Observing the Poetic Repetition for the Emphasis of Established Elements in the Text:
 
4:1 How has the gold lost its shine[a], become dim, darkened? Altered (changed) is the good fine gold[a]. The stones of the Sanctuary[a] (that which is holy) are shed (like skin) in the head (at the beginning) of every street[b] (of Jerusalem).
4:2 The rare, precious children of Zion[c] are compared to and weighed like fine gold[a]. How they are esteemed, thought of as jars, the work of a potter.
4:3 Even serpents[d] (alt. jackals) bare their breasts and suckle their young. A daughter of my people (tribe) [c] has become cruel like an ostrich[d] in the wilderness.
4:4 The tongue of the suckling child sticks to the roof of his mouth[e] in thirst. Children ask for bread but not even a single broken off piece is given to them.
4:5 Those who once feasted on delicacies[f] are now desolate in the streets[g]. Those raised in scarlet[f] embrace hills of refuse[g].
4:6 And greater is the perversity[h] of the daughter of my people (tribe) [c] than the sinful missing the mark[i] of Sodom which was overturned in a moment without hands touching it.
4:7 Her consecrated[j] Nazarites were purer than snow[k], whiter than milk[k], red in essence[j]  (bone), like polished rubies and sapphire.
4:8 Their appearance is blacker than coal, they’re not recognised in the streets[b], their skin cleaves to their bones[e], they’ve become dry like a stick.
4:9 Better off are those slain[l] by the sword than those slain[l] in hunger, who waste away stabbed through[l] for lack of the fruits of the field.
4:10 The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children for food amidst the shattering of the daughter of my people (tribe) [c].
4:11 YHVH[m] (Mercy) the LORD has accomplished this particular fury[o] of his, He has poured out His fierce nostril flaring anger[o] and kindled fire in Zion and devoured[o] the foundations.
4:12 The kings of land and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the adversary[p] (binder) and enemy[p] (hostile) could have entered the gates of Jerusalem.
4:13 This has happened as a result of the sins (missing the mark) [i] of her prophets[q] and the perversity[h] of her priests[r], who have shed the blood[s] of the just in the midst of her.
4:14 Staggering they wander blind in the streets[b]  they themselves have polluted with (innocent) blood[s], so that no one could touch their garments[t].
4:15 “Turn aside, you’re unclean[t]” they cried; “Depart, depart, don’t touch[t],” when they fled also shaking the heathen nations[u] said “Not again will you inhabit!”
4:16 The faces of YHVH[m] (Mercy) the LORD have divided them and not increased consideration for the faces of the priests[r] and esteemed elders[q] whom they favoured.
4:17 While our eyes have failed to help us for in our vain breathing we watched and watched for a heathen nation[u] that could not save.
4:18 They hunt our steps[v] from within our streets[b], our end is near to fulfilment, the end of our days has come.
4:19 Our pursuers[v] are swifter than the eagles of the heavens; on the mountains they chase us[v] and in the desert they lay in wait for us.
4:20 The breath of our nostrils the anointed of YHVH[m] (Mercy) the LORD was taken into their pits, of whom we said “We will live under his shade in the midst of the heathen nations. [u]
4:21 Rejoice and be glad daughter of Edom[u] who dwells in the midst of Utz (Arabian desert: modern Jordan). Also upon you will pass the cup of drunkenness[w] and you will make yourself naked.
4:22 The punishment[w] of your perversity[h] is accomplished daughter of Zion[c]; He will no longer increase your captivity: He will visit punishment[w] on your perversity[h] daughter Edom[u] (modern Jordan); He will uncover your sin (missing the mark) [i].
 
What begins as yet another observation of the torment and utter dissolution of Judah and Jerusalem (collectively Zion), nonetheless concludes with an indictment and promise of retribution against the ancient enemy of the Jewish people, Edom, the progeny of Esau.[Ref. Gen. 36:1-9; Num. 20:14-23; Mal. 1:2-3; Heb. 12:15-16; Rom. 9:13]
 
אֵיכָה֙ יוּעַ֣ם זָהָ֔ב יִשְׁנֶ֖א הַכֶּ֣תֶם הַטּ֑וֹב תִּשְׁתַּפֵּ֙כְנָה֙ אַבְנֵי־קֹ֔דֶשׁ בְּרֹ֖אשׁ כָּל־חוּצֽוֹת׃
 
4:1 How has the gold lost its shine, become dim, darkened? Altered (changed) is the good fine gold. The stones of the Sanctuary (that which is holy) are shed (like skin) in the head (at the beginning) of every street (of Jerusalem).
 
This gold is not personal wealth or a description of the treasuries of the king and upper classes. It is the gold of Beit HaMikdash (the Temple).
 
“How the gold of the Temple has dimmed, the choice gold leaf has changed! The sacred jewels are scattered at the head of every street.”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 4:1
 
“So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: and he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold.”
 
-1 Kings 6:21 KJV
 
The stones of the Sanctuary are some of the foundation stones of Solomon’s Temple.
 
“And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house.”
 
-1 Kings 5:17 KJV
 
Therefore, both the foundations and the outer glory reflected by the gold that decorated the Temple are tarnished and destroyed. God warned Solomon that this would happen if Israel did not keep her covenant agreement with God.
 
“6 But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have consecrated for My name, I will cast out of My sight. So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 8 And this house will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by will be astonished and hiss and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ 9 And they will say, ‘Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them, therefore the Lord has brought all this adversity on them.’”
 
-1 Kings 9:6-9 NASB 1995
 
 בְּנֵ֤י צִיּוֹן֙ הַיְקָרִ֔ים הַמְסֻלָּאִ֖ים בַּפָּ֑ז אֵיכָ֤ה נֶחְשְׁבוּ֙ לְנִבְלֵי־חֶ֔רֶשׂ מַעֲשֵׂ֖ה יְדֵ֥י יוֹצֵֽר׃
 
4:2 The rare, precious children of Zion are compared to and weighed like fine gold. How they are esteemed, thought of as jars, the work of a potter.
 
We note that even in discipline the children of Zion (Judah, Israel) are considered by God and His prophet to be “rare, precious.”
 
The comparing of the children of Zion to fine gold connects them to the Temple worship rites and sees there physical distress as being intrinsically connected to their spiritual rebellion. This strong golden imagery is juxtaposed against the vulnerability of a clay jar.
 
The use of the potter and clay imagery is yet another proof of the prophet Jeremiah’s authorship. The literary idioms and turns of phrase establishing a strong case.
 
The reshaping of the rebellious children of Israel is a central theme in the prophet’s work:

“1The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. 4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.5 Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, 6 “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. 7 At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; 8 if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. 9 Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it; 10 if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it. 11 So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds.”’ 12 But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”

-Yermiyahu (Jeremiah) 18:1-12 NASB 1995

In the context of 2 Corinthians 4 rabbi Shaul (Paul the Apostle) draws on the experience of Judah (Israel) as described in Lamentations and uses it as a comparative teaching to the believers of first century Corinth. 2 Corinthians 4 begins with an allusion to repentance concerning underhanded practices and a turning away from tampering with God’s Word. Referring to himself and the other apostles and ministers of the Gospel Paul teaches the vulnerability of a person as being like a clay jar, the work of a potter. He shows a connection between our suffering and the death of Messiah which brings eternal life. He predicates these illuminations on the fact that Messiah in the heart of the believer is the ultimate treasure (gold) that expresses God’s surpassing power in the midst of our weakness.
 
Jeremiah, the writer of Lamentations is grieving in the Holy Spirit over the suffering of the children of Zion, and yet he knows that in our weakness God is revealed as all powerful, all sufficient, and so begins our reconciliation.

“7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you. 13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

-2 Corinthians 4:7-18 ESV

 ׳גַּם־תַּנִּין׳ ״גַּם־תַּנִּים֙״ חָ֣לְצוּ שַׁ֔ד הֵינִ֖יקוּ גּוּרֵיהֶ֑ן בַּת־עַמִּ֣י לְאַכְזָ֔ר ׳כִּי׳ ׳עֵנִים׳ ״כַּיְעֵנִ֖ים״ בַּמִּדְבָּֽר׃
 
4:3 Even serpents (alt. jackals) bare their breasts and suckle their young. A daughter of my people (tribe) has become cruel like an ostrich in the wilderness.
 
“Serpent” or “dragon” is the best representation of the Hebrew text. It refers to both a sea and land serpent like monster/dinosaur/large animal. The alternate translation “jackals” seems to be an attempt to address the fact that the creature is nursing its young and labours under the false perception that this therefore excludes serpents. It does not exclude the type of serpent that the Hebrew text is referring to and even if it did the comparison is used as a poetic figure rather than a literal representation of the ability of a metaphorically wicked creature to nurse its young.
 
The daughter of the writer’s tribe is specifically a daughter of Judah and also applies to Israel. This figurative daughter may well be literal in numerous forms and denotes the transformation of the relatively innocent virgins of child bearing age, from kind, naturally loving mothers into mothers who abandon their metaphorical eggs to the predators of the desert (like ostriches). So desperate have the young women of Judah become that they are operating in survival mode with utter disregard for even their own progeny. The thought of this kind of suffering is so far outside the experience of many modern western people that it is difficult to fathom. There are however those in the world today who understand this type of degradation and utter desolation. Their disdain for the trite acknowledgements of unaffected westerners is justified.
 
Not only are the daughters of Judah reduced to callous disregard for their infants, they are also unable to breast feed due to the famine which has dried up their milk.
 
 דָּבַ֨ק לְשׁ֥וֹן יוֹנֵ֛ק אֶל־חִכּ֖וֹ בַּצָּמָ֑א עֽוֹלָלִים֙ שָׁ֣אֲלוּ לֶ֔חֶם פֹּרֵ֖שׂ אֵ֥ין לָהֶֽם׃
 
4:4 The tongue of the suckling child sticks to the roof of his mouth in thirst. Children ask for bread but not even a single broken off piece is given to them.
 
This is the natural outworking of the exhaustion and callousness of the previous verse. As a result of the dried up breasts and distain of the daughters of Zion, the breast feeding infants are devoid of sustenance and as a result of the same famine the toddlers and teens are without bread (staple diet).
 
 הָאֹֽכְלִים֙ לְמַ֣עֲדַנִּ֔ים נָשַׁ֖מּוּ בַּחוּצ֑וֹת הָאֱמֻנִים֙ עֲלֵ֣י תוֹלָ֔ע חִבְּק֖וּ אַשְׁפַּתּֽוֹת׃
 
4:5 Those who once feasted on delicacies are now desolate in the streets. Those raised in scarlet embrace hills of refuse.
 
This is an allusion to the upper class. Those among the tribe of Judah who were wealthy and those born to royalty are now devoid of fine foods and grovel on piles of refuse searching out scraps like street people digging through garbage cans.
 
Scarlet was worn by those who lived comfortably and or were royalty. The dye for scarlet garments being more costly to come by in ancient times.
 
“She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.”
 
-Mishlei (proverbs) 31:21 KJV
 
 וַיִּגְדַּל֙ עֲן בַּת־עַמִּ֔י מֵֽחַטַּ֖את סְדֹ֑ם הַֽהֲפוּכָ֣ה כְמוֹ־רָ֔גַע וְלֹא־חָ֥לוּ בָ֖הּ יָדָֽיִם׃
 
4:6 And greater is the perversity of the daughter of my people (tribe) than the sinful missing the mark of Sodom which was overturned in a moment without hands touching it.
 
Judah’s sin is named עון avon, perversity. This is not just חטא chata, missing the mark set by God’s holiness, but a further premeditated perversion of creation. For example, adultery is חטא chata, missing the mark, and an unbridled orgy is עון avon, perversity, premeditated perversion. The weight of this indictment comes to bear in the fact that Judah has become comparatively more wicked than Sodom, who God destroyed in an instant without the use of human armies.
 
The phrase “without hands touching it” though terrifying, is nonetheless also comforting. The Hebrew ידים yadayim (hands) denotes discipline rather than utter annihilation. Hashem disciplines the ones He loves.
 
The Targum emphasises the fact that God in His mercy has given Judah the prophet Jeremiah as a remnant prophetic voice. Sodom, overturned in an instant, had no such opportunity for repentance.
 
“The sin of the Congregation of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom that was overthrown in a moment. And no prophets were left in her to prophesy, to turn her back in repentance.”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 4:6
 
 זַכּ֤וּ נְזִירֶ֙יהָ֙ מִשֶּׁ֔לֶג צַח֖וּ מֵחָלָ֑ב אָ֤דְמוּ עֶ֙צֶם֙ מִפְּנִינִ֔ים סַפִּ֖יר גִּזְרָתָֽם׃
 
4:7 Her consecrated Nazarites were purer than snow, whiter than milk, red in essence (bone), like polished rubies and sapphire.
 
The Hebrew נזיריה neziyreyah means consecrated, devoted ones, and can refer to those who had taken Nazarite vows of worship, abstaining from wine, allowing their hair to grow and so on. [Num. 6]
 
Some Jewish sages understand נזיריה neziyreyah to refer to Judah’s princes, the root נזר  nazir being like נֵזֶר neizer, prince, and כֶּתֶר keter, a crown.
 
There is of course no reason that both views can’t be true at the same time. There is no caveat based on class, regarding who is and isn’t eligible to take Nazirite vows.
 
Rashi understands the descriptors “rubies and sapphire” to refer to the appearance of the Nazirites/princes. That is, they were handsome.
 
Steinsaltz agrees, writing:
 
“In past times, its, Jerusalem’s, nazirites used to be purer than snow, whiter than milk; their appearance was ruddier than gems, their form a sapphire.”
 
The Targum supports both views:
 
“their face or countenance is as sapphire.”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 4:6
 
The point is that these consecrated ones, who were once evidence of devotion to God, are now defiled, no longer healthy in appearance. What follows describes their state at the time of Jerusalem’s destruction during its siege at the hands of the Babylonian armies.
 
 חָשַׁ֤ךְ מִשְּׁחוֹר֙ תָּֽאֳרָ֔ם לֹ֥א נִכְּר֖וּ בַּחוּצ֑וֹת צָפַ֤ד עוֹרָם֙ עַל־עַצְמָ֔ם יָבֵ֖שׁ הָיָ֥ה כָעֵֽץ׃
 
4:8 Their appearance is blacker than coal, they’re not recognised in the streets, their skin cleaves to their bones, they’ve become dry like a stick.
 
“Blacker than coal” is a description of charcoal which is made by heating wood or other organic materials above 400° C (750° F) in an oxygen-starved environment. The crucible of Judah’s disciplining has brought about this heart breaking reality.
 
The Nazirites/Princes are reduced to wallowing in the dirty streets, their bodies emaciated as a result of the famine born of the siege of Jerusalem.
 
Another way to translate this would be “Their appearance is darker than blackness.” We look to the previous verse and see the juxtaposition here. They had been “whiter than milk,” an allusion to purity. Thus, the pure have been reduced to impurity. When righteousness is neglected, darkness ensues.
 
We note that they are “not recognized in the street.” In other words, they once stood apart as consecrated to God and were a sign of the devotion of the people. Now, they are indistinguishable from others and remain an indictment against Judah’s utter lack of devotion to God.
 
 טוֹבִ֤ים הָיוּ֙ חַלְלֵי־חֶ֔רֶב מֵֽחַלְלֵ֖י רָעָ֑ב שֶׁ֣הֵ֤ם יָז֙וּבוּ֙ מְדֻקָּרִ֔ים מִתְּנוּבֹ֖ת שָׂדָֽי׃
 
4:9 Better off are those slain by the sword than those slain in hunger, who waste away stabbed through for lack of the fruits of the field.
 
This describes a tormenting kind of starvation that produces such overwhelming stomach cramps that the sufferer would rather be dead than to live in perpetual agony. No morphine, no narcotics, no relief. And even if there had been, the condition was so severe that such drugs would not be capable to mitigate the pain except by inducing death through palliative care.
 
The Targum makes the interesting comparison that those killed by the sword died with full belly’s, whereas those suffering from famine died with empty distended bellies.
 
Rashi writes:
 
“For they dripped with burst bellies, etc. The corpses [of those who died] because of hunger were swollen from the aroma of the fruits of the field. The enemies would roast meat on the grass outside the wall, and the aroma would go into those swollen from hunger, and their stomachs would split, and their faeces would ooze. This is an uglier death than those slain by the sword. With burst bellies. Being split; either by the swelling of hunger or by the stabbing of the sword is called piercing [דְּקִירָה] From [eating] the produce of the fields. Because of the roots and grass that they gathered and ate, their faeces increased and they were loathsome.”
 
-Rashi on Lamentations 4:9
 
יְדֵ֗י נָשִׁים֙ רַחֲמָ֣נִיּ֔וֹת בִּשְּׁל֖וּ יַלְדֵיהֶ֑ן הָי֤וּ לְבָרוֹת֙ לָ֔מוֹ בְּשֶׁ֖בֶר בַּת־עַמִּֽי׃
 
4:10 The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children for food amidst the shattering of the daughter of my people (tribe).
 
There is no need to explain further this literal description. “My tribe” is the LORD’s tribe, the prophet’s tribe, Benjamin, and Judah, Israel.
 
In the context of the siege of Jerusalem Judah and Benjamin are one (echad) as being unique from the northern tribes, those who have already gone into captivity via Assyrian and Babylonian conquests.
 
“The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,”
 
-D’varim (Deut.) 28:56 KJV
 
 כִּלָּ֤ה יְהוָה֙ אֶת־חֲמָת֔וֹ שָׁפַ֖ךְ חֲר֣וֹן אַפּ֑וֹ וַיַּצֶּת־אֵ֣שׁ בְּצִיּ֔וֹן וַתֹּ֖אכַל יְסוֹדֹתֶֽיהָ׃
 
4:11 YHVH (Mercy) the LORD has accomplished this particular fury of his, He has poured out His fierce nostril flaring anger and kindled fire in Zion and devoured the foundations.
 
“Mercy has accomplished this”
 
The One Who defines Mercy is also filled with wrath against evil. We should never delude ourselves as to the nature of God. The false god of hyper-grace is not the God of the Scriptures, nor is the false god of graceless wrath.
 
There is no love without justice, no justice without punishment, no freedom from punishment without atonement, no atonement without mercy, no mercy without love, and no love without holiness. God is One!
 
“Against You, You alone, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.”
 
-Tehillim (Psalms) 51:4
 
 לֹ֤א הֶאֱמִ֙ינוּ֙ מַלְכֵי־אֶ֔רֶץ ׳וְכֹל׳ ״כֹּ֖ל״ יֹשְׁבֵ֣י תֵבֵ֑ל כִּ֤י יָבֹא֙ צַ֣ר וְאוֹיֵ֔ב בְּשַׁעֲרֵ֖י יְרוּשָׁלִָֽם׃
 
4:12 The kings of land and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the adversary (binder) and enemy (hostile) could have entered the gates of Jerusalem.
 
The kings of land may refer to the kings of Israel and Judah respectively. It is worth noting that there is a distinction between מַלְכֵי־אֶ֔רֶץ malcheiy-eretz (kings of land) and יֹשְׁבֵ֣י תֵבֵ֑ל yosheveiy teiveil (inhabitants of the world).
 
The Targum does not see the distinction I’ve made but understands the text to refer to the kings of the world as they look upon the invasion of Jerusalem by the Babylonians:
 
“The kingdoms of the earth did not believe, nor did those who dwell in the world, that the wicked Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuzaradan the enemy would enter to slaughter the people of the House of Israel in the gates of Jerusalem.”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 4:12
 
 מֵֽחַטֹּ֣את נְבִיאֶ֔יהָ עֲוֺנ֖וֹת כֹּהֲנֶ֑יהָ הַשֹּׁפְכִ֥ים בְּקִרְבָּ֖הּ דַּ֥ם צַדִּיקִֽים׃
 
4:13 This has happened as a result of the sins (missing the mark) of her prophets and the perversity of her priests, who have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.
 
We note that both חטא chata, missing the mark and עון avon, premeditated perversion, are part of Judah’s sin practice.
 
The order of these sins reflects the order of both individual and societal demise. The prophets (not Jeremiah but the false prophets) who were responsible to warn the people and call out disobedience, had nonetheless missed the mark (chata), and as a result there was no one holding the priests accountable for their conduct. The priests therefore, syncretised heathen religious practices and introduced private perversions (avon) thus, causing those who looked to them for guidance to fall into even greater sin. It is certain that many leaders in the faith community of today are guilty of the same. May God have mercy on us!
 
Iben Ezra interprets this as describing the prophets of the Ba’aliym, and the priests of the pagan high places.
 
“Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.”
 
-2 Chronicles 36:14 KJV
 
The shedding of innocent blood refers to false testimony against and the capital punishment of innocent people. Therefore, being acts of murder, the blood of these innocents who were murdered by the word of priest and prophet, noble and king alike, cries out from the ground for vengeance like the righteous blood of Abel. The Torah is clear:
 
“So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.”
 
-Badmidbar (Num.) 35:33-34 KJV
 
“The Attribute of Justice spoke up and said, ‘All this would not have happened but for the sins of her prophets who prophesied to her false prophesies and the iniquity of her priests who offered up burning incense to idols. They themselves caused the blood of the innocent to be shed in her midst.’”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 4:13
 
Rashi writes:
 
“For the sins of her false prophets. [Because of the] false [prophets], this evil has befallen her. *Alternately, ‘because of the sins committed against the prophets,’ namely the murder of Zecharyah, this evil has befallen her. (Eichah Rabbah 4:16) Or ‘because of the sins committed by her prophets and kohanim who burnt incense for idol worship, this evil has befallen her.’ (Targum)”
 
-Rashi on Lamentations 4:13
 
 נָע֤וּ עִוְרִים֙ בַּֽחוּצ֔וֹת נְגֹֽאֲל֖וּ בַּדָּ֑ם בְּלֹ֣א יֽוּכְל֔וּ יִגְּע֖וּ בִּלְבֻשֵׁיהֶֽם׃
 
4:14 Staggering they wander blind in the streets they themselves have polluted with (innocent) blood, so that no one could touch their garments.
 
The false prophets and apostate priests stagger blindly. Both literally and figuratively. Their spiritual blindness has manifest physical blindness. The walk over the innocent blood they’ve shed.
 
The phrasing “so that no one could touch their garments” is a picture of defilement that acts as a counterpoint to the God appointed cleanness of the priestly garments. Garments that should carry a consecrated countenance bringing symbolic purity instead carry abhorrent blood guilt that defiles both spiritually and physically.
 
 ס֣וּרוּ טָמֵ֞א קָ֣רְאוּ לָ֗מוֹ ס֤וּרוּ ס֙וּרוּ֙ אַל־תִּגָּ֔עוּ כִּ֥י נָצ֖וּ גַּם־נָ֑עוּ אָֽמְרוּ֙ בַּגּוֹיִ֔ם לֹ֥א יוֹסִ֖יפוּ לָגֽוּר׃
 
4:15 “Turn aside, you’re unclean” they cried; “Depart, depart, don’t touch,” when they fled also shaking the heathen nations said “Not again will you inhabit!”
 
Those who see the false prophets and priests walk by in the streets shout out to them to “stay away” and not defile them by their touch. These false prophets and priests therefore are seen as epitomizing what it means to be unclean, like leppers who must go outside the camp.
 
The response of the enemies of Israel is a taunt (and a lie). They say (but not by the Spirit of God) that Judah will never return again to Jerusalem. To the contrary, God has not determined permanent exile for Judah but temporary discipline unto an everlasting return to the city of Jerusalem which He has established as the place where His Name resides. The covenant tying Israel to the land is incumbent on God alone without caveat. [Gen. 15]
 
 פְּנֵ֤י יְהוָה֙ חִלְּקָ֔ם לֹ֥א יוֹסִ֖יף לְהַבִּיטָ֑ם פְּנֵ֤י כֹהֲנִים֙ לֹ֣א נָשָׂ֔אוּ ׳זְקֵנִים׳ ״וּזְקֵנִ֖ים״ לֹ֥א חָנָֽנוּ׃
 
4:16 The faces of YHVH (Mercy) the LORD have divided them and not increased consideration for the faces of the priests and esteemed elders whom they favoured.
 
There are many ways to interpret the opening phrasing. In a similar way to that of the rabbinical assertion that the Torah has many faces, the many faces of God, Who is One, are a reflection of His attributes and an illumination of His character. His holy attributes expose and divide the wicked attributes and character flaws of the apostate priests and esteemed elders of Judah and Israel.
 
Judah’s favouring of these wicked leaders is an indictment on the tribe as a whole. YHVH present in Mercy to judge and discipline Judah, is revealing His holiness through the illumination of His many attributes. The sin and perversion of Judah’s leaders along with that of the tribe and all Israel is therefore divided and left desolate by the specific indictments that result from each of the revealed attributes of God made manifest in her midst.
 
“In Adonoy’s glaring anger He dispersed them. The angry face of the Holy One, Blessed Is He, divided and separated them among the nations, because they did not respect the presence of the kohanim when they were in their tranquillity.”
 
-Rashi on Lamentations 4:16
 
 ׳עוֹדֵינָה׳ ״עוֹדֵ֙ינוּ֙״ תִּכְלֶ֣ינָה עֵינֵ֔ינוּ אֶל־עֶזְרָתֵ֖נוּ הָ֑בֶל בְּצִפִּיָּתֵ֣נוּ צִפִּ֔ינוּ אֶל־גּ֖וֹי לֹ֥א יוֹשִֽׁעַ׃
 
4:17 While our eyes have failed to help us for in our vain breathing we watched and watched for a heathen nation that could not save.
 
Judah had looked to Egypt for help rather than relying on the God of Israel. Egypt was powerless to help Judah.
 
“We persisted in longingly eyeing illusive reinforcements. When the evil befell us, our eyes were still looking forward to Pharaoh’s army, concerning whom it is stated, “And the Egyptians, they help in vain and to no purpose,” for they would promise us aid but they would not come, as it is stated concerning them, “Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which has come out to help [you], is returning to its land, to Egypt.” We find in Midrash Kinos that they were coming in ships. The Holy One, Blessed Is He, hinted to the sea and caused inflated flasks like human intestines to move about in the water. They said to each other, “These flasks are our forefathers, the men of Egypt who drowned in the sea on account of these Jews, and we are going out to assist them?” They stopped and turned back.”
 
-Rashi on Lamentations 4:17
 
 צָד֣וּ צְעָדֵ֔ינוּ מִלֶּ֖כֶת בִּרְחֹבֹתֵ֑ינוּ קָרַ֥ב קִצֵּ֛ינוּ מָלְא֥וּ יָמֵ֖ינוּ כִּי־בָ֥א קִצֵּֽינוּ׃
 
4:18 They hunt our steps from within our streets, our end is near to fulfilment, the end of our days has come.
 
This simply describes the clearing of the city by the Babylonian soldiers as they hunt down the remnant of the Judeans who are still in the city of Jerusalem.
 
 קַלִּ֤ים הָיוּ֙ רֹדְפֵ֔ינוּ מִנִּשְׁרֵ֖י שָׁמָ֑יִם עַל־הֶהָרִ֣ים דְּלָקֻ֔נוּ בַּמִּדְבָּ֖ר אָ֥רְבוּ לָֽנוּ׃
 
4:19 Our pursuers are swifter than the eagles of the heavens; on the mountains they chase us and in the desert they lay in wait for us.
 
Even those who flee the city are chased down by the Babylonian army. With great speed they are captured and either killed or made slaves to the Babylonian empire. Like those seeking to hide from God’s wrath in the Revelation of Yeshua to Yochanan, [Rev. 6:15-16] they seek the clefts of the rocks in the mountains and the caves in the desert but to no avail.
 
“15 Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; 16 and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;”
 
-Revelation 6:15-16 NASB 1995
 
 ר֤וּחַ אַפֵּ֙ינוּ֙ מְשִׁ֣יחַ יְהוָ֔ה נִלְכַּ֖ד בִּשְׁחִיתוֹתָ֑ם אֲשֶׁ֣ר אָמַ֔רְנוּ בְּצִלּ֖וֹ נִֽחְיֶ֥ה בַגּוֹיִֽם׃
 
4:20 The breath of our nostrils the anointed of YHVH (Mercy) the LORD was taken into their pits, of whom we said “We will live under his shade in the midst of the heathen nations.”
 
The plain meaning regards Zedekiah the king of Judah who was taken into captivity in Babylon. The remez (hint) speaks of the King Messiah, Who, though He went temporarily into the pit of Sheol, nonetheless resurrected unto eternal reign over Judah, Israel and all the earth.
 
Both Rashi and the Targum are wrong, the text can’t refer to Josiah, who had died at the hands of Pharoah and was not taken into captivity in the pits of Babylon. Nor was he king at the time of the Babylonian invasion that destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon.
 
 שִׂ֤ישִׂי וְשִׂמְחִי֙ בַּת־אֱד֔וֹם ׳יוֹשַׁבְתִּי׳ ״יוֹשֶׁ֖בֶת״ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ ע֑וּץ גַּם־עָלַ֙יִךְ֙ תַּעֲבָר־כּ֔וֹס תִּשְׁכְּרִ֖י וְתִתְעָרִֽי׃
 
4:21 Rejoice and be glad daughter of Edom who dwells in the midst of Utz (Arabian desert: modern Jordan). Also upon you will pass the cup of drunkenness and you will make yourself naked.
 
This sardonic statement essentially says to Edom (descendants of Esau, ancient and continued enemies of Israel and of God), “Laugh it up, you’re doom is near!”
 
“The cup of drunkenness” is a Hebrew euphemism denoting staggering destruction in the midst of confused vulnerability.
 
The first chapter of Obadiah addresses Edom in a similar way.
 
Rashi makes a prophetic connection between Edom and Rome based on the fact that Rome was responsible for the destruction of the second Beit HaMikdash (Sanctuary/Temple). Thus, Edom is considered by some of our sages to be complicit in Babylon’s destruction of the first Temple.
 
The fourth century Targum makes a connection between Edom and Constantinople, the then capital of “New Rome” according to the Emperor Constantine the Great.
 
“Rejoice and be of good cheer Constantinople, city of wicked Edom, which is built in the land of Armenia with crowds from the people of Edom. Retribution is about to come upon even you, and the Parkevi (Riphat ref. Gen. 10:3) will destroy you and the accursed cup shall pass to you and you shall become drunk and exposed.”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 4:21
 
 תַּם־עֲנֵךְ֙ בַּת־צִיּ֔וֹן לֹ֥א יוֹסִ֖יף לְהַגְלוֹתֵ֑ךְ פָּקַ֤ד עֲנֵךְ֙ בַּת־אֱד֔וֹם גִּלָּ֖ה עַל־חַטֹּאתָֽיִךְ׃
 
4:22 The punishment of your perversity is accomplished daughter of Zion; He will no longer increase your captivity: He will visit punishment on your perversity daughter Edom (modern Jordan); He will uncover your sin (missing the mark).
 
Speaking by the Holy Spirit the prophet promises that Zion (Judah) has received her punishment in full and that the seventy years established for her exile will not be increased but will reach its goal unto her return to the land.
 
Now YHVH turns toward the ancient enemy of Israel Edom in order to punish her for her perversity. He is just. Therefore, all will be held to account for their actions.
 
Within time and space, Mercy and judgement always come first to the Jews (Israel, ethnic descendants of Jacob) and also to the nations.
 
A good father first disciplines his own children so that they might be an example to others, then he holds others accountable for their errors.
 
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew (Descendant of Jacob) first and also to the Greek (Hellenised, known world, nations, goyim).”
 
-Romans 1:16
 
“tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew (Descendant of Jacob) first and also of the Greek (Hellenised, known world, nations, goyim);”
 
-Romans 2:9
 
Copyright 2025 Yaakov (Brown) Ben Yehoshua

​Observing the Poetic Repetition for the Emphasis of Established Elements in the Text:
 
3:45 You have placed us as scraps[a] and refuse[a] in the midst of the peoples (tribes).[b]
3:46 All our enemies[b] have opened their mouths against us.
3:47 Terror[c] and a pit trap[d] have come upon us, ruin[e] and shattering;[e]
3:48 Irrigation channels of water run down from my eyes[f], because of the breaking[g] of the daughter of my people[h].
3:49 My eyes split, flowing unceasingly[f], without intermission[f],
3:50 Until the YHVH Lord (Mercy)[j] looks down[q] and inspects[q] from the heavens[w].
3:51 My eyes affect my soul[f] severely because of all the daughters of my city.[h]
3:52 My enemies[b] without reason hunted me[d] down like a bird;
3:53 They have silenced me[i] in the pit[d]  and have thrown stones on me.[d]
3:54 Waters flowed over my head[i]; I said, “I am divided[g]!”
3:55 I called Your Name, YHVH Lord (Mercy) [j] , from the lowest cistern[d]  (pit within a dungeon). [ref. Jer. 38:6]
3:56 My voice You have heard[k], “Don’t hide Your ear[k] from my sighing[m] (breathing, spirit panting), from my cry for help[l].”
3:57 You drew near[n] on the day I called to You[l]; You said, “No fear!”[c]
3:58 You have contended[n]  Adonay (Master) with my soul’s strife[c]; You have redeemed my life[m].
3:59 You have seen[q] YHVH Lord (Mercy) [j]  the bending of me; Judge my case.
3:60 You have seen[q]  all their vengeance[d], all their premeditated plans[d] against me.
3:61 You have heard[k] their scorn[t], YHVH Lord (Mercy) [j] , all their schemes[d] upon me.
3:62 The language[r] of my assailants and their murmuring[r] against me continues all day long[s].
3:63 In their sitting[s] and their getting up[s], look[q]! I’m their song of mocking[t].
3:64 Turn back[u] on them what they deserve[v] YHVH Lord (Mercy) [j]  according to the work of their hands.
3:65 Give[u]  to them sorrowful blindness of heart[v], Your curse[v] will be on them.
3:66 Pursue them[u] in nostril flaring anger and annihilate[v] them from under the heavens[w] of YHVH Lord (Mercy) [j] !
 
סְחִ֧י וּמָא֛וֹס תְּשִׂימֵ֖נוּ בְּקֶ֥רֶב הָעַמִּֽים׃
 
3:45 You have placed us as scraps and refuse in the midst of the peoples (tribes).
 
This speaks to God casting off Judah like food scraps and garbage. The term “peoples” could be seen as synonymous with “heathens”, “Non-believers”, “Pagans.”
 
On the other hand, it is the Hebrew גוים goyim that is most often employed to represent the unbelieving nations whereas the Hebrew עמים amiym is most often used to refer collectively to the tribes of Israel. If this is the correct understanding, this verse makes Judah the refuse (lowest) among the tribes of Israel (those already in captivity as a result of the Assyrian invasion years earlier). This is significant because Judah is the tribe from whom the lineage of King David and the greater Son of David the King Messiah is reckoned.
 
The weight of the metaphor is extreme. Judah (Israel) has sunk so low as to be garbage among idolaters (nations or tribes). Judah’s willing participation in idolatry sees her made refuse to the false gods among the tribes of Israel and the nations.
 
Rashi cites the Mishnah concerning the translation of the Hebrew “סְחִ֧י וּמָא֛וֹס” sechiy umaos, as “phlegm and mucus”:
 
“Spittle, abominable. This is mucus; in the language of the Mishnah, ‘his phlegm and his mucus,’ [Maseches Bava Kama 3b]. which is drawn out through the lungs and emitted through the throat.”
 
- Rashi on Lamentations 3:45
 
 פָּצ֥וּ עָלֵ֛ינוּ פִּיהֶ֖ם כָּל־אֹיְבֵֽינוּ׃
 
3:46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
 
This is the observation of the people of Judah that reflects the observation of the prophet by the Holy Spirit in Lamentations 2:26.
 
 פַּ֧חַד וָפַ֛חַת הָ֥יָה לָ֖נוּ הַשֵּׁ֥את וְהַשָּֽׁבֶר׃
 
3:47 Terror and a pit trap have come upon us, ruin and shattering;
 
The terror of the enemies of Judah pales in comparison to the terror they experience in the hands of the Living God.
 
The pit trap prepared for Judah corresponds to the dungeon-cistern prepared for Jeremiah.
 
“Ruin and shattering” are the couplet to “scrapes and refuse”.
 
 פַּלְגֵי־מַ֙יִם֙ תֵּרַ֣ד עֵינִ֔י עַל־שֶׁ֖בֶר בַּת־עַמִּֽי׃
 
3:48 Irrigation channels of water run down from my eyes, because of the breaking of the daughter of my people.
 
The irrigation metaphor is almost sardonic. Fresh water irrigation in a dry land is celebrated whereas salt water irrigation in a dry land is a curse.
 
The allusion to “the daughter of my people” emphasises the fact that the most vulnerable of Judah have been harmed. Her potential progeny defiled. Thus the flood of tears.
 
“Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!”
 
-Y’rmiyahu (Jeremiah) 9:1
 
“Like streams of water my eyes flowed with tears because of the destruction of the congregation of my people.”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:48
 
 עֵינִ֧י נִגְּרָ֛ה וְלֹ֥א תִדְמֶ֖ה מֵאֵ֥ין הֲפֻגֽוֹת׃
 
3:49 My eyes split, flowing unceasingly, without intermission,
 
This is the couplet that corresponds to the previous verse. Here the flood of tears is emphatic. It is both unceasing and without intermission.
 
Unceasing because Judah has lost all including those most dear to her, and without intermission because God has not yet intervened to bring relief.
 
“My eye weeps tears and does not cease from crying. There is no respite from my anguish or anyone to comfort me;”
 
- Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:49
 
 עַד־יַשְׁקִ֣יף וְיֵ֔רֶא יְהוָ֖ה מִשָּׁמָֽיִם׃
 
3:50 Until the YHVH Lord (Mercy) looks down and inspects from the heavens.
 
This verse brings to mind the God of Mercy Himself. Here the intimate Proper Noun YHVH is employed to convey mercy.
 
He looks down in juxtaposition to His previous refusal to hear the prayers of the unrepentant wicked.
 
He looks down from the heavens as an allusion to His sovereignty over everything. The heavens, like all created things, are in Him. This poetic language simply seeks to convey within time and space things that are beyond the comprehension of the time bound.
 
“Until” is synonymous with “wait” and indicates the hope of the repentant.
 
“Until the Lord looks out and sees my humiliation from heaven.”
 
- Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:50
 
 עֵינִי֙ עֽוֹלְלָ֣ה לְנַפְשִׁ֔י מִכֹּ֖ל בְּנ֥וֹת עִירִֽי׃
 
3:51 My eyes affect my soul severely because of all the daughters of my city.
 
This makes a third reference to the eyes, this time showing the connection between what the eyes see and the entire soul-life of a person. To see the most precious and vulnerable of one’s family suffer unto death brings the utter collapse of the soul. The soul deflates under the weight of such a sight and every function of the body, mind and spirit is made subject to numb existence rather than vital life.
 
The city is of course Jerusalem.
 
“The weeping of my eyes is the cause of the affliction of my soul over the destruction of the districts of my people and the humiliation of the daughters of Jerusalem, my city.”
 
- Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:51
 
 צ֥וֹד צָד֛וּנִי כַּצִּפּ֖וֹר אֹיְבַ֥י חִנָּֽם׃
 
3:52 My enemies without reason hunted me down like a bird;
 
The enemies of Judah had no reason for their attack other than a desire to establish Empire (a counterfeit to the kingdom of God). However, the reason for her being hunted down is her own sin. The enemies of Judah hunted her without reason, but God had established reason in her discipline at the hands of the unreasonable.
 
The bird analogy again emphasises the heights from which Judah had fallen and her vulnerable position as the subject of a hunting party.
 
 צָֽמְת֤וּ בַבּוֹר֙ חַיָּ֔י וַיַּדּוּ־אֶ֖בֶן בִּֽי׃
 
3:53 They have silenced me in the pit and have thrown stones on me.
 
This again reflects Jeremiah’s position in the dungeon and is coupled with verse 55.
 
The added “and have thrown stones on me” confirms the firmly established nature of the discipline meted out by the Babylonians under God’s command.
 
Rashi understands the “stones” to refer to the stones placed over the mouths of cisterns used as dungeons/holding cells:
 
“And cast stones upon me. On the mouth of the well [dungeon]. That is what they did to Doniyeil (Daniel); and Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) foresaw it with the Holy Spirit.”
 
- Rashi on Lamentations 3:53
 
 צָֽפוּ־מַ֥יִם עַל־רֹאשִׁ֖י אָמַ֥רְתִּי נִגְזָֽרְתִּי׃
 
3:54 Waters flowed over my head; I said, “I am divided!”
 
Waters over the head is a metaphor for death and shows the complete subjugation of the people. Death divides the body and spirit making a distinction between the temporary and the everlasting.
 
The head represents the king and when the king falls the kingdom is divided. Thus, “I am divided.” This is also prophetic of the division between Israel and Judah and the divided exiles of each group respectively.
 
“Waters flowed over my head. I said in my word, ‘I am cut off from the world.’”
 
- Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:54
 
“The waters rose, etc. When a person is in water up to his waist, there still is hope, but if the water rises over his head, he then says, ‘My hope is gone,’ but I do not do this, rather ‘I called out, etc.’”
 
-Rashi on Lamentations 3:54
 
 קָרָ֤אתִי שִׁמְךָ֙ יְהוָ֔ה מִבּ֖וֹר תַּחְתִּיּֽוֹת׃
 
3:55 I called Your Name, YHVH Lord (Mercy), from the lowest cistern (pit within a dungeon). [ref. Jer. 38:6]
 
The prophet/Judah/Israel/the Messiah, all call on YHVH.
 
Jeremiah calls from the cistern within the dungeon. Judah/Israel calls from the mire of her captivity. Messiah suffers her affliction and calls out to the Father “Abba”. Mercy Himself is looking down from the heavens and is present in Judah’s affliction.
 
This is finally a cry of genuine repentance from Judah. Therefore, where her prayers were once refused because they were not prayed from a truly repentant heart, they’re now received due to the humble nature they have adopted.
 
 קוֹלִ֖י שָׁמָ֑עְתָּ אַל־תַּעְלֵ֧ם אָזְנְךָ֛ לְרַוְחָתִ֖י לְשַׁוְעָתִֽי׃
 
3:56 My voice You have heard, “Don’t hide Your ear from my sighing (breathing, spirit panting), from my cry for help.”
 
Formerly God had refused (closed His ear intentionally) the unrepentant prayers of Judah, now He hears (in response to the humble petition) her genuine repentance. In fact, He has longed to hear her pray this way and is ready and willing to act in forgiveness.
 
The Hebrew reads more literally as “Don’t hide your ear from my spirit.”
 
“You received my prayer at that time, and now do not cover your ears from receiving my prayer to give me relief because of my plea.”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:56
 
 קָרַ֙בְתָּ֙ בְּי֣וֹם אֶקְרָאֶ֔ךָּ אָמַ֖רְתָּ אַל־תִּירָֽא׃
 
3:57 You drew near on the day I called to You; You said, “No fear!”
 
Immediately in response to the genuine cry of repentance God draws near in intimate comfort and reconciliation.
 
He doesn’t say “Fear not.” The Hebrew reads “No fear!”
 
“Fear not” denotes a need for the comforted to overcome their own fear, whereas “No fear” is entirely the work of God, Who has commanded it so!
 
The Targum notes that it’s God’s living word, essence “Memra” (Davar, Logos ref. John 1) that speaks life into this reconciliation:
 
“You brought the malakh (messenger/angel) near to save me, in the day that I prayed to you. You said by your Memra, “No fear.””
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:57
 
“No fear! for I am with you: be not dismayed; for I am your Elohim: I will strengthen you; yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness.”
 
-Y’shayahu (Isaiah) 41:10
 
 רַ֧בְתָּ אֲדֹנָ֛י רִיבֵ֥י נַפְשִׁ֖י גָּאַ֥לְתָּ חַיָּֽי׃
 
3:58 You have contended Adonay (Master) with my soul’s strife; You have redeemed my life.
 
The plain meaning is that God has fought against Judah’s enemies to prevent Judah/Israel’s annihilation and has kept her alive in order to return her to the land of Israel. However this can be understood in a number of ways:
 
·      God, Judah’s Master has Personally contended for her soul. He has paid the price for her, receiving her just punishment upon Himself.
·      God has contended with the wickedness within Judah’s soul and has overcome it for her sake.
·      God has brought clarity to Judah’s soul, showing her right from wrong and contending with her divided nature in order to impart His unified nature to her.
 
In all this He has redeemed her. She has not saved herself.
 
“You fought, O God, the battles of my soul. In the days past.”
 
-Rashi on Lamentations 3:58
 
“You have fought, O Lord, against those who made a quarrel with my soul. You delivered my life from their hands.”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:58
 
 רָאִ֤יתָה יְהוָה֙ עַוָּ֣תָתִ֔י שָׁפְטָ֖ה מִשְׁפָּטִֽי׃
 
3:59 You have seen YHVH Lord (Mercy) the bending of me; Judge my case.
 
Once again the Holy Name denoting Mercy is used to emphasise that aspect of God’s character.
 
“The bending of me” can be read “My perversion” and thus the text can be understood in multiple ways.
 
·      “You have seen me bent by my enemies, afflicted”
 
“You have seen, O Lord, the wrong by which they wronged me. Judge my case.
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:59
 
·      “You have seen my perverse actions”
 
In either case “You can be trusted to judge my case fairly”. Where true repentance is involved the judgement will result in redemption.
 
 רָאִ֙יתָה֙ כָּל־נִקְמָתָ֔ם כָּל־מַחְשְׁבֹתָ֖ם לִֽי׃
 
3:60 You have seen all their vengeance, all their premeditated plans against me.
 
“All their vengeance has been revealed before you, all their evil plans against me.”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:59
 
 שָׁמַ֤עְתָּ חֶרְפָּתָם֙ יְהוָ֔ה כָּל־מַחְשְׁבֹתָ֖ם עָלָֽי׃
 
3:61 You have heard their scorn, YHVH Lord (Mercy), all their schemes upon me.
 
God in mercy hears the scorn of Israel’s enemies. He keeps an account of the harm done against her.
 
 שִׂפְתֵ֤י קָמַי֙ וְהֶגְיוֹנָ֔ם עָלַ֖י כָּל־הַיּֽוֹם׃
 
3:62 The language of my assailants and their murmuring against me continues all day long.
 
The couplet of language and murmuring emphasises the malice and established wickedness of Israel’s enemies.
 
“Murmuring” can also be read as “meditation.” In other words, the enemies of Israel have premeditated the evil acts committed against her and are therefore subject to condemnation.
 
 שִׁבְתָּ֤ם וְקִֽימָתָם֙ הַבִּ֔יטָה אֲנִ֖י מַנְגִּינָתָֽם׃
 
3:63 In their sitting and their getting up, look! I’m their song of mocking.
 
Just as the righteous meditate on God’s word day and night, sitting at the table and getting up to go on their way (Deut. 6), so too in opposition to this the wicked mock (Psalm 1) both sitting at their tables and rising to go on their way.
 
“You know my sitting and my rising, You understand my thought afar off.”
 
-Tehillim (Psalms) 139:2
 
 תָּשִׁ֨יב לָהֶ֥ם גְּמ֛וּל יְהוָ֖ה כְּמַעֲשֵׂ֥ה יְדֵיהֶֽם׃
 
3:64 Turn back on them what they deserve YHVH Lord (Mercy) according to the work of their hands.
 
Verses 64 through 66 are rendered by the Septuagint and the Vulgate as prophecies rather than petitions. However, these verses are both petition and prophecy.
 
This petition asks in repentance, for justice to be enacted against the wickedness of Israel’s enemies. Babylon was not employed as a rod of discipline because she was righteous. God will not leave wickedness unpunished.
 
Against Babylon Jeremiah prophecies:
 
“Shout against her round about: she has given her hand: her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of YHVH: take vengeance upon her; as she has done, do unto her.”
 
-Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) 50:15
 
 תִּתֵּ֤ן לָהֶם֙ מְגִנַּת־לֵ֔ב תַּאֲלָֽתְךָ֖ לָהֶֽם׃
 
3:65 Give to them sorrowful blindness of heart, Your curse will be on them.
 
This is a request for the fruit of the idolatrous to be allowed to come to its fullness. Those who wilfully blind themselves to God will receive the blindness that dooms the heart to destruction. Thus the observation of the prophet, “Your curse will be on them”!
 
 תִּרְדֹּ֤ף בְּאַף֙ וְתַשְׁמִידֵ֔ם מִתַּ֖חַת שְׁמֵ֥י יְהוָֽה׃
 
3:66 Pursue them in nostril flaring anger and annihilate them from under the heavens of YHVH Lord (Mercy)!
 
Just as God looked down from the heavens in mercy toward Judah/Israel (v. 50), so too He looks upon the wicked acts of Israel’s enemies and upon their false gods and causes both them and their false gods to perish from the face of the earth. That is, “from under the heavens.”
 
The phrase, “from under the heavens” is used rather than “from the face of the earth” because the Hebrew הארץ ha’aretz can mean “the land” and most often refers to the land of Israel. God will not only wipe the wicked nations from the face of the land of Israel, but also from the face of all the earth, “from under the heavens.”
 
“Thus shall you say unto them, the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.”
 
-Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) 10:11
 
Copyright 2025 Yaakov (Brown) Ben Yehoshua

Observing the Poetic Repetition for the Emphasis of Established Elements in the Text:
 
3:24 “The LORD YHVH (MERCY)[a] is my portion” says my soul[e]; following this realisation I wait expectantly[f] for him.
3:25 The LORD YHVH (MERCY) a is good[g] to those whose hope[f] is in Him, to the soule who seeks Him;
3:26 It is good[g] to tremble[h] and wait[f] silently[i] for the salvation of The LORD YHVH (MERCY) [a].
3:27 It is good[g] for a man to bear the yoke[j] in his youth.
3:28 Let him sit silent[h/i] in isolation, for the LORD has lifted it onto him.
3:29 Let him put his mouth in the dust[h]—perhaps he will have hope[f].
3:30 Let him give his jaw to one who would strike him[j], and let him be satisfied with rebuke[h/j].
3:31 For Adonay (the Master)[b] does not cast off forever[k].
3:32 For there is grief[l], there is also compassion[k], so great is his unfailing kindness[k] (practiced love).
3:33 For he does not afflict[j] according to his heart[n] (core being) or grievel the children of a man.
3:34 To crush underfoot all the captives[m] of a land,
3:35 To pervert judgement[m] of a man before the face of Elyon the Most High[c],
3:36 To misrepresent[m] a human being in a dispute—does Adonay (the Master)[b] not see such a thing?
3:37 Who can speak something and have it come to pass if Adonay (the Master)[b] has not commanded it?
3:38 Is it not from the mouth of Elyon the Most High[c] that both the bad circumstances[j] (haraot pl.) and the good[g] (v’hatov sg.) come?
3:38 Alt. From the mouth of Elyon the Most High does not come both evils (haraot pl.) and the good (v’hatov sg.). [In the sense that God does not mix evil and good together or compromise the good, rather He makes a clear distinction between the two].
3:39 Why should a living person complain, a man upon whom sin resides[m]?
3:40 Let us search our ways[h] and test them[h], and let us turn perpetually to The LORD YHVH
(MERCY) [a].
3:41 Let us lift up our hearts[n] (inner person) and our hands to El God[d] in the heavens, saying:
3:42 “We have rebelled[m] and have been contentious[m] and you have not forgiven[p].
3:43 You have fenced[o] Yourself/us with anger and pursued us[j], slaying us without pity[j].
3:44 You have hedged[o] Yourself/us with a cloud[o] so that no prayer can pass through[p].  
 
חֶלְקִ֤י יְהוָה֙ אָמְרָ֣ה נַפְשִׁ֔י עַל־כֵּ֖ן אוֹחִ֥יל לֽוֹ׃
 
3:24 “The LORD YHVH (MERCY) is my portion” says my soul; following this realisation I wait expectantly for him.
 
The Holy Name denotes Mercy. The prophet/Judah/Israel/Messiah, acknowledge the everlasting fact that God is enough. When YHVH is my portion, allotment etc. I am secure, even in the midst of affliction. Therefore, when this realisation sets in I look to Him, waiting expectantly for Him to manifest His merciful grace. “Though He tarry, yet will I wait daily for His coming!” [the 12th of Maimonides’ 13 principles of faith]
 
This continues the repentant prayer of the preceding verses. To acknowledge that God is my portion is to accept my guilt and act in repentance. I therefore have my hope renewed in Him.
 
“The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup: You maintain my lot.”
 
-Tehillim (Psalms) 16:5 
 
This Psalm of David compares the LORD his portion with the sorrowful portion of false gods. David, speaking by the Holy Spirit, explains that when a person accepts YHVH as his portion, that person is the recipient and heir to a godly heritage, pleasant paths, counsel day and night and ultimately, resurrection unto life everlasting.
 
“My flesh and my heart (core being) fail: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.”
 
-Tehillim (Psalms) 73:26 
 
This Psalm of Asaph expresses repentance concerning the foolishness of being jealous of the prosperity of the wicked who, despite their temporary successes nonetheless end in destruction. The psalmist observes that in all circumstances God is with him and that even though his body and inner person may fail, God remains and strengthens his inner person; God Himself being his portion forever.
 
God being the portion of those made righteous through blood atonement received in repentance is also reminiscent of the Levitical priests who were not assigned a tribal region of land but instead received God as their inheritance (Num. 18:20; Deut. 18:1-2).
 
 ט֤וֹב יְהוָה֙ לְקוָֹ֔ו לְנֶ֖פֶשׁ תִּדְרְשֶֽׁנּוּ׃
 
3:25 The LORD YHVH (MERCY) is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the soul who seeks Him;
 
This reflects the themes of Psalms 16 and 73. According to His nature God is Good (Mark 10:18). His goodness is made manifest to those who place their hope in Him. Only the humble can receive God’s goodness, which is the true strength of the inner person (heart).
 
“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
 
-Hebrews 11:6
 
ט֤וֹב וְיָחִיל֙ וְדוּמָ֔ם לִתְשׁוּעַ֖ת יְהוָֽה׃
 
3:26 It is good to tremble and wait silently for the salvation of the LORD YHVH (MERCY).
 
God is holy and defines goodness. Therefore, to tremble before Him in silent humility, waiting on His redemptive work, is part of the greater meaning of goodness. Those who fear God will see an end to fear. Both the goal of the fear of the LORD and the destruction of all ungodly fear which is bound up in condemnation.
 
“But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait with patience for it.”
 
-Romans 8:25
 
While in the context of Lamentations 3 the salvation waited on in the immediate historical sense is ultimately deliverance from Babylonian captivity, it’s nonetheless also written in anticipation of the entry of Messiah into the chronology of time and space through the womb of Miriam (Mary).
 
ט֣וֹב לַגֶּ֔בֶר כִּֽי־יִשָּׂ֥א עֹ֖ל בִּנְעוּרָֽיו׃
 
3:27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.
 
“It is good for a man to train his soul to bear the yoke of the commandments in his youth.”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:27
 
The yoke is both the yoke of correction/firm physical discipline and the yoke of Biblical Instruction, Torah.
 
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you all shall find rest for your souls.”
 
-Mattisiyahu (Matthew) 11:29
 
To bear the discipline of God in youth is to receive godly, established outcomes. To receive the Instruction (Torah) of God as a measure of holiness when we’re young means being kept from falling off a cliff’s edge by a well-placed fence.
  
 יֵשֵׁ֤ב בָּדָד֙ וְיִדֹּ֔ם כִּ֥י נָטַ֖ל עָלָֽיו׃
 
3:28 Let him sit silent in isolation, for the LORD has lifted it onto him.
 
The yoke of the previous verse has been placed by God upon the one He loves (Heb. 12:6). Receiving this yoke in sober, silent, self-reflection is a precursor to active repentance and true contrition. 
 
“Let him sit alone and be silent, bearing the corrections which have come upon him, for the sake of the unity of the Name of the Lord, which have been sent to punish him for the minor sins which he has committed in this world, until He have mercy upon him and lift them from him so that He may receive him perfected in the world to come.”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:28
 
“But each of you, when you pray, enter into your inner secret room, and when each of you has shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward each of you openly.”
 
-Mattisiyahu (Matthew) 6:6
 
יִתֵּ֤ן בֶּֽעָפָר֙ פִּ֔יהוּ אוּלַ֖י יֵ֥שׁ תִּקְוָֽה׃
 
3:29 Let him put his mouth in the dust—perhaps he will have hope.
 
This is an admonishment to act in humility and true repentance. Putting the mouth to the dust is symbolic of silencing one’s own rebellious speech, putting sinful speech to death (dust to dust).
 
The words “perhaps he will have hope” are not said to invoke doubt concerning the certain hope of the truly repentant, rather they express contrition; a heart posture that acknowledges that one who has sinned is not deserving of forgiveness. Forgiveness is not a right but a gift purchased at the highest of prices. One does not demand an undeserved gift but instead awaits the Giver with absolute humility. Prepared with a heart posture of gratefulness.
 
“Let him put his mouth to the dust and prostrate himself before his Master perhaps there is hope.”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:29
 
 יִתֵּ֧ן לְמַכֵּ֛הוּ לֶ֖חִי יִשְׂבַּ֥ע בְּחֶרְפָּֽה
 
3:30 Let him give his jaw to one who would strike him, and let him be satisfied with rebuke.
 
Some translate “cheek” in the sense that the penitent person willing receives the blow of discipline as a slap on the cheek. I’ve translated more literally using “jaw” because the jaw symbolizes the words of the mouth spoken in error. The text is conveying something stronger than a simple stiff slap to the face. It’s denoting a broken jaw that will need resetting so as to establish the renewal of a pure pattern of speech learned from severe discipline. A lesson that will not be unlearned in a hurry.
 
Harsh rebuke is hard to swallow. Thus, only the truly humble can be satisfied by it.
 
 כִּ֣י ל֥אֹ יִזְנַ֛ח לְעבֿלָ֖ם אֲדֹנָֽי׃
 
3:31 For Adonay (the Master) does not cast off forever.
 
It’s wrong to translate this as some do “For no one is cast off by the Lord forever.” First because that is not what the Hebrew text says, and second because it contradicts Scripture (Psalm 37:9-11; Malachi 4:1-3; Daniel 12:2; 1 Cor. 6:9:20; Rev. 20:11-15; 22:15).
 
Adonay does not cast off forever those who receive His atoning sacrificial love in repentance.
 
Specifically in the context of the present text, Israel/Judah is the subject of the casting off, making the casting off through discipline temporary.
 
“For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.”
 
-Tehillim (Psalms) 94:14
 
The Targum rightly interprets:
 
“For the Lord will not neglect his servants forever…”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:31a
 
 כִּ֣י אִם־הוֹגָ֔ה וְרִחַ֖ם כְּרֹ֥ב ׳חַסְדּוֹ׳ ״חֲסָדָֽיו׃״
 
3:32 For there is grief, there is also compassion, so great is his unfailing kindness (practiced love).
 
There is grief in affliction and there is also compassion of God poured out in the midst of affliction as He suffers with His people, on behalf of His people, so great is His faithful, practical love. It’s unfailing because He is eternal.

“1 At the same time,” saith the LORD, “will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.” 2 Thus saith the LORD, “The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.” 3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. 4 Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.”

-Y’rmiyahu (Jeremiah) 31:1-4

“But first he breaks and afterwards he turns toward them and has mercy on the righteous in the abundance of his goodness.”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:32

 כִּ֣י ל֤אֹ עִסָּה֙ מִלִּבּ֔בֿ וַיַּגֶּ֖ה בְּנֵי־אִֽישׁ׃  
 
3:33 For he does not afflict according to his heart (core being) or grieve the children of a man.
 
The grief that results from sin is not the result of a vindictive God but rather the fruit of humanity’s wilful rebellion.
 
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
 
-2 Peter 3:9
 
God’s heart desire is to reconcile human beings to Himself in right loving relationship. In keeping with His own nature and the love defined by His holiness, He will not force love on humanity. Thus, while His desire for us is reconciliation to His loving care, those who wilfully and perpetually refuse His offer will receive the grief they have sown for themselves.
 
“For He does not torment wilfully nor cause men grief. From His heart and from His will; rather the sin causes [the grief].”
 
 Rashi on Lamentations 3:33-
 
לְדַכֵּא֙ תַּ֣חַת רַגְלָ֔יו כֹּ֖ל אֲסִ֥ירֵי אָֽרֶץ׃
 
3:34 To crush underfoot all the captives of a land,
 
The next 3 verses indict the wicked actions of those who pervert justice and exposes those evil acts before the all-seeing Creator.
 
This verse specifically reflects the actions of the Babylonians against Judah. But is equally applicable as an observation of the general practice of the empires of men.
 
“And I am very sore displeased with the goyim (heathens; nations other than Israel) who are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.”
 
-Zechariah 1:15
  
לְהַטּוֹת֙ מִשְׁפַּט־גָּ֔בֶר נֶ֖גֶד פְּנֵ֥י עֶלְיֽוֹן׃
 
3:35 To pervert judgement of a man before the face of Elyon the Most High,
 
This can be read as an indictment against the injustices committed by Judah. These acts of sin were performed before God’s face. Wilful rebellion.
 
“And perverting the justice of a poor man in the presence of the Most High,”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:35
 
We note that God is Named Elyon, Most High God in His position as God over all things, and thus over the actions of both the Babylonians and Judah/Israel.

 לְעַוֵּ֤ת אָדָם֙ בְּרִיב֔בֿ אֲדֹנָ֖י ל֥אֹ רָאָֽה׃  
 
3:36 To misrepresent a human being in a dispute—does Adonay (the Master) not see such a thing?
 
“You shall not bear false witness!”
 
-Shemot (Exodus) 20:16
 
Here God is Named Adonay (Master), Lord over all the earth and specifically over His people Israel/Judah. He is all seeing and thus sees every act of injustice performed by human beings.
 
 מִ֣י זֶ֤ה אָמַר֙ וַוֶֹ֔הִי אֲדֹנָ֖י ל֥אֹ צִוָּֽה׃
 
3:37 Who can speak something and have it come to pass if Adonay (the Master) has not commanded it?
 
No one can will their way out of a situation by deluding themselves into believing they can manifest their own destiny with their words. Nothing is established unless God allows it. In fact, only what He commands comes to pass.

 מִצִּ֤י עֶלְיבֿן֙ ל֣אֹ תֵצֵ֔א הָרָע֖בֿת וְהַטּֽבֿב׃
  
3:38 Is it not from the mouth of Elyon the Most High that both the bad circumstances (haraot pl.) and the good (v’hatov sg.) come?
 
3:38 Alt. From the mouth of Elyon the Most High does not come both evils (haraot pl.) and the good (v’hatov sg.). [In the sense that God does not mix evil and good together or compromise the good, rather He makes a clear distinction between the two].
 
We note that the evils or calamities are multiple. Thus we read bad circumstances plural and not evil singular. As a counterpoint the good is singular. Therefore, the singular and ultimate good (defined by God’s nature) subjugates and defeats the plural evils. (ref. Amos 3:6)
 
Elsewhere in Scripture we read that God forms Light (all existing in Him) and creates darkness (not all existing but created and subject to light), and that He forms Peace (all existing in Him as part of His nature) and creates from nothing, evil (created and not all existing) [Isaiah 45:6-7].
 
1 John 1:5 says that “God is Light and in Him there is no darkness.” In John’s letter Light is used as a metaphor for God’s pure character and darkness as a metaphor for evil actions. Yaakov (James) 1:13 reminds us that “God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one.”
 
Therefore, God is not complicit in evil but is the Creator of it. This makes evil, a created thing like darkness, subject to the Creator Who manifests in all existing (not created) Light, manifesting  all existing Peace (not created). 
 
All things exist and have their being in God. The present text along with Isaiah 45:6-7 refute outright the eastern esoteric and Dharmic religious lie that good and evil are equitable forces within the universe. The universe itself also being a created thing and not a deity or person.
 
Within the context of the present lament, the writer is indicating that evil circumstances are allowed to happen only by God’s Word and that they are temporary, while the good remains eternally present because goodness is an attribute of God’s character whereas evil is a subordinate creation.
 
The prophet Iyov (Job) also acknowledges God’s sovereignty over both good and evil circumstances:
 
“But he said unto her, You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”
 
- Iyov (Job) 2:10
 
Ultimately, God orders all things and nothing is permitted outside of His authority because nothing exists outside of God.
 
The alternative reading, which is supported by the Targum, understands the text to be clarifying that God does not muddy the waters between evil and good but makes a clear distinction.
 
“From the mouth of God Most High there does not issue evil, rather by the hint of a whisper, because of the violence with which the land is filled. But when he desires to decree good in the world it issues from the holy mouth.”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:38

 מַה־יִּתְאבֿנֵן֙ אָדָ֣ם חָ֔י גֶּ֖בֶר ׳עַל־חֶטְאבֿ׳ ״עַל־חֲטָאָֽיו׃״
  
3:39 Why should a living person complain, a man upon whom sin resides?
 
A person guilty of wilful sin has no right to complain about the affliction caused by his sin. Nor does he have the right to complain concerning the just punishment he receives.
 
 נַחְצְָּ֤שָׂ֤ה דְרָכֵ֙ינ֙וּ֙ וְֽנַחְקָֹ֔רָה וְנָשׁ֖וָּבָה עַד־יְהָֽוָֽה׃
 
3:40 Let us search our ways and test them, and let us turn perpetually to the LORD YHVH (MERCY).
 
This is a call to individual and national repentance. Because God is Holy, Merciful, Gracious, Faithful, Kind and pursues us in right relationship, let us soberly examine our rebellious and sinful ways and turn toward Him from our wicked position of having turned our backs to Him (a delusion). The text says “turn perpetually to the LORD.” Our turning toward Him begins and is ongoing in Messiah our Righteousness.
 
“Search me, El, and know my core being: Try me, and know my conflicting thoughts: And see if there be any wicked, idolatrous way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.”
 
-Tehillim (Psalms) 139:23-24 [Author’s translation]

 נִשָּׂ֤א לְבָבֵ֙נוּ֙ אֶל־כַּפָּ֔יִם אֶל־אֵ֖ל בַּשָּׁמָֽיִם׃
 
3:41 Let us lift up our hearts (inner person) and our hands to El God in the heavens, saying:
 
Let us willingly expose our filthy hearts that He might cleanse us, and our filthy hands that He might clean them.
 
“Let us lift our cleansed hearts and cast away theft and robbery from our hands. And let us repent before God the dwelling of whose Shekinah is in heaven above.”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations

“3 Who may ascend into the mountain of the LORD? or who shall stand in His holy place? 4 He that has clean hands, and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. 5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 This is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek Thy face, O Jacob. Selah.”

-Tehillim (Psalms) 24:3-6
 
“After this manner therefore you all should pray: Our Father which art in the heavens, May Your Name by observed and practiced as being Holy.”
 
-Mattisiyahu (Matthew) 6:9
 
 נְַ֤חְנוּ פָשַׁ֙עְנ֙וּ֙ וּמִָ֔רִ֔ינוּ אַוָֹ֖ה ל֥אֹ סָלָֽחְוָֹ׃  
 
3:42 “We have rebelled and have been contentious and you have not forgiven.
 
A sober admission unto repentance. There is no forgiveness in rebellion. Forgiveness is offered to all but only the repentant receive it.
 
 סַכֹּ֤תָה בָאַף֙ וַֽוִֹרְדְּפֵ֔נוּ הָרַ֖גְוָֹ ל֥אֹ חָמָֽלְוָֹ׃
 
3:43 You have fenced Yourself/us with anger and pursued us, slaying us without pity.
 
“You have covered us in anger and pursued us in exile. You have killed and have not pitied.”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:43
 
The fence, be it designed to make a distinction between God and sinful Judah or be it to act as a wall of imprisonment for Judah, nonetheless conveys the fierce anger of God’s discipline and wrath against wilful and ongoing sin.
 
The writer is simply making an observation of fact. There is a God established distinction between good and evil, the righteous and the wicked.
 
 סַכּ֤וֹתָה בֶֽעָנָן֙ לָ֔ךְ מֵעֲב֖וֹר תְּפִלָּֽה׃
 
3:44 You have hedged Yourself/us with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.
 
The cloud is once more reminiscent of the cloud of the presence that both led and dwelt in the midst of Israel as she wandered from Egypt to the land of promise. (ref. Lam. 2:1)
 
Here, as in the previous verse the cloud/hedge acts as a barrier of distinction that refuses the unrepentant pleas of Judah until such a time as her prayers come from a truly humble and utterly contrite heart posture.
 
The Targum pictures this distinction as a barrier to the heavens:
 
“You have covered the heavens with your clouds of glory so that our prayers cannot cross to you.”
 
-Aramaic Targum on Lamentations 3:44
 
When prayers are prayed from the yetzer hara (evil inclination), no matter how pious the sound, they will be refused by God.
 
“I will not hear your prayers!”
 
-Isaiah 1:15, 59:2; Jeremiah 7:16
 
There are a number of clear reasons that God refuses prayers, each of them rooted in ingenuine heart posture:
 
•       Refusing to hear the genuine cry of others
 
“One who shuts his ear to the outcry of the poor will also call out himself, and not be answered.”
 
-Mishlei (Proverbs) 21:13
 
•       Ungodly doubt
 
“But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that person ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,”
 
-Yaakov (James) 1:5-7
 
•       Pride
 
“But he gives more grace. Wherefore he says, ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble.’”
 
-Yaakov (James) 4:6
 
•       Unjust violence
 
“So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you offer many prayers, I will not be listening. Your hands are covered with blood.”
 
-Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 1:15
 
•       Unkindness toward a wife
 
“You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honour as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.”
 
-1 Peter 3:7
 
•       Selfish motives
 
“You ask and do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives, so that you may spend what you request on your pleasures.”
 
-Yaakov (James) 4:3
 
•       A dedicated love of sin
 
“If I regard wickedness in my inner person, The Lord will not hear…”
 
-Tehillim (Psalms) 66:18
 
•       Leaders who mistreat God’s people Israel
 
“Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yes, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.”
 
-Micah 3:7 (ref. Micah 3)
 
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

Introduction:
 
The Hebrew title אֵיכָה eiykhah meaning “How” and “Alas”, begins the first, second and fourth laments (chapters). This scroll is also known as קִינות Kiynot “Lamentations”. The traditional Hebrew title can be understood as both an emphatic “This is how!” and a sober communal reflection “How did we arrive at this?”
 
Author & Date:
 
The scroll is anonymous, however both Jewish and Christian tradition attributes it to Jeremiah the prophet, although the Jewish Sages explain that it was Barukh ben Neriya Jeremiah’s friend, the scribe who wrote the book, as dictated to him by Jeremiah (ref. Jer. 36).
 
“Jeremiah the Prophet and High Priest said, “How was it decreed that Jerusalem and her people should be punished with banishment and that they should be mourned with 'ekah (Aramaic form of Alas, how!?).”
 
-2nd Century C.E Aramaic Targum to Lamentations 1:1
 
One of the many reasons why Jeremiah is thought to be the writer of Lamentations is the 2 Chronicles 35:25 account of Jeremiah lamenting the death of Josiah following his battle against Pharaoh Necho.
 
Jeremiah is known as “The weeping prophet” based on his many lamentations. Scriptures such as Jer. 7:29, 8:21, 9:1 give credence to Jeremiah’s authorship and the vocabulary and literary correlations uniting the scrolls of Jeremiah and Lamentations are convincing evidence.
 
When we add to the existing literary evidence the fact that Jeremiah was an eyewitness to the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE, we have a reliable supposition regarding his authorship of Lamentations.
 
The scroll was likely penned in the aftermath of Jerusalem’s destruction at the hands of the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar 2. This makes an early dating of the scroll the most likely of the conjectured scholarship estimates. It was probably written between 586 and 575 BCE almost 600 years before the incarnation of the King Messiah Yeshua.
 
ירמיהו Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) “Raised up by YaH” (רום - יה)
 

• Birth: Around 645 BCE, in Anatot, Judah
• Called to prophecy: 626 BCE, in the 13th year of King Josiah's reign
• Ministry: 627 BC–582 BCE, based primarily in Jerusalem
• Death: Around 570 BCE, in Egypt

 
Literary Features:
 
Lamentations is one of the five Megillot (scrolls), it is read during Tisha B’Av (9th of Av) in remembrance of the destruction of the first and second temples and related tragedies which fell on the same date throughout Jewish history. It’s entirely poetic in composition and is found among the Ketuvim, poetry books of the TaNaKh (OT). With the exception of the third lament, which consists of 66 verses (3 x Hebrew Aleph Beit [22]), each lament/chapter is an acrostic containing 22 verses according to the 22 characters of the Hebrew alphabet. In chapters 2 and 4 the פ Pe precedes theע  Ayin. The careful adherence to the acrostic form is evidence that these passionate laments were nonetheless carefully considered prior to being penned.
 
Lamentations reflects a familiar rhythm of lament style poetry that is seen throughout the TaNaKh in the Tehillim (Psalms), the prophetic books and so on. In fact, Haggai is the only prophetic book that doesn’t include a lament. The use of repetition as a poetic form in Hebrew is obvious from the first stanza of the scroll. This places emphasis on key concepts and establishes a strength of established history, figurative principal, emotion and spiritual weight that rhyming can never achieve.
 
Contemporaries:
 
Daniel, Jeremiah and Ezekiel were contemporaries. Their ministries intersecting between 607 -570 BCE. Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem and Egypt, while Daniel and Ezekiel ministered as exiles in Babylon.
 
Lamentations אֵיכָה Chapter 1
 
אֵיכָ֣ה׀ יָשְׁבָ֣ה בָדָ֗ד הָעִיר֙ רַבָּ֣תִי עָ֔ם הָיְתָ֖ה כְּאַלְמָנָ֑ה רַבָּ֣תִי בַגּוֹיִ֗ם שָׂרָ֙תִי֙ בַּמְּדִינ֔וֹת הָיְתָ֖ה לָמַֽס׃
 
1:1 Alas, how? The city sits solitary, once great with people, now like a widow, though she was great among nations, having princes among provinces, she has become tribute, melting away.
 
The opening word אֵיכָה eiykhah, which also begins the second and fourth chapters, is an exclamation that is both a statement of anguished wonder at the events of Jerusalem’s destruction and a rhetorical question concerning how she came to this place of desolation.
 
Jerusalem sits solitary in the position of mourning/repentance whereas Jeremiah had sat alone refusing to engage in Judah’s sinful reveling. The prophet had sat alone because God had filled him with indignation at the rebellion of Judah (Jeremiah 15:17). Those who show disrespect for the prophetic voices of true believers today by hiding under the pseudo-Christian pretense of not wanting to offend, would do well to pay heed.
 
Rashi notes that Jerusalem is described as being “like a widow” but, due to the fact that the Eternal God is her husband, she is not a widow but rather “like a woman whose husband went abroad and he intends to return to her.”
 
During the reigns of David and Solomon many nations, including but not limited to the Philistines, Moabites, Syrians, and Edomites, had paid tribute to Israel. Now, following her rebellion, Israel, and Judah had become tribute, the ultimate earthly kingdom example of subjugation.
 
בָּכ֨וֹ תִבְכֶּ֜ה בַּלַּ֗יְלָה וְדִמְעָתָהּ֙ עַ֣ל לֶֽחֱיָ֔הּ אֵֽין־לָ֥הּ מְנַחֵ֖ם מִכָּל־אֹהֲבֶ֑יהָ כָּל־רֵעֶ֙יהָ֙ בָּ֣גְדוּ בָ֔הּ הָ֥יוּ לָ֖הּ לְאֹיְבִֽים׃
 
1:2 Weeping, she weeps in the night, with tears upon her cheek how will she receive comfort from all her loved ones (lovers), all her friends have become her enemies.
 
The repetition of the Hebrew root בכה bakhah in addition to the establishing an expression of the unbroken tearfulness of deep sorrow, also prophetically denotes the twofold destruction of בית המקדש Beit HaMikdash (the temple).
 
“For the Beis Hamikdosh was burned at night, as the master said, ‘at the time of evening they set it on fire.’ *Maseches Ta’anis 29a.” - Rashi
 
There is a correlation here with the current circumstances in Israel where at times families have lost multiple members through murderous terrorist acts and kidnapping. Left without their loved ones to comfort them they are also abandoned by western allies who twist the narrative to impugn them. It is impossible for one who has never experienced this kind of abandonment to begin to comprehend the anguish of the souls of those who must endure it.
 
Alternatively, the text can be read “all her lovers” which would correlate to Ezekiel 23 and HaShem’s anger at Israel’s adulterous/idolatrous actions in cohabitation with the Assyrians and Egyptians.
 
Jeremiah the prophet had already wept at the potential for Judah to refuse the warning of the coming correction that would be meted out by HaShem (Jer. 13:15-17)
 
גָּֽלְתָ֨ה יְהוּדָ֤ה מֵעֹ֙נִי֙ וּמֵרֹ֣ב עֲבֹדָ֔ה הִ֚יא יָשְׁבָ֣ה בַגּוֹיִ֔ם לֹ֥א מָצְאָ֖ה מָנ֑וֹחַ כָּל־רֹדְפֶ֥יהָ הִשִּׂיג֖וּהָ בֵּ֥ין הַמְּצָרִֽים׃
 
1:3 Into captivity Judah has gone, from great affliction, poverty and servitude she dwells among the nations (pagans), she finds no rest, all her persecutors overtake her in her distress.
 
Judah follows the northern tribes into captivity. The fullness of her rebellion has come to fruition. HaShem cannot enable the sin of His chosen nation, thus He allows the consequences of her own sin to come upon her in full measure. The same is true of God’s disciplining of all His children. He disciplines the ones He loves.
 
“The House of Judah went into exile because they were oppressing the orphans and the widows and because of the great servitude to which they were subjecting their brothers, the sons of Israel, who had been sold to them. And they did not declare freedom to their servants and handmaids who were of the seed of Israel.”
 
- 2nd Century C.E Aramaic Targum to Lamentations 1:3
 
Alternatively the affliction and servitude can refer to that which was imposed upon Israel by the Babylonians.
 
The Hebrew גּוֹיִם goyim is synonymous with heathen, unbeliever, pagan. Israel, here specifically Judah, has acted like a pagan and is now cast among the pagans whom she has emulated.
 
Judah finds neither natural nor spiritual rest. Because God has allowed her persecutors to overtake her.
 
“And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there YHVH will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul.”
 
-D’varim (Deuteronomy) 28:65
 
 דַּרְכֵ֨י צִיּ֜וֹן אֲבֵל֗וֹת מִבְּלִי֙ בָּאֵ֣י מוֹעֵ֔ד כָּל־שְׁעָרֶ֙יהָ֙ שֽׁוֹמֵמִ֔ין כֹּהֲנֶ֖יהָ נֶאֱנָחִ֑ים בְּתוּלֹתֶ֥יהָ נּוּג֖וֹת וְהִ֥יא מַר־לָֽהּ׃ 
 
1:4 The ways of Zion are in mourning, devoid of festival (appointed times) pilgrims, all her gates are desolate, her priests groan, her virgins suffer and she is filled with bitterness.
 
The Hebrew דַּרְכֵי darkheiy is familiar, the way דרך derekh that Israel was to walk in is the way of YHVH. Judah has walked in numerous contrary ways and the fruit of those rebellious ways is mourning.
 
Jerusalem (Judah) has now become devoid of pilgrims going up to her appointed times to meet with YHVH because she has spent years syncretising those observances with the worship of foreign deities.
 
Her priests groan as a result of their sin and hypocrisy and the virgin daughters who sought foreign lovers groan for the same reason. However, there are also virgin daughters who groan as a result of the sin of others. The consequences of which they now suffer under.
 
The loss of the temple and the opportunity for Aliyah going up, is reminiscent of the words of the Psalmist:
 
“My soul thirsts for Elohim, for the living Elohim: when shall I come and appear before Elohim? My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, Where is your Elohim? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of Elohim, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept the holy day.
 
-Tehillim (Psalms) 42:2-4
 
הָי֨וּ צָרֶ֤יהָ לְרֹאשׁ֙ אֹיְבֶ֣יהָ שָׁל֔וּ כִּֽי־יְהוָ֥ה הוֹגָ֖הּ עַ֣ל רֹב־פְּשָׁעֶ֑יהָ עוֹלָלֶ֛יהָ הָלְכ֥וּ שְׁבִ֖י לִפְנֵי־צָֽר׃
 
1:5 Her enemies have become the head (master) of her, her foes prosper, for YHVH has placed affliction on the multitude of her rebellions, her children have gone into captivity before the face of her enemy.
 
Adonay’s ultimate control over all that happens within His creation is made clear. The Babylonians were His vessels, a tool in His hand. The just Creator afflicts those who rebel against Him. Discipline is an act of love.
 
The enemies of Israel and Judah have become the head as a result of Israel’s refusal to observe God’s commandments (Deut. 28:15-58).
 
“The stranger who is among you shall get up above you very high; and you will come down very low. He will lend to you, and you will not lend to him: he shall be the head, and you will be the tail.”
-D’varim (Deuteronomy) 28:43-44
 
The present text specifically concerns the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the remainder of the tribe of Judah.
 
וַיֵּצֵ֥א ׳מִן־בַּת־מִבַּת־צִיּ֖וֹן׳ כָּל־הֲדָרָ֑הּ הָי֣וּ שָׂרֶ֗יהָ כְּאַיָּלִים֙ לֹא־מָצְא֣וּ מִרְעֶ֔ה וַיֵּלְכ֥וּ בְלֹא־כֹ֖חַ לִפְנֵ֥י רוֹדֵֽף׃
 
1:6 Departed from daughter Zion are all who were her beauty, her princes were like stags that found nowhere to graze, and have fled without strength before the face of the pursuer.
 
Zion, the holy hill, the center of worship, has lost her true beauty, the temple where God placed His Name and where her priests conducted godly ritual and her kings sought council from God.
 
Her princes/rulers have lost all authority. The richest among her residents have been starving and flee hungry searching for morsels while being utterly overcome by their pursuers.
 
Rashi notes that “Every רֹדֵף (pursuer) in Scripture is incomplete (lacking the וֹ vav), but this one רוֹדֵף is full, for they were totally pursued.”
 
זָֽכְרָ֣ה יְרוּשָׁלִַ֗ם יְמֵ֤י עָנְיָהּ֙ וּמְרוּדֶ֔יהָ כֹּ֚ל מַחֲמֻדֶ֔יהָ אֲשֶׁ֥ר הָי֖וּ מִ֣ימֵי קֶ֑דֶם בִּנְפֹ֧ל עַמָּ֣הּ בְּיַד־צָ֗ר וְאֵ֤ין עוֹזֵר֙ לָ֔הּ רָא֣וּהָ צָרִ֔ים שָׂחֲק֖וּ עַ֥ל מִשְׁבַּתֶּֽהָ׃
 
1:7 Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and restlessness, all the precious things which were from the days of old, when her people fell into the hands of the enemy with none to help her; her enemies saw and mocked her over the cessation of her sabbaths.
 
Affliction resulting from sin has caused the once inhabitants of Jerusalem to remember how precious the provision and worship of God are. The divine presence, the temple, the altar for atonement, the ark of the covenant and the Scriptures.
 
None helped her. The Egyptians with whom she had allied herself were powerless to stop Nebuchadnezzar, nor did they attempt to do so.
 
Having fallen captive to her pagan enemies she now watches them mock her over the loss of her holy shabbatot festivals (resting times with God) and the rest that Shabbat offers as a reflection of creation and right relationship in God.
 
Judah’s enemies were not just mocking her, they were mocking YHVH. This will result in their ultimate demise. The nations would do well to observe the history of God’s chosen people Israel and be respectful of her in these dark days. His anger lasts but a moment and His mercy toward Israel will see her stand in right relationship in Him at the last day. Meanwhile those who have mocked Israel’s religious observances established by YHVH will come under judgement, and if they remain devoid of repentance will suffer everlasting torment.
 
חֵ֤טְא חָֽטְאָה֙ יְר֣וּשָׁלִַ֔ם עַל־כֵּ֖ן לְנִידָ֣ה הָיָ֑תָה כָּֽל־מְכַבְּדֶ֤יהָ הִזִּיל֙וּהָ֙ כִּי־רָא֣וּ עֶרְוָתָ֔הּ גַּם־הִ֥יא נֶאֶנְחָ֖ה וַתָּ֥שָׁב אָחֽוֹר׃
 
1:8 Jerusalem has missed the mark established by God’s holiness and has sinned greatly, therefore menstrual impurity has befallen her, all who once honored her despise her because they have seen her naked shame, also she groans in pain and turns backward (shows her naked backside).
 
This verse opens חֵטְא חָֽטְאָה cheit chatah “rebelled rebelling,” or “sinned sinning.” Jerusalem (a city is the sum of its inhabitants) had doubled down on the specific act of missing the mark of God’s holiness that is rebellion and idolatry, the root of all sin. The multiplication of her willful rebellion shows a firmly established position of unrepentance that only severe discipline could shift.
 
As followers of the Messiah, we too will invoke such discipline if we refuse to allow the Holy Spirit to refine us and sanctify those sin areas in our lives that we have doubled down on.
 
The Hebrew נִידָה niydah, menstrual impurity, is employed to express the depths of uncleanness and therefore a time of fruitlessness. The fruit that might have been is bleeding out of her. It is that loss of life potential that makes niydah a period of impurity (pun intended).
 
The Egyptians who had courted her friendship, figuratively desiring her loins, now see her defiled and despise her. This is how evil men treat women. A man who loves truly doesn’t desire a beautiful woman in her prime and then reject and despise her in her uncleanness. While those that once courted Jerusalem now despised her, HaShem continues to watch over her, even in the midst of the consequences of her rebellion.
 
The poetry is graphic and evokes a sickness in the pit of the stomach of the reader. Jerusalem is naked, bleeding from her sexual organs and turns away from those looking on her with disgust, showing her naked backside to them in order to garner some modicum of dignity.
 
טֻמְאָתָ֣הּ בְּשׁוּלֶ֗יהָ לֹ֤א זָֽכְרָה֙ אַחֲרִיתָ֔הּ וַתֵּ֣רֶד פְּלָאִ֔ים אֵ֥ין מְנַחֵ֖ם לָ֑הּ רְאֵ֤ה יְהוָה֙ אֶת־עָנְיִ֔י כִּ֥י הִגְדִּ֖יל אוֹיֵֽב׃
 
1:9 Filthiness clings to her skirts, she does not remember her future, she has sunk in wonder with no comforter; look YHVH at my affliction, for made great is the enemy.
 
When Jerusalem does find some form of clothing (skirts) the menstrual blood still seeps through her skirts because there are no additional rags to use to stem the flow.
 
Such are the depths of her despairing that she is unable to recall what God has promised to establish in Israel’s future. The righteous remember the future and are established in hope, while the wicked forget and become captive to hopelessness.
 
The statement “she is sunk in wonder with no comforter” could also be read, “She is overcome by shock and awe and cannot see the Messiah”. מְנַחֵם Menachim, Comforter, is a Name for the Messiah.
 
The writer identifies with his people and speaks as Jerusalem saying, “Look Merciful YHVH at my great suffering, forgive, have mercy, for the enemy is made great”.
 
The enemy has been allowed to become great for a time but will be made subject to HaShem in time.
 
 יָדוֹ֙ פָּ֣רַשׂ צָ֔ר עַ֖ל כָּל־מַחֲמַדֶּ֑יהָ כִּֽי־רָאֲתָ֤ה גוֹיִם֙ בָּ֣אוּ מִקְדָּשָׁ֔הּ אֲשֶׁ֣ר צִוִּ֔יתָה לֹא־יָבֹ֥אוּ בַקָּהָ֖ל לָֽךְ׃
 
1:10 The hand of the adversary stretches out upon all that is dear to her, for she has seen the nations (pagans) enter the Sanctuary (Temple), those commanded not to enter Your congregation.
 
“The wicked Nebuchadnezzar stretched out his hand and drew forth his sword and cut off all her lovely things. Indeed, the Congregation of Israel began to howl for she saw foreign nations go into her Temple; those about whom you commanded by Moses the prophet concerning Ammon and Moab, that they were not worthy to enter your assembly.”
 
-2nd Century C.E Aramaic Targum to Lamentations 1:10
 
“6 “Now say to the rebellious, to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says Adonay YHVH: “O house of Israel, let Us have no more of all your abominations. 7 When you brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to defile it—My house—and when you offered My food, the fat and the blood, then they broke My covenant because of all your abominations. 8 And you have not kept charge of My holy things, but you have set others to keep charge of My sanctuary for you.” 9 Thus says the Adonay YHVH: “No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter My sanctuary, including any foreigner who is among the children of Israel.”
 
-Ezekiel 44:6-9
 
The Hebrew text uses גוֹיִם goyim, nations, in juxtaposition to the holy city Jerusalem throughout the scroll of Lamentations. This is intentional and, in this context, makes the word goyim synonymous with the word pagan or the word heathen, because the nations in question are all worshippers of false gods.
 
Those things dear to her were the sacred texts, Torah scrolls, utensils used in service of the sacrificial rites and temple worship ceremonies etc.
 
כָּל־עַמָּ֤הּ נֶאֱנָחִים֙ מְבַקְּשִׁ֣ים לֶ֔חֶם נָתְנ֧וּ ׳מַחֲמוֹדֵּיהֶם׳ ״מַחֲמַדֵּיהֶ֛ם״ בְּאֹ֖כֶל לְהָשִׁ֣יב נָ֑פֶשׁ רְאֵ֤ה יְהוָה֙ וְֽהַבִּ֔יטָה כִּ֥י הָיִ֖יתִי זוֹלֵלָֽה׃
 
1:11 All her people are groaning, as they search for bread, they have given away desirable things for food to relieve the soul; look YHVH see how worthless, how vile I’ve become!
 
What little of value those being exiled have left they seek to trade for any morsel of food. This shows the abject desperation of the Judeans. To relieve the soul means in order to save their lives or revive the faint.
 
The writer (Jeremiah) once again identifies with his city and his people saying, “Look at us Adonay, though we have turned our face away from You don’t turn Your face from us. See how vile Your chosen possession has become!”
 
Like so many of Israel’s prophets, Jeremiah is not guilty of the sin of the people and yet he takes upon himself the error and repents on their behalf. He acts as a figure for the Messiah.
 
 ל֣וֹא אֲלֵיכֶם֮ כָּל־עֹ֣בְרֵי דֶרֶךְ֒ הַבִּ֣יטוּ וּרְא֗וּ אִם־יֵ֤שׁ מַכְאוֹב֙ כְּמַכְאֹבִ֔י אֲשֶׁ֥ר עוֹלַ֖ל לִ֑י אֲשֶׁר֙ הוֹגָ֣ה יְהוָ֔ה בְּי֖וֹם חֲר֥וֹן אַפּֽוֹ׃
 
1:12 It’s nothing to you (pl) all who pass by on the way, consider and see, if there exists sorrow for sorrow which is severely done to me, which YHVH afflicted, in the day of His furious nostril flaring anger.
 
Those who pass by are unphased by Jerusalem’s suffering. Judah screams “look at me, have mercy, see how God has afflicted me,” but her enemies and the surrounding nations are immune to her pleas.
 
מִמָּר֛וֹם שָֽׁלַח־אֵ֥שׁ בְּעַצְמֹתַ֖י וַיִּרְדֶּ֑נָּה פָּרַ֨שׂ רֶ֤שֶׁת לְרַגְלַי֙ הֱשִׁיבַ֣נִי אָח֔וֹר נְתָנַ֙נִי֙ שֹֽׁמֵמָ֔ה כָּל־הַיּ֖וֹם דָּוָֽה׃
 
1:13 From the height He sent fire into my bones, and it dominated and spread a net for my feet turning me back, He has given me desolation, all the day I faint.
 
The fire sent by God consumes the bones of the city of Jerusalem and the land of Judea while also spreading through the bones of the individual in whatever form it may take as a physiological illness.
 
The allusion to the fire spreading to the feet is intended to convey the idea that those who sought to flee found their feet entangled and as a result fell prey to the invader.
 
The correlation made here between the fire of God’s word in the bones of the prophet Jeremiah and the outworking of that fire in bringing judgement and desolation to Jerusalem is significant.
 
“Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him,
Nor speak anymore in His name.”
But His word was in my core being like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not.”
 
-Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 20:9
 
נִשְׂקַד֩ עֹ֨ל פְּשָׁעַ֜י בְּיָד֗וֹ יִשְׂתָּ֥רְג֛וּ עָל֥וּ עַל־צַוָּארִ֖י הִכְשִׁ֣יל כֹּחִ֑י נְתָנַ֣נִי אֲדֹנָ֔י בִּידֵ֖י לֹא־אוּכַ֥ל קֽוּם׃
 
1:14 The yoke of my rebellion is bound by His hand, intertwined it goes up upon my neck, it makes my strength feeble, Adonay has given me into the hands of those I cannot rise against.
 
HaShem attaches the teaching and foundational sin of Judah’s rebellion to her neck so that it clings to her, making her weak from the fruit of her sin. He has allowed Israel’s enemies to overcome her in her weakness.
 
Alternatively, and I think prophetically, we can read more literally “The yoke of my rebellion is bound up בְּיָדוֹ in His hand,” meaning God Himself takes on the punishment for Judah’s rebellion. “See I have engraved you in the palms of My hands, your walls are ever before Me!” (Isa. 49:16).
 
“It makes my strength feeble” can be understood to say, “It shows my strength to be weakness”, and “I realize I’m unable to save myself”.
 
סִלָּ֨ה כָל־אַבִּירַ֤י׀ אֲדֹנָי֙ בְּקִרְבִּ֔י קָרָ֥א עָלַ֛י מוֹעֵ֖ד לִשְׁבֹּ֣ר בַּחוּרָ֑י גַּ֚ת דָּרַ֣ךְ אֲדֹנָ֔י לִבְתוּלַ֖ת בַּת־יְהוּדָֽה׃ 
 
1:15 Adonay in my midst has tossed aside all my mighty ones, He called upon me at an appointed time to break into pieces my young men, as in a press Adonay has stomped on the virgin daughter of Judah.
 
The Hebrew מוֹעֵד mo’eid appointed time/festival is used intentionally here in correlation to the cessation of moadim, festival observances. The appointed times of God are times of remembrance and celebration; however, He also appoints the times of discipline as opportunities for repentance/returning. It may be that Nebuchadnezzar began his final assault on Jerusalem during one of the aliyot going up festivals. This would not necessarily contradict the Jewish tradition that connects the final destruction of Jerusalem to the 9th of Av.
 
The Hebrew גַּת gat meaning press is used to describe a wine press, an olive press etc. Here it is Judah herself that is being utterly crushed and poured out under the weight of HaShem’s foot.
 
Yet future, Yeshua the King of Judah, would allow Himself to be put under the גַּת press of God’s justice, taking on himself the sins of Judah, Israel and the nations. His desperate prayers for the cup of plagues and redeeming atonement to be taken from Him were prayed in Gan גַּת gat Sheminim.
 
עַל־אֵ֣לֶּה׀ אֲנִ֣י בוֹכִיָּ֗ה עֵינִ֤י׀ עֵינִי֙ יֹ֣רְדָה מַּ֔יִם כִּֽי־רָחַ֥ק מִמֶּ֛נִּי מְנַחֵ֖ם מֵשִׁ֣יב נַפְשִׁ֑י הָי֤וּ בָנַי֙ שֽׁוֹמֵמִ֔ים כִּ֥י גָבַ֖ר אוֹיֵֽב׃
 
1:16 Over these I wail, my eye, my eye, water runs down because far from me is the comforter, from returning my soul, my children have become stunned because the enemy has prevailed.
 
The repetition of עֵינִ֤י aiyniy “my eye” denotes the uninterrupted tears of inconsolable suffering.
 
The Comforter is of course God and yes, the then future atoning Comforter Yeshua, Imanu El, with us God.
 
“From returning my soul” is a way of saying “from saving my life”. It’s also an allusion to the acceptance of a repentant person or in this case people. At this point Judah is beginning to realize that she is responsible for her own suffering due to her rebellion but she is not yet repentant and thus is still far from the returning of her soul through the Comforter.
 
“My children have become stunned” could be understood as “My children have become numb through shock, horror and awe”. Therefore, when we read “because the enemy has prevailed” we see a sober warning. When we raise our children in a society that saturates them with godlessness, evil violence, immoral images, isolation and disconnection from truth, they become numb and the origin of their ignorance becomes obvious. It is the satanic impetus which we as a society have acted upon in raising them, that has prevailed.
 
פֵּֽרְשָׂ֨ה צִיּ֜וֹן בְּיָדֶ֗יהָ אֵ֤ין מְנַחֵם֙ לָ֔הּ צִוָּ֧ה יְהוָ֛ה לְיַעֲקֹ֖ב סְבִיבָ֣יו צָרָ֑יו הָיְתָ֧ה יְרוּשָׁלִַ֛ם לְנִדָּ֖ה בֵּינֵיהֶֽם׃
 
1:17 Stretched out is Zion, in her hands there is no comfort, YHVH has commanded against Jacob enemies to surround him, and Jerusalem has become an unclean menstruating woman among them.
 
Zion, the temple mount, the center of Israel’s sacrificial cult, represents all of Israel. She opens her hands to find no comfort because she has long since rejected her Comforter. YHVH has assigned enemies as tools of discipline against Jacob/Israel, Judah, and Jerusalem. The priests and the temple have become defiled, metaphorically, an unclean menstruating woman.
 
“Zion spreads out her hands from anguish like a woman spread upon the birth stool. She screams but there is no one to speak comfortingly to her heart. The Lord commanded the House of Jacob to keep the commandments and Torah, but they transgressed the decree of his Memra. Therefore his oppressors completely encircle Jacob. Jerusalem is like an unclean woman among them.”
 
-2nd Century C.E Aramaic Targum to Lamentations 1:17
 
צַדִּ֥יק ה֛וּא יְהוָ֖ה כִּ֣י פִ֣יהוּ מָרִ֑יתִי שִׁמְעוּ־נָ֣א ׳כָל־עַמִּים׳ ״כָל־הָֽעַמִּ֗ים״ וּרְאוּ֙ מַכְאֹבִ֔י בְּתוּלֹתַ֥י וּבַחוּרַ֖י הָלְכ֥וּ בַשֶּֽׁבִי׃
 
1:18 YHVH is right, for His commandments I rebelled against, hear now all you peoples/tribes, my sorrow, my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
 
Judah admits that YHVH is right to discipline her. She admits that she has rebelled against Him and broken His commandments. She thus testifies to the peoples/tribes “Hear my confession and the sorrow which reflects the pain caused by my willful sin, and look at the result of my actions, my daughters and sons have been taken into captivity.”
 
“The Lord told the people of the House of Israel that they should not allow those who kill by the sword to pass through their land. Josiah the king went forth and drew his sword against Pharaoh the Lame on the plain of Megiddo, which he had not been commanded [to do] and he had not sought instruction from before the Lord. Therefore archers shot arrows at King Josiah and he died there. Before his spirit left him he moved his lips and said, “The Lord is blameless for I have transgressed against his Memra.” Hear now all peoples, the lamentations that Jeremiah made over Josiah and see my affliction that has come upon me after his death. My virgins and young men have gone into exile.”
 
-2nd Century C.E Aramaic Targum to Lamentations 1:18
 
קָרָ֤אתִי לַֽמְאַהֲבַי֙ הֵ֣מָּה רִמּ֔וּנִי כֹּהֲנַ֥י וּזְקֵנַ֖י בָּעִ֣יר גָּוָ֑עוּ כִּֽי־בִקְשׁ֥וּ אֹ֙כֶל֙ לָ֔מוֹ וְיָשִׁ֖יבוּ אֶת־נַפְשָֽׁם׃
 
1:19 I called to my lovers, the ones who deceived me and caused my priests and elders in the city to perish as they sought food for their souls.
 
Rashi cites a tradition that says, “the children of Yishmael, who came out toward the exiles when their captors were leading them on the road nearby, and pretended that they were compassionate toward them. They brought for them various kinds of salty foods and inflated skin flasks. They thought that they [contained] wine, so they ate and became thirsty and wished to drink; but when they untied the flasks with their teeth, the air entered their intestines and they died.”
 
רְאֵ֨ה יְהוָ֤ה כִּֽי־צַר־לִי֙ מֵעַ֣י חֳמַרְמָ֔רוּ נֶהְפַּ֤ךְ לִבִּי֙ בְּקִרְבִּ֔י כִּ֥י מָר֖וֹ מָרִ֑יתִי מִח֥וּץ שִׁכְּלָה־חֶ֖רֶב בַּבַּ֥יִת כַּמָּֽוֶת׃
 
1:20 Look YHVH because of my adversary my intestines are troubled, my core being turns within me, for I was bitter in my rebellion, outside the sword has made me childless and at home there is death.
 
This is a confession to God that Judah was intentionally willful/bitter in rebelling against Him.
 
The reference to the intestines is both an allusion to physical agony and to conflicted and nagging emotions. The gut being the figurative seat of Hebrew emotion.
 
Judah’s sin has resulted in the armies outside the walls of Jerusalem killing her children and within her walls death from starvation and plague. The same has spiritual significance: outside the body sin wreaks havoc on our family and friends and inside the body, at the core of the inner person, the wages of sin are death.
 
שָׁמְע֞וּ כִּ֧י נֶאֱנָחָ֣ה אָ֗נִי אֵ֤ין מְנַחֵם֙ לִ֔י כָּל־אֹ֨יְבַ֜י שָׁמְע֤וּ רָֽעָתִי֙ שָׂ֔שׂוּ כִּ֥י אַתָּ֖ה עָשִׂ֑יתָ הֵבֵ֥אתָ יוֹם־קָרָ֖אתָ וְיִֽהְי֥וּ כָמֽוֹנִי׃
 
1:21 They heard, for I was groaning, for me there is no comfort, all my enemies have heard of my trouble, they are glad for it is Your doing, You have brought about the day You warned would come; may they become like me.
 
The enemies of Israel and Judah heard of her suffering and were glad. But the enemies of Israel are without excuse for their mocking of the Jewish people. They knew that the God of Israel was disciplining His people and yet they continued to honor their own gods and even mocked the cessation of the festivals of YHVH, thus mocking YHVH Himself. Therefore, the phrase concerning Israel’s enemies, “May they become like me” is not simply a statement of spiteful vengeance, but a deserved curse that will manifest on the enemies of God and of Israel.
 
The LORD had warned Israel through the prophet Jeremiah of this coming wrath (Jeremiah 25:15-38)
 
תָּבֹ֨א כָל־רָעָתָ֤ם לְפָנֶ֙יךָ֙ וְעוֹלֵ֣ל לָ֔מוֹ כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר עוֹלַ֛לְתָּ לִ֖י עַ֣ל כָּל־פְּשָׁעָ֑י כִּֽי־רַבּ֥וֹת אַנְחֹתַ֖י וְלִבִּ֥י דַוָּֽי׃
 
1:22 Let all their wickedness come before You and do to them as You have done to me for all my rebellion, for my groaning is great and my core being is faint.
 
“May there enter before you on the great judgment day all their evil deeds which they have done to me. May you turn against them as you have turned against me because of my many rebellions, for my groans are many and my heart is weak.”
 
-2nd Century C.E Aramaic Targum to Lamentations 1:22
 
This same prayer is prayed by Israel today concerning those who have committed such great atrocities against her. Though these afflictions have been allowed by God for the purpose of discipline, the fullness of her justification will come when Israel repents and calls on YHVH through the One Whom she has pierced, Yeshua HaMelekh the Comforter, Whom we have sought, though He has seemed far off, but is nonetheless closer to use than breathing.
 
“And the Word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may act according to Him.”
 
-D’varim (Deuteronomy) 30:14 Author’s translation according to the illumination of John 1:1
 
Copyright 2025 Yaakov (Brown) Ben Yehoshua