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Lamentations 2:5-8

King James Version (KJV)

“In our prayers we talk to God, in our Bible study God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.”
— D.L. Moody

Scripture focus

5. The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. 6. And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as [if it were of] a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. 7. The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast. 8. The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.

Lamentations 2:5-8 — KJV

Commentary

Commentary on Lamentations 2:5

Theological / Devotional

Her palaces. Verses 5-8 portray the progressive steps in the destruction of the city: the palaces and forts, the Temple, the altar, and the walls. Four weeks after the capture of Jerusalem the Babylonian commander, Nebuzar-adan, had burned the Temple, the royal palace, the leading residences, and broken down the walls (Jer. 52:12-14).

His strong holds. Literally, “fortifications.” The variation in gender here probably is the result of thinking of the palaces as belonging to Jerusalem, “the daughter of Judah,” while the fortified cities (including Jerusalem herself) belong to the country, Israel.

Mourning and lamentation. Heb. ta’aniyyah wa’aniyyah. These synonymous words, both from the Hebrew verb ’anah, “to mourn,” are very effective poetically (see Jewish Publication Society Version, “mourning and moaning”). The same Hebrew words are also used in Isa. 29:2.

By SdaBc