The Prophets · Old Testament

Lamentations 2

Lamentations 2: the Lord as an enemy, and children fainting in the streets

General context

The poem opens by asking how the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger and cast down the beauty of Israel. He has swallowed up Jacob's habitations without pity, thrown down Judah's strongholds and burned against Jacob like fire. He bent his bow like an enemy, slew all that were pleasant to the eye, and was as an enemy, swallowing up Israel's palaces. He caused feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, despised king and priest, cast off his altar, abhorred his sanctuary and gave the palace walls to the enemy, who made a noise in his house as on a feast day. The gates sank into the ground, king and princes are among the Gentiles, the law is no more, the prophets find no vision. Elders sit silent in sackcloth. A speaker's eyes fail with tears because children and sucklings swoon in the streets and ask their mothers for corn and wine. The speaker asks what to liken to the daughter of Jerusalem, whose breach is like the sea, and who can heal her; her prophets saw vain things and did not uncover her iniquity. Passers-by hiss at the city once called the perfection of beauty; enemies say they have swallowed her up. The Lord has done what he devised and fulfilled his word of old. The wall of Zion is told to weep day and night and cry out for children fainting with hunger. The city then asks the Lord to consider to whom he has done this: shall women eat their children, shall priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary? Young and old lie in the streets, the young have fallen by the sword; he has killed without pity, and none escaped.

Cited passages: Lamentations 2:1, Lamentations 2:2, Lamentations 2:3, Lamentations 2:4, Lamentations 2:5, Lamentations 2:6, Lamentations 2:7, Lamentations 2:8, Lamentations 2:9, Lamentations 2:10, Lamentations 2:11, Lamentations 2:12, Lamentations 2:13, Lamentations 2:14, Lamentations 2:15, Lamentations 2:16, Lamentations 2:17, Lamentations 2:18, Lamentations 2:19, Lamentations 2:20, Lamentations 2:21, Lamentations 2:22

Lamentations 2 (KJV)

¹How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!

²The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.

³He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.

⁴He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.

⁵The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

⁶And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.

⁷The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath 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 feast.

⁸The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.

⁹Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord.

¹⁰The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

¹¹Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.

¹²They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers’ bosom.

¹³What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?

¹⁴Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

¹⁵All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?

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

¹⁷The Lord hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.

¹⁸Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.

¹⁹Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.

²⁰Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.

²²Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lord’s anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

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Historical context

The chapter has twenty-two verses and no named author or speaker. Three voices can be told apart by their grammar. Verses 1 to 10 describe what the Lord has done in the third person, with the Lord or he as the subject of almost every clause. Verses 11 to 19 are a first-person voice whose eyes fail with tears and who addresses the daughter of Jerusalem and the wall of Zion as thee; the text does not name this speaker. Verses 20 to 22 address the Lord as thou and speak of my virgins and my young men and those that I have swaddled, so the city itself speaks there. The people are named as Zion, Israel, Jacob, Judah and Jerusalem; the enemy is unnamed, and the king and princes who are among the Gentiles are unnamed. No date is given. The chapter states the ruin plainly: the sanctuary abhorred, gates sunk, the law no more, prophets without vision, children and sucklings swooning in the streets, young and old lying dead, virgins and young men fallen by the sword. Verse 20 puts two horrors as questions to the Lord, whether women should eat their children and whether priest and prophet should be slain in the sanctuary; the text asks rather than narrates them here, and chapter 4 later states the first as done. The prophets are charged with seeing vain and foolish things and false burdens. The word commanded in the days of old is cited without saying which word.

Cited passages: Lamentations 2:2, Lamentations 2:11, Lamentations 2:13, Lamentations 2:18, Lamentations 2:20, Lamentations 2:22, Lamentations 2:9, Lamentations 2:21, Lamentations 4:10, Lamentations 2:14, Lamentations 2:17

Literary context

Like chapter 1, the poem opens on how, but here the Lord is the subject from the first line, and the opening verses pile up verbs of destruction, swallowed up, thrown down, cut off, burned, bent his bow, slew, poured out, destroyed, cast off, abhorred. Three times the Lord is compared to an enemy, like an enemy, as an adversary, was as an enemy, and three times pity is denied, hath not pitied, hath not pitied, killed, and not pitied. The enemies' own boast, we have swallowed her up, repeats the verb the poem used for the Lord's action. The turn at verse 11 moves from catalogue to weeping and to questions that cannot be answered, what shall I liken to thee, who can heal thee. Children in the streets frame the second half, swooning at verse 11, fainting for hunger at verse 19, and consumed at verse 22. The day of anger recurs at the start and end, the day of his anger, the day of thine anger, the day of the Lord's anger, and the noise made in the house of the Lord as in the day of a solemn feast is answered at the close by terrors called as in a solemn day. The command to cry out in the night at verse 19 is obeyed at once by the city's cry in verse 20.

Cited passages: Lamentations 2:1, Lamentations 2:2, Lamentations 2:4, Lamentations 2:5, Lamentations 2:17, Lamentations 2:21, Lamentations 2:16, Lamentations 2:13, Lamentations 2:11, Lamentations 2:19, Lamentations 2:22, Lamentations 2:7, Lamentations 2:20

Key moments

Covered with a cloud (Lamentations 2:1). The Lord covers the daughter of Zion with a cloud and casts down Israel's beauty.
His bow bent like an enemy (Lamentations 2:4). The Lord stands as an adversary and slays all that were pleasant to the eye.
His altar cast off (Lamentations 2:7). The Lord abhors his sanctuary and gives the palace walls to the enemy.
The law is no more (Lamentations 2:9). Gates sink, king and princes are among the Gentiles, and prophets find no vision.
Children swoon in the streets (Lamentations 2:11). The speaker's eyes fail with tears as children and sucklings faint in the city.
Prophets who saw vain things (Lamentations 2:14). The city's prophets are charged with false visions that did not uncover her iniquity.
Lift up thy hands for thy children (Lamentations 2:19). The wall of Zion is told to cry out in the night for children fainting with hunger.
Shall the women eat their fruit? (Lamentations 2:20). The city asks the Lord to consider women eating their children and priests slain in the sanctuary.
None escaped (Lamentations 2:22). In the day of the Lord's anger none escaped, and the enemy consumed those she raised.

For reflection

The poem says the Lord has done what he devised and fulfilled his word of old, then asks him to look at women eating their children and priests slain in his sanctuary. What is the city asking the Lord to see, if the destruction is already called his own work?