Charles Ellicott Commentary Lamentations 2
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Lamentations 2
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Lamentations 2
"How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He hath cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, And hath not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger." — Lamentations 2:1 (ASV)
How has the Lord ... —The second dirge follows the pattern of the first, opening with a description of the sufferings of Jerusalem (Lamentations 2:1–10), and closing with a dramatic soliloquy spoken as by the daughter of Zion (Lamentations 2:11–22).
The image that floats before the poet’s mind is that of a dark thunder-cloud breaking into a tempest, which overthrows the beauty of Israel, namely the Temple (Isaiah 64:11), or, as in 2 Samuel 1:19, the heroes who defended it. The footstool is, as in 1 Chronicles 28:2; Psalms 99:5, the ark of the covenant, which was involved in the destruction of the Temple. The “Lord” is, as before, Adonai, not Jehovah.
"The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: He hath thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; He hath brought them down to the ground; he hath profaned the kingdom and the princes thereof." — Lamentations 2:2 (ASV)
The habitations of Jacob ... —The term is used primarily for the dwellings of shepherds, and it accordingly stands here for the open unwalled villages as contrasted with the fortified towns that are here mentioned.
He has polluted the kingdom. —See Psalms 89:39. The term involves the thought that it had been a consecrated thing. It had become unclean, first through the sins, and then through the defeat and degradation, of its rulers.
"He hath cut off in fierce anger all the horn of Israel; He hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy: And he hath burned up Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about." — Lamentations 2:3 (ASV)
All the horn of Israel ... —The horn, as elsewhere (1 Samuel 2:1; Psalms 92:10; Psalms 112:9), is the symbol of strength, aggressive or defensive, and may therefore stand here for every element of strength, warriors, rulers, fortresses.
He burned against Jacob. —Better, And He kindled a burning; i.e., was as one who applies the torch.
"He hath bent his bow like an enemy, he hath stood with his right hand as an adversary, And hath slain all that were pleasant to the eye: In the tent of the daughter of Zion he hath poured out his wrath like fire." — Lamentations 2:4 (ASV)
He stood with his right hand ... —The point of the phrase is that the “right hand,” the natural symbol of divine power, which had formerly been stretched out to protect, was now seen shooting the arrows and wielding the sword of vengeance.
Slew all that were pleasant ... —Better, “Destroyed all that was pleasant,” the destruction including not only warriors and youths, but everything dear and precious.
The tabernacle ... —Not the Temple, but the city itself as the habitation of the people, who are collectively represented as “the daughter of Zion.”
"The Lord is become as an enemy, he hath swallowed up Israel; He hath swallowed up all her palaces, he hath destroyed his strongholds; And he hath multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation." — Lamentations 2:5 (ASV)
Her palaces: ... his strong holds ... —The change of gender is remarkable, probably rising from the fact that the writer thought of the “palaces” in connection with the “daughters of Zion,” and of the “strong holds” in connection with the land or people. A like combination is found in Hosea 8:14.
Mourning and lamentation. —The two Hebrew nouns are formed from the same root, and have an assonance like the sorrow and sighing of Isaiah 35:10.
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