John Calvin Commentary Lamentations 2:20

"See, O Jehovah, and behold to whom thou hast done thus! Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?" — Lamentations 2:20 (ASV)

Here, also, Jeremiah dictates words, or a form of prayer, to the Jews. This complaint served to excite pity, because God had afflicted not strangers, but the people whom He had adopted. Interpreters do, indeed, offer another explanation: See, Jehovah, to whom hast thou done this? meaning, "Has any people ever been so severely afflicted?" However, I do not think the comparison they seek to make is present here. Instead, I believe the people are only presenting to God the covenant He made with their fathers. It is as though they said, "O Lord, if You had raged so cruelly against strangers, it would not have been so astonishing. But since we are Your heritage, the blessed seed of Abraham, and since You were pleased to choose us as Your special people, what can it mean that You treat us with such severity?"

We now perceive, then, the real meaning of the Prophet when, representing the people, he speaks this way: See, and look on, Jehovah, to whom thou hast done this; for You have had to deal with Your children. This is not because the Jews could claim any worthiness; rather, the gratuitous election of God must have been abundantly sufficient to elicit mercy.

The faithful here do not simply ask God to see; they add another word, Look on. By these two words, they more fully express the outrageous nature of what had happened. It was as if to say it was like a prodigy that God’s people, whom He had chosen, should be so severely afflicted: see, then, to whom thou hast done this.

This way of praying was very common, as we find in the Psalms: Pour forth thy wrath on the nations which know not thee, and on the kingdoms which call not on thy name. (Psalms 79:6).

We have observed a similar passage previously in our Prophet (Jeremiah 10:25). The essence of what is said is that there was a just reason why God should turn to mercy and be reconciled to His people: He was not dealing with strangers, but with His own family, whom He had been pleased to adopt. But I will defer the rest until tomorrow.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as Your Church today is oppressed with many evils, we may learn to raise not only our eyes and our hands to You, but also our hearts; and that we may so fix our attention on You as to look for salvation from You alone. Grant also that, though despair may overwhelm us on earth, the hope of Your goodness may ever shine on us from heaven. And grant that, relying on the Mediator whom You have given us, we may not hesitate to cry continually to You, until we truly find by experience that our prayers have not been in vain, when You, pitying Your Church, have extended Your hand, given us cause to rejoice, and turned our mourning into joy, through Christ our Lord. — Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

We explained yesterday the Prophet's complaint when he presented God with His own covenant. For it might have seemed unreasonable that God should deal with such severity with the Church He had adopted. Therefore, the Prophet said, See, Jehovah, to whom thou hast done this. He now mentions some things calculated to produce horror and thus to obtain pardon from God: Should women eat their own fruit? that is, their own fetus, the infants of nursings? This, as I have said, was a horrible thing, for we see that mothers often forget their own lives in their concern for the safety of their infants.

For a child to be devoured by its mother, then, was a most abominable thing; and yet we know that it happened. It appears from this that the Israelites, when blinded by God, had fallen into this barbarity. For it happened in the siege of Samaria, as sacred history records. The Prophet now mentions the same thing as having occurred in his time, and he repeats it in the fourth chapter. Josephus also says that when Titus besieged the city, the situation was such that mothers agreed to eat their own children. They cast lots to decide who should slay their child first, and they even stole a leg or an arm from one another. Though it was such an inhuman thing, the Prophet still seeks to move God to mercy by presenting this great enormity. He then says that it was by no means right that mothers should eat their own children, the children of nursings, or of nurturing.

He later adds, Should the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? This was another outrageous act by which he sought to lead God to show mercy. We indeed know that the priests and the prophets were considered sacred. In the Psalms, where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are referred to, God, to show how highly they were to be regarded, says: Touch not my Christ’s,
and to my prophets do no harm. (Psalms 105:15).

Since, then, the priests and the prophets were especially under God's protection, what is described here was an intolerable atrocity. But when the profanation of the Temple was added, it was an even greater prodigy. Jeremiah then complains not only that the priests and the prophets were slain, but that they were slain in the sanctuary.