, as well as its walls. He humbled the people to “the ground” as He reduced the city to “the ground.” Even though God was exceedingly angry with Judah His anger was not like a hidden force, incalculable and arbitrary, hitting where and when it wished without any rhyme or reason. Instead His anger was measured out and controlled by both His love and justice. It was at once an expression of outrage against the sin, evil, and wickedness perpetrated as well as a personal note of continued caring. Had He not cared or loved so intently He would not have troubled Himself to call His wandering sinners back to His embrace. ‘S GRIEF Lamentations 2:11-19 This section contains five pictures of Jerusalem’s condition. Notice the change from the third person, in the previous section, to the first person in this one. The narrator has moved from a more detached observer role to a fully engaged one where he emotionally identifies with Jerusalem. The anger of the first part of the chapter fades into mourning in the second part. Lamentations 2:11-12 –Jeremiah had exhausted his capacity for weeping and sorrowing over the destruction of his people; he felt drained emotionally. “My heart is poured out” is literally “My liver is poured out,” the liver being regarded as the seat of deep emotion. The prophet observed small children and infants fainting in the streets for lack of food and drink. They were dying in their mothers’ arms for lack of nourishment. Jerusalem was a place of starvation. This speech’s syntax is so similar to some found in Jeremiah that the speaker must be identified as Jeremiah or as a person that has thoroughly embraced his theology. Lamentations 2:13 –For the first time in the book, the narrator speaks directly to “daughter . . . Jerusalem.” Jeremiah struggled to find adequate words to comfort his people because their ruin had been so devastating (cf. Lamentations 1:12). Comfort was beyond the scope of human words because the devastation of the city was unparalleled. No human being could heal her— only the Lord. Jerusalem was a place of no comfort.
We endeavor to comfort our friends by telling them their case is not singular; there are many whose trouble is greater than theirs; but Jerusalem’s case will not admit this argument . . . We tell them that their case is not desperate, but that it may easily be remedied; but neither will that be admitted here, upon a view of human probabilities . . . Lamentations is not a book of consolation; it is a book that refuses to console, keeping the moment of grief always in focus. Lamentations 2:14 –The false prophets had misled the people (cf. Jeremiah 2:5; Jeremiah 10:15; Jeremiah 14:13; Jeremiah 16:19). They had not told them the truth that would have led them to return to God and spared them from captivity. They may still have been failing the people. What is clear is that, instead of exposing sin so that it could be dealt with, they just painted over it to hide it from view (cf. Ezekiel 13:10-16). Jerusalem was a place of perverted leadership. Lamentations 2:15-17 –In chapter 1, “Lady Jerusalem” called passers-by to observe (and grieve over) her sorrow (Lamentations 1:12). Now we learn that the reaction of these observers was not sorrow but shock and derision. Passersby expressed their amazement at Jerusalem’s great destruction. They could hardly believe that it had been such a beautiful and happy place (cf. Psalms 48:2). Judah’s enemies rejoiced to see the evidence of her fall.
They took pride in seeing her destruction. “Clap their hands,” “hiss,” and “shake their heads” are terms normally associated with mocking. Jerusalem’s destruction was the fulfillment of the destruction that Yahweh, long ago, had told His people might come (cf. Leviticus 26:14-46; Deuteronomy 28:15-68). He was ultimately responsible for it. He had shown no mercy in judging, but instead had strengthened Judah’s enemy against her and had caused him to rejoice at the city’s overthrow. Jerusalem was a place of mocking enemies.
Jerusalem’s destruction was no act of random violence. Rather, it was a specific act by God intended to punish the long-term sins of a specific nation, Israel. Thus, this verse has a very specific frame of reference and should not be applied to every city’s fall. Lamentations 2:18-19 –Jeremiah called on Judah’s citizens or children, or, less likely, her enemies, to mourn perpetually because of the destruction that God had brought on her. The Jerusalemites should cry out to God without ceasing (“at the beginning of the [three] night watches,” that is, throughout the night as well as during the day) and ask Him to spare their children who were dying of starvation. Since He had inflicted such a deep wound on the people, He was the only One who could heal it. Jerusalem was a place of ceaseless wailing. How could God allow innocent children to suffer because of the sins of their parents? Perhaps a better question would be: How could parents continue to sin knowing that God would inevitably judge them and their children (cf.
Jeremiah 6:11; Jeremiah 9:20-21)? How could they do that to their children? It may also lead one to marvel that a renewed relationship is possible at all between God and people who ignore warnings about their children’s safety. According to Lamentations 2:11-19 such a new beginning is not only possible; it is the way for the parents to redeem themselves and spare their offspring further agony.‘S PLEALam_2:20-22 This last pericope is another prayer to the Lord (cf. Lamentations 1:20-22). The personified city prayed a prayer with an attitude of protest— the strongest protest against God in the entire book. Lamentations 2:20 –“Daughter Jerusalem” responded to Jeremiah’s call to prayer (cf. Lamentations 1:11) by asking the Lord to consider who was suffering so greatly that women were cannibalizing their own newborn children to stay alive in the famine (cf. Leviticus 26:27-29; Deuteronomy 28:53-57; 2 Kings 6:24-31). Would He allow such a fate for healthy children? Would He permit the slaying of Judahite priests and prophets in the very temple of the Lord? Jerusalem seems to be trying to shock the Lord into action. Lamentations 2:21 –People of all ages and both sexes, even the youths who were the hope of Judah’s future, lay dead in the streets because the Lord had “slaughtered” them without sparing. Lamentations 2:22 –There had been as much carnage in the city as there was on feast days, when the priests slew large quantities of sacrificial animals. Instead of Israelite pilgrims coming to Jerusalem to celebrate one of the annual feasts, Israel’s enemies had come to Jerusalem to feast on the Israelites! Thus there were “terrors on every side” (cf. Jeremiah 6:25; Jeremiah 20:3; Jeremiah 20:10; Jeremiah 46:5; Jeremiah 49:29). “No one” had escaped Yahweh’s anger, not even the children whom the city had produced, when the Babylonian enemy “annihilated” them. This is hyperbolic language, since some people had survived the destruction of Jerusalem. The phrase “the day of the LORD’s anger” closes this second chapter poem as it opened it (cf.
Lamentations 2:1), enclosing the whole within the embrace of divine wrath. Lamentations 1— 2 . . . bring to bear a . . . theological stream, which is found in the type of poems found in Psalms 73— 89, where the kingdom’s fall is a major theme. For example, Psalms 74 and Psalms 89 mourn the loss of temple and Davidic monarchy. Besides expressing shock, sorrow, and confusion, these texts have a ‘What now?’ flavor to them. In Lamentations[,] chapters 3— 5 take up the ‘What now?’ theme, while in Psalms[,] chaps. 90— 106 serve the same function. Both Lamentations and Psalms use lament forms to express the many types and levels of pain and outrage Israel felt. Lamentations Chapter Two Verse 1 WHAT THE LORD HAD DONE TO ZION[1]“This chapter is all taken up with God. In Lamentations 2:1-12, all the woes are bemoaned as being God’s work, and His alone; and Lamentations 2:13-17 give a short resume of this; Lamentations 2:18 f urges the city to cry to God for help; and, in Lamentations 2:20-22, she does so."[2] “The main point of this chapter is that it was God Himself who destroyed the people and their city; and the writer seldom strays very far from that main point."[3]Significantly, the details of this chapter could hardly have been provided by any other than an eyewitness of the destruction, which points squarely to Jeremiah as the author, as traditionally accepted. Green also noticed this: “The tone of it places this chapter very near the year 587 B.C. when the tragedy occurred. In fact, it appears to be an eyewitness account of that tragedy."[4] The chapter has been subdivided variously by different scholars; but we shall follow this outline: (1) a graphic picture of the divine visitation (Lamentations 2:1-10); (2) details regarding the distress and despair of the people (Lamentations 2:11-17); and (3) the prayer of the people to God for help (Lamentations 2:18-22). “This prayer is different from the one in the previous chapter, “Because the element of imprecation is missing from it."[5]Lamentations 2:1-10GRAPHIC PICTURE OF THE DIVINE UPON JUDAH"Now hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zionwith a cloud in his anger! He hath cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, And hath not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: He hath thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; He hath brought them down to the ground; he hath profaned the kingdom and the princes thereof. He hath cut off in fierce anger all the horn of Israel; He hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy: And he hath burned up Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about. He hath bent his bow like an enemy, he hath stood with his right hand as an adversary, and hath slain all that were pleasant to the eye: In the tent of the daughter of Zion he hath poured out his wrath like fire. The Lord is become as an enemy, he hath swallowed up Israel; He hath swallowed up all her palaces, he hath destroyed all his strongholds; And he hath multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden; he hath destroyed his place of assembly: Jehovah hath caused solemn assembly and sabbath to be forgotten in Zion, And hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. 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 Jehovah, as in the day of a solemn assembly. Jehovah hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; He hath stretched out the line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: And he hath made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languish together. Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not; Yea, her prophets find no vision from Jehovah. The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground; they keep silence; They cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.” The word “anger” occurs three times in this paragraph and the word “wrath” is found twice. Of all the attributes of God which appear in his word, none is more generally neglected and denied than this very one, namely, that the fierce anger of God will ultimately rage against human wickedness, as exhibited in these verses. The God of American Pulpits today is generally extolled as a namby-pamby, an old fuddy duddy, somewhat like an over-indulgent old grandfather, too lazy, indifferent or unconcerned to do anything whatever, no matter what crimes of blood and lust roar like a tornado under his very nose. The Bible does not support such an image of God! Yes, He is a God who loves mankind, who gave His Son upon the Cross for human redemption. He is a God of mercy, forgiveness, grace and forbearance, but when any man or any nation has fully demonstrated final rejection of God’s love and their rebellion against His eternal law, that wonderful, loving, forgiving God will at last appear in His character as the enemy of that man or that nation. The background of all these terrible things that happened to Jacob is the almost unbelievable wickedness of the Chosen People. A major part of the Old Testament is little more than a brief summary of that wickedness: “The Lord hath covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger” (Lamentations 2:1). During the exodus, God had shielded the Chosen People with a cloud, the dark side of which confronted Egypt; but now it is the remnant of Israel that faces the ugly side of the cloud! Throughout this chapter there appears the screaming fact that it is God Himself who has brought all of the evil upon His sinful people. “That was the wormwood and the gall in their terrible affliction."[6]“Cast down from heaven unto the earth” (Lamentations 2:2). What a change there was from the glory of Solomon to the very bottom of the social ladder. Israel at this point had become the slaves of the Gentiles. “He hath thrown down … the strongholds … of Judah” (Lamentations 2:3). But was it not Babylon that did that? No! It was God who did it; Babylon was merely God’s instrument. “He hath cut off all the horn of Israel” (Lamentations 2:3). The horn was a well-known symbol of power. Cheyne noted that a better rendition would be “every horn."[7] “It referred to all the strongholds, especially the fortresses."[8] We especially liked Hiller’s blunt rendition, “God lopped off the horns of Israel."[9] Or, as we might paraphrase it: “God dehorned His sinful people.” “He hath burned up Jacob like a flaming fire” (Lamentations 2:3). The conception that God’s anger is like a terrible fire is not merely an Old Testament metaphor. “To the wicked God, at any time, may become a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29; Deuteronomy 4:24)."[10]“God, in these verses, is represented as a furious warrior, who with irresistible power destroyed everything that Judah had trusted in. They had stopped trusting in God, and instead were relying on might (Lamentations 2:2), palaces (Lamentations 2:5), strongholds (Lamentations 2:5), the physical Temple (Lamentations 2:6)."[11] All these were destroyed. “He hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden” (Lamentations 2:6). Solomon’s temple was not God’s tabernacle to begin with, but Solomon’s corrupted replacement of it. Nevertheless the Jews had trusted in it as their security and salvation. The wonder expressed here is that God removed it and destroyed it so easily, “as if of a garden.” “God removed his Temple as easily as a farmer removes a vintage booth (a tiny arbor), which had served its purpose, from a garden."[12] In summer time, one may often see such little shelters near orchards and gardens, where the sellers of fruits, etc, could be sheltered from the sun. This terrible destruction of the Temple sends the Bible student back to the very origin of it in the mind of David; and the undeniable fact that David and his son Solomon were wrong in the building of it. (See 2 Samuel 7). “They have made a noise in the house of Jehovah, as in the day of a solemn assembly”(Lamentations 2:7). This `noise,’ however was different. It was the boisterous, profane and obscene cries of the Chaldean soldiers screaming and shouting their delight as they looted and destroyed the marvelous treasures of the Temple. It was a horrible contrast with the sweet songs of the Temple virgins and the solemn liturgies of the priesthood. “The triumphant shouts of the enemy bore some resemblance to the sounds on a solemn feast day, but O how sad a contrast it was”![13]“God purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion” (Lamentations 2:8). “Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian armies are here ignored! The capture of Jerusalem, far from being God’s defeat, was a victory for his righteousness. See Isaiah 42:24 ff. God’s judicial displeasure against iniquity is a grim reality indeed for those who render themselves liable to receive it."[14]“Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not” (Lamentations 2:9). The ridiculous rendition of the Revised Standard Version (RSV) reads, “The law is no more,” being not only a false translation but an outright falsehood also. The Law of Moses never ceased, until the Son of God nailed it to the cross.
And, as the Lord said, “Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished” (Matthew 5:18). The tragedy of this crooked mistake in the RSV is that it is used by radical critics as, “Notable evidence that the Torah was not regarded (when Lamentations was written) as a thing given through Moses in the far-off past."[15] Thoughtful scholars will not be deceived by this tragic rendition in the Revised Standard Version. We thank God that the Anchor Bible gave us another acceptable translation of this passage; “The king and the princes are among the heathen (where) there is no instruction."[16] With regard to the word “where” which the translators have supplied in the ASV, and which this writer supplied in the Anchor Bible, it does not occur in the KJV, where it was considered unnecessary, because the word Gentiles stands adjacent to and in front of the words there is no law, plainly indicating that it was among them, the Gentiles, that God’s Law was not. There was never, in the long history of Israel after Sinai a single hour in which the Law of Moses did not exist. “The elders … sit upon the ground … the virgins hang down their heads” (Lamentations 2:10). “The elders open not their mouth in the gate as usual … overwhelmed with grief … in token of great grief, as did the friends of Job, they sit upon the ground and keep silent."[17]Verse 11 THE AND DESPAIR OF THE PEOPLE"Mine eyes do fail with tears, my heart is troubled;My liver is poured out upon the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, Because the young children and the sucklings do swoon in the streets of the city, They say to their mothers, Where is grain and wine? When they swoon as the wounded in the streets of the city, When their soul is poured out into their mother’s bosom. What shall I testify unto thee? What shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? For thy breach is like the sea: who can heal thee? Thy prophets have seen for thee false and foolish visions; And they have not uncovered thine iniquity, to bring back thy captivity, But have seen for thee false oracles and causes of banishment. 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 called The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth? All thine enemies have opened their mouth wide against thee; They hiss and gnash the teeth; they say, We have swallowed her up; Certainly this is the day we looked for; we have found, we have seen it. Jehovah hath done that which he purposed; he hath fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old; He hath thrown down and hath not pitied: And he hath caused the enemy to rejoice over thee; he hath exalted the horn of thine adversaries.” “My eyes do fail with tears … my heart is troubled … the children swoon in the streets … or their soul is poured out in their mother’s bosom” (Lamentations 2:11-12). This is one of the saddest pictures in the literature of mankind. Children crying for bread, fainting from hunger in the streets, dying at their mother’s breasts from starvation! This is evidently the account of an eyewitness who had watched these things occur during that horrible siege that ended in the destruction of Jerusalem (2 Kings 25). “The breach is great like the sea; who can heal thee?” (Lamentations 2:13). “This simply means `there is no end to it’"[18] The thoughtless may ask, “Why does God allow terrible things like this to happen”? But God has given men the freedom of their will, and not even the power of God can avoid the sorrows that result when men stubbornly do things contrary to God’s commandments. Suffering of the innocent, in many circumstances, is a corollary of this. If a drunken driver guides his auto off a precipice, the innocent passengers also perish. Zedekiah, a wicked king, violated his oath which he swore in God’s name to be loyal to Nebuchadnezzar; and when he violated it, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed him, acting as God’s tool in the terrible destruction; but countless innocent persons were also the victims of terrible suffering and death. “It is monstrous to charge the providence of God with the consequence of actions which God has forbidden (W. F.
Adeney)."[19]“Thy prophets have seen for thee false and foolish visions” (Lamentations 2:14). There were prolific numbers of these false prophets in Israel, Jezebel sustained several hundred of them at one time (1 Kings 18:19). They pretended to have messages from God, but they were unprincipled liars, who merely prophesied what they knew their rulers wanted to hear. These false prophets did not preach against sin. We cannot leave this without noting that much of the preaching today smooths over the dreadful results of violating God’s commandments. It was the religious failure which lay at the bottom of Israel’s trouble. Jerusalem had become worse than Sodom and Gomorrah (Ezekiel 16). The Temple itself had become a center of idolatry, and the women of Judah were worshipping the vile goddess of the Assyrians in the precincts of the Temple itself. (See a detailed account of all this in Vol. III (Ezekiel) of my commentary on the Major Prophets, pp. 87-91.) He hath fulfilled his word that he hath commanded in the days of old (Lamentations 2:17). Israel should not have been surprised at the destruction of their nation. Moses had prophesied exactly what would happen to them if they forsook the Lord in Deuteronomy 28:52 f; and, as Cheyne noted, “The sacred narrator here very likely alludes to that very passage in these words."[20]Verse 18 THE PEOPLE PRAY TO GOD FOR HELP"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 respite; let not the apple of thine eye cease. Arise, cry out in the night, at 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 at the head of every street.” Duff considered these verses as a plea by the narrator in which, “He urges the city to cry to God for help."[21] However, the words, “Their heart cried unto the Lord,” which stand at the head of the passage seem to identify all of this as the actual prayer of the people. However it may be, here is the divine answer to the question of, “What shall we do when total disaster, shame, sorrow and humiliation have overwhelmed us”? The answer: “Pray to God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” “O Wall …” (Lamentations 2:18). “The wall is here apostrophized as a human mourner (Isaiah 14:31)."[22]“The night …” (Lamentations 2:19). “The night was mentioned as either a time of undisturbed reflection, or as itself a symbol of suffering and sorrow."[23]Verse 20 THE PEOPLE’S CRY TO GOD FOR HELP"See, O Jehovah, and behold to whom thou hast done thus!Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the people be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? The youth and the old man 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 slaughtered, and not pitied. Thou hast called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side; And there was none that escaped or remained in the day of Jehovah’s anger: Those that I dandled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.” This heart-breaking prayer does not request any specific thing as God’s response; it merely pleads for God’s attention and consideration of this terrible plight of his people. “Behold to whom thou hast done thus” (Lamentations 2:20). This does not spell out what was in the minds of the people. They are pleading: “Look God, we are the children of Abraham, through whom Thou hast promised blessings to all mankind! We are the people you rescued from Egypt! We are those to whom you gave the land of Canaan! We are thy Chosen People! Just look at us now! “Shall the women eat their fruit” (Lamentations 2:20)? Such a terrible thing had actually happened in Israel’s history (2 Kings 6:28-29). “The fruit here is the children."[24]Matthew Henry’s words regarding this prayer are priceless: “Prayer is a salve for very sore, even the sorest, a remedy for every malady, even the most grievous. And our business in prayer is not to prescribe, but to subscribe to the wisdom and will of God; to refer our case to Him and to leave it with Him. Lord, behold and consider, and thy will be done."[25]
Lamentations 2:1
Lamentations 2:1. This verse is a lamentation over the sad condition that was brought about through the righteous anger of the Lord. Daughter of Zion is an affectionate term for the people of the Lord who had their headquarters at Zion which was the principal district in Jerusalem. Footstool is an expression of humility which the prophet words on behalf of his people. Remembered not is used in the sense that the Lord did not spare his people when his anger was aroused to the extent of divine chastisement
Lamentations 2:2
Lamentations 2:2. Hath swallowed up is a figurative reference to the overwhelming of the homes of the people. Daughter of Judah has the same meaning as daughter of Zion in the preceding verse. The Lord is said to have done these things, but we should understand that he accomplished it through the services of the Babylonians.
Lamentations 2:3
Lamentations 2:3. Horn in symbolic language is defined as “power” in Strong’s lexicon. It means the power of Israel has been cut off. which was done when the kings in Jerusalem were taken from their throne. Drawn back . . . from before the enemy denotes that when the enemy approached against His people he withdrew bis hand and left them to their fate. This was because they had sinned very grievously and caused His anger to burn like a flaming fire.
Lamentations 2:4
Lamentations 2:4. The Lord bent his bow by bringing the foreign army against the land of Judah. In the same way he stood as an adversary against the capital of the country,
Lamentations 2:5
Lamentations 2:5. All of these afflicting circumstances are attributed to the Lord which is correct. However, we should understand that He was dealing to his people the punishment due them for their abominable practices of idolatry.
Lamentations 2:6
Lamentations 2:6. Tabernacle is from a word that means a fence or barricade, and the idea is that God had withdrawnhis protection from his people and suffered the enemy to invade the land. The solemn feasts had been caused to cease in that the assembling place (Jerusalem) had been taken over by the enemy. To despise means to belittle or humiliate any person or thing. God had shown this attitude toward his rulers in the capital city where the kings and priests had their place of operations.
Lamentations 2:7
Lamentations 2:7. Cast off his altar took place when the Babylonians were suffered to interfere with the altar service in the sanctuary which means the temple. The palaces also were destroyed which were the personal residences of the kings. The history of this event is recorded in 2 Kings 25:9, Noise Is from kolk and Strong defines it, “To call aloud; a voice or sound.” The word does not necessarily mean a boisterous use of the voice for such as that would not be done on the days of solemn feasts. The meaning is that the enemy raised their shouts of triumph in the very house where God’ s people had expressed their joyful feelings on the feast days.
Lamentations 2:8
Lamentations 2:8. Destroy the wall means to forsake his defence of his people and their city. Such is the meaning of the entire verse, figuratively expressed.
Lamentations 2:9
Lamentations 2:9. Gates are sunk into the ground is somewhat figurative, meaning they are a mass of ruins and are useless as a means of defense. Law is no more means there is no one in position to enforce the iaw. The Gentiles were the Babylonians among whom the people of Judah were scattered. Prophets found no vision indicates that God would not communicate any vision to them because they had made such an unlawful use of their position.
Lamentations 2:10
Lamentations 2:10. This verse is a vivid picture of tile dejected state of the leading men of the nation who were at that time captives in the land of Babylon. Keep silence shows how completely they were depressed over the conditions, so much so that they were silenced. This very situation was predicted in the 137th Psalm.
Lamentations 2:11
Lamentations 2:11. The people of Israel were generally aware of the miserable condition and expressed their feelings in more ways than one. Tho greater portion of the several passages of this book are truly the sentiments of the people. However, while writing down their sentiments for the informatlon. of succeeding generations, Jeremiah Is giving release for his own persona! grief over the sorrowful plight of his beloved countrymen. Fail with tears means he had shed so many tears that his eyes were exhausted. Bowels are troubled denotes that his affections were stirred up over his concern for the nation. Liver is used figuratively and refers to the heavy load of worry that was agitating the prophet, caused by the fainting condition of the people, especially as it affected the children who were dependents.
Lamentations 2:12
Lamentations 2:12. Where is corn and. wine was a literal plea the children were making with their mothers. Nothing could be any more pitiable than the sight of hungry children and the sound of their cry for food. These children were so undernourished that they became prostrated in the streets where they had been the victims of famine.
Lamentations 2:13
Lamentations 2:13. Jeremiah is without words to express fully his anxiety for his people or to say anything that would cause them to be consoled. Thy breach refers to the great gap that had been made in the defences and general provisions of security. Who can heal it indicates that nothing can be done for the present to head off the calamity facing the nation. It will be well for the reader to see the long note produced at 2 Kings 22:17, volume 2 of this Commentary,
Lamentations 2:14
Lamentations 2:14. Thy prophets refers to the false prophets among the people who offered lying assurances of peace for them. (See Jeremiah 6:14.) By thus delivering these flattering visions they prevented the people from feeling any fear of disaster, and consequently they did not make the reformation in their lives that might have turned away their captivity if they had started in time; now it was too late.
Lamentations 2:15
Lamentations 2:15. Tile central thought in this verse is the impression that was made on the nations of the world when they passed by and saw the situation. To wag their head was a gesture of mingled surprise and contempt over the downfall of such a wonderful nation that had so great a fame in the civilized world.
Lamentations 2:16
Lamentations 2:16. An outstanding characteristic of most nations is pride, hence the ‘ ‘face-saving” movements that we often hear of on the part of great national leaders. When a nation meets with some misfortune, especially one in the nature of a disgrace, it is natural that others will express themselves on the situation. Some may do so out of friendly sympathy, but usually it is prompted by a motive of exultation. It is always from this last named motive when coming from enemies as is the case at hand. Judah lias been terribly defeated and the Babylonians rejoice over it, even boasting that it had been their intention of causing such a day to arrive. But they will some day learn by sad experience that the Lord had suffered them to accomplish this end only because His people needed some chastisement.
Lamentations 2:17
Lamentations 2:17. The first clause of this verse confirms the closing portion of the preceding paragraph. Caused enemy to rejoice means that God caused the situation that gave Babylon the occasion for her rejoicing. However, that was not the motive the Lord had in the affair, therefore the exulting nation will finally suffer for her attitude toward Judah. Set up the horn means the Lord had given Babylon the power to accomplish her work against the corrupt nation in Palestine.
Lamentations 2:18
Lamentations 2:18. The misfortunes which the Lord suffered to come on Zion caused her to cry unto Him. The wall means the defences of Zion which had been demolished, and they are personified as being able to weep for themselves over the sorrowful situation. Apple . . . not cease. The eye is used in weeping and the figure means for the apple (or forces) of the eye to use its strength in weeping for the distressful situation.
Lamentations 2:19
Lamentations 2:19. The unfortunate nation is bidden to make its complaint before the Lord day and night. The special motive for the prayer indicated in this verse is the distressing condition of the children who were starving.
Lamentations 2:20
Lamentations 2:20. This verse Is still on the subject of the condition in a famine and indicates that the people were in the depths of want and despair. It was feared that if it got worse or continued longer, the women would he forced to eat their own babies. Such a tragedy had been done in the past (2 Kings 6:29), and it was predicted that it would be done again (Deut, 28: 53; Ezekiel 5:10). The word and after fruit is not. in the original and is out of place in the translation for there is no call for a conjunction. The phrase that begins with children is merely explanatory of the one that ends with fruit. Also, span long is from tippucu, which Strong defines with the single word “ nursing.” The clause should therefore read, “Shall women eat their nursing children?” The same mad hunger might induce some to slay the holy men who were engaged in the services of religious devotions.
Lamentations 2:21
Lamentations 2:21. The pain of destitution is still the subject of the prophet. So many of the homes had been burned that the occupants had to lie in the streets. The young men had been pushed to the front in the wars and had been slain by the enemy. Thou hast slain means God had brought the enemy army against the land of Judah to punish the people for their transgressions.
Lamentations 2:22
Lamentations 2:22. Jeremiah uses the first person in forming his sentences of address to God. but he is speaking on behalf of the nation whose people are so very near to the prophet. Called as in a solemn day refers to the call that God had made for the enemy to come into His service of punishing the disobedient nation. The terrors round about were those that the Babylonians had brought against Jerusalem. Those that I have swaddled is a figurative reference to the rising generations of the kingdom of Judah. They had become the victims of the enemy which means the Babylonian army.