20 Look, Yahweh, and see to whom you have done thus! Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children; They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies, and those who seek their life, shall distress them.
[It is] because of the sins of her prophets, [and] the iniquities of her priests, That have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.
I prayed to Yahweh, and said, Lord Yahweh, don't destroy your people and your inheritance, that you have redeemed through your greatness, that you have brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
I called for my lovers, [but] they deceived me: My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city, While they sought them food to refresh their souls.
To the others he said in my hearing, Go you through the city after him, and strike: don't let your eye spare, neither have you pity; kill utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but don't come near any man on whom is the mark: and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the old men that were before the house.
The anger of Yahweh has scattered them; he will no more regard them: They didn't respect the persons of the priests, they didn't favor the elders.
You will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters.
for both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in my house have I found their wickedness, says Yahweh. Therefore their way shall be to them as slippery places in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil on them, even the year of their visitation, says Yahweh. I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies; and they strengthen the hands of evil-doers, so that none does return from his wickedness: they are all of them become to me as Sodom, and the inhabitants of it as Gomorrah. Therefore thus says Yahweh of Hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem is ungodliness gone forth into all the land.
We acknowledge, Yahweh, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against you. Do not abhor [us], for your name's sake; do not disgrace the throne of your glory: remember, don't break your covenant with us.
Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, and I didn't send them, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed. The people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them-them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness on them. You shall say this word to them, Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous wound. If I go forth into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then, behold, those who are sick with famine! for both the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and have no knowledge.
But now, Yahweh, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and we all are the work of your hand. Don't be angry very sore, Yahweh, neither remember iniquity forever: see, look, we beg you, we are all your people. Your holy cities are become a wilderness, Zion is become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, is burned with fire; and all our pleasant places are laid waste. Will you refrain yourself for these things, Yahweh? will you hold your peace, and afflict us very sore?
For you are our Father, though Abraham doesn't know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us: you, Yahweh, are our Father; our Redeemer from everlasting is your name. O Yahweh, why do you make us to err from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants' sake, the tribes of your inheritance. Your holy people possessed [it] but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary. We are become as they over whom you never bear rule, as those who were not called by your name.
Therefore Yahweh will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm-branch and rush, in one day. The elder and the honorable man, he is the head; and the prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail. For those who lead this people cause them to err; and those who are led of them are destroyed. Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over their young men, neither will he have compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is profane and an evil-doer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
The king said to her, What ails you? She answered, This woman said to me, Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son, and ate him: and I said to her on the next day, Give your son, that we may eat him; and she has hid her son.
You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom Yahweh your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. The man who is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children whom he has remaining; so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he has nothing left him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your gates. The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, and toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she shall bear; for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your gates.
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."