Lamentations 2

1 How the Lord has covered Daughter Zion with the cloud of his anger[a] ! He has hurled down the splendor of Israel from heaven to earth; he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.
2 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.
3 In fierce anger he has cut off every horn[b][c] 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 He has withdrawn his right hand at the approach of the enemy.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.
4 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.
5 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.
6 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.
7 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 LORDas on the day of an appointed festival.
8 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.
9 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.
10 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.
11 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.
12 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.
13 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?
14 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.
15 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?”
16 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.”
17 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[d] of your foes.
18 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.
19 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.
20 “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?
21 “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.
22 “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.”

Lamentations 2 Commentary

Chapter 2

Lamentation for the misery of Jerusalem.

Verses 1-9 A sad representation is here made of the state of God's church, of Jacob and Israel; but the notice seems mostly to refer to the hand of the Lord in their calamities. Yet God is not an enemy to his people, when he is angry with them and corrects them. And gates and bars stand in no stead when God withdraws his protection. It is just with God to cast down those by judgments, who debase themselves by sin; and to deprive those of the benefit and comfort of sabbaths and ordinances, who have not duly valued nor observed them. What should they do with Bibles, who make no improvement of them? Those who misuse God's prophets, justly lose them. It becomes necessary, though painful, to turn the thoughts of the afflicted to the hand of God lifted up against them, and to their sins as the source of their miseries.

Verses 10-22 Causes for lamentation are described. Multitudes perished by famine. Even little children were slain by their mother's hands, and eaten, according to the threatening, ( Deuteronomy 28:53 ) . Multitudes fell by the sword. Their false prophets deceived them. And their neighbours laughed at them. It is a great sin to jest at others' miseries, and adds much affliction to the afflicted. Their enemies triumphed over them. The enemies of the church are apt to take its shocks for its ruins; but they will find themselves deceived. Calls to lamentation are given; and comforts for the cure of these lamentations are sought. Prayer is a salve for every sore, even the sorest; a remedy for every malady, even the most grievous. Our business in prayer is to refer our case to the Lord, and leave it with him. His will be done. Let us fear God, and walk humbly before him, and take heed lest we fall.

Cross References 90

  • 1. Lamentations 3:44
  • 2. Psalms 99:5; Psalms 132:7
  • 3. S Jeremiah 12:7
  • 4. ver 17; Lamentations 3:43
  • 5. Psalms 21:9
  • 6. Psalms 89:39-40; Micah 5:11
  • 7. S Isaiah 25:12
  • 8. Psalms 75:5,10
  • 9. Psalms 74:11
  • 10. S Isaiah 42:25; Jer 21:4-5,14
  • 11. S Job 3:23; Job 16:13; Lamentations 3:12-13
  • 12. S Psalms 48:2; Ezekiel 24:16,25
  • 13. S 2 Chronicles 34:21; Ezekiel 20:34
  • 14. Isaiah 42:25; S Jeremiah 7:20
  • 15. S Jeremiah 4:20
  • 16. S Job 13:24; Jeremiah 30:14
  • 17. ver 2
  • 18. S Isaiah 29:2
  • 19. S Jeremiah 7:20; Jeremiah 9:17-20
  • 20. 2 Chronicles 36:19
  • 21. S Jeremiah 52:13
  • 22. Lamentations 1:4; Zephaniah 3:18
  • 23. Isaiah 43:28; S Jeremiah 7:14; Lamentations 4:16; Lamentations 5:12
  • 24. S Leviticus 26:31; S Ezekiel 7:24
  • 25. Psalms 74:7-8; S Isaiah 64:11; Jeremiah 33:4-5; Ezekiel 7:21-22
  • 26. Jeremiah 21:4; Jeremiah 52:13
  • 27. ver 18
  • 28. S 2 Kings 21:13; Isaiah 34:11
  • 29. S Psalms 48:13
  • 30. Isaiah 3:26; S Jeremiah 39:8; S Jeremiah 52:14
  • 31. S Nehemiah 1:3
  • 32. S Isaiah 45:2; Hosea 11:6
  • 33. Deuteronomy 28:36; S 2 Kings 24:15; Jeremiah 16:13; Hosea 3:4
  • 34. S 2 Chronicles 15:3
  • 35. S 1 Samuel 3:1
  • 36. S Jeremiah 14:14
  • 37. Lamentations 3:28
  • 38. S Joshua 7:6
  • 39. Job 2:12
  • 40. S Isaiah 3:24; Isaiah 15:3
  • 41. S Job 2:13; S Isaiah 3:26; Ezekiel 27:30-31
  • 42. S Psalms 119:82; S Isaiah 15:3; S Lamentations 1:16; Lamentations 3:48-51
  • 43. S Job 30:27; Lamentations 1:20
  • 44. S Isaiah 1:5
  • 45. ver 19; Psalms 22:14
  • 46. S Jeremiah 9:1
  • 47. Lamentations 4:4
  • 48. Isaiah 24:11
  • 49. S Job 3:24
  • 50. Lamentations 4:4
  • 51. S Isaiah 1:6
  • 52. S 2 Kings 19:21
  • 53. Isaiah 37:22
  • 54. Jeremiah 14:17; Jeremiah 30:12-15; Lamentations 1:12
  • 55. S Jeremiah 28:15
  • 56. Isaiah 58:1; Jeremiah 8:11
  • 57. Jeremiah 2:8; S Jeremiah 20:6; Jeremiah 23:25-32,33-40; S Jeremiah 29:9; Ezekiel 13:3; Ezekiel 22:28
  • 58. S Numbers 24:10; Ezekiel 25:6
  • 59. S Deuteronomy 28:37; S Isaiah 28:22; Jeremiah 19:8; S Nahum 3:19
  • 60. S Job 16:4
  • 61. S Lamentations 1:21
  • 62. Psalms 45:11; S Psalms 48:2; Psalms 50:2; Ezekiel 16:14
  • 63. Psalms 48:2
  • 64. Psalms 22:13; Psalms 56:2; Lamentations 3:46
  • 65. S Job 16:9
  • 66. S Psalms 35:25
  • 67. Ezekiel 36:3; Micah 4:11
  • 68. S Jeremiah 39:16
  • 69. Deuteronomy 28:15-45
  • 70. S ver 2; Ezekiel 5:11; Ezekiel 7:9; Ezekiel 8:18
  • 71. S Psalms 22:17
  • 72. Psalms 89:42; S Isaiah 44:26; S Lamentations 1:5; Zechariah 1:6
  • 73. S Psalms 119:145
  • 74. ver 8
  • 75. S Lamentations 1:16
  • 76. S Jeremiah 9:1
  • 77. Lamentations 3:49
  • 78. 1 Samuel 1:15; Psalms 62:8
  • 79. S ver 11; Isaiah 26:9
  • 80. S Psalms 28:2
  • 81. S Isaiah 51:20
  • 82. S Deuteronomy 28:53; Jeremiah 19:9; Ezekiel 5:10
  • 83. Lamentations 4:10
  • 84. Psalms 78:64; S Jeremiah 14:15; Jeremiah 23:11-12
  • 85. S Lamentations 1:19
  • 86. S Deuteronomy 32:25; S 2 Chronicles 36:17; Psalms 78:62-63; Jeremiah 6:11
  • 87. S Jeremiah 13:14; Lamentations 3:43; Zechariah 11:6
  • 88. S Psalms 31:13; Jeremiah 6:25; S Jeremiah 20:10
  • 89. S Jeremiah 11:11
  • 90. Job 27:14; Hosea 9:13

Footnotes 4

  • [a]. Or "How the Lord in his anger" / "has treated Daughter Zion with contempt"
  • [b]. Or "off" / "all the strength" ; or "every king"
  • [c]. "Horn" here symbolizes strength.
  • [d]. "Horn" here symbolizes strength.

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO LAMENTATIONS 2

This chapter contains another alphabet, in which the Prophet Jeremiah, or those he represents, lament the sad condition of Jerusalem; the destruction of the city and temple, and of all persons and things relative to them, and to its civil or church state; and that as being from the hand of the Lord himself, who is represented all along as the author thereof, because of their sins, La 2:1-9; and then the elders and virgins of Zion are represented as in great distress, and weeping for those desolations; which were very much owing to the false prophets, that had deceived them, La 2:10-14; and all this occasioned great rejoicing in the enemies of Zion, La 2:15-17; but sorrow of heart to Zion herself, who is called to weeping, La 2:18,19; and the chapter is concluded with an address to the Lord, to take this her sorrowful case into consideration, and show pity and compassion, La 2:20-22.

Lamentations 2 Commentaries

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