John Calvin Commentary Lamentations 2:3

"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)

Jeremiah expresses the same thing in various ways; but all that he says tends to show that it was an evidence of God’s extreme vengeance when the people, the city, and the Temple were destroyed. But it should be observed that God is here represented as the author of that calamity: the Prophet would have otherwise lamented in vain over the ruin of his own country; but as in all adversities he acknowledged the hand of God, he later added that God had a just reason why He was so grievously displeased with His own people.

He then says that every horn had been broken by God. We know that by horn is meant strength as well as excellence or dignity, and I am inclined to include both here, though the word "breaking" seems rather to refer to strength or power. But the whole clause must be noted: that God had broken every horn of Israel in the indignation of His wrath.

The Prophet intimates that God had not been angry with His people as though He had been offended by slight transgressions, but that the measure of His wrath had been unusual, precisely because the impiety of the people had burst forth to such an extent that the offense given to God could not have been slight.

Then, by indignation of wrath, the Prophet does not mean an excess, as though God had, through a violent impulse, rushed forth to take vengeance; but he rather intimates that the people had become so wicked that it did not befit God to punish in an ordinary way an impiety so inveterate.

He then adds that God had withdrawn His right hand from before the enemy, and that at the same time He had burned like a fire, the flame of which had devoured all around. The Prophet here refers to two things. The first is that though God had been accustomed to help His people and to oppose their enemies, as they had experienced His aid in the greatest dangers, yet now His people were forsaken and left destitute of all hope.

The first clause, then, declares that God would not be the deliverer of His people as formerly, because they had forsaken Him. But he speaks figuratively, that God had drawn back His right hand; and God’s right hand means His protection, as is well known. The Prophet’s meaning is by no means obscure: that there was henceforth no hope that God would confront the enemies of His people and thus preserve them in safety, for He had drawn back His hand.

But a second thing is added: that God’s hand burned like fire. Now, it was in itself a grievous thing that the people had been so rejected by God that no help could be expected from Him; but it was still a harder thing that He went forth armed to destroy His people. And the metaphor of fire should be noted; for had He said that God’s right hand was against His people, the expression would not have been so forcible; but when He compared God’s right hand to fire that burned, and whose flame consumed all Israel, it was a much more dreadful thing.

Moreover, by these words the Israelites were reminded that they were not to lament their calamities in an ordinary way but should, on the contrary, have seriously considered the cause of all their evils: namely, the provoking of God’s wrath against themselves. And not only so, but they were reminded that God was angry with them to an unusual degree, and yet justly, so that they had no reason to complain.