Lamentations 2:1-9

1 How has the Lord covered the daughter of Tziyon with a cloud in his anger! He has cast down from heaven to the eretz the beauty of Yisra'el, And hasn't remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.

2 The Lord has swallowed up all the habitations of Ya`akov, and has not pitied: He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Yehudah; He has brought them down to the ground; he has profaned the kingdom and the princes of it.

3 He has cut off in fierce anger all the horn of Yisra'el; He has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy: He has burned up Ya`akov like a flaming fire, which devours round about.

4 He has bent his bow like an enemy, he has stood with his right hand as an adversary, Has killed all that were pleasant to the eye: In the tent of the daughter of Tziyon he has poured out his wrath like fire.

5 The Lord is become as an enemy, he has swallowed up Yisra'el; He has swallowed up all her palaces, he has destroyed his strongholds; He has multiplied in the daughter of Yehudah mourning and lamentation.

6 He has violently taken away his tent, as if it were of a garden; he has destroyed his place of assembly: The LORD has caused solemn assembly and Shabbat to be forgotten in Tziyon, Has despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the Kohen.

7 The Lord has cast off his altar, he has abhorred his sanctuary; He has given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces: They have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn assembly.

8 The LORD has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Tziyon; He has stretched out the line, he has not withdrawn his hand from destroying; He has made the rampart and wall to lament; they languish together.

9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars: Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not; Yes, her prophets find no vision from the LORD.

Lamentations 2:1-9 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.