Lamentations
Chapter
2
{Chapter
2- Destruction of Israel}
1a~~
How the 'Adonay/Lord
{'How' is Title of the Book of Lamentations in the Hebrew Again
brought up}
has
covered the daughter of Zion
with
a cloud of His anger.
He
has hurled down the splendor
of
Israel from heaven to earth.
1b~~He
has not remembered His footstool
{this refers to the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies}
in
the day of His anger!
{Note: The Ark was often marched with the Jewish troops and was a source of great encouragement for them.}
2~~Without
pity, the 'Adonay/Lord
has
swallowed up
all
the dwellings of Jacob
{all the small towns surrounding Jerusalem}.
In
His wrath, He has torn down
the
strong holds/fortifications
of
the daughter of Judah.
He
has brought her kingdom and her princes
down
to the ground in dishonor.
3~~In
His fierce anger, He has cut off every horn of Israel
{the 'horn' is the strength of Israel - military, economy and -
greatest of all - their relationship with God - status as Client
Nation to God - are all out under 5th cycle}.
He
has drawn back His right hand
from
before the enemy.
He
has burned against Jacob like a consuming fire,
which
devoured everything around it
4~~Like
an enemy, He has strung the bow
His
right hand is ready {the Chaldean Army}.
Like
a foe he has slain all who were pleasing to the eye.
He
has poured out His wrath like a fire
on
the tent of the daughter of Zion
{the Jewish military forces in the field}.
5~~The
'Adonay/Lord is like an enemy.
He
has swallowed up Israel.
He
has swallowed up all her palaces.
He
has destroyed his strong holds/fortifications,
and
has multiplied mourning and lamentation
for
the daughter of Judah.
6~~And
He has laid waste His dwelling like a garden.
He
has destroyed His places of meeting {the temple}.
Jehovah/God
has made Zion to forget
her
appointed feasts and her Sabbaths
{mainly the Sabbatical years (1 every 7 was required and
for 490 years they did not observe the Sabbatical years)
so God gave them 70 years in a row of no enterprise
- they went into slavery}
and
has despised in the indignation of his anger
the
king and the priest.
7~~
The 'Adonay/Lord rejected His altar,
and
He abandoned His sanctuary.
He
handed over to the enemy
the
walls of her palaces.
They
have raised a shout
in
the house of the Jehovah/God,
on
the day of an appointed feast.
8~~The
Jehovah/God determined to tear down
the
wall around the daughter of Zion
and
He stretched out a 'measuring line',
and
He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying.
Therefore,
He made the rampart and the wall to lament
{because of the men killed manning these defenses}.
They
languished together.
9~~Her
gates are sunk into the ground
{security system was destroyed}.
He
has broken and her bars.
Her
king and her princes are
exiled
among the Nations/Gentiles.
The
law is no more
{the Torah - the Mosaic Law}.
Her
prophets no longer find visions from Jehovah/God.
10~~The
elders of the daughter of Zion
sit
on the ground in silence.
They
have sprinkled dust upon their heads.
They
have girded themselves with sackcloth.
The
'young women'/maidens/virgins of Jerusalem
have
hung their heads down to the ground
{mass rape was the order of the day}.
11~~My
{Jeremiah's} eyes fail from weaping.
My
emotions/bowels {me`ah} are troubled.
My
emotions/liver {kabed} is poured upon the earth.
{a
disease can effect bowels, kidneys and liver and the whole
system is messed these words were all used as analogy to the
emotions - like butterflies in our stomach.}
For
the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Because
the children and the infants/sucklings faint/swoon
in
the streets of the city {Jerusalem}.
12~~They
{the children} say to their mothers,
Where
is bread and wine?
As
they faint as wounded men
in
the streets of the city,
as
their lives/souls ebb away
in
their mothers' arms
{idiom: literally 'on their mother's bosom'}.
13~~What
can I say for you?
What
can I compare with you, O daughter of Jerusalem?
To
what can I liken you, that I may comfort you,
O
maiden/virgin daughter of Zion?
For
your wound is as deep as the sea.
Who
can heal it?
14~~The
visions of your prophets
were
false and worthless.
They
did not expose your sin,
to
ward off your captivity.
The
oracles they gave you
were
false and misleading.
{Note: False teaching from the pulpits contributed to the administration of the 5th cycle of discipline by God.}
15~~All
who pass your way will clap their hands at you.
They
scoff/hiss and shake their head
at
the daughter of Jerusalem, saying,
"Is
this city that which was call 'The Perfection of Beauty' . . .
The
joy of the whole earth? "
16~~All
your companions open their mouth wide against you.
They
scoff/hiss and gnash their teeth.
They
say, "We have swallowed you up.
Certainly
this is the day that we waited/looked for.
We
have lived to see it."
17~~Jehovah/God
has done/manufactured {'asah}
that
which He had planned/devised.
He
has fulfilled His word
that
He had decreed long ago.
He
has overthrown/'utterly beat you down in ruin' {harac}
without
pity.
And
He has caused your enemy to rejoice over you,
He
has set up the horn of your adversaries.
18``Their
hearts/'right lobes'
cried/prayed
unto the 'Adonay/Lord.
O
wall of the daughter of Zion,
let
tears be caused to flow like a river day and night.
Keep
on giving yourself no rest.
Let
not the apple of your eye 'keep on growing quiet'.
19~~Get
up!/Arise!,
'Sing
out in joy' {ranan} in the night.
In
the beginning of the watches
{idiom meaning in the early hours of the day}
pour
out your heart/'right lobe'
like
water before the face/presence
of
the 'Adonay/Lord.
'Lift
up your hands toward him'
{idiom: meaning to mentally give honor and respect to the Lord in
prayer}
for
the life of your young children,
who
faint because of hunger
in
the top of every street.
20``Behold,
O Jehovah/God,
and
be caused to consider
to
whom You have done this.
Shall
the women eat their children
{under the extreme starvation of the siege of Jerusalem
women actually murdered and ate their own babies to survive},
and
children of a span long
{they murdered and ate older children also}?
Shall
the priest and the prophet be slain
in
the sanctuary of the 'Adonay/Lord?
{Note: Under the starvation conditions they brought on themselves, the people started blaming the priests and the prophets - it is all YOUR fault! Jeremiah was horribly mistreated personally which will be brought out in Chapter 3}
21``The
young and the old lie on the ground in the streets
{passed out from hunger, dying from starvation and disease}.
My
'young maidens'/virgins and my young men
are
fallen by the sword
{idiom for death by a military disaster which usually is
then followed with criminal death of the civilians also}.
You
have slain them in the day of Your anger.
You
have killed, and have not pitied/spared/'had compassion
on
them'.
22``
You have kept on proclaiming
as
in a solemn day
my
fears/terrors surround,
so
that in the day of the Jehovah/God's anger
no
one escaped nor survived/remained.
Those
{children} that I have swaddled
and
brought up, has my enemy consumed.
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