Lamentations 2:5-15

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.^[a]

Vav

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

Yod

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

Kaf

11 My eyes are worn out from weeping;^[k] I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief^[l][m] because of the destruction of my dear people,^[n] 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?^[o] 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?^[p]

Nun

14 Your prophets saw visions for you that were empty and deceptive;^[q] they did not reveal your guilt and so restore your fortunes.^[r] They saw oracles for you that were empty and misleading.

Samek

15 All who pass by [scornfully] clap their hands^[s] at you. They hiss^[t] and shake their heads^[u] at Daughter Jerusalem: Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty,^[v] the joy of the whole earth?^[w]

Lamentations 2:5-15 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.

Footnotes

• [a] Isa 29:2
• [b] Lit booth
• [c] Ps 74:4
• [d] Ps 89:39
• [e] 2 Kg 21:13; Isa 28:17; 34:11,17
• [f] Neh 1:3; Jr 14:2
• [g] Or the law
• [h] Ezk 7:26; Mc 3:6
• [i] Jos 7:6; Jb 2:12; Ezk 27:30
• [j] Jb 10:15; Isa 58:5
• [k] Ps 69:3
• [l] Lit My liver is poured out on the ground
• [m] Ps 22:14
• [n] Lm 3:48
• [o] Dt 28:51; Hs 2:8-9; 7:14
• [p] Nah 3:19
• [q] Ezk 13:8-16
• [r] Dt 30:1-3; Jr 29:11-14; 30:1-3
• [s] Nm 24:10; Ezk 25:6
• [t] 1 Kg 9:8; Jr 19:8
• [u] Ps 22:7; 109:25; Mk 15:29
• [v] Ps 50:2
• [w] Ps 48:2