Lamentations 2:22

22 Thou calledest, as to a solemn day, them that made me afeared of compass; and none was that escaped in the day of the strong vengeance of the Lord, and was left; mine enemy wasted them, which I fed, and nourished up. (Thou hast called, like to a feast day, those all around me who made me afraid; and there was no one who escaped on the day of the strong vengeance of the Lord, and was left alive; my enemy destroyed all of them, whom I had fed, and nourished.)

Lamentations 2:22 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 2:22

Thou hast called, as in a solemn day, my terrors round about,
&c.] Terrible enemies, as the Chaldeans; these came at the call of God, as soldiers at the command of their general; and in as great numbers as men from all parts of Judea flocked to Jerusalem on any of the three solemn feasts of passover, pentecost, and tabernacles. The Targum paraphrases it very foreign to the sense;

``thou shall proclaim liberty to thy people, the house of Israel, by the Messiah, as thou didst by Moses and Aaron on the day of the passover:''
so that in the day of the Lord's anger none escaped or remained;
in the city of Jerusalem, and in the land of Judea; either they were put to death, or were carried captive; so that there was scarce an inhabitant to be found, especially after Gedaliah was slain, and the Jews left in the land were carried into Egypt: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed;
or "whom I could span", as Broughton; or "handled"; whose limbs she had stroked with her hands, whom she had swathed with bands, and had carried in her arms, and had most carefully and tenderly brought up: by those she had "swaddled" are meant the little ones; and by those she had "brought up" the greater ones, as Aben Ezra observes; but both the enemy, the Chaldeans, consumed and destroyed without mercy, without regard to their tender years, or the manner in which they were brought up; but as if they were nourished like lambs for the day of slaughter.

Lamentations 2:22 In-Context

20 See thou, Lord, and behold, whom thou hast made so bare; therefore whether women shall eat their fruit, (their) little children at the measure of an hand? for a priest and prophet is slain in the saintuary of the Lord. (See thou, Lord, and behold, they whom thou hast made so bare; and so shall women eat their own fruit, their own little children at the measure of an hand? shall a priest and a prophet be killed in the Lord's sanctuary?)
21 A child and an eld man lie on the earth withoutforth; my virgins and my young men fell down by sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thy strong vengeance, thou smotest and didest no mercy. (A child and an old man lie on the ground outside; my virgins and my young men fell down by the sword; thou hast killed them on the day of thy strong vengeance, thou struck them down, and showed no mercy.)
22 Thou calledest, as to a solemn day, them that made me afeared of compass; and none was that escaped in the day of the strong vengeance of the Lord, and was left; mine enemy wasted them, which I fed, and nourished up. (Thou hast called, like to a feast day, those all around me who made me afraid; and there was no one who escaped on the day of the strong vengeance of the Lord, and was left alive; my enemy destroyed all of them, whom I had fed, and nourished.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.