Lamentations 2:1-9

God's Anger over Israel

1 How the Lord has 1covered the daughter of Zion With a cloud in His anger! He has 2cast from heaven to earth The 3glory of Israel, And has not remembered His 4footstool * In the day of His anger.
2 The Lord has 5swallowed up; He has not spared All the habitations of Jacob. In His wrath He has 6thrown down The strongholds of the daughter of Judah; He has 7brought them down to the ground; He has 8profaned the kingdom and its princes.
3 In fierce anger He has cut off All the 9strength of Israel; He has 10drawn back His right hand From before the enemy. And He has 11burned in Jacob like a flaming fire Consuming round about.
4 He has bent His 12bow like an enemy; He has set His right hand like an adversary And slain all that were 13pleasant to the eye; In the tent of the daughter of Zion He has 14poured out His wrath like fire.
5 The Lord has become like an 15enemy. He has 16swallowed up Israel; He has swallowed up all its 17palaces, He has destroyed its strongholds And 18multiplied in the daughter of Judah Mourning and moaning.
6 And He has violently treated His tabernacle like a garden booth; He has 19destroyed His appointed meeting place. The LORD has 20caused to be forgotten The appointed feast and sabbath in Zion, And He has 21despised king and priest In the indignation of His anger.
7 The Lord has 22rejected His altar, He has abandoned His sanctuary; He 23has delivered into the hand of the enemy The walls of her palaces. They have made a 24noise in the house of the LORD As in the day of an appointed feast.
8 The LORD determined to destroy The wall of the daughter of Zion. He has 25stretched out a line, He has not restrained His hand from destroying, And He has 26caused rampart and wall to lament; They have languished together.
9 Her 27gates have sunk into the ground, He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations; The 28law is no more. Also, her prophets find 29No vision from the LORD.

Lamentations 2:1-9 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.

Cross References 29

  • 1. Ezekiel 30:18
  • 2. Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:14-16
  • 3. Isaiah 64:11
  • 4. Psalms 99:5; Psalms 132:7
  • 5. Psalms 21:9; Lamentations 3:43
  • 6. Lamentations 2:5; Micah 5:11, 14
  • 7. Isaiah 25:12; Isaiah 26:5
  • 8. Psalms 89:39, 40; Isaiah 43:28
  • 9. Psalms 75:5, 10; Jeremiah 48:25
  • 10. Psalms 74:11; Jeremiah 21:4, 5
  • 11. Isaiah 42:25; Jeremiah 21:14
  • 12. Job 6:4; Job 16:13; Lamentations 3:12, 13
  • 13. Ezekiel 24:25
  • 14. Isaiah 42:25; Jeremiah 7:20
  • 15. Jeremiah 30:14
  • 16. Lamentations 2:2
  • 17. Jeremiah 52:13; Lamentations 2:2
  • 18. Jeremiah 9:17-20
  • 19. Jeremiah 52:13
  • 20. Jeremiah 17:27; Lamentations 1:4; Zephaniah 3:18
  • 21. Lamentations 4:16
  • 22. Psalms 78:59-61; Isaiah 64:11; Ezekiel 7:20-22
  • 23. Jeremiah 33:4, 5; Jeremiah 52:13
  • 24. Psalms 74:3-8
  • 25. 2 Kings 21:13; Isaiah 34:11; Amos 7:7-9
  • 26. Isaiah 3:26; Jeremiah 14:2
  • 27. Nehemiah 1:3
  • 28. Hosea 3:4
  • 29. Jeremiah 14:14; Jeremiah 23:16; Ezekiel 7:26

Footnotes 5

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