John Calvin Commentary Lamentations 2:19

"Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; Pour out thy 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 at the head of every street." — Lamentations 2:19 (ASV)

The Prophet now explains himself more clearly and confirms what I have recently said: that he did not mention the calamities of the people except for this purpose, that those who were almost spiritually dull might begin to raise their eyes to God, and also to examine their life and willingly condemn themselves, so that they might escape from the wrath of God.

The Prophet then commands them to rise and to cry. No doubt they had been constrained by force by their enemies to undertake a long journey. Why then does he command them to rise, who had become fugitives from their own country and had been driven away like sheep? He is addressing, as I have said, the slothfulness of their minds, because they were still lying torpid in their sins.

It was then necessary to rouse them from this insensibility; and this is what the Prophet intended by saying, Rise. Then he commands them to cry at the beginning of the watches, even when sleep begins to creep on and the time is quieter. For when people go to bed, then sleep comes on, and that is the primary time for rest. But the Prophet here commands the Jews to cry, and in their distress to voice their complaints at the very time when others take their rest.

Yet he did not wish them heedlessly to pour out their wailings into the air, but commanded them to present their prayers to God. Then, regarding the circumstances of that time, he repeats what we have already seen: that their mass of evils was so great that it allowed the people no relief; in short, he implies that it was a continual sorrow.

But, as I have said, he wanted the Jews not simply to cry, but after having exhorted them to pour out their hearts like waters, he adds, before the face of Jehovah. For the unbelieving make themselves almost hoarse by crying, but they are only like brute beasts; or if they call on God’s name, they do this, as has been said, through a rash and unthinking impulse.

Therefore, the Prophet here distinguishes between God's elect and the reprobate when he commands them to pour out their hearts and their cries before God, so that they seek relief from him. This could not have been done unless they were convinced that he was the author of all their calamities; and from this, repentance also arises, for there is a mutual relationship between God’s judgment and people's sins. Whoever, then, acknowledges God as a judge is at the same time compelled to examine himself and to inquire about his own sins. We now understand the meaning of the Prophet’s words.

For the same purpose he adds, Raise up to him your hands. This practice by itself is, indeed, not sufficient; but Scripture often indicates the spiritual reality through external signs. So, the lifting of hands, in this passage and others, signifies prayer. It has been customary in all ages to raise hands to heaven, and the expression often occurs in the Psalms (Psalms 28:2; Psalms 134:2). And when Paul commands prayers to be made everywhere, he says:

I would have men to raise up pure hands without contention (1 Timothy 2:8).

God has no doubt prompted this practice in people, so that, first, they may go beyond the whole world when they seek him; and secondly, so that they may thereby stimulate themselves to foster confidence and also to divest themselves of all earthly desires.

For unless this practice were to raise up our minds (as we are by nature inclined to superstition), everyone would seek God either at his feet or by his side.

So God has implanted this instinct in people, namely, to raise their hands upward, so that they may, as I have said, go beyond the whole world, and so that, having thus divested themselves of all vain superstition, they may ascend above the heavens. This custom, I admit, is indeed common among unbelievers; and so all excuse has been taken away from them.

So, although unbelievers have been filled with crude and irrational fantasies, leading them to connect God with statues and pictures, yet this habit of raising hands to heaven should have been enough to refute all their mistaken ideas.

But it is not enough to seek God beyond this world, so that no superstition possesses our minds, unless our minds are also freed from all worldly desires.

For we are held entangled in our lusts, and then we seek what pleases our fleshly nature; and so, for the most part, people strive to subject God to themselves.

So the lifting of hands also shows that we are to deny ourselves and to go out of ourselves, so to speak, whenever we call on God. These, in brief, are the points that can be made about the use of this ceremony or practice.

But we must remember what I have mentioned: that the Prophet designates the reality itself by an outward sign when he commands them to raise up their hands to God.

He afterwards shows the necessity of this with the words, because of the life of your little ones, who faint from famine. (But the ב (beth) is redundant here.) This means, then, who through famine faint or fail, and that openly.

For it might have happened that those who had no food wasted away at home and thus fainted because no one helped them, because their need was not known.

But when infants in public places died from famine, this made evident that extreme state of despair which the Prophet intended here to portray by mentioning at the head of all the streets.