Lamentations 2:16-22

16 ¹All your enemies rail against you; they hiss, they gnash their teeth, they cry: “We ²have swallowed her! Ah, this is the day we longed for; now we have it; ³we see it! ”

17 The Lord has done what he purposed; he has carried out ⁴his word, which he commanded ⁵long ago; ⁶he has thrown down ⁷without pity; ⁸he has made the enemy rejoice over you and exalted the ⁹might of your foes.

18 Their heart cried to the Lord. O ¹⁰wall of the daughter of Zion, ¹¹let tears stream down like a torrent ¹²day and night! ¹³Give yourself no rest, ¹⁴your eyes no respite!

19 “Arise, ¹⁵cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches! ¹⁶Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! ¹⁷Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, ¹⁸who faint for hunger at the head of every street. ”

20 Look, O Lord, and see! ¹⁹With whom have you dealt thus? ²⁰Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of ²¹their tender care? Should ²²priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 In the dust of the streets ²³lie the young and the old; ²⁴my young women and my young men have fallen by the sword; ²⁵you have killed them in the day of your anger, slaughtering ²⁶without pity.

22 You summoned as if to ²⁷a festival day ²⁸my terrors on every side, ²⁹and on the day of the anger of the Lord no one escaped or survived; ³⁰those whom I held and raised my enemy destroyed.

Lamentations 2:16-22 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

• 1. 2:16 ch. 3:46; [Job 16:9, 10]
• 2. 2:16 See ver. 2
• 3. 2:16 [Ps. 35:21]
• 4. 2:17 See Lev. 26:14-45; Deut. 28:15-68
• 5. 2:17 ch. 1:7; Jer. 46:26
• 6. 2:17 See ver. 2
• 7. 2:17 ver. 2, 21
• 8. 2:17 [Ps. 38:16; 89:42]
• 9. 2:17 [ver. 3]
• 10. 2:18 ver. 8
• 11. 2:18 See ver. 11
• 12. 2:18 Ps. 32:4; 42:3
• 13. 2:18 Ps. 77:2
• 14. 2:18 Ps. 17:8
• 15. 2:19 Ps. 119:147, 148
• 16. 2:19 Ps. 62:8; [1 Sam. 7:6]
• 17. 2:19 [1 Tim. 2:8]
• 18. 2:19 See ver. 11, 12
• 19. 2:20 ch. 1:22
• 20. 2:20 ch. 4:10; See Jer. 19:9
• 21. 2:20 ver. 22
• 22. 2:20 [ch. 4:13]
• 23. 2:21 [2 Chr. 36:17]
• 24. 2:21 [2 Chr. 36:17]
• 25. 2:21 ch. 3:43
• 26. 2:21 ver. 2, 17
• 27. 2:22 [ver. 6]
• 28. 2:22 See Jer. 6:25
• 29. 2:22 [Jer. 42:17; 44:14]
• 30. 2:22 ver. 20