Observing the Poetic Repetition for the Emphasis of Established Elements in the Text:
 
Both the Hebrew poetic and prophetic works include the use of repetition to emphasise elements, strengthen meanings and establish firm outcomes. The laments of Lamentations are thoughtful, passionate, carefully constructed and intentional in their Holy Spirit inspired message. The following annotated text shows the repeated themes and cross connections in the text that when observed carefully, illuminate the subject matter further.
 
3:1 I am the man who has seen affliction[a] in the rod[b] (tribe - shevet) of His wrath[c] (offense);
3:2 Me He drove[a] and walked into darkness and not light[d];
3:3 Indeed me He turned[a], even overturned with His hand[b], all the day[e].
3:4 He has worn out[a] my flesh and my skin[f]; He has broken[a] my bones[g].
3:5 All around me[h] He has established bitterness[a] and distress[a];
3:6 He has made me dwell in darkness, like the long dead[d].
3:7 He has walled me in[h] and I can’t get out[i]; He has weighed me down[h] with chains[i].
3:8 Also when I cry for help[j] and shout[j], He shuts out my prayer[k];
3:9 He has walled[h] in my ways[l] with hewn stone[h], He has made the paths[l] I tread crooked[m].
3:10 To me He is a bear waiting[n], a lion hiding[n] in a secret place;
3:11 My ways He has turned aside[m] and pulled to pieces[n], He has appointed for me desolation[d].
3:12 He has stood on His bow[b] and set me as the target[o] of His arrows[c]:
3:13 The arrows of His quiver[b] enter my kidneys[o] (Seat of emotion).
3:14 I have become a laughingstock[p] to all my tribe (amiy), their taunting song[p] lasts all day longe.
3:15 He has filled me with bitterness[a], saturated me with wormwood[a] (curse).
3:16 And He has crushed my teeth[f] in gravel, ground me into the dust[g].
3:17 He has cast my soul far from peace[d], I forgot goodness[d].
3:18 I said, “My strength and hope have perished[f] from before the LORD[q] (YHVH).”
3:19 Remembering[r] my affliction and my misery[a] was wormwooda (curse) and poison[c];
3:20 Constantly remembering[r] them, I was bowed lows in my soul[t].
3:21 But this returned[s] to my heart[t] (inner person), upon this recollection[r] I wait expectantly[u]:
3:22 The faithful kindness[v] of the LORD[q] (YHVH) indeed never ends[w], the out workings of His[q] compassionate womb[v] (mercies) can never cease[w].
3:23 They are new to all the mornings[e] — great is Yourq faithfulness[v], fidelity, trusted firmness!
 
It’s worth noting the couplets, triplets, quadruplets and phrases of refrain throughout this prophetic, poetic work. For example the “rod” of verse 1 is reflected in the “hand” of verse 3 and the “bow and quiver” of verses 12 & 13. Likewise the phrase “all day” in verse 3, which concerns the discipline of God’s wrath is repeated in verse 14 and finds its fullness in verse 23 as “all the mornings”, a counterpoint to the limited wrath (day) in the expression of mercy (days). “Bowed low in my soul” (humility) in verse 20 is countered by “returned to my heart [inner person] (receipt of remembrance)” in verse 21 and so on.
 
Ultimately the wrath of God is always preceded by Mercy and the outcome of judgement for the repentant is a return to Peace. “The Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.” (1 Peter 1:20; Rev. 13:8)

אֲנִ֤י הַגֶּ֙בֶר֙ רָאָ֣ה עֳנִ֔י בְּשֵׁ֖בֶט עֶבְרָתֽוֹ׃
 
3:1 I am the man who has seen affliction in the rod (tribe - shevet) of His wrath (offense);
 
Y’rmiyahu (Jeremiah) is the man who has seen the affliction brought by the rod of HaShem’s wrath. The man is also Judah/Israel, afflicted by Babylon according to God’s wrath against Israel’s wilful sin.
 
It’s significant that the Hebrew text reads הַגֶּבֶר Ha’gever (the man). Why not simply אֲנִי גֶּבֶר Aniy gever “I’m a man…”? The reason is that the writer/prophet (via his scribe – Barukh) is conveying something transcendent. “The Man” figuratively represented by the prophet, is in fact the Mashiyach Yeshua HaMelekh, Who is witness to all the sufferings of Israel and present in the midst of her, resurrected, trans-locational, slain before the foundation of the worlds.
 
Jeremiah is witness to the destruction of Jerusalem and Beit HaMikdash (the Temple). He is deeply impacted, having suffered the abusive taunts of his own people and the desolation levelled against his tribe as a result of their refusal to repent at the warning of his Holy Spirit breathed prophecies.
 
The שֵׁבֶט sheivet rod is that of God’s rule (Gen. 49:10) and discipline (2 Sam. 7:14). The Hebrew שבט shevet is more often translated “tribe.” The present verse makes sense when read both ways. Judah is the tribe of His wrath, and the affliction against Judah is the rod of God’s discipline. There is precedence for seeing the rod as representing the Babylonians who are acting as the physical manifestation of God’s discipline. The Assyrians have previously been described this way (Isa. 10:5).
 
Ibn Ezra understands the man afflicted to be a man of Judah other than Jeremiah, who is soberly reflecting on the affliction he has experienced as a result of his tribe’s offense, or the offense that he and his tribe have committed.
 
“And this one who laments said that the tribulation would torment him with the tribe of his transgression:”
 
-Ibn Ezra on Lamentations 3:1
 
However, this seems unlikely given that the remainder of the text infers God’s disciplinary love established against Judah/Israel. The “He” Who is the owner of the wrath, offense taken, is likely God Himself, Who is offended, and acts in His wrath in order to discipline the offenders.
 
Affliction and discipline fill the rhythm of the language that follows. The Hebrew poetic mechanism of repetition is amplified in these verses where we see the doubling of synonyms soon become a tripling and quadrupling, so that what is firmly established is made so clear as to be irrefutable. Bitterness and brokenness, light and dark, weariness and distress, weightiness and chains and so on.
 
 אוֹתִ֥י נָהַ֛ג וַיֹּלַ֖ךְ חֹ֥שֶׁךְ וְלֹא־אֽוֹר׃
 
3:2 Me He drove and walked into darkness and not light;
 
This poetic couplet finds its affirmation in the next verse. “He drove and walked” is reflected in “He turned, even over turned”, and “Into darkness and not light” is echoed in “Over turned by His hand all the day”.
 
The prophet speaks as sinful Judah/Israel who has been driven to exhaustion as she has been taken into the darkness of exile.
 
Jeremiah was unjustly imprisoned in the darkness of the dungeon. (Jer. 38) The prophet, as is so often the case, lives a life that prophetically reflects the plight of his people. Judah is without the Light of God, Whom she has spurned. The Temple of the LORD destroyed by the Babylonians and the appointed times silenced for a time.
 
“Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.”
 
-Tehilim (Psalms) 97:11
 
By her own sin Judah has been driven into darkness. Thus there is no light, joy, prosperity at this time, because light is sown for the righteous and no one is made righteous except through atoning blood and repentance.
 
“Darkness and not light” is significant as a turn of phrase related to Yom HaDin, the Judgement Day of the LORD and is used elsewhere in Scripture:
 
“Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why would you have the day of the LORD? It is darkness, and not light,”
 
-Amos 5:18 (ref. Job 12:25)
 
The prophet Jeremiah suffers the affliction of his people just as Messiah is afflicted in place of those deserving of condemnation. Like so many of the prophets Jeremiah is a type reflecting the all existing King Messiah Yeshua.
 
אַ֣ךְ בִּ֥י יָשֻׁ֛ב יַהֲפֹ֥ךְ יָד֖וֹ כָּל־הַיּֽוֹם׃
 
3:3 Indeed me He turned, even over turned by His hand, all the day.
 
This is a description of repeated blows and more literally a sifting of sorts that examines in the hand the quality of the subject. This examination continues throughout the metaphorical day of Judah’s journey into exile. Ultimately the subject (Judah) is overturned, face down in darkness, without light, just as the previous verse says.
 
We note that the prophet is suffering with the people, not because he is guilty but because he reflects the suffering Messiah Who is at this point in Israel’s history, yet to enter time and space. God is afflicted with His people even as He disciplines them, because in Him all things exist and have their being.
 
בִּלָּ֤ה בְשָׂרִי֙ וְעוֹרִ֔י שִׁבַּ֖ר עַצְמוֹתָֽי׃
 
3:4 He has worn out my flesh and my skin; He has broken my bones.
 
Rashi writes:
 
“Both young and old lay outdoors on the ground with neither pillow nor cushion, and their flesh wore out, when they were going into exile.”
 
The flesh and skin worn down like an old garment and the broken bones, express the physical affliction suffered by Judah as a result of God’s discipline. However, there is also a metaphorical distinction being made between the outer person (flesh and skin) and the inner person (bones). Just as the prophet Jeremiah alludes to the fire of God in his bones which must be spoken, so too the fire of God refines the bones of unrepentant Judah/Israel.
 
We are reminded again that the same Fire of God that warms the repentant consumes the unrepentant.
 
The Hebrew root בלה balah which is applied to the wearing out of clothing, is used here to describe the rubbing of skin to the point of exposed flesh.
 
The book of Job uses it in a similar sense:
 
והוא כרקב יבלה כבגד אכלו עשׁ׃”
 
He decays as a rotten thing, warn out like a moth eaten garment.”
 
-Iyov (Job) 13:28
 
Isaiah uses similar language in his anguished prophecy:
 
“I settled myself until morning; like a lion he breaks all my bones; from day to night you bring me to a completion.”
 
-Y’shayahu (Isaiah) 38:13
 
בָּנָ֥ה עָלַ֛י וַיַּקַּ֖ף רֹ֥אשׁ וּתְלָאָֽה׃
 
3:5 All around me He has established bitterness and distress;
 
The Hebrew רֹאשׁ rosh used here in the sense of poison, bitterness etc. is also the Hebrew root meaning head, leader etc. Thus, the Midrash Aggadah says that it represents Nebuchadnezzar the head of Babylon’s during the exile of Yehoyachin. The Midrash likewise assigns meaning to תְלָאָה tela’ah saying that it is a figurative weariness reflecting the completion of the task of exiling Judah/Israel by Nebuzaradan during the time of Tzidkiyahu.
 
The Targum on Lamentations 3:5 conveys an entirely different meaning:
 
“He has built siege works and surrounded the city. He has uprooted the heads of the people and wearied them.”
 
The ”bitterness and distress” amplify the “worn out flesh and broken bones” and continue the lament of “affliction”. Thus the emphasis on the suffering that results from wilful sin and its consequences.
 
בְּמַחֲשַׁכִּ֥ים הוֹשִׁיבַ֖נִי כְּמֵתֵ֥י עוֹלָֽם׃
 
3:6 He has made me dwell in darkness, like the long dead.
 
“He has caused me to dwell in a dark prison like the dead who have gone to the other world.”
 
-Targum on Lamentations 3:6
 
This is the couplet to the phrase “darkness and not light” from verse 2, and is pretext, along with verses 3 & 14, to the redemptive phrase “new every morning” in verse 23.
 
Keil and Delitzsch observe that this verse reflects verbatim the phrasing at the latter part of Psalms 143:3:
 
“For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.”
 
Ibn Ezra calls this darkness מחשך בתוך מחשך “darkness within darkness.”
 
The Hebrew כְּמֵתֵי עוֹלָם reads more literally as, “like those dead perpetually” or “like those in the world of the dead.” Therefore, it’s referring both to those “long dead (past)” and to all who await the judgement. Olam meaning forever, perpetually, indefinitely and world/worlds.
 
 גָּדַ֧ר בַּעֲדִ֛י וְלֹ֥א אֵצֵ֖א הִכְבִּ֥יד נְחָשְׁתִּֽי׃
 
3:7 He has walled me in and I can’t get out; He has weighed me down with chains.
 
This emphasises the captivity which Judah has been exiled into and the inability of Judah to overcome her imprisonment. Judah is suffering the consequences of her sin and the walls of bondage that result. Within the walls of her cell are the chains that bind her and weigh her down further so that she is imprisoned and bound. This reflects Ibn Ezra’s wise observation that the darkness of Judah’s affliction is “darkness within darkness.”
 
Likewise the prophet Jeremiah experienced darkness within darkness in the mire of the pit within the dungeon in Jerusalem (Jeremiah 38). Ibn Ezra reads נחשתי  (chains) as כבלים (cables), and thus by inference makes a correlation between Jeremiah being lowered down into the muddy pit within the dungeon, and the present text.
 
Rashi sees a progression in the phrasing of this verse. Judah was “walled in” by the Babylonians, “Could not get out” because the armies of Nebuchadnezzar encompassed her, and was “weighed down with chains” because the Babylonians had literally fettered the feet, necks and noses of those being taken into exile.
 
גַּ֣ם כִּ֤י אֶזְעַק֙ וַאֲשַׁוֵּ֔עַ שָׂתַ֖ם תְּפִלָּתִֽי׃
 
3:8 Also when I cry for help and shout, He shuts out my prayer;
 
"Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you."
 
-Jeremiah 7:16
 
“He shuts out my prayer” In Jewish tradition there is a metaphorical idea of the windows of the heavens being shut to the prayers of the unrepentant. (ref. Rashi on Lamentations 3:8)
 
There is a point in time where the wilfully unrepentant cross a line from which there is no going back. Not even a righteous prophet can stand in the gap for his people once they have determined to be perpetually wicked. We see this same principle at work in Pharaoh’s wilful resistance to the many opportunities given him to repent. It’s not that God is unable to hear the prayers of the prophet, rather He refuses to accept them on behalf of the wilfully unrepentant.
 
The Targum further illuminates the text by alluding to the destruction of the Temple, “House of my prayer”
 
“Even when I cry out and pray the house of my prayer is blocked.”
 
-Targum on Lamentations 3:8
 
“Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:”
 
-Mishlei (Proverbs) 1:26
 
גָּדַ֤ר דְּרָכַי֙ בְּגָזִ֔ית נְתִיבֹתַ֖י עִוָּֽה׃
 
3:9 He has walled in my ways with hewn stone, He has made the paths I tread crooked.
 
In the physical the armies of Babylon had captured and walled in the residents of Jerusalem and forced the exiles to walk chained by the neck and nose in distress toward Babylon. Thus, “walled in” and “crooked paths”.
 
In the spiritual the walls of God’s discipline keep contained those who wilfully continue to sin and the bending of their paths forces them to walk where they don’t want to go. That is, toward discipline and repentance. Had God not acted in wrathful discipline against disobedient Judah/Israel, she would simply have continued in her sin unto utter annihilation. As it stands she is instead suffering temporary desolation unto restoration as a result of God’s grace.
 
“If I wish to go out, I do not go out in the roads paved in a straight way, because of the enemies, but I go out on the crooked road.”
 
-Rashi on Lamentations 3:9
 
“Hewn stones” are massive quarry stones that have been carved to stand as large foundations to form tall unsurpassable walls. Therefore, the meaning is that the obstacles God has put in place against Judah are beyond her power to overcome. The realisation then must be, that only God can help her in her state of affliction born of disobedience.
 
דֹּ֣ב אֹרֵ֥ב הוּא֙ לִ֔י ׳אַרְיֵה׳ ״אֲרִ֖י״ בְּמִסְתָּרִֽים׃
 
3:10 To me He is a bear waiting, a lion hiding in a secret place;
 
God Himself is personified as a Bear and a Lion. “Hiding in a secret place” is an idiom that conveys the idea that there is nowhere where God isn’t. All things exist in Him. To the time trapped it’s as if He were hiding unseen ready to pounce at any moment and destroy the remnant of suffering and unsuspecting Judah.
 
“I will meet them as a bear bereaved and will rend the membrane of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.”
 
-Hosea 13:8
 
“As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.”
 
-Amos 5:19
 
דְּרָכַ֥י סוֹרֵ֛ר וַֽיְפַשְּׁחֵ֖נִי שָׂמַ֥נִי שֹׁמֵֽם׃
 
3:11 My ways He has turned aside and pulled to pieces, He has appointed for me desolation.
 
“Pulled to pieces” can also be read “torn to pieces” and continues the figurative role of the Lion and Bear.
 
“Appointed” can be read “established”, and this for Judah’s (Israel’s) good.
 
Rashi understands this verse to be a description of the results of a thorn strewn path. The JPS translation speaks of being “mangled” and “left numb”.
 
The appointed desolation is the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile.
 
דָּרַ֤ךְ קַשְׁתּוֹ֙ וַיַּצִּיבֵ֔נִי כַּמַּטָּרָ֖א לַחֵֽץ׃
 
3:12 He has stood on His bow and set me as the target of His arrows:
 
The bow is, like the rod (v.1) and hand (v.3) of God, an instrument of wrath, and is one of the weapons the Babylonians employed against Judah. The bow in question is a massive long bow that requires the archer to stand on its base in order to gain the leverage needed to fire it at great distances. Thus, the discipline established for Judah was established by God long before she reached the height of her abominations. This is yet another expression of God’s grace and mercy, His limitless patience.
 
God has surgically selected Judah/Israel as His target, picking her out from all the other nations. Why? Because He would see her repentant and made whole. Blessed is the nation (Israel) surgically targeted by God for discipline unto repentance. Cursed is the nation (Babylon) allowed to continue in sin unto self-destruction.
 
הֵבִיא֙ בְּכִלְיוֹתָ֔י בְּנֵ֖י אַשְׁפָּתֽוֹ׃
 
3:13 The arrows of His quiver enter my kidneys.
 
This speaks of deeply felt emotional torment. The kidneys are the Hebrew set of emotion. God has cut Judah/Israel/Jeremiah to the core. So great is her grief in affliction that it feels as if an arrow has struck deep into her abdomen where the stomach, kidneys, intestines and other vital organs subsequently explode to produce insurmountable pain. Of course this figurative meaning is established in the fact that many were wounded in this way when Babylon invaded the land of Israel and destroyed Jerusalem.
 
הָיִ֤יתִי שְּׂחֹק֙ לְכָל־עַמִּ֔י נְגִינָתָ֖ם כָּל־הַיּֽוֹם׃
 
3:14 I have become a laughingstock to all my tribe (amiy), their taunting song lasts all day long.
 
Jeremiah, the prophet Israel ignored at her peril had become a laughing stock even to his own. Likewise Judah had become a laughing stock to the already exiled tribes of the north.
 
“YHVH, You have persuaded me, and I was persuaded: You are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am in derision daily, everyone mocks me.”
 
-Y’rmiyahu (Jeremiah) 20:7
 
This speaks of mocking and derision among the tribes of Israel. Specifically Jeremiah was mocked by Benjamin, his native tribe (Jer. 1:1).
 
“They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.
 
-Tehillim (Psalms) 69:12
 
The Targum specifies which of his own tribe mocked the prophet.
 
“I have become a laughing stock to all the degenerate of my people; they mock me in song all day.”
 
-Targum on Lamentations 3:14
 
הִשְׂבִּיעַ֥נִי בַמְּרוֹרִ֖ים הִרְוַ֥נִי לַעֲנָֽה׃
 
3:15 He has filled me with bitterness, saturated me with wormwood (curse).
 
The Hebrew בַמְּרוֹרִים bam’roriym is from the root מרור maror, eaten at Pesach (Passover) in remembrance of the tears of Israel’s bondage.
 
Wormwood is likewise bitter, thus there is an established bitterness. Wormwood is figuratively associated with curse. Those who resist God bring curse upon themselves. Curse being the fruit of sin unto death.
 
וַיַּגְרֵ֤ס בֶּֽחָצָץ֙ שִׁנָּ֔י הִכְפִּישַׁ֖נִי בָּאֵֽפֶר׃
 
3:16 And He has crushed my teeth in gravel, ground me into the dust.
 
This graphic imagery of an open mouthed person being rammed into the gravel, breaking teeth into crushed particles, is horrific.
 
The shattering of foul speech is implied and the dust infers the returning of a human being to the earth from which he was created. “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust”.
 
Dust is also associated with the ritual of mourning throughout Biblical literature.
 
 וַתִּזְנַ֧ח מִשָּׁל֛וֹם נַפְשִׁ֖י נָשִׁ֥יתִי טוֹבָֽה׃

3:17 He has cast my soul far from peace, I forgot goodness.
 
A soul that feels cast far from peace is of the opinion that God (Who defines peace as Sar Shalom, the Prince of Peace) is far from him. This is impossible, however, the soul in affliction as a result of wilful sin has already self-deluded for such a long period of time that delusion becomes a way of life. Thank God that He is present in the affliction even of the deluded and seeks to restore the unrepentant to Himself through atonement and repentance.
 
“I forgot goodness” is of course an allusion to the inability to perceive anything good. When a person is at their lowest only darkness can be seen.
 
וָאֹמַר֙ אָבַ֣ד נִצְחִ֔י וְתוֹחַלְתִּ֖י מֵיְהוָֽה׃
 
3:18 I said, “My strength and hope have perished from before the LORD (YHVH).”
 
Put concisely, “I feel abandoned by God”.
 
Strength and hope reflect the present life and the hope of the world to come. This verse infers that the writer has lost both.
 
What follows is evidence of the fact that the writer has, in the face of insurmountable loss, nonetheless chosen to remember HaShem’s mercy.
 
 זְכָר־עָנְיִ֥י וּמְרוּדִ֖י לַעֲנָ֥ה וָרֹֽאשׁ׃
 
3:19 Remembering my affliction and my misery was wormwood (curse) and poison;
 
This is a reflection unto repentance. Soberly acknowledging that affliction, misery, curse and poison have resulted from sin choices and hatred toward the God of Love.
 
Ibn Ezra rightly observes that this is the beginning of a unique prayer to God. In fact, it is a prayer of repentance and acknowledgement of the merciful character of God in relationship to His people Israel.
 
זָכ֣וֹר תִּזְכּ֔וֹר ׳וְתָשִׁיחַ׳ ״וְתָשׁ֥וֹחַ״ עָלַ֖י נַפְשִֽׁי׃
 
3:20 Constantly remembering them, I was bowed low in my soul.
 
In other words, “The recollection of my sins and the resulting affliction has caused me to bow low in humility and repentance.”
 
זֹ֛את אָשִׁ֥יב אֶל־לִבִּ֖י עַל־כֵּ֥ן אוֹחִֽיל׃
 
3:21 But this returned to my heart (inner person), upon this recollection I wait expectantly:
 
The writer points to what follows as that which returned to his heart. The character of God, Who in mercy turns away His wrath from the humble. Thus, remembering Who God is, the writer waits on God’s mercy expectantly. Judah waits, Israel waits, the prophet waits, the Messiah waits and establishes atonement unto redemption and eternal life.
 
חַֽסְדֵ֤י יְהוָה֙ כִּ֣י לֹא־תָ֔מְנוּ כִּ֥י לֹא־כָל֖וּ רַחֲמָֽיו׃
 
3:22 The faithful kindness of the LORD (YHVH) indeed never ends, the out workings of His compassionate womb (mercies) can never cease.
 
“The faithful kindness of Mercy Himself most certainly cannot end, the actions of His compassionate mercy filled womb are perpetually manifest.”
 
The writer describes the Person of God. He is all existing without beginning or end, He is faithful, kind, compassionate, gracious, merciful, like a devoted mother, and so, because He is all these things and more, and because He is eternal, it is impossible for His acts of mercy to end.
 
Therefore…
 
חֲדָשִׁים֙ לַבְּקָרִ֔ים רַבָּ֖ה אֱמוּנָתֶֽךָ׃
 
3:23 They are new to all the mornings — great is Your faithfulness, fidelity, trusted firmness!
 
Rashi puts it beautifully, “Your faithfulness is immense!”
 
The sufferings of affliction that resulted from sin, had seemed to be without end (3:3, 14), they lasted “all day long”, however, “all day” is singular and temporary whereas “to all the mornings” is everlasting. The merciful actions of God consume the day of affliction and in Mercy through atonement, multiply it (singular) into never ending days of fidelity, faithfulness and the transcendent joy of restored relationship.
 
 
Copyright 2025 Yaakov (Brown) Ben Yehoshua

אֵיכָה֩ יָעִ֨יב בְּאַפּ֤וֹ׀ אֲדֹנָי֙ אֶת־בַּת־צִיּ֔וֹן הִשְׁלִ֤יךְ מִשָּׁמַ֙יִם֙ אֶ֔רֶץ תִּפְאֶ֖רֶת יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וְלֹא־זָכַ֥ר הֲדֹם־רַגְלָ֖יו בְּי֥וֹם אַפּֽוֹ׃
 
2:1 Alas, how?! A cloud of the nostril flaring anger of Adonay upon the daughter Zion, the splendor of Israel is cast down from the heavens to the land, and not remembered is His footstool in the day of His nostril flaring anger.
 
The Master אֲדֹנָי (Adonay), present in the cloud of His glory had elevated Zion, the people of Judah and Israel, leading them out of Egypt, through the red sea, and resting on the מִשׁכָּן Mishkan (Tent of meeting). The cloud of His presence had gone before them and resided in their midst. (Ex. 13:21; 14:19)
 
The splendor of Israel being His manifest presence and intimate relationship with the people. This right relationship was made possible through the practice of atonement and appointed times of meeting, as a sign of the blood atonement which was to come in Messiah Yeshua HaMelekh. In His loving arms HaShem had lifted Israel up as if into the heavens and now, as a result of her unrepentant heart, and in those same loving arms, He casts Zion down in a dark cloud of nostril flaring anger for the purpose of discipline.
 
The cloud acts as a veil that makes a distinction between Judah’s unclean state and the holiness of God, symbolized here by the heavenly throne. Both literally (given the loss of the Temple) and metaphorically (given the cloud of judgement from the heavens), Judah and her now defrocked Levite priests are unable to enter the Holy of Holies, neither earthly nor heavenly: not through the atoning work of sacrifice, because they are devoid of an altar, and not through the mitigating role of the High Priest, because they have no High Priest or a Temple, or a Holy of Holies into which he might have entered to atone for the nation by sprinkling the blood of the לַיהוָה עֵז goat for HaShem on the mercy seat. (Lev. 16)
 
The “footstool” is a figurative reference to Beit HaMikdash (the Temple/Sanctuary) in Jerusalem which sat atop Mt Zion (Mt Moriah). And more specifically an allusion to the Ark of the Covenant. (1 Chronicles 28:2) This metaphor emphasizes the immense and all existing Creator in relationship to the tiny human being who approaches the Ark in order to receive atonement through blood upon the mercy seat.
 
Therefore, HaShem’s footstool is Mt Zion, the Temple, the Ark, the Mercy Seat.
 
בִּלַּ֨ע אֲדֹנָ֜י ׳לֹא׳ ״וְלֹ֣א״ חָמַ֗ל אֵ֚ת כָּל־נְא֣וֹת יַעֲקֹ֔ב הָרַ֧ס בְּעֶבְרָת֛וֹ מִבְצְרֵ֥י בַת־יְהוּדָ֖ה הִגִּ֣יעַ לָאָ֑רֶץ חִלֵּ֥ל מַמְלָכָ֖ה וְשָׂרֶֽיהָ׃
 
2:2 Swallowed up by Adonay and not pitied are all the habitations of Jacob: destroyed in the overflow of His wrath are the fortifications of daughter Judah, the kingdom and the princes He has brought down to the land in dishonor.
 
“Swallowed up by Adonay and not pitied are all the pastures of Jacob:” The LORD had forsaken His earthly habitation (footstool) and by extension He had swallowed up the habitations of Israel. “Swallowed up” is a metaphor for destruction, however it has a redemptive quality. Something swallowed is refined and digested by the body, the valuable parts become part of the body while the harmful and unusable parts are excreted as unclean mater. In terms of God and Israel this means a refining of Israel and a redeemable component through the digestive process of God’s redemptive purposes.
 
“Destroyed in the overflow of His wrath are the fortifications of daughter Judah” HaShem is the ultimate protection/fortification of daughter Judah. In withdrawing His hand of protection, her man-made structures of defense are proved worthless. “Not by might, nor by power, for it is with and in My Spirit says the LORD Who goes warring!” (Zech. 4:6)
 
“Kingdom and princes” correlates to verse 6 which matches this poetic couplet in reverse order as “King and priest”. Israel as a kingdom is a “nation of priests” set apart unto YHVH (Ex. 19:6; 1 Peter 2:9).
 
גָּדַ֣ע בָּֽחֳרִי־אַ֗ף כֹּ֚ל קֶ֣רֶן יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל הֵשִׁ֥יב אָח֛וֹר יְמִינ֖וֹ מִפְּנֵ֣י אוֹיֵ֑ב וַיִּבְעַ֤ר בְּיַעֲקֹב֙ כְּאֵ֣שׁ לֶֽהָבָ֔ה אָכְלָ֖ה סָבִֽיב׃
 
2:3 In His fierce, nostril flaring anger, He has cut down every horn (all the strength) of Israel: He has turned back (withdrawn) His right hand from the face of the enemy and has set Jacob alight with the point of a fiery spear that devours round about him.
 
“He has cut down every horn (all the strength) of Israel” This is a powerful image that first alludes to the horns of the altar which, along with the Temple, have been cut down. The horns of the altar are a symbol of Israel’s God given spiritual strength that emanates out to the for points of the compass and sends light into the nations. The rulers of Israel along with her priests are also horns that have been cut down. (Dan. 7:24) Therefore, every part of her strength has been removed.
 
“He has turned back (withdrawn) His right hand from the face of the enemy” It’s never been Israel’s military might that has saved her but the right hand of God that has kept her enemies at bay. The right hand is a symbol of strength, justice, authority and power. The poetic meaning is clear, God has stepped back from the enemies of Israel and allowed them access to His treasured people for a time, in order to discipline and reconcile Israel to Himself.
 
The cutting off of the horns (strength) and removal of the right hand (strength) are a classic example of the repetition employed by Hebrew poetry. In Hebrew poetry repetition for emphasis is more common than word play through rhyming.
 
“Has set Jacob alight with the point of a fiery spear”
 
“Now the people complained, it displeased YHVH; for YHVH heard, and His nostril flaring anger was aroused. So the fire of YHVH burned among them, and consumed in the outskirts of the camp. 2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and when Moses prayed to YHVH, the fire was quenched. 3 So he called the name of the place Taveirah (Burning), because the fire of YHVH had burned among them.”
 
-Bamidbar (Numbers) 11:1-3
 
Ref. Job 1:16; Psalms 106:18
 
דָּרַ֨ךְ קַשְׁתּ֜וֹ כְּאוֹיֵ֗ב נִצָּ֤ב יְמִינוֹ֙ כְּצָ֔ר וַֽיַּהֲרֹ֔ג כֹּ֖ל מַחֲמַדֵּי־עָ֑יִן בְּאֹ֙הֶל֙ בַּת־צִיּ֔וֹן שָׁפַ֥ךְ כָּאֵ֖שׁ חֲמָתֽוֹ׃
 
2:4 He bent His bow like an enemy, He stood with His right hand as an adversary and destroyed all that was pleasing to the eye: upon the Tent (Ohel - Beit HaMikdash) of the daughter Zion He poured out His rage like fire.
 
“He bent His bow like an enemy, He stood with His right hand as an adversary” This is a picture of a well trained and experienced archer who puts his right hand on the bow and his foot on the base in order to leverage greater flex in the arc of the bow which will propel the arrow across vast distances piercing the target with devastating speed. The Hebrew דרך darakh “bend, tread” is the root for the Hebrew דריכה deriykhah “treading”.
 
Numerous times in Scripture God is pictured as an adversary. He is an adversary of evil, His arrows targeting that which seeks to defile the righteous, thus purging Israel of wicked and perverse rebellion.
 
“He tears in His wrath, this One Who hates me: He gnashes upon me with His teeth; my Enemy sharpens His eyes upon me.”
 
-Iyov (Job) 16:9
 
“destroyed all that was pleasing to the eye” This is of course a reference to all that is beautiful to look upon and at the same time is the pretext and couplet to the following: “Upon the Tent (Ohel - Beit HaMikdash) of the daughter Zion” which is both pleasing to the eye and was once a place of redemption, reconciliation and solace for daughter Zion.
 
“He poured out His rage like fire”
 
“Who can stand before His indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his nostril flaring anger? His rage is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him.”
 
-Nachum 1:6
 
הָיָ֨ה אֲדֹנָ֤י׀ כְּאוֹיֵב֙ בִּלַּ֣ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל בִּלַּע֙ כָּל־אַרְמְנוֹתֶ֔יהָ שִׁחֵ֖ת מִבְצָרָ֑יו וַיֶּ֙רֶב֙ בְּבַת־יְהוּדָ֔ה תַּאֲנִיָּ֖ה וַאֲנִיָּֽה׃
 
2:5 Adonay has become like an enemy in swallowing up Israel, in swallowing up all her palaces, He has destroyed his strongholds and has made great the mourning and lamentation of daughter Judah.
 
“Adonay has become like an enemy” Not an enemy but “like” an enemy. Adonay is no more an enemy to Israel than a father who disciplines his son is his son’s enemy.
 
“In swallowing up all her palaces, He has destroyed his strongholds” Her rulers, fortified walls, and her military defense system.
 
“And has made great the mourning and lamentation of daughter Judah” Again the Hebrew poetry emphasizes the weightiness of an aspect of the subject by doubling ideas and using multiple synonymous terms. Here “mourning (pain)” and “lamentation (wailing)” convey an established and overwhelming sense of abject suffering.
 
וַיַּחְמֹ֤ס כַּגַּן֙ שֻׂכּ֔וֹ שִׁחֵ֖ת מוֹעֲד֑וֹ שִׁכַּ֨ח יְהוָ֤ה׀ בְּצִיּוֹן֙ מוֹעֵ֣ד וְשַׁבָּ֔ת וַיִּנְאַ֥ץ בְּזַֽעַם־אַפּ֖וֹ מֶ֥לֶךְ וְכֹהֵֽן׃
 
2:6 He has violently stripped the garden of His sukkah (booth, dwelling, Ohel - Beit HaMikdash), He has destroyed His appointed assembly, YHVH has caused to wither the appointed time/feast and the Sabbath (day), and has despised in indignation and His nostril flaring anger, king and priest.
 
“He has violently stripped the garden of His sukkah (booth, dwelling, Ohel - Beit HaMikdash)” That is, the Temple, its precincts and surrounding area. We note that HaShem has used the army of Nebuchadnezzar to do this. The use of the Hebrew שֻׂכּ֔וֹ sukko is interesting because it makes a correlation between HaShem’s dwelling and the individual dwellings (sukkot( of Israel in reference to the festival of Sukkot. This is noteworthy because the Temple and or Tent of meeting are more commonly referred to as אהל מועד Ohel Moeid, המשכן HaMishkan, or בית המקדש Beit HaMikdash rather than שֻׂכּ֔וֹ sukko His (YHVH) shelter/dwelling. YHVH comes down and dwells among us in the sukkah of human form as the King Messiah Yeshua. The Messiah will be stripped and striped and murdered outside the garden of HaShem’s sukkah in Jerusalem. “The Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world.” (John 1:29)
 
“He has destroyed His appointed assembly” This is another reference to the Temple in its original form as a tent in the desert, its ancient title being אהל מועד Ohel Moeid, “Tent of Meeting.” Rashi notes that this is more specifically a reference to the Holy of Holies which is the appointed place of meeting between the High Priest and HaShem through the blood atonement that receives mercy for Israel. (Lev. 16:15-16)
 
“And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.”
 
-Shemot (Exodus) 25:22 NKJV
 
Ref. Ex. 25:22; 29:42-43; Psalms 74:4
 
“YHVH has caused to wither the appointed time/feast and the Sabbath (day)” The Hebrew refers to a singular appointed time and the weekly Sabbath, which means that a particular festival is being referred to along with the weekly Sabbath which finds its observance origin in creation. The festival, or מוֹעֵד moeid in question is most likely Sukkot, the festival that illuminates God’s constant presence among Israel while she journeyed in the desert and points to His eternal presence manifest over the descent of the New Jerusalem at the end of days. (Rev. 21:2)
 
“Has despised in indignation and His nostril flaring anger, king and priest.” Both King and priest have defiled HaShem’s Sanctuary/footstool and His appointed times through vile syncretism of heathen practices and false deities. Thus, He has despised them and purged that which is unclean from Israel through the discipline of destruction and captivity.
 
Rashi names the king and kohen (Priest) as “King Tzidkiyahu (Zedekiah) and Serayahu (Seraiah) the Kohein HaGadol (High Priest).
 
זָנַ֨ח אֲדֹנָ֤י׀ מִזְבְּחוֹ֙ נִאֵ֣ר מִקְדָּשׁ֔וֹ הִסְגִּיר֙ בְּיַד־אוֹיֵ֔ב חוֹמֹ֖ת אַרְמְנוֹתֶ֑יהָ ק֛וֹל נָתְנ֥וּ בְּבֵית־יְהוָ֖ה כְּי֥וֹם מוֹעֵֽד׃
 
2:7 Adonay has cast off (considers it an odious stench) His altar, He has abhorred His sanctuary (Beit HaMikdash – Temple), He has handed over to the enemy the walls of her palaces: a shout they have given in the house of YHVH because the day is an appointed time (moeid).
 
“Adonay has cast off (considers it an odious stench) His altar, He has abhorred His sanctuary (Beit HaMikdash – Temple)” The Psalmist writes concerning the Davidic kingship:
 
“You have cast off and abhorred,
You have been furious with Your anointed.
You have renounced the covenant of Your servant;
You have profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.”
 
-Tehillim (Psalms) 89:38-39 NKJV
 
“A shout they have given in the house of YHVH because the day is an appointed time (moed).” This speaks of the irony that it is the enemies of God and Israel who give a shout of joy over the destruction of her Sanctuary while standing on the holy ground where Israel once came to her appointed meetings with HaShem.
 
Therefore, the Hebrew מוֹעֵֽד moeid “appointment” is used in reference to an appointment with the destruction that will take place on a specific day, most likely the day of a specific festival/Sabbath observance. Jewish tradition connects the enemy’s shout of victory with the once joyous shout of Israel in the Temple precinct during Pesach (Passover).
 
“They raised a shout in the Temple of the LORD like the shout of the people of the House of Israel praying in it on the day of Passover.”
 
-2nd Century C.E. Aramaic Targum to Lamentations 2:7
 
חָשַׁ֨ב יְהוָ֤ה׀ לְהַשְׁחִית֙ חוֹמַ֣ת בַּת־צִיּ֔וֹן נָ֣טָה קָ֔ו לֹא־הֵשִׁ֥יב יָד֖וֹ מִבַּלֵּ֑עַ וַיַּֽאֲבֶל־חֵ֥ל וְחוֹמָ֖ה יַחְדָּ֥ו אֻמְלָֽלוּ׃
 
2:8 Thoughtfully YHVH purposed to destroy the wall of daughter Zion; He stretched out a measuring line and has not turned back His hand from swallowing up: and both fortress and wall lament together in weakness.
 
“Thoughtfully YHVH purposed to destroy the wall of daughter Zion” All of Zion’s discipline is established by God thoughtfully and for her ultimate good.
 
“He stretched out a measuring line and has not turned back His hand from swallowing up” The holiness of God establishes the Torah as a measure against which wrong action is tested and indicted unto judgement and destruction.
 
“Both fortress and wall lament together in weakness” Both the outer fortifications and the inner walls of Jerusalem including the wall of the outer court of the Temple precinct, and the other fortified towns of Judea and their inner walls are torn down leaving every habitation weak and vulnerable to attack.
 
“But the shags and the bittern will possess it; the owl also and the raven will dwell in it: and he will stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.”
 
-Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 34:11
 
טָבְע֤וּ בָאָ֙רֶץ֙ שְׁעָרֶ֔יהָ אִבַּ֥ד וְשִׁבַּ֖ר בְּרִיחֶ֑יהָ מַלְכָּ֨הּ וְשָׂרֶ֤יהָ בַגּוֹיִם֙ אֵ֣ין תּוֹרָ֔ה גַּם־נְבִיאֶ֕יהָ לֹא־מָצְא֥וּ חָז֖וֹן מֵיְהוָֽה׃
  
2:9 Her gates are sunk into the land, vanished, and broken are her bars; her king and her princes are among the nations (goyim – heathens: in exile), there is no Torah (Instruction); also, her prophets are unable to attain a vision from YHVH.
 
“Her gates are sunk into the land, vanished, and broken are her bars” This is a poetic way of saying that the gates (entry ways) and bars of protection over lower windows in the outer walls were utterly destroyed. They may well have also been covered in dirt and literally sunk into the land. This emphasizes the vulnerability of the city of Jerusalem in that the gates and bars are protected entry ways that are now left wide open to every enemy seeking entry.
 
“Her king and her princes are among the nations (goyim – heathens: in exile)” This refers to their literal captivity and to their heathen practice and rejection of a pure observance of the Torah and its regulations, and therefore, they have proven time and again to be in a state of rebellion against God. They are like goyim (pagans) and thus, are now given over to live among them.
 
“There is no Torah (Instruction)” There is no Torah because Judah had rejected the proper application of the Torah and had lost her way. Also, the invading army had very likely literally burned Torah scrolls in their zeal for destroying the city of Jerusalem.
 
“Also, her prophets are unable to attain a vision from YHVH.” This refers to apostate prophets. They are “her prophets” and not “prophets of God”. Yeshua would later allude to this principal of withholding guidance from those who appear to be prophets of God but are not: “Many are called but few are chosen”. (Matt. 22:14) We note that at this time God had appointed three true prophets as beacons of light and indictment: Daniel, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
 
Other godly prophets give similar warnings to Israel:
 
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,
“That I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread,
Nor a thirst for water,
But of hearing the words of the Lord.”
 
-Amos 8:11 NKJV
 
“So the seers shall be ashamed,
And the diviners abashed;
Indeed they shall all cover their lips;
For there is no answer from God.”
 
-Micah 3:7 NKJV
 
“And the child Samuel ministered unto YHVH before Eli. And the Word of YHVH was scarce in those days; there were no open visions.”
 
-1 Samuel 3:1
 
יֵשְׁב֨וּ לָאָ֤רֶץ יִדְּמוּ֙ זִקְנֵ֣י בַת־צִיּ֔וֹן הֶֽעֱל֤וּ עָפָר֙ עַל־רֹאשָׁ֔ם חָגְר֖וּ שַׂקִּ֑ים הוֹרִ֤ידוּ לָאָ֙רֶץ֙ רֹאשָׁ֔ן בְּתוּלֹ֖ת יְרוּשָׁלִָֽם׃
 
2:10 Siting on the land, still, silent, waiting, the elders of daughter Zion throw dust upon their heads girded in sackcloth: the heads of the virgins of Jerusalem bowed down to the land.
 
“Siting on the land, still, silent, waiting, the elders of daughter Zion throw dust upon their heads girded in sackcloth” This is an act of mourning. (Job 2:12-13; Psalms 35:13-14)
 
The Midrash Aggadah says, “Nebuchadnezzar sat them on the ground when Tzidkiyahu rebelled against him and transgressed his oath. He came and stationed himself in Dophnei of Ontochya, and sent for the Sanhedrin. They came toward him and he saw that they were men of imposing appearance. He sat them down in golden chairs and said to them, ‘recite your Torah for me chapter by chapter and translate it for me.’ When they reached the chapter dealing with vows, he said to them, ‘[What] if he wishes to retract [from his vow], can he retract?’ They said to him, ‘Let him go to a sage and he will absolve him [of his vow].’ He said to them, ‘If so, you [must have] absolved Tzidkiyahu of his oath.’ He [Nebuchadnezzar] commanded, and they pushed them down and sat them on the ground. They then tied the hair of their heads to the horses’ tails and dragged them.”
 
“The heads of the virgins of Jerusalem bowed down to the land.” Once joyous in their youth the virgins of Jerusalem, her innocence as it were, are bowed in mourning, even bowed in defilement by the invading army, their faces shoved into the dirt.
 
כָּל֨וּ בַדְּמָע֤וֹת עֵינַי֙ חֳמַרְמְר֣וּ מֵעַ֔י נִשְׁפַּ֤ךְ לָאָ֙רֶץ֙ כְּבֵדִ֔י עַל־שֶׁ֖בֶר בַּת־עַמִּ֑י בֵּֽעָטֵ֤ף עוֹלֵל֙ וְיוֹנֵ֔ק בִּרְחֹב֖וֹת קִרְיָֽה׃
 
2:11 My eyes are consumed with tears, my intestines fermenting, my liver poured out onto the land because of the destruction of the daughter of my people (tribe): young children and nursing infants languish in the city streets.
 
These are the words of the prophet Jeremiah, the elders, the sum of the people of Jerusalem and Judea. There is no need for false choices regarding who is speaking this gut-wrenching lament. In fact, the Author is the Holy Spirit, the Word of God Himself Yeshua HaMelekh.
 
“My eyes are consumed with tears” The ceaseless weeping of an inconsolable person.
 
“My intestines fermenting, my liver poured out onto the land” The intestines מעה meieih & liver כבד kaved are the seat of emotion in Biblical Hebrew thought. Because the Hebrew חמר chamar essentially means “foam up” or “to be reddened” some interpret the imagery to refer to the intestines being thrown on a hot plate where they sizzle and spit as they cook. (ref. Job 16:13)
 
“because of the destruction of the daughter of my people (tribe)” The use of the phrase “daughter of my tribe” conveys a sense of the defiling of innocence. A father looks upon his youngest daughter in her suffering state and experiences the agony of intense grief and awareness of a position of utter vulnerability. This is one of the many literary turns of phrase in Lamentations that points to Jeremiah’s authorship.
“Therefore, you shall say this word to them:
‘Let my eyes flow with tears night and day,
And let them not cease;
For the virgin daughter of my people (tribe)
Has been broken with a mighty stroke, with a very severe blow.’”
 
-Yermiyahu (Jeremiah) 14:17
 
לְאִמֹּתָם֙ יֹֽאמְר֔וּ אַיֵּ֖ה דָּגָ֣ן וָיָ֑יִן בְּהִֽתְעַטְּפָ֤ם כֶּֽחָלָל֙ בִּרְחֹב֣וֹת עִ֔יר בְּהִשְׁתַּפֵּ֣ךְ נַפְשָׁ֔ם אֶל־חֵ֖יק אִמֹּתָֽם׃
 
2:12 They constantly ask their mothers, “Where is grain and wine?” The wounded languish in the streets of the city as their souls are poured out into the breasts of their mothers.
 
The subjects are the “young children and infants” from the previous verse. Grain is the staple food resource and wine reflects the abundance and blessing associated with the fruit of the vine. Therefore, the people are devoid of both basic nutrition and the joy of abundant wine. The fact that both grain and wine are missing means that neither harvest nor storage could provide them. All had either been depleted or plundered.
 
“The wounded languish in the streets of the city as their souls are poured out into the breasts of their mothers.” Simply put the dying wounded are held in the arms of their mothers who weep uncontrollably while they watch their precious children suffer in their death throws.
 
מָֽה־אֲעִידֵ֞ךְ מָ֣ה אֲדַמֶּה־לָּ֗ךְ הַבַּת֙ יְר֣וּשָׁלִַ֔ם מָ֤ה אַשְׁוֶה־לָּךְ֙ וַאֲנַֽחֲמֵ֔ךְ בְּתוּלַ֖ת בַּת־צִיּ֑וֹן כִּֽי־גָד֥וֹל כַּיָּ֛ם שִׁבְרֵ֖ךְ מִ֥י יִרְפָּא־לָֽךְ׃ 
 
2:13 What can I take witness from or liken you to daughter Jerusalem? What can I match you to that I might comfort you, virgin daughter Zion? For great like the ocean is your affliction; who will heal you?
 
The LORD indicts Zion by asking, “Which righteous nation can I compare you to so as to comfort you in righteousness? In fact, you are comparable only to wicked nations and as a result of your wickedness, your affliction is like the unquenchable tide of a vast ocean. So, who will heal you of your self-abuse?” Only one who wants and asks for help can receive it.
 
“What can I match you to that I might comfort you, virgin daughter Zion?” This is like the phrasing used by some when a friend is suffering e.g. “This also happened to so and so, and everything worked out okay for them…” However, in the case of Israel’s discipline, any nation God might compare her to also suffered His wrath. Therefore, there would be no comfort in the comparison.
 
 נְבִיאַ֗יִךְ חָ֤זוּ לָךְ֙ שָׁ֣וְא וְתָפֵ֔ל וְלֹֽא־גִלּ֥וּ עַל־עֲוֺנֵ֖ךְ לְהָשִׁ֣יב ׳שְׁבִיתֵךְ׳ ״שְׁבוּתֵ֑ךְ״ וַיֶּ֣חֱזוּ לָ֔ךְ מַשְׂא֥וֹת שָׁ֖וְא וּמַדּוּחִֽים׃
 
2:14 Your prophets have seen for you vain things and have not uncovered your perversity (avon) so as to turn away your captivity; they have seen for you visions of vanity and seduction.
 
The false prophets of Israel have shared their own delusions with the people pretending to speak the Word of God. This same practice is prolific in the modern pseudo-Christian church. The false prophets of Israel proved themselves to be apostate because they failed in their role, which is to call out the sin of the people and call them to return to God in repentance. Again, the misuse of the so-called prophetic gifting in the modern pseudo-Christian church likewise emphasizes only uplifting predictions, as if mimicking the pretentious lies of mediums and fortune tellers.
 
The visions of Israel’s false prophets are vanity because they lead to destruction and are therefore worthless. They are seductive because they tell people what they want to hear and attach God’s Name to the delusions in order to give the prophetic words the appearance of authority. Like the false prophets of old the false prophets of today are many and their followers numerous. The Word of the LORD has no need of popularity; it is established to indict unto redemption or destruction.
 
"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. For narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
 
-Mark 7:13-14
 
“Have not uncovered your perversity (avon) so as to turn away your captivity” The Hebrew     עֲוֺנֵךְ  avoneikh refers to the sin of perversity, a sort of amplification of the root of sin, a compounding of sin action that seeks new ways to defile the created order. The false prophets have failed to expose this perversity. Had they done so Israel might have repented and her exile would not have been necessary.
 
Ref, Jeremiah 5:12-13; 6:13-15; 8:10-12; 14:13-15; 23:9-40; 27:9-28:17; Ezekiel 13:10-16; 22:28; 27:10-15
 
סָֽפְק֨וּ עָלַ֤יִךְ כַּפַּ֙יִם֙ כָּל־עֹ֣בְרֵי דֶ֔רֶךְ שָֽׁרְקוּ֙ וַיָּנִ֣עוּ רֹאשָׁ֔ם עַל־בַּ֖ת יְרוּשָׁלִָ֑ם הֲזֹ֣את הָעִ֗יר שֶׁיֹּֽאמְרוּ֙ כְּלִ֣ילַת יֹ֔פִי מָשׂ֖וֹשׂ לְכָל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃
 
2:15 All who pass by you clap their hands in mockery, hiss and wag their heads at daughter Jerusalem, “This one, the city that’s called perfection, beautiful, from joyful exaltation to all the land.”
 
This mockery of all of Judah and her holy places which comes from the goyim (pagans, nations) who pass by, is not only an insult against Jerusalem and Judah, but also an insult against the LORD Who placed His Name in Zion.
 
“Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God will shine forth.”
 
-Tehillim (Psalms) 50:2 NKJV
 
“Beautiful in elevation,
The joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion on the sides of the north,
The city of the great King.”
 
-Tehillim (Psalms) 48:2 NKJV
 
This mockery of Jerusalem’s destruction will come in full circle against Babylon, the city that sought the title of being “Praised in all the earth”.
 
“Oh, how Sheshach is taken!
Oh, how the praise of the whole earth is seized!
How Babylon has become desolate among the nations!”
 
-Yermiyahu (Jeremiah) 51:41 NKJV
 
““But you shall seek the place where the LORD your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go.”
 
-D’varim (Deuteronomy) 12:5 NKJV
 
פָּצ֨וּ עָלַ֤יִךְ פִּיהֶם֙ כָּל־א֣וֹיְבַ֔יִךְ שָֽׁרְקוּ֙ וַיַּֽחַרְקוּ־שֵׁ֔ן אָמְר֖וּ בִּלָּ֑עְנוּ אַ֣ךְ זֶ֥ה הַיּ֛וֹם שֶׁקִּוִּינֻ֖הוּ מָצָ֥אנוּ רָאִֽינוּ׃
 
2:16 With opened mouths all your enemies jeer at you; they hiss and gnash their teeth and say, “She’s swallowed up, this is the day we were waiting for, we’ve lived to see it!”
 
The plain meaning of the text shows simply that the enemies of Israel had hated her with such longevity that they had anticipated her destruction for generations and were delighted to see it come to pass.
 
This verse places the פ peh before the ע ayin in the acrostic order of the Hebrew aleph א beit ב. The following verse beginning with the ע ayin out of place. Rashi makes the following observation:
 
“Why did Scripture place the פ peh before the ע ayin? Because they [i.e., the prophets] were saying with their mouths what they did not see with their eyes.” Thus, they were false prophets, out of place, out of order.
 
“With regard to the verse: “They have opened their mouths against you” (Lamentations 2:16), Rava says that Rabbi Yoḥanan says: For what reason did the prophet precede the verse beginning with the letter פ peh to the verse beginning with the letter ע ayin in several chapters of Lamentations? Since פ peh means mouth and ע ayin means eye, it is for the spies who said with their mouths [befihem] what they did not see with their eyes [be’eineihem].”
 
-Talmud Bavliy Sanhedrin 104b:11
 
In Hebrew gematria, the letter ayin ע has a numerical value of 70. Therefore, as the theologian Dr Lightfoot suggests, it may be that the reverse order of the two characters peh פ and ayin ע may be the prophet’s way of alluding to the 70 years Jerusalem would lay desolate following her destruction, which is being described in the present text.
 
עָשָׂ֨ה יְהוָ֜ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר זָמָ֗ם בִּצַּ֤ע אֶמְרָתוֹ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר צִוָּ֣ה מִֽימֵי־קֶ֔דֶם הָרַ֖ס וְלֹ֣א חָמָ֑ל וַיְשַׂמַּ֤ח עָלַ֙יִךְ֙ אוֹיֵ֔ב הֵרִ֖ים קֶ֥רֶן צָרָֽיִךְ׃
 
2:17 YHVH has fashioned what He purposed, fulfilled His word which He commanded in the days of old; He has torn down and without pity has allowed the enemy to rejoice over you, and has raised up the horn (strength) of your adversaries.
 
HaShem fashions justice. Knowing the end from the beginning He has spoken into time and space the outcomes for the unjust.
 
“The LORD will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me.”
 
-D’varim (Deuteronomy) 28:20 ESV
 
“The Lord will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you.”
 
-D’varim (Deuteronomy) 28:36-37 NKJV
 
“The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.”
 
-D’varim (Deuteronomy) 28:43-44 NKJV
 
“I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.”
 
-Vayikra (Leviticus) 26:17-18
 
Ref. Deut. 28; Isa. 55:11
 
We note that HaShem has “allowed” the enemy to rejoice, and has raised up the horn, singular, of Israel’s adversaries. Whereas He had thrown down “every horn” (v.3) of Israel. The power HaShem allows the enemy to have, is never greater than the established strength He has and will yet future manifest in Israel.
 
The warning to the wicked empire of Babylon remains, just as it does for all who practice a lifestyle of wickedness:
 
“I said to the boastful, ‘Do not deal boastfully,’
And to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up the horn.”
 
-Tehillim (Psalms) 75:4 NKJV
 
“The Lord has done what he planned. He completed the Memra of his mouth that he commanded to Moses the prophet long ago: that if the children of Israel did not keep the commandments of the Lord he was going to punish them. He destroyed and had no mercy. He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you for he has exalted your oppressors.”
 
-2nd Century C.E. Aramaic Targum to Lamentations 2:17
 
A Midrash conveys the LORD’s mercy and intimate identification with the suffering of Israel as being part of what it means that He “has fashioned what He purposed, fulfilled His word which He commanded in the days of old; He has torn down”
 
“A human king who mourns, what does he do? They said to him, he rends his garments. He said to them, I too will do this: “The Lord has done as he intended; he has fulfilled his word” (batzah emrato) (Lamentations 2:17). What does “he has fulfilled his word” mean? Rabbi Ya’akov of Kefar Hanan said, he rends (mevazei’a) his garment. And he further asked them: A human king who mourns, what does he do? They said to him, he sits and wails. He said to them, I too will do this: “How does it sit desolate?!” (Lamentations 1:1).”
 
-Pesikta DeRav Kahana 15:3
 
HaShem later tears the פָּרוֹכֶת Parokhet (curtain) of the Temple in His grief over His Son Yeshua the King Messiah’s atoning sacrificial death. In tearing open the veil to the Holy of Holies He opens His heart to all who would receive the redemptive work of Yeshua, inviting them in to an intimate relationship that He has fashioned from before the creation of the world. (1 Peter 1:19-20; Rev. 13:8)
 
צָעַ֥ק לִבָּ֖ם אֶל־אֲדֹנָ֑י חוֹמַ֣ת בַּת־צִ֠יּוֹן הוֹרִ֨ידִי כַנַּ֤חַל דִּמְעָה֙ יוֹמָ֣ם וָלַ֔יְלָה אַֽל־תִּתְּנִ֤י פוּגַת֙ לָ֔ךְ אַל־תִּדֹּ֖ם בַּת־עֵינֵֽךְ׃
 
2:18 Their collective core being cried out to Adonay, wall of daughter Zion descend like a river of tears day and night, give yourself no rest, let not the daughter (apple) of your eye (spring) cease.
 
This is a description of the repentant who call on the Name of the LORD. Returning (Repentance) is established through atonement as a result of godly sorrow. (2 Cor. 7:10)
 
“Their collective core being cried out to Adonay,” Judah and Jerusalem cry out to God from the depths of their collective soul.
 
“Wall of daughter Zion descend like a river of tears day and night, give yourself no rest” The wall of the daughter of Zion is the same wall upon which HaShem has placed watchmen day and night. (Isa. 62:6-7) Her watchmen descend with her wall and just as they are assigned the task of keeping watch day and night, Jerusalem’s inhabitants are now tasked with weeping day and night at the loss of them.
 
However, there are watchmen unseen who remain, just as there are walls unseen which God has established for eternity. Although for a time her walls descended into disrepair, there will yet be a day when the glory of Jerusalem will be established in all the earth forever. (Isa. 62:6-7)
 
“Let not the daughter (apple) of your eye cease.” This is a poetic idiom indicating the most vulnerable part of the eye and its connection to the ceaseless tears of Jerusalem’s grief. The Hebrew “eye” also means “spring”, an eye in the earth from which fresh living water flows. The tears of the daughter of Jerusalem bring forth grief from the spring of her severely disciplined soul.
 
“I have set watchmen upon your walls, Jerusalem, they will never hold their peace, day or night: you that make mention of YHVH, keep not silent, and give Him no rest, until He establishes, and until He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”
 
-Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 62:6-7
 
ק֣וּמִי׀ רֹ֣נִּי ׳בַלַּיִל׳ ״בַלַּ֗יְלָה״ לְרֹאשׁ֙ אַשְׁמֻר֔וֹת שִׁפְכִ֤י כַמַּ֙יִם֙ לִבֵּ֔ךְ נֹ֖כַח פְּנֵ֣י אֲדֹנָ֑י שְׂאִ֧י אֵלָ֣יו כַּפַּ֗יִךְ עַל־נֶ֙פֶשׁ֙ עֽוֹלָלַ֔יִךְ הָעֲטוּפִ֥ים בְּרָעָ֖ב בְּרֹ֥אשׁ כָּל־חוּצֽוֹת׃
 
2:19 Arise, cry out in the night at the head of the watches, pour out your core being like water before the face of Adonay, lift up toward Him the palms of your hands for the souls of the young children who faint from hunger at the head of every street.

This references the first of the three ancient watches of the night, beginning at sundown. It’s a continuation of the repentant cries of the previous verse. It begins at the first of the watches, thus, inferring that it will continue throughout the night in genuine repentance.
 
“Arise, O Congregation of Israel dwelling in exile. Busy yourself with Mishnah in the night, for the Shekinah of the Lord is dwelling before you, and with the words of Torah at the beginning of the morning watch. Pour out like water the crookedness of your heart and turn in repentance. And pray in the synagogue before the face of the Lord. Raise your hands to him in prayer for the life of your children who thirst with hunger at the head of every open market.”
 
-2nd Century C.E. Aramaic Targum to Lamentations 2:19
 
Ref. Judges 7:19; Psalms 62:8; 63:6
 
רְאֵ֤ה יְהוָה֙ וְֽהַבִּ֔יטָה לְמִ֖י עוֹלַ֣לְתָּ כֹּ֑ה אִם־תֹּאכַ֨לְנָה נָשִׁ֤ים פִּרְיָם֙ עֹלֲלֵ֣י טִפֻּחִ֔ים אִם־יֵהָרֵ֛ג בְּמִקְדַּ֥שׁ אֲדֹנָ֖י כֹּהֵ֥ן וְנָבִֽיא׃

2:20 Look Adonay and consider to whom you have done this: should women eat their own fruit (progeny), tender babes? Should the priest and the prophet be slain in the Sanctuary (Beit HaMikdash: Temple) of Adonay?

The prophet and the city cry out together asking God to look upon the horror of Jerusalem’s suffering. Women are reduced to eating their new born babies due to starvation from the Babylonian army’s siege against the city.
 
“And after all this, if you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me,
then I also will walk contrary to you in fury;
and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.
You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.”
 
-Vayikra (Leviticus) 26:27-29 NKJV
 
“To whom you have done this” is an invocation calling on God to “remember” Israel His chosen possession.
 
“Should the priest and the prophet be slain in the Sanctuary (Beit HaMikdash: Temple) of Adonay?” Rashi interprets this to be a question God poses in response:
 
“When in the Sanctuary of God, was murdered a kohein and a prophet. The Holy Spirit answers them, “Was it proper for you to have murdered Zecharyah the son of Yehoyada,” as it is written in Divrei Hayomim, (II Divrei Hayomim 24:20-21.) that he reproved them when they came to prostrate themselves to Yo’ash, and they deified him. “And the Spirit [of God] enveloped Zecharyah the son of Yehoyada,” who was a kohein and a prophet, and they killed him in the courtyard.”
 
-Rashi on Lamentations 2:20
 
The Targum adds support to Rashi’s interpretation:
 
“See, O Lord, and observe from heaven against whom you have turned. Thus is it right for the daughters of Israel to eat the fruit of their wombs due to starvation, the lovely boys wrapped in fine linen? The Attribute of Justice replied, and said, “Is it right to kill priest and prophet in the Temple of the LORD, as when you killed Zechariah son of Iddo, the High Priest and faithful prophet in the Temple of the Lord on the Day of Atonement because he admonished you not to do evil before the Lord?”
 
-2nd Century C.E. Aramaic Targum to Lamentations 2:20
 
Of course it should not happen that the priest and the prophet be slain in the Sanctuary. The question is, whose accountable for this? It’s Jerusalem herself, Judah, Israel who are collectively reaping what they’ve sown.
 
However, in her discipline she now seeks the only One who can alleviate her suffering through atonement and reconciliation.
 
שָׁכְב֨וּ לָאָ֤רֶץ חוּצוֹת֙ נַ֣עַר וְזָקֵ֔ן בְּתוּלֹתַ֥י וּבַחוּרַ֖י נָפְל֣וּ בֶחָ֑רֶב הָרַ֙גְתָּ֙ בְּי֣וֹם אַפֶּ֔ךָ טָבַ֖חְתָּ לֹ֥א חָמָֽלְתָּ׃

2:21 The young and the elderly lie down on the streets on the land, my virgins and young men have fallen by the sword, You have slain them in the day of Your nostril flaring anger, You have slaughtered without pity.

Though it was Nebuchadnezzar 2 whose army had wrought abhorrent bloodshed, violation and merciless wrath upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, God is ultimately in control, having allowed Israel’s enemies to attack her.
 
תִּקְרָא֩ כְי֨וֹם מוֹעֵ֤ד מְגוּרַי֙ מִסָּבִ֔יב וְלֹ֥א הָיָ֛ה בְּי֥וֹם אַף־יְהוָ֖ה פָּלִ֣יט וְשָׂרִ֑יד אֲשֶׁר־טִפַּ֥חְתִּי וְרִבִּ֖יתִי אֹיְבִ֥י כִלָּֽם׃

2:22 You have called for an appointed (moeid) day, my terrors surround me so that in the day of YHVH's nostril flaring anger none escaped nor remained: those I've swaddled and raised my enemy has consumed.
 
Just as Adonay has allowed the temporary cessation of the Temple, the sacrificial cult, the appointed festivals and Sabbaths, so too He has appointed (moeid) a day of reckoning in their place.
 
The discipline of Israel has been appointed for her good though the suffering that has resulted from her sin, which is unbearable. She watches her children as they’re consumed by the enemy, her precious sons and daughters whom she had swaddled as infants and loved dearly. The fruit of her sin has impacted her progeny in a way she refused to imagine possible while she chased after false gods and acted perversely with seeming impunity.
 
Copyright 2025 Yaakov (Brown) Ben Yehoshua