CLARITY EDITION · OLD TESTAMENT
Lamentations 2
Chapter 2 of 5
Chapter Overview
What happens in Lamentations 2
This chapter describes how God himself acted as an enemy against Jerusalem. Unlike chapter one, where outside nations are blamed, here the poet shows God tearing down the walls, the temple, and the kingdom with his own anger. The chapter ends with a desperate prayer asking God to look at what he has done to his own people.
Scripture
Lamentations 2
God Destroys His Own City
Study note
The poet describes God's anger like a consuming fire. God did not spare his own altar, his own temple, or his own people. He tore down the fortresses of Judah and let the walls crumble. The 'footstool' in verse 1 refers to the Ark of the Covenant in the temple, which was considered God's earthly throne. The gates sinking into the ground means the city's defenses were completely ruined. Even the prophets could no longer receive messages from God.
1 How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven to the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger! How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!
2 The Lord has devoured every dwelling place of Jacob's people and showed no mercy at all. In his rage, he has demolished the fortresses of Judah and leveled them to the ground. He has humiliated the entire kingdom and its leaders. The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.
3 In his white-hot anger, he has chopped off every source of Israel's power. He withdrew his helping hand the moment the enemy appeared. He burned against Jacob like a wildfire that destroys everything it touches. He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
4 He has bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire. He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.
5 The Lord became Israel's enemy. He consumed the nation and wrecked all of its beautiful palaces. He demolished its defenses and filled the people of Judah with wave after wave of mourning and grief. The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
6 And he has violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he has destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD has caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and has despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.
7 The Lord walked away from his own altar and turned his back on his own sacred dwelling. He let the enemy have the palace walls of Jerusalem. They cheered inside the Lord's house as though it were a day of celebration. 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 the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.
8 The Lord made a deliberate plan to tear down Jerusalem's walls. He pulled out his measuring line, and nothing could stop the demolition. He made the outer defenses and inner walls collapse together in grief. The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.
9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD. Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.
A City in Mourning
Study note
The elders sit on the ground in silence, wearing rough sackcloth and throwing dust on their heads as signs of deep mourning. The poet's own eyes fail from weeping. Children and babies collapse from hunger in the streets, dying in their mothers' arms. The poet asks what comparison could describe such enormous suffering, calling it a wound as deep and wide as the sea.
10 The elders of Jerusalem sit silently on the ground. They have thrown dust on their heads and wrapped themselves in rough cloth. The young women of Jerusalem bow their heads all the way down to the ground. The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
11 My eyes are red and swollen from weeping, and my stomach is twisted in knots. My heart shatters as I watch my people being destroyed, because little children and tiny babies are passing out from hunger in the city streets. Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.
12 The children call out to their mothers, "Where can we find food? Where can we find something to drink?" They collapse like wounded soldiers in the city streets, and their lives slip away while cradled in their mothers' arms. They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.
13 What words could I possibly say to you, Jerusalem? What comparison could capture your pain? Your wound is as deep and wide as the ocean itself. Who on earth could ever bring you healing? What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?
False Prophets and Mocking Enemies
Study note
Part of the blame falls on the false prophets who told the people everything was fine instead of warning them about their sin. These prophets gave worthless and misleading messages instead of calling the people to repentance. Now enemies clap their hands and mock the ruined city. They whisper, 'Is this the city people called the most beautiful place on earth?' God has carried out exactly what he warned would happen long ago through Moses.
14 Your prophets fed you nothing but worthless, empty messages. They never pointed out your sin so you could change direction and avoid punishment. Instead, they painted pretty pictures of lies that only led you deeper into ruin. Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.
15 Everyone walking by claps their hands to taunt you. They hiss and wag their heads at Jerusalem, saying, "Is this truly the city people used to call the most gorgeous place on earth, the joy of the whole world?" 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 call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?
16 All your enemies open their mouths wide to mock you. They hiss and grind their teeth together, sneering, "We have swallowed her whole! This is the day we have been dreaming about. We have lived long enough to see it happen!" All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.
17 The LORD has done that which he had devised; he has fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he has thrown down, and has not pitied: and he has caused your enemy to rejoice over you, he has set up the horn of your adversaries. The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.
A Desperate Prayer
Study note
The people cry out to God from the depths of their grief. They are told to pour out their hearts like water before the Lord, especially for the children starving on every street corner. The final verses contain one of the most agonizing questions in all of Scripture: should mothers have to watch their own children die? The chapter ends without an answer, leaving the horror of the destruction hanging in the silence.
18 Their heart cried to 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 apple of your eye cease. 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 rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.
19 Arise, cry out in the night: in 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 young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street. Arise, cry out in the night: in 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 in the top of every street.
20 "Lord, stop and look at what you have done! Should mothers truly be forced to eat their own babies -- the little ones they lovingly cared for? Should priests and prophets truly be slaughtered inside your own sacred temple?" Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
21 "Young and old are lying dead together in the streets. My young women and young men have been cut down by the sword. You struck them down on the day your anger erupted. You butchered them and showed them no mercy." The young and the old 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 killed, and not pitied.
22 You have called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD's anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up has my enemy consumed. Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD's anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.
Key Themes
Themes in Lamentations 2
God as the agent of judgmentThe destruction of sacred institutionsThe failure of false prophets to warnOverwhelming sorrow at what is lostCrying out to God as the only hope
Apply This Today
Living Lamentations 2
Recognizing that God Himself has acted in judgment is one of the most difficult spiritual truths to accept. When even our most sacred institutions are shaken, we are forced to ask whether we valued the institution more than the God behind it. In the end, the poet's only recourse is to pour out His heart before the Lord.
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