Lamentations 2:4

4 Like an enemy, he prepared to shoot his bow, and his hand was against us. Like an enemy, he killed all the good-looking people; he poured out his anger like fire on the tents of Jerusalem.

Lamentations 2:4 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 2:4

He hath bent his bow like an enemy
God sometimes appears as if he was an enemy to his people, when he is not, by his conduct and behaviour; by the dispensations of his providence they take him to be so, as Job did, ( Job 16:9 Job 16:10 Job 16:13 Job 16:14 ) ; he bends his bow, or treads it, for the bending or stretching the bow was done by the foot; and as the Targum,

``and threw his arrows at me:''

he stood with his right hand as an adversary;
with arrows in it, to put into his bow or with his sword drawn, as an adversary does. The Targum is,

``he stood at the right hand of Nebuchadnezzar and helped him, when he distressed his people Israel:''

and slew all [that were] pleasant to the eye;
princes and priests, husbands and wives, parents and children, young men and maids; desirable to their friends and relations, and to the commonwealth: in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion he poured out his fury like
fire;
that is, either in the temple, or in the city of Jerusalem, or both, which were burnt with fire, as the effect of divine wrath and fury; and which itself is comparable to fire; like a burning lamp of fire, as the Targum; or rather like a burning furnace or mountain; see ( Nahum 1:6 ) .

Lamentations 2:4 In-Context

2 The Lord swallowed up without mercy all the houses of the people of Jacob; in his anger he pulled down the strong places of Judah. He threw her kingdom and its rulers down to the ground in dishonor.

3 In his anger he has removed all the strength of Israel; he took away his power from Israel when the enemy came. that burns up everything around it.

4 Like an enemy, he prepared to shoot his bow, and his hand was against us. Like an enemy, he killed all the good-looking people; he poured out his anger like fire on the tents of Jerusalem.

5 The Lord was like an enemy; he swallowed up Israel. He swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed all her strongholds. He has caused more moaning and groaning for Judah.

6 He cut down his Temple like a garden; he destroyed the meeting place. the set feasts and Sabbath days. He has rejected the king and the priest in his great anger.