15 All that pass by clap their hands at you; They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, [saying], Is this the city that men called The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?
to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.
Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, Is Mount Zion, on the north sides, The city of the great King.
I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues of it.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
this is the word which Yahweh has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.
All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,
Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads, and saying, "Ha! You who destroy the temple, and build it in three days,
Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads,
For the statutes of Omri are kept, And all the works of the house of Ahab. You walk in their counsels, That I may make you a ruin, And her inhabitants a hissing; And you will bear the reproach of my people."
The generation to come, your children who shall rise up after you, and the foreigner who shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which Yahweh has made it sick; [and that] the whole land of it is sulfur, and salt, [and] a burning, [that] it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath: even all the nations shall say, Why has Yahweh done thus to this land? what means the heat of this great anger? Then men shall say, Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and went and served other gods, and worshiped them, gods that they didn't know, and that he had not given to them: therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against this land, to bring on it all the curse that is written in this book; and Yahweh rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as at this day.
Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she is become as an unclean thing; All who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: Yes, she sighs, and turns backward.
Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.
I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an object of horror, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations where I have driven them;
[to wit], Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings of it, and the princes of it, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day;
behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says Yahweh, and [I will send] to Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants of it, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
You make us a byword among the nations, A shaking of the head among the peoples. All day long my dishonor is before me, And shame covers my face,
For it hurls at him, and does not spare, As he flees away from his hand. Men shall clap their hands at him, And shall hiss him out of his place.
This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.
then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. Though this house is so high, yet shall everyone who passes by it be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why has Yahweh done thus to this land, and to this house? and they shall answer, Because they forsook Yahweh their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshiped them, and served them: therefore has Yahweh brought all this evil on them.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Lamentations 2
Commentary on Lamentations 2 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 2
La 2:1-22.
Aleph.
1. How—The title of the collection repeated here, and in La 4:1.
covered … with a cloud—that is, with the darkness of ignominy.
cast down from heaven unto … earth—(Mt 11:23); dashed down from the highest prosperity to the lowest misery.
beauty of Israel—the beautiful temple (Ps 29:2; 74:7; 96:9, Margin; Isa 60:7; 64:11).
his footstool—the ark (compare 1Ch 28:2, with Ps 99:5; 132:7). They once had gloried more in the ark than in the God whose symbol it was; they now feel it was but His "footstool," yet that it had been a great glory to them that God deigned to use it as such.
Beth.
2. polluted—by delivering it into the hands of the profane foe. Compare Ps 89:39, "profaned … crown."
Gimel.
3. horn—worn in the East as an ornament on the forehead, and an emblem of power and majesty (1Sa 2:10; Ps 132:17; see on Jer 48:25).
drawn back … fight hand—(Ps 74:11). God has withdrawn the help which He before gave them. Not as Henderson, "He has turned back his (Israel's) right hand" (Ps 89:43).
Daleth.
4. (Isa 63:10).
stood with … right hand—He took His stand so as to use His right hand as an adversary. Henderson makes the image to be that of an archer steadying his right hand to take aim. Not only did He withdraw His help, but also took arms against Israel.
all … pleasant to … eye—(Eze 24:25). All that were conspicuous for youth, beauty, and rank.
in … tabernacle—the dwellings of Jerusalem.
He.
5. an enemy—(Jer 30:14).
mourning and lamentation—There is a play of similar sounds in the original, "sorrow and sadness," to heighten the effect (Job 30:3, Hebrew; Eze 35:3, Margin).
Vau.
6. tabernacle—rather, "He hath violently taken away His hedge (the hedge of the place sacred to Him, Ps 80:12; 89:40; Isa 5:5), as that of a garden" [Maurer]. Calvin supports English Version, "His tabernacle (that is, temple) as (one would take away the temporary cottage or booth) of a garden." Isa 1:8 accords with this (Job 27:18).
places of … assembly—the temple and synagogues (Ps 74:7, 8).
solemn feasts—(La 1:4).
Zain.
7. they … made a noise in … house of … Lord, as in … feast—The foe's shout of triumph in the captured temple bore a resemblance (but oh, how sad a contrast as to the occasion of it!) to the joyous thanksgivings we used to offer in the same place at our "solemn feasts" (compare La 2:22).
Cheth.
8. stretched … a line—The Easterns used a measuring-line not merely in building, but in destroying edifices (2Ki 21:13; Isa 34:11); implying here the unsparing rigidness with which He would exact punishment.
Teth.
9. Her gates cannot oppose the entrance of the foe into the city, for they are sunk under a mass of rubbish and earth.
broken … bars—(Jer 51:30).
her king … among … Gentiles—(De 28:36).
law … no more—(2Ch 15:3). The civil and religious laws were one under the theocracy. "All the legal ordinances (prophetical as well as priestly) of the theocracy, are no more" (Ps 74:9; Eze 7:26).
Jod.
10. (Job 2:12, 13). The "elders," by their example, would draw the others to violent grief.
the virgins—who usually are so anxious to set off their personal appearances to advantage.
Caph.
11. liver is poured, &c.—that is, as the liver was thought to be the seat of the passions, "all my feelings are poured out and prostrated for," &c. The "liver," is here put for the bile ("gall," Job 16:13; "bowels," Ps 22:14) in a bladder on the surface of the liver, copiously discharged when the passions are agitated.
swoon—through faintness from the effects of hunger.
Lamed.
12. as the wounded—famine being as deadly as the sword (Jer 52:6).
soul … poured … into … mothers bosom—Instinctively turning to their mother's bosom, but finding no milk there, they breathe out their life as it were "into her bosom."
Mem.
13. What thing shall I take to witness—What can I bring forward as a witness, or instance, to prove that others have sustained as grievous ills as thou? I cannot console thee as mourners are often consoled by showing that thy lot is only what others, too, suffer. The "sea" affords the only suitable emblem of thy woes, by its boundless extent and depth (La 1:12; Da 9:12).
Nun.
14. Thy prophets—not God's (Jer 23:26).
vain … for thee—to gratify thy appetite, not for truth, but for false things.
not discovered thine iniquity—in opposition to God's command to the true prophets (Isa 58:1). Literally, "They have not taken off (the veil) which was on thine iniquity, so as to set it before thee."
burdens—Their prophecies were soothing and flattering; but the result of them was heavy calamities to the people, worse than even what the prophecies of Jeremiah, which they in derision called "burdens," threatened. Hence he terms their pretended prophecies "false burdens," which proved to the Jews "causes of their banishment" [Calvin].
Samech.
15. clap … hands—in derision (Job 27:23; 34:37).
wag … head—(2Ki 19:21; Ps 44:14).
perfection of beauty … joy of … earth—(Ps 48:2; 50:2). The Jews' enemies quote their very words in scorn.
Pe.
16, 17. For the transposition of Hebrew letters (Pe and Ain, La 2:16, 17) in the order of verses, see Introduction.
opened … mouth—as ravening, roaring wild beasts (Job 16:9, 10; Ps 22:13). Herein Jerusalem was a type of Messiah.
gnash … teeth—in vindictive malice.
we have seen it—(Ps 35:21).
Ain.
17. Lord—Let not the foe exult as if it was their doing. It was "the Lord" who thus fulfilled the threats uttered by His prophets for the guilt of Judea (Le 26:16-25; De 28:36-48, 53; Jer 19:9).
Tzaddi.
18. wall—(La 2:8). Personified. "Their heart," that is, the Jews'; while their heart is lifted up to the Lord in prayer, their speech is addressed to the "wall" (the part being put for the whole city).
let tears, &c.—(Jer 14:17). The wall is called on to weep for its own ruin and that of the city. Compare the similar personification (La 1:4).
apple—the pupil of the eye (Ps 17:8).
Koph.
19. cry … in … night—(Ps 119:147).
beginning of … watches—that is, the first of the three equal divisions (four hours each) into which the ancient Jews divided the night; namely, from sunset to ten o'clock. The second was called "the middle watch" (Jud 7:19), from ten till two o'clock. The third, "the morning watch," from two to sunrise (Ex 14:24; 1Sa 11:11). Afterwards, under the Romans, they had four watches (Mt 14:25; Lu 12:38).
for … thy … children—that God, if He will not spare thee, may at least preserve "thy young children."
top of … street—(Isa 51:20; Na 3:10).
Resh.
20. women eat … fruit—as threatened (Le 26:29; De 28:53, 56, 57; Jer 19:9).
children … span long—or else, "children whom they carry in their arms" [Maurer].
Schin.
21. (2Ch 36:17).
Tau.
22. Thou hast called as in … solemn day … terrors—Thou hast summoned my enemies against me from all quarters, just as multitudes used to be convened to Jerusalem, on the solemn feast days. The objects, for which the enemies and the festal multitude respectively met, formed a sad contrast. Compare La 1:15: "called an assembly against me."