Lamentations 2:18

18 O Jerusalem, let your very walls cry out to the Lord! Let your tears flow like rivers night and day; Wear yourself out with weeping and grief!

Lamentations 2:18 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 2:18

Their heart cried unto the Lord
Either the heart of their enemies, as Aben Ezra; which cried against the Lord, and blasphemed him; or rather the heart of the Jews in their distress, when they saw the walls of the city breaking down, they cried unto the Lord for help and protection, whether sincerely or not; no doubt some did; and all were desirous of preservation: O wall of the daughter of Zion!
this seems to be an address of the prophet to the people of Jerusalem carried captive, which was now without houses and inhabitants, only a broken wall standing, some remains and ruins of that; which is mentioned to excite their sorrow and lamentation: let tears run down like a river, day and night;
incessantly, for the destruction and desolation made: give thyself no rest;
or intermission; but weep continually: let not the apple of thine eye cease;
from pouring out tears; or from weeping, as the Targum; or let it not "be silent" F2, or asleep; but be open and employed in beholding the miseries of the nation, and in deploring them.


FOOTNOTES:

F2 (Mdt la) "non taceat", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus; "ne sileat", Calvin, Michaelis.

Lamentations 2:18 In-Context

16 All your enemies mock you and glare at you with hate. They curl their lips and sneer, "We have destroyed it! This is the day we have waited for!"
17 The Lord has finally done what he threatened to do: He has destroyed us without mercy, as he warned us long ago. He gave our enemies victory, gave them joy at our downfall.
18 O Jerusalem, let your very walls cry out to the Lord! Let your tears flow like rivers night and day; Wear yourself out with weeping and grief!
19 All through the night get up again and again to cry out to the Lord; Pour out your heart and beg him for mercy on your children - Children starving to death on every street corner!
20 Look, O Lord! Why are you punishing us like this? Women are eating the bodies of the children they loved! Priests and prophets are being killed in the Temple itself!

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. [Probable text] O Jerusalem . . . Lord; [Hebrew] Their hearts cried out to the Lord, O wall of Jerusalem.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.