1How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in His anger! He cast down the beauty of Israel from the heavens to the earth and remembered not His footstool in the day of His anger. 2The Lord has swallowed up all the dwelling places of Jacob and has not pitied. In His wrath He has thrown down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; He has brought them down to the ground. He has defiled the kingdom and its rulers. 3He has cut off all the horn of Israel in His fierce anger; He has drawn back His right hand from before the enemy, and He burned against Jacob like flaming fire which devours all around. 4He has bent His bow like an enemy; He stood with His right hand like an adversary, and killed all who were desirable to the eye in the tent of the daughter of Zion. He has poured out His fury like fire. 5The Lord was like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel; He has swallowed up all her palaces, and destroyed His strongholds. And He has increased mourning and lamentation in the daughter of Judah. 6And He has done violence to His pavilion like it were a garden, and has destroyed His meeting places. Jehovah has caused the appointed meetings and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and He has despised the king and the priest in the indignation of His anger. 7The Lord has cast off His altar; He has abhorred His sanctuary; He has given up the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have made a sound in the house of Jehovah, as in the day of the appointed meetings. 8Jehovah has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; He has stretched out a line; He has not withdrawn His hand from devouring, and He made rampart and wall lament; they languish together. 9Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her rulers are among the nations. The law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from Jehovah. 10The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and are silent; they throw dust on their heads; they gird on sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. 11My eyes fail with tears; my stomach is upset; my liver is poured on the ground for the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the children and the babies faint in the streets of the city. 12They say to their mothers, Where are grain and wine? When they faint they are like the wounded in the streets of the city, pouring out their lives into their mothers' bosoms. 13What can I testify for you? To what thing shall I compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? To what shall I equal you, so that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your break is great like the sea! Who can heal you? 14Your prophets have seen vain and foolish things for you, and they have not uncovered your iniquity, to bring back your captives; but they have seen false utterances and causes of banishment for you. 15All 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 is called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth? 16All your enemies have opened their mouth against you; they hiss and gnash the teeth; they say, We have swallowed her up. Certainly this is the day that we waited for. We have found it, we have seen it. 17Jehovah has done what He had purposed; He has fulfilled His Word which He commanded in the days of old. He has thrown down and not pitied. And He has caused your enemy to rejoice over you; He has set up the horn of your foes. 18Their heart cried unto the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night; give yourself no rest. Let not the daughter of your eye be silent. 19Arise, cry out 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 toward Him for the life of your children who faint from hunger at the head of every street. 20Behold, O Jehovah, and consider to whom You have done this. Shall the women eat their offspring, children of their tender care? Shall the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? 21Young and old lie on the ground in the streets; my virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword. You have killed them in the day of Your anger; You have slaughtered and not pitied. 22You have summoned, as in an appointed day, my terrors all around; and there was not one who escaped, or a survivor in the day of Jehovah's anger. Those whom I have nursed and nurtured, my enemy has consumed.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 (Lam. 2:1-22)
How--The title of the collection repeated here, and in
Klgl 4:1.
covered . . . with a cloud--that is, with the darkness of ignominy.
cast down from heaven unto . . . earth-- (
Mt 11:23); dashed down from the highest prosperity to the lowest misery.
beauty of Israel--the beautiful temple (
Ps 29:2;
Ps 74:7;
Ps 96:9, Margin;
Jes 60:7;
Jes 64:11).
his footstool--the ark (compare
1.Chr 28:2, with
Ps 99:5;
Ps 132:7). They once had gloried more in the ark than in the God whose symbol it was; they now feel it was but His "footstool," yet that it had been a great glory to them that God deigned to use it as such.
2 polluted--by delivering it into the hands of the profane foe. Compare
Ps 89:39, "profaned . . . crown."
3 horn--worn in the East as an ornament on the forehead, and an emblem of power and majesty (
1.Sam 2:10;
Ps 132:17; see on
Jer 48:25).
drawn back . . . fight hand-- (
Ps 74:11). God has withdrawn the help which He before gave them. Not as HENDERSON, "He has turned back his (Israel's) right hand" (
Ps 89:43).
4 (
Jes 63:10).
stood with . . . right hand--He took His stand so as to use His right hand as an adversary. HENDERSON makes the image to be that of an archer steadying his right hand to take aim. Not only did He withdraw His help, but also took arms against Israel.
all . . . pleasant to . . . eye-- (
Hes 24:25). All that were conspicuous for youth, beauty, and rank.
in . . . tabernacle--the dwellings of Jerusalem.
5 an enemy-- (
Jer 30:14).
mourning and lamentation--There is a play of similar sounds in the original, "sorrow and sadness," to heighten the effect (
Hi 30:3, Hebrew;
Hes 35:3, Margin).
6 tabernacle--rather, "He hath violently taken away His hedge (the hedge of the place sacred to Him,
Ps 80:12;
Ps 89:40;
Jes 5:5), as that of a garden" [MAURER]. CALVIN supports English Version, "His tabernacle (that is, temple) as (one would take away the temporary cottage or booth) of a garden."
Jes 1:8 accords with this (
Hi 27:18).
places of . . . assembly--the temple and synagogues (
Ps 74:7-
Ps 74:8).
solemn feasts-- (
Klgl 1:4).
7 they . . . made a noise in . . . house of . . . Lord, as in . . . feast--The foe's shout of triumph in the captured temple bore a resemblance (but oh, how sad a contrast as to the occasion of it!) to the joyous thanksgivings we used to offer in the same place at our "solemn feasts" (compare
Klgl 2:22).
8 stretched . . . a line--The Easterns used a measuring-line not merely in building, but in destroying edifices (
2.Kön 21:13;
Jes 34:11); implying here the unsparing rigidness with which He would exact punishment.
9 Her gates cannot oppose the entrance of the foe into the city, for they are sunk under a mass of rubbish and earth.
broken . . . bars-- (
Jer 51:30).
her king . . . among . . . Gentiles-- (
5.Mo 28:36).
law . . . no more-- (
2.Chr 15:3). The civil and religious laws were one under the theocracy. "All the legal ordinances (prophetical as well as priestly) of the theocracy, are no more" (
Ps 74:9;
Hes 7:26).
10 (
Hi 2:12-
Hi 2:13). The "elders," by their example, would draw the others to violent grief.
the virgins--who usually are so anxious to set off their personal appearances to advantage.
11 liver is poured, &c.--that is, as the liver was thought to be the seat of the passions, "all my feelings are poured out and prostrated for," &c. The "liver," is here put for the bile ("gall,"
Hi 16:13; "bowels,"
Ps 22:14) in a bladder on the surface of the liver, copiously discharged when the passions are agitated.
swoon--through faintness from the effects of hunger.
12 as the wounded--famine being as deadly as the sword (
Jer 52:6).
soul . . . poured . . . into . . . mothers bosom--Instinctively turning to their mother's bosom, but finding no milk there, they breathe out their life as it were "into her bosom."
13 What thing shall I take to witness--What can I bring forward as a witness, or instance, to prove that others have sustained as grievous ills as thou? I cannot console thee as mourners are often consoled by showing that thy lot is only what others, too, suffer. The "sea" affords the only suitable emblem of thy woes, by its boundless extent and depth (
Klgl 1:12;
Dan 9:12).
14 Thy prophets--not God's (
Jer 23:26).
vain . . . for thee--to gratify thy appetite, not for truth, but for false things.
not discovered thine iniquity--in opposition to God's command to the true prophets (
Jes 58:1). Literally, "They have not taken off (the veil) which was on thine iniquity, so as to set it before thee."
burdens--Their prophecies were soothing and flattering; but the result of them was heavy calamities to the people, worse than even what the prophecies of Jeremiah, which they in derision called "burdens," threatened. Hence he terms their pretended prophecies "false burdens," which proved to the Jews "causes of their banishment" [CALVIN].
15 clap . . . hands--in derision (
Hi 27:23;
Hi 34:37).
wag . . . head-- (
2.Kön 19:21;
Ps 44:14).
perfection of beauty . . . joy of . . . earth-- (
Ps 48:2;
Ps 50:2). The Jews' enemies quote their very words in scorn.
16 For the transposition of Hebrew letters (Pe and Ain,
Klgl 2:16-
Klgl 2:17) in the order of verses, see Introduction.
opened . . . mouth--as ravening, roaring wild beasts (
Hi 16:9-
Hi 16:10;
Ps 22:13). Herein Jerusalem was a type of Messiah.
gnash . . . teeth--in vindictive malice.
we have seen it-- (
Ps 35:21).
17 Lord--Let not the foe exult as if it was their doing. It was "the Lord" who thus fulfilled the threats uttered by His prophets for the guilt of Judea (
3.Mo 26:16-
3.Mo 26:25;
5.Mo 28:36-
5.Mo 28:48,
5.Mo 28:53;
Jer 19:9).
18 wall-- (
Klgl 2:8). Personified. "Their heart," that is, the Jews'; while their heart is lifted up to the Lord in prayer, their speech is addressed to the "wall" (the part being put for the whole city).
let tears, &c.-- (
Jer 14:17). The wall is called on to weep for its own ruin and that of the city. Compare the similar personification (
Klgl 1:4).
apple--the pupil of the eye (
Ps 17:8).
19 cry . . . in . . . night-- (
Ps 119:147).
beginning of . . . watches--that is, the first of the three equal divisions (four hours each) into which the ancient Jews divided the night; namely, from sunset to ten o'clock. The second was called "the middle watch" (
Ri 7:19), from ten till two o'clock. The third, "the morning watch," from two to sunrise (
2.Mo 14:24;
1.Sam 11:11). Afterwards, under the Romans, they had four watches (
Mt 14:25;
Lk 12:38).
for . . . thy . . . children--that God, if He will not spare thee, may at least preserve "thy young children."
top of . . . street-- (
Jes 51:20;
Nah 3:10).
20 women eat . . . fruit--as threatened (
3.Mo 26:29;
5.Mo 28:53,
5.Mo 28:56-
5.Mo 28:57;
Jer 19:9).
children . . . span long--or else, "children whom they carry in their arms" [MAURER].
21 (
2.Chr 36:17).
22 Thou hast called as in . . . solemn day . . . terrors--Thou hast summoned my enemies against me from all quarters, just as multitudes used to be convened to Jerusalem, on the solemn feast days. The objects, for which the enemies and the festal multitude respectively met, formed a sad contrast. Compare
Klgl 1:15 : "called an assembly against me."
Jeremiah proposes his own experience under afflictions, as an example as to how the Jews should behave under theirs, so as to have hope of a restoration; hence the change from singular to plural (
Klgl 3:22,
Klgl 3:40-
Klgl 3:47). The stanzas consist of three lines, each of which begins with the same Hebrew letter.