Lamentations 2:6

6 He has laid waste his booth like a garden, laid in ruins 1his meeting place; 2the LORD has made Zion forget festival and 3Sabbath, and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest.

Lamentations 2:6 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 2:6

And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as [if it
were] of a garden
The house of the sanctuary or temple, as the Targum; which was demolished at once with great force and violence, and as easily done as a tent or tabernacle is taken down; and no more account made of it than of a cottage or lodge in a vineyard or garden, set up while the fruit was, gathering; either to shelter from the heat of the sun in the day, or to lodge in at night; see ( Isaiah 1:8 ) ; he hath destroyed his places in the assembly;
the courts where the people used to assemble for worship in the temple; or the synagogues in Jerusalem, and other parts of the land: the Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in
Zion;
there being neither places to keep them in, nor people to observe them: and hath despised, in the indignation of his anger, the king and the
priest;
whose persons and offices were sacred, and ought to be treated by men with honour and respect; but, for the sins of both, the Lord despised them himself, and made them the object of his wrath and indignation, and suffered them to be despised and ill used by others, by the Chaldeans; Zedekiah had his children slain before his eyes, and then they were put out, and he was carried in chains to Babylon, and there detained a captive all his days; and Seraiah the chief priest, or, as the Targum here has it, the high priest, was put to death by the king of Babylon; though not only the persons of the king and priest are meant, but their offices also; the kingdom and priesthood ceased from being exercised for many years.

Lamentations 2:6 In-Context

4 He has bent his bow like an enemy, with his right hand set like a foe; and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes in the tent of the daughter of Zion; he has poured out his fury like fire.
5 The Lord has become like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel; he has swallowed up all its palaces; he has laid in ruins its strongholds, and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
6 He has laid waste his booth like a garden, laid in ruins his meeting place; the LORD has made Zion forget festival and Sabbath, and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest.
7 The Lord has scorned his altar, disowned his sanctuary; he has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they raised a clamor in the house of the LORD as on the day of festival.
8 The LORD determined to lay in ruins the wall of the daughter of Zion; he stretched out the measuring line; he did not restrain his hand from destroying; he caused rampart and wall to lament; they languished together.

Cross References 3

  • 1. Lamentations 1:4; Isaiah 1:13; Zephaniah 3:18
  • 2. Lamentations 1:4; Isaiah 1:13; Zephaniah 3:18
  • 3. Isaiah 1:13
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.