Lamentations 2 (KJV) - PURPOSE PROPOSED, PURPOSE FULFILLED
“How 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! The 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. He 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. He 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. The 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. And 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. The 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. The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: He hath stretched out a line, He hath not withdrawn His hand from destroying: therefore He made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together. Her 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. The 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. Mine 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. They 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. What 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? Thy 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. All 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? All 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. The 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. Their 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. Arise, 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. Behold, 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? The 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. Thou 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.”
-Lamentations 2 (KJV)
In previous generations Jerusalem knew the cloud of God’s glory:
“And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord. Then spake Solomon, The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.
-1 Kings 8:10-12 (KJV)
“Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord's glory.”
-Ezekiel 10:4 (KJV)
Now Jeremiah laments the presence of a cloud; not a cloud of glory, but a cloud of anger.
“The women in the eastern countries wear veils, and often very costly ones. Here, Zion is represented as being veiled by the hand of God’s judgment. And what is the veil? A dark cloud, by which she is entirely obscured.”
-A.C. Clarke
“Neither Jehovah nor the daughter of Zion is conceived of as departed, or destroyed. She is covered in a cloud, and so cut off from the vision of Jehovah, that is, she cannot see Him. Clouds hide God from men; they never hide men from God.”
-K. Morgan
“And remembered not his footstool” The earth is called the Lord’s footstool in the following scripture:
“Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?”
-Isaiah 66:1 (KJV)
“Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.”
-Matthew 5:35 (KJV)
“Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?”
-Acts 7:49 (KJV)
Here plainly the temple is understood, called God’s footstool:
“Then David the king stood up upon his feet, and said, Hear me, my brethren, and my people: As for me, I had in mine heart to build an house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God, and had made ready for the building:”
- 1 Chronicles 28:2 (KJV)
The whole temple seems rather to be understood than the ark.”
“He hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah.” This begins a long series of He has statements. The emphasis is again on the idea that all this destruction comes from God, even if it was through the instrument of the Babylonian army.
“Daughter of Judah” is a privileged title, yet that privilege carries with it great responsibility. For many generations God’s people thought only in terms of privilege and not of responsibility.
“The nation had imagined that it occupied a privileged position because it stood in covenant relationship with God, and was seemingly unaware that such a status involved important obligations in the moral and spiritual realm.”
-G. Harrison
“In New Testament times, Capernaum was promised a share in the fate of Chorazin and Bethsaida, because she, too, had resisted the challenge of God’s redemptive works.” -G. Harrison
“He hath bent his bow like an enemy.” Jeremiah saw that God treated Jerusalem as an enemy and “as an adversary.” His skill and strength; “with His right hand,” was against them, not for him.
“In a strange twist on the Old Testament motif of the divine warrior, God was not fighting for His people, but against them.”
-R. Ryken
“That is, God (whom by their sins they had provoked and made their enemy) behaved himself as an enemy, bending his bow, and stretching out his right hand, and slew their young men and maidens, who were pleasant to look upon; and had brought judgments upon them like fire, which devours without any discrimination.”
-A. Poole
“He hath violently taken away His tabernacle.” Here the temple was referred to as a tabernacle, just as sometimes the tabernacle was referred to as a temple. They were simply various ways of describing the house of God, “His places of the assembly.”
“The Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion.” When the temple and the city were destroyed, so were all the observances and institutions connected with them.
· Feasts and Sabbaths were no longer observed.
· His altar was rejected
· His sanctuary was abandoned
· Her palaces were given into the hand of the enemy
“They have made a noise in the house of the Lord:” The sound of shouting and noise and commotion was common on the day of a solemn feast. Now they heard the sound from enemies who set the city in subjection.
“The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion.” Jerusalem’s wall was its security. Once the wall was destroyed, the city was prey for anyone and everyone.
“He hath stretched out a line:.”The idea is that God did His work with careful measuring and precision. There was nothing accidental or haphazard about it.
We see a line of destruction, or a levelling line in these verses that promise an end toJerusalem, which was built by the line of perfection:
“And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.”
-2 Kings 21:13 (KJV)
“But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.”
-Isaiah 34:11 (KJV)
“Just as a builder measured levels carefully in the process of construction, so God had been equally precise in the work of demolition to ensure that one stone did not stand upon another.”
-G. Harrison
“Her gates are sunk into the ground.” The walls were destroyed, the gates were sunk, and the bars protecting the city were broken.
“Her king and her princes are among the Gentiles.” The royalty and nobles have been taken to Babylon. Government institutions had disappeared and were of no help.
“The law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord.” The spiritual institutions had also failed, and could give no help. There were no faithful priests to teach the Law, and the prophets were silent.
“Jeremiah was alone, and happily thought, when he saw all ruined, that he should prophesy no more. Ezekiel and Daniel were far remote. This was no small affliction that is here complained of.”
-V. Trapp
“The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence.” The leaders of the community were stunned into silence and of no help. All they could do was mourn and “cast up dust upon their heads.”
“The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.” The young generation was of no help. All they could do was “hang down their heads to the ground”in despair.
“The mention of the ‘elders’ and ‘young women’ is probably intended to include the whole surviving population.”
-L. Ellison
“My eyes do fail with tears.” All this made Jeremiah undone. His eyes wept, his heart broke, his bile poured out in nausea. He saw the city’s destruction, especially the effect on “the children and the sucklings” and reacted this way.
“This whole verse is but expressive of the prophet’s great affliction for the miseries come upon the Jews: he wept himself almost blind, his passion had disturbed his bodily humours, that his bowels were troubled; his gall lying under his liver, upon this disturbance was vomited up: they are all no more than expressions of very great affliction and sorrow.”
-A. Poole
“They swooned as the wounded.” Jeremiah saw children fall to the ground as if they had been shot through with an arrow. They collapsed “when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.”
“What thing shall I take to witness for thee?” Jeremiah has often spoke of Jerusalem being without comfort. Now he finds himself unable to comfort the devastated city. Jerusalem’s “breach is great like the sea,” and could not be helped.
“Divine retribution has burst in on Zion in the same manner as the sea forces its way through a gap in the protective wall.”
-G. Harrison
“Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee.” There were many false prophets in the last days of Judah, according to both Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They promised that God would rescue Jerusalem and Judah from the Babylonians and that He would quickly bring back your captives. They were all false prophecies and delusions.
“All that pass by clap their hands at thee.” This was not applause; it was a mournful reaction, fitting to those who “hiss and wag their head.” All who saw it were astonished at the city that was once marked by beauty and joy.
“We have swallowed her up.” This was the triumphant cry of Jerusalem’s enemies. They waited long for the day of her conquest and were now happy to have seen it.
“Jerusalem was the envy of the surrounding nations: they longed for its destruction, and rejoiced when it took place.”
-A.C. Clarke
“The Lord hath done that which he had devised.” Jeremiah announced God’s purpose earlier in The Book of Lamentations:
“The 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.”
- Lamentations 2:8 (KJV)
In the judgment upon Jerusalem and Judah, Yahweh fulfilled what “He had devised,” and “hath fulfilled His word.”
“He hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee.” If Jerusalem had remained faithful to Yahweh, no enemy could have conquered them. Yet because of their persistent sin and rebellion, God had exalted the horn of their adversaries.
“O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night.” This was the taunting prayer of the enemies rejoicing over Jerusalem (as in the previous lines). They wanted Jerusalem to weep forever.
“Lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children.” The enemies of Jerusalem were happy by the sight of the people of the city crying out in prayer, pleading for their “young children” perishing from hunger.
“The dying children seem to have crawled from their homes towards the main city streets in a desperate, though vain, service for food. A personified Zion turns away in shock from this horrible scene with a desperate plea to God.”
-G. Harrison
“To whom thou hast done this?” Jerusalem’s agonized cry to God asked Him to consider the city and people He had loved. He asked God to consider the depths of their agony, including cannibalism; “the women eat their fruit,” and the death of the “priest and prophet.”
“The women eat their fruit:”
That they did so in the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldees, it appeareth by this question. In the famine of Samaria, under Joram, they did likewise:
“And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.”
-2 Kings 6:28-29 (KJV)
“Thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger.” Jerusalem personified knew it was all the deserved judgment of God. It was Yahweh who invited a collection of terrors to surround Jerusalem. All those sustained by Jerusalem; “those that I have swaddled and brought up.” have been destroyed by her enemies.
“The slaughter of the young men and women was particularly serious because it precluded the appearing of another generation.”
-G. Harrison
“Perhaps the figure is the collecting of the people in Jerusalem on one of the solemn annual festivals. God has called terrors together to feast on Jerusalem, similar to the convocation of the people from all parts of the land to one of those annual festivals.” -A.C. Clarke
-God bless!
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