John Calvin Commentary Lamentations 2:4

"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 now employs another metaphor: God, who was accustomed to defend His people, now took up arms against them. For, in stating a part for the whole, he includes in the bow every other weapon. When, therefore, he says that God had bent His bow, it is the same as if He said that He was fully armed.

The bow, then, as we have seen before, means every kind of weapon. He then adds that His right hand stood as an adversary. Here he describes more plainly what he had touched upon before: namely, that God had not only given up His people to the will of their enemies, but that He Himself had held up a banner to their enemies and went before them with an armed hand.

Nor is there any doubt that by "the right hand of God" he means all their enemies. For it was necessary to impress this fact carefully on the minds of the people: that the war had not been brought by the Chaldeans, but that God had resolved thereby to punish the wickedness of the people, and especially their desperate obstinacy, for He had omitted nothing to restore the people to the right way.

Whenever, then, God is mentioned here, let us understand that the people are reminded, as I have already said, that they had to do with God, lest they should forget this, or think that it was misfortune, or dream of some other causes of evils, as people are accustomed in this respect to be very ingenious in deceiving themselves.

And we shall see this more clearly later, where it is said that God had resolved to destroy the wall of Jerusalem; but this resolution was the same as His decree. Then the Prophet explains there more fully what is substantially found here: namely, that God was thus brought before the people, that they might learn to humble themselves under His mighty hand.

The hand of God was not indeed visible, but the Prophet shows that the Chaldeans were not to be regarded in isolation; rather, the hidden hand of God, by which they were guided, should have been seen by the eyes of faith. It was, then, this hand of God that stood against the people.

It then follows, He slew all the chosen men; some read, “all things desirable,” but it seems more suitable to consider men as intended, as if he had said that the flower of the people perished by the hand of God in the tabernacle of the daughter of Sion. Though the last clause would unite better with the end of the verse, that on the tabernacle of the daughter of Sion God had poured forth His wrath, or His anger, as fire.

He repeats the metaphor which he had used in the last verse, and this is what we should carefully note, for God threatens by Isaiah that He would be a fire to devour His enemies:

“The light of Israel shall be a fire, and His Holy One a flame of fire, and it shall devour all briers and all kinds of wood” (Isaiah 10:7).

There God threatened the Chaldeans, as if He had said that His vengeance would be dreadful, when, as a patron and defender of His people, He would contend with the Chaldeans. He there calls Himself the light of Israel and the Holy One; and hence He said that He would be a fire and a flame to the Chaldeans. But what does he say here? Namely, that God had poured forth His wrath as fire, that its flame had devoured all around whatever was beautiful to be seen in Israel. Hence, we see that the people had provoked against themselves the vengeance of God, which would otherwise have been poured forth on their enemies; and thus the sin of the people was doubled.