Lamentations 2:3-13

Gimel

3 He has cut off every horn^[a] of Israel in His burning anger and withdrawn His right hand in the presence of the enemy.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;^[b] His right hand is positioned like an adversary. He has killed everyone who was loved,^[c] 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.^[d]

Vav

6 He has done violence to His temple^[e] as if [it were] a garden [booth], destroying His place of meeting.^[f] 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;^[g] 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^[h] 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;^[i] He has destroyed and shattered the bars on her [gates]. Her king and her leaders [live] among the nations, instruction^[j] is no more, and even her prophets receive no vision from the Lord.^[k]

Yod

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

Kaf

11 My eyes are worn out from weeping;^[n] I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief^[o]^[p] because of the destruction of my dear people,^[q] 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?^[r] as they faint like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their lives fade away in the arms of their mothers.

Mem

13 What can I say on your behalf? To what can I compare you, Daughter Jerusalem? What can I liken you to, so that I may console you, Virgin Daughter Zion? For your ruin is as vast as the sea. Who can heal you?^[s]

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Lamentations 2:3-13 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 19

[a]. Ps 75:5,10; Jr 48:25
[b]. Lm 3:12; Ps 7:12
[c]. Lit killed all the delights of the eye; Ezk 24:16
[d]. Isa 29:2
[e]. Lit booth
[f]. Ps 74:4
[g]. Ps 89:39
[h]. 2 Kg 21:13; Isa 28:17; 34:11,17
[i]. Neh 1:3; Jr 14:2
[j]. Or the law
[k]. Ezk 7:26; Mc 3:6
[l]. Jos 7:6; Jb 2:12; Ezk 27:30
[m]. Jb 10:15; Isa 58:5
[n]. Ps 69:3
[o]. Lit My liver is poured out on the ground
[p]. Ps 22:14
[q]. Lm 3:48
[r]. Dt 28:51; Hs 2:8-9; 7:14
[s]. Nah 3:19