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Lamentations 2:2-12

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Bet

2 Without compassion[a] the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob. In His wrath He has demolished the fortified cities[b] of Daughter Judah. He brought [them] to the ground and defiled the kingdom and its leaders.[c]

Gimel

3 He has cut off every horn[d] of Israel in His burning anger and withdrawn His right hand in the presence of the enemy. He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire that consumes everything [in its path].

Dalet

4 Like an enemy He has bent His bow;[e] His right hand is positioned like an adversary. He has killed everyone who was loved,[f] pouring out His wrath like fire on the tent of Daughter Zion.

He

5 The Lord is like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel. He swallowed up all its palaces and destroyed its fortified cities. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation within Daughter Judah.[g]

Vav

6 He has done violence to His temple[h] as if [it were] a garden [booth], destroying His place of meeting.[i] The Lord has abolished appointed festivals and Sabbaths in Zion. He has despised king and priest in His fierce anger.

Zayin

7 The Lord has rejected His altar, repudiated His sanctuary;[j] He has handed the walls of her palaces over to the enemy. They have raised a shout in the house of the Lord as on the day of an appointed festival.

Khet

8 The Lord determined to destroy the wall of Daughter Zion. He stretched out a measuring line[k] and did not restrain Himself from destroying. He made the ramparts and walls grieve; together they waste away.

Tet

9 Zion's gates have fallen to the ground;[l] He has destroyed and shattered the bars on her [gates]. Her king and her leaders [live] among the nations, instruction[m] is no more, and even her prophets receive no vision from the Lord.[n]

Yod

10 The elders of Daughter Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dust on their heads[o] and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.[p]

Kaf

11 My eyes are worn out from weeping;[q] I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief[r][s] because of the destruction of my dear people,[t] because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.

Lamed

12 They cry out to their mothers: Where is the grain and wine?[u] as they faint like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their lives fade away in the arms of their mothers.
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Lamentations 2:2-12 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Footnotes 21

Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.