Lamentations 2

Lamentations 2:1-22 .

Aleph.

1. How--The title of the collection repeated here, and in Lamentations 4:1 .
covered . . . with a cloud--that is, with the darkness of ignominy.
cast down from heaven unto . . . earth--( Matthew 11:23 ); dashed down from the highest prosperity to the lowest misery.
beauty of Israel--the beautiful temple ( Psalms 29:2 , 74:7 , 96:9 , Margin; Isaiah 60:7 , 64:11 ).
his footstool--the ark (compare 1 Chronicles 28:2 , with Psalms 99:5 , 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.

Beth.

2. polluted--by delivering it into the hands of the profane foe. Compare Psalms 89:39 , "profaned . . . crown."

Gimel.

3. horn--worn in the East as an ornament on the forehead, and an emblem of power and majesty ( 1 Samuel 2:10 , Psalms 132:17 ;
drawn back . . . fight hand--( Psalms 74:11 ). God has withdrawn the help which He before gave them. Not as HENDERSON, "He has turned back his (Israel's) right hand" ( Psalms 89:43 ).

Daleth.

4. ( Isaiah 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--( Ezekiel 24:25 ). All that were conspicuous for youth, beauty, and rank.
in . . . tabernacle--the dwellings of Jerusalem.

He.

5. an enemy--( Jeremiah 30:14 ).
mourning and lamentation--There is a play of similar sounds in the original, "sorrow and sadness," to heighten the effect ( Job 30:3 , Hebrew; Ezekiel 35:3 , Margin).

Vau.

6. tabernacle--rather, "He hath violently taken away His hedge (the hedge of the place sacred to Him, Psalms 80:12 , 89:40 , Isaiah 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." Isaiah 1:8 accords with this ( Job 27:18 ).
places of . . . assembly--the temple and synagogues ( Psalms 74:7 Psalms 74:8 ).
solemn feasts--( Lamentations 1:4 ).

Zain.

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 Lamentations 2:22 ).

Cheth.

8. stretched . . . a line--The Easterns used a measuring-line not merely in building, but in destroying edifices ( 2 Kings 21:13 , Isaiah 34:11 ); implying here the unsparing rigidness with which He would exact punishment.

Teth.