Ekhah 2

1 How hath Adonoi covered Bat Tziyon with a cloud in His anger, and hurled down from Shomayim unto Eretz the tiferet Yisroel, and remembered not His hadom (footstool) in the Day of His Wrath!

2 Adonoi hath swallowed up all the habitations of Ya’akov, and hath not pitied; He hath torn down in His Wrath the strongholds of Bat Yehudah; He hath brought them down to the ground; chillel (He hath defiled) the mamlachah and the sarim (princes) thereof.

3 He hath cut off in His fierce anger kol keren Yisroel; He hath drawn back His right hand from before the oyev, and He burned against Ya’akov like a flaming eish, which devoureth all around.

4 He hath bent His keshet (bow) like an oyev; He took His stand with His right hand as an adversary, and slaughtered all that were pleasant to the eye in the ohel Bat Tziyon; He poured out His fury like eish.

5 Adonoi was like an oyev; He hath swallowed up Yisroel, He hath swallowed up all her armonot (palaces); He hath destroyed His strongholds, and hath increased in Bat Yehudah mourning and lamentation.

6 And He hath violently destroyed His sukkah, as if it were of a gan (garden); He hath laid waste His Mo’ed; Hashem hath caused Mo’ed and Shabbos to be forgotten in Tziyon, and in the indignation of His anger hath spurned Melech and Kohen.

7 Adonoi hath cast off His Mizbe’ach, He hath disowned His Mikdash, He hath given up into the yad oyev the chomot armonot of hers; they have raised shouts in the Beis Hashem, as in the Yom Mo’ed.

8 Hashem hath purposed to destroy the Chomat Bat Tziyon; He hath stretched out a measuring line, He hath not withdrawn His hand from destroying; therefore He made the rampart and the chomah to lament; they languished together.

9 Her she’arim are sunk into the ground; He hath destroyed and broken her bars; her melech and her sarim (princes) are among the Goyim; the torah is no more; her nevi’im also find no chazon (vision) from Hashem.

10 The Ziknei Bat Tziyon sit upon the ground, and keep silence; they have cast up aphar upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth; the Betulot Yerushalayim hang down their heads to the ground.

11 Mine eyes do fail from weepings, my insides are troubled, empty and poured upon ha’aretz, for the destruction of Bat Ami; because the olel and the infant swoon in the rechovot of the city.

12 They say to their imahot, Where is grain and yayin? Say they when they swooned like the wounded in the rechovot Ir, when their nefesh ebbed away into the kheyk imahot of them.

13 What thing shall I say to thee? What thing shall I liken to thee, O Bat Yerushalayim? What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O Betulat Bat Tziyon? For thy shever (destruction) is as gadol as the yam. Who can heal thee?

14 Thy nevi’im have seen false and worthless visions for thee; and they have not exposed thine avon, to ward off thy captivity; but have seen for thee mase’ot shav and madduchim (false and misleading burdens, oracles).

15 All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at Bat Yerushalayim, saying, Is this the Ir that men call Kelilat Yofi Masos L’Khol HaAretz (perfection in beauty, the joy of the whole earth)?

16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee; they hiss and gnash their teeth; they say, We have swallowed her up; certainly this is the Yom that we waited for; we have found, we have seen it.

17 Hashem hath done that which He had devised; He hath fulfilled His word that He decreed in the yemai kedem; He hath overthrown, and hath not pitied, and He hath caused thine oyev to gloat over thee, He hath exalted the keren of thine adversaries.

18 Their lev cried unto Adonoi, O Chomat Bat Tziyon, let tears run down like a river yomam valailah; give thyself no relief; let not thine eye rest.

19 Arise, cry out balailah; in the beginning of the night watches pour out thine lev like mayim before the face of Adonoi; lift up thy hands to Him for the nefesh of thy ollelim, that faint for hunger on every street corner.

20 Look, Hashem, and consider to whom Thou hast done this. Shall the nashim eat their offspring, the children they have cared for? Shall the Kohen and the Navi be slain in the Mikdash Adonoi?

21 The na’ar and the zaken lie in the dust of the streets; my betulot and my bochurim are fallen by the cherev; Thou hast slain them in the Day of Thy Wrath; Thou hast slaughtered, and not pitied.

22 Thou hast summoned as in a Yom Mo’ed my terrors all around, so that in the Yom Af Hashem none escaped nor remained; those that I have swaddled and reared hath mine oyev consumed.

Ekhah 2 Commentary

Chapter 2

Lamentation for the misery of Jerusalem.

Verses 1-9 A sad representation is here made of the state of God's church, of Jacob and Israel; but the notice seems mostly to refer to the hand of the Lord in their calamities. Yet God is not an enemy to his people, when he is angry with them and corrects them. And gates and bars stand in no stead when God withdraws his protection. It is just with God to cast down those by judgments, who debase themselves by sin; and to deprive those of the benefit and comfort of sabbaths and ordinances, who have not duly valued nor observed them. What should they do with Bibles, who make no improvement of them? Those who misuse God's prophets, justly lose them. It becomes necessary, though painful, to turn the thoughts of the afflicted to the hand of God lifted up against them, and to their sins as the source of their miseries.

Verses 10-22 Causes for lamentation are described. Multitudes perished by famine. Even little children were slain by their mother's hands, and eaten, according to the threatening, ( Deuteronomy 28:53 ) . Multitudes fell by the sword. Their false prophets deceived them. And their neighbours laughed at them. It is a great sin to jest at others' miseries, and adds much affliction to the afflicted. Their enemies triumphed over them. The enemies of the church are apt to take its shocks for its ruins; but they will find themselves deceived. Calls to lamentation are given; and comforts for the cure of these lamentations are sought. Prayer is a salve for every sore, even the sorest; a remedy for every malady, even the most grievous. Our business in prayer is to refer our case to the Lord, and leave it with him. His will be done. Let us fear God, and walk humbly before him, and take heed lest we fall.

Chapter Summary

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.