The previous chapter described the devastation caused by Nebuchadnezzar's sack of Jerusalem. Here the prophet weeps as he watches the starvation and death occurring at the end of Nebuchadnezzar's siege. Ellison argues that this chapter was written before chapter 1. House would disagree, seeing these first two chapters as a natural pair, both describing the pain of Jerusalem's sin.
Lamentations 2:1, Zion hurled down
How the Lord has covered Daughter Zion with the cloud of his anger!
He has hurled down the splendor of Israel from heaven to earth;
he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.
Jerusalem has lost its splendor, as a result of God's wrath. It used to be a footstool (a sign of submission) but now God has forgotten it.
Lamentations 2:2-3, No pity
Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob;
in his wrath he has torn down the strongholds of Daughter Judah.
He has brought her kingdom and its princes down to the ground in dishonor.
In fierce anger he has cut off every horn of Israel.
He has withdrawn his right hand at the approach of the enemy.
He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire that consumes everything around it.
The leaders, the princes of Judah have been torn down, along with all her strongholds. The "horn" (power) of Israel is removed as God allows an enemy to approach. Judah (and Israel a century before) are consumed.
Lamentations 2:4-5, God as enemy
Like an enemy he has strung his bow; his right hand is ready.
Like a foe he has slain all who were pleasing to the eye;
he has poured out his wrath like fire on the tent of Daughter Zion.
The Lord is like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel.
He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds.
He has multiplied mourning and lamentation for Daughter Judah.
Indeed, it is God who is Israel's enemy. There is no vague suggestion about that here -- it is God who strings his bow. It is He who swallows up the palaces and brings down the strongholds and causes all the mourning.
Lamentations 2:6-7, Worship rejected
He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden; he has destroyed his place of meeting.
The LORD has made Zion forget her appointed festivals and her Sabbaths;
in his fierce anger he has spurned both king and priest.
The Lord has rejected his altar and abandoned his sanctuary.
He has given the walls of her palaces into the hands of the enemy;
they have raised a shout in the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed festival.
Previously Jerusalem/Zion was lax in her Sabbath worship. Now she has been made to forget religious festivals and Sabbaths. The temple sanctuary is given over to the enemy.
Lamentations 2:8-9, Walls come down, gates sink
The LORD determined to tear down the wall around Daughter Zion.
He stretched out a measuring line and did not withhold his hand from destroying.
He made ramparts and walls lament; together they wasted away.
Her gates have sunk into the ground; their bars he has broken and destroyed.
Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations, the law is no more,
and her prophets no longer find visions from the LORD.
Jerusalem is torn down, not by invaders, but really by God. The gates and bars are broken down and her princes and prophets exiled. The king (Jehoiachin?) and his royal family have been taken away.
Lamentations 2:10, Women and elders bowed down
The elders of Daughter Zion sit on the ground in silence;
they have sprinkled dust on their heads and put on sackcloth.
The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.
From the young women of Jerusalem to the city elders, there is a display of deep mourning.
Lamentations 2:11-12, Lives ebbing away
My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within;
my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed,
because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.
They say to their mothers, “Where is bread and wine?”
as they faint like the wounded in the streets of the city,
as their lives ebb away in their mothers’ arms.
The narration changes over to first person. The prophet weeps because the children are starving and dying.
Lamentations 2:13, Wounds deep as the sea
What can I say for you? With what can I compare you, Daughter Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you, Virgin Daughter Zion?
Your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you?
The prophet speaks directly to the city. There is no healing for Jerusalem; there is no comfort. Her wounds are far too deep for healing.
Lamentations 2:14, False prophets
The visions of your prophets were false and worthless;
they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity.
The prophecies they gave you were false and misleading.
The false prophets kept reassuring Jerusalem that everything was OK, when it was not. See Jeremiah 23:18-22 and Ezekiel 13:10-16 for earlier examples of warning about these false prophets.
Lamentations 2:15, Clap and mock
All who pass your way clap their hands at you;
they scoff and shake their heads at Daughter Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?”
Clapping hands in mockery, scoffing and shaking their heads, is the action of the outsiders passing by. There is no respect for Jerusalem's former beauty.
The last phrase, "joy of the whole earth", recalls Psalm 48:2. Indeed, the last line is much longer than expected and so Ellison suggests that the Hebrew hā·’ā·reṣ kāl- mə·śō·wś may have been accidentally added by a scribe recalling that psalm.
The Hebrew text for this verse begins with the word saphaq, ("clap"), which itself begins with the fifteenth Hebrew letter, samech.
Lamentations 2:16, Open mouths
All your enemies open their mouths wide against you;
they scoff and gnash their teeth and say, “We have swallowed her up.
This is the day we have waited for; we have lived to see it.”
While Jerusalem mourns, her enemies rejoice.
The Hebrew text for this verse begins with the word patsah, ("to open") which itself begins with the seventeenth (not the sixteenth!) Hebrew letter, pe. For some reason, the Hebrew letter pe comes before ayin in chapters 2, 3 and 4 of Lamentations although the order of the Hebrew letters had apparently been set long before this (says Ellison.)
Lamentations 2:17, Decreed from long go
The LORD has done what he planned; he has fulfilled his word,
which he decreed long ago. He has overthrown you without pity,
he has let the enemy gloat over you, he has exalted the horn of your foes.
The author recalls the prophecies (by people like Isaiah a century before and Jeremiah more recently and passages in the Books of Moses, such as Deuteronomy 28:15-68) that warned of this judgment.
The Hebrew text for this verse begins with the word asah ("to do"), which itself begins with the sixteenth (not the seventeenth) Hebrew letter, ayin.
Lamentations 2:18-19, Weep you walls
The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord.
You walls of Daughter Zion, let your tears flow like a river day and night;
give yourself no relief, your eyes no rest.
Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin;
pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord.
Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children,
who faint from hunger at every street corner.
Even the walls of Jerusalem are to cry out and weep for the dying children in the streets.
The four lines of verse 19 violate the tricolon (three-line) structure of this psalm and so some commentators suggest that the last line was not in the original text (Ellison, p. 715.)
Lamentations 2:20-22, Dead and dying in the streets
“Look, LORD, and consider: Whom have you ever treated like this?
Should women eat their offspring, the children they have cared for?
Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
“Young and old lie together in the dust of the streets;
my young men and young women have fallen by the sword.
You have slain them in the day of your anger;
you have slaughtered them without pity.
“As you summon to a feast day, so you summoned against me terrors on every side.
In the day of the LORD’s anger no one escaped or survived;
those I cared for and reared my enemy has destroyed.”
The prophet turns to address YHWH directly and so this passage is a prayer, a combination of accusation and plea. Women eat their children so as not to starve. Priests and prophets are killed in the sanctuary. There are bodies everywhere. Please look, Lord, says the author as he accuses God of inviting these terrors as if He were sending out invitations to a party.
House (p. 374) quotes Renkema as observing a certain chiasmic (concentric) structure to this chapter, with verses 1 and 22 describing "the day of his anger", verses 2 and 21 on God's lack of mercy or pity, verses 3 and 20 describing some type of "'consuming' imagery", and so on.
Some Random Thoughts
The author of this lament weeps as starving children die in the streets. As I type these words, I am aware of children dying in Gaza as, 2500 years later, fighting continues between Jerusalem and the nations around her.
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