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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"><title>Lamentations 2 Pulpit Commentary</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; 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"Cast down" whither? Into the "pit" or dungeon of Hades (<a href="/isaiah/14-15.htm">Isaiah 14:15</a>). <span class="cmt_word">The beauty of Israel;</span> <span class="accented">i.e.</span> Jerusalem, exactly as Babylon is called "the proud beauty [or, 'ornament'] of Chaldea" (<a href="/isaiah/13-19.htm">Isaiah 13:19</a>). <span class="cmt_word">His footstool;</span> <span class="accented">i.e.</span> the ark (<a href="/psalms/132-7.htm">Psalm 132:7</a>), or perhaps the temple as containing the ark (<a href="/1_chronicles/28-2.htm">1 Chronicles 28:2</a>; <a href="/psalms/99-5.htm">Psalm 99:5</a>). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-2.htm">Lamentations 2:2</a></div><div class="verse">The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought <i>them</i> down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 2.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Habitations</span>; rather, pastures; The word properly means the settlements of shepherds in green, grassy spots, but here designates the country parts in general, distinguished from the "strongholds" of Judah. <span class="cmt_word">Hath polluted.</span> So <a href="/psalms/89-39.htm">Psalm 89:39</a>, "Thou hast profaned [same word as here] his crown [by casting it] to the ground." The wearer of a crown was regarded in the East as nearer to divinity than ordinary mortals; in some countries, indeed, <span class="accented">e.g.</span> in Egypt, almost as an incarnation of the deity. To discrown him was to "pollute" or "profane" him. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-3.htm">Lamentations 2:3</a></div><div class="verse">He hath cut off in <i>his</i> fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, <i>which</i> devoureth round about.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 3.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">All the horn;</span> rather, <span class="accented">every horn</span>; <span class="accented">i.e.</span> all the means of defence, especially the fortresses. <span class="cmt_word">He hath drawn back his right hand;</span> <span class="accented">i.e.</span> he hath withdrawn his assistance in war. <span class="cmt_word">He burned against;</span> rather, <span class="accented">he burned up.</span> </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-4.htm">Lamentations 2:4</a></div><div class="verse">He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all <i>that were</i> pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 4.</span> - The beginning of the verse seems slightly out of order (see the Septuagint). <span class="cmt_word">And slew all</span> that were <span class="cmt_word">pleasant</span>, etc. The correct rendering is, <span class="accented">And slew all that was pleasant to the eye: in the tent of the daughter of Zion he poured out his fury like fire.</span> The Authorized Version (following the Targum) seems to have thought that the youth of the population alone was intended. But, though Ewald also adopts this view, it seems to limit unduly the meaning of the poet. By "tent" we should probably understand "dwelling," as <a href="/jeremiah/4-5.htm">Jeremiah 4:5</a>, and often; <a href="/isaiah/16-5.htm">Isaiah 16:5</a>, "the tent of David;" <a href="/psalms/78-67.htm">Psalm 78:67</a>, "the tent of Joseph." </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-5.htm">Lamentations 2:5</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 5.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Was as an enemy: he hath swallowed,</span> etc. The threefold division of the verse is, unfortunately, concealed in the Authorized Version, owing to the arbitrary stopping. The grouping suggested by the Massoretic text is - <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="accented">"The Lord is become an enemy, he hath swallowed up Israel;<br />He hath swallowed up all her palaces, he hath destroyed all his strongholds;<br />And hath increased in the daughter of Judah moaning and bemoaning."</span> The change of gender in the second line is easily explicable. In the first case the poet is thinking of the city; in the second, of the people of Israel. The rendering "moaning and bemoaning" is designed to reproduce, to some extent, the Hebrew phrase, in which two words, derived from the same root, and almost exactly the same, are placed side by side, to give a more intense expression to the idea. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-6.htm">Lamentations 2:6</a></div><div class="verse">And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as <i>if it were of</i> 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.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 6.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Violently taken away;</span> rather, <span class="accented">violently treated; i.e.</span> broken up. <span class="cmt_word">His tabarnacle;</span> rather, <span class="accented">his booth.</span> "Tent" and "dwelling" are interchangeable expressions (see ver. 4); and in the Psalms "booth" is used as a special poetic synonym for tent when God's earthly dwelling place, the sanctuary of the temple, is spoken of (so <a href="/psalms/27-5.htm">Psalm 27:5</a>; <a href="/psalms/31-20.htm">Psalm 31:20</a>; <a href="/psalms/76-2.htm">Psalm 76:2</a>). The Authorized Version, indeed, presumes an allusion to the proper meaning of the Hebrew word, as if the poet compared the sanctuary of Jehovah to a pleasure booth in a garden. It is, however, more natural to continue, <span class="accented">as a garden</span>, the sense of which will be clear from <a href="/psalms/80-12.htm">Psalm 80:12, 13</a>. The Septuagint has, instead, "as a vine" - a reading which differs from the Massoretic by having one letter more (<span class="accented">kaggefen</span> instead of <span class="accented">kaggan</span>). This ancient reading is adopted by Ewald, and harmonizes well with <a href="/isaiah/5-1.htm">Isaiah 5:1</a>, etc.; <a href="/jeremiah/2-21.htm">Jeremiah 2:21</a> (comp. <a href="/psalms/80-8.htm">Psalm 80:8</a>); but the received text gives a very good sense. "Garden" in the Bible means, of course, a plantation of trees rather than a flower garden. <span class="cmt_word">His places of the assembly;</span> rather, <span class="accented">his place of meeting</span> (<span class="accented">with God</span>). The word occurs in the same sense in <a href="/psalms/74-3.htm">Psalm 74:3</a>. It is the temple which is meant, and the term is borrowed from the famous phrase, <span class="accented">ohel mo'edh</span> (<a href="/exodus/27-21.htm">Exodus 27:21</a>; comp. 25:22). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-7.htm">Lamentations 2:7</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 7.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Her palaces;</span> <span class="accented">i.e.</span> those of the daughter of Zion, especially "high buildings" (this is the true meaning of '<span class="accented">armon</span>) of the temple. <span class="cmt_word">They have made a noise,</span> etc. Comp. <a href="/psalms/74-3.htm">Psalm 74:3</a>, "Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy place of meeting." The passages are parallel, though, whether the calamities referred to are the same in beth, cannot <span class="accented">a priori</span> be determined. The shouts of triumph of the foe are likened to the festal shouts of the temple worshippers (comp. <a href="/isaiah/30-29.htm">Isaiah 30:29</a>; <a href="/amos/5-24.htm">Amos 5:24</a>). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-8.htm">Lamentations 2:8</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 8.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">He hath stretched out a line.</span> It is the "line of desolation" mentioned in Isaiah (Isaiah 34:11; comp. <a href="/amos/7-7.htm">Amos 7:7</a>; <a href="/2_kings/21-13.htm">2 Kings 21:13</a>). Such is the unsparing rigour of Jehovah's judgments. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-9.htm">Lamentations 2:9</a></div><div class="verse">Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes <i>are</i> among the Gentiles: the law <i>is</i> no <i>more</i>; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 9.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Are sunk into the ground;</span> <span class="accented">i.e.</span> are broken down and buried in the dust. <span class="cmt_word">The Law</span> is no more. The observance of the Law being rendered impossible by the destruction of the temple. Comp. this and the next clause with <a href="/ezekiel/7-26.htm">Ezekiel 7:26</a>. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-10.htm">Lamentations 2:10</a></div><div class="verse">The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, <i>and</i> keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 10.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">They have cast up dust,</span> etc. A sign of mourning (<a href="/joshua/7-6.htm">Joshua 7:6</a>; <a href="/2_samuel/13-19.htm">2 Samuel 13:19</a>; <a href="/job/2-12.htm">Job 2:12</a>). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-11.htm">Lamentations 2:11</a></div><div class="verse">Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 11.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">My bowels are troubled</span> (see on Lamentations 1:20). <span class="cmt_word">My liver is poured upon the earth.</span> A violent emotion being supposed to occasion a copious discharge of bile. <span class="cmt_word">The daughter of my people</span>. A poetic expression for Zion or Judah. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-12.htm">Lamentations 2:12</a></div><div class="verse">They say to their mothers, Where <i>is</i> corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 12.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Corn</span>. Either in the sense of parched corn (comp. <a href="/leviticus/23-14.htm">Leviticus 23:14</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/17-17.htm">1 Samuel 17:17</a>; <a href="/proverbs/27-22.htm">Proverbs 27:22</a>) or a poetic expression for "bread" (comp. <a href="/exodus/16-4.htm">Exodus 16:4</a>; Psalm or. 40) </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-13.htm">Lamentations 2:13</a></div><div class="verse">What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach <i>is</i> great like the sea: who can heal thee?</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 13.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">What thing shall I take to witness for thee?</span> rather, <span class="accented">What shall I testify unto thee?</span> The nature, of the testifying may be gathered from the following words. It would be a comfort to Zion to know that her misfortune was not unparalleled: <span class="accented">solamen miseris socios habuisse malorum.</span> The expression is odd, however, and, comparing <a href="/isaiah/40-18.htm">Isaiah 40:18</a>, A. Krochmal has suggested, <span class="accented">What shall I compare</span>? The correction is easy. <span class="cmt_word">Equal</span>; <span class="accented">i.e.</span> compare (comp. <a href="/isaiah/46-5.htm">Isaiah 46:5</a>) </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-14.htm">Lamentations 2:14</a></div><div class="verse">Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 14.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Thy prophets.</span> Jeremiah constantly inveighs against the fallacious, immoral preaching of the great mass of his prophetic contemporaries (comp. <a href="/jeremiah/6-13.htm">Jeremiah 6:13, 14</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/14-13.htm">Jeremiah 14:13-15</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/23-14.htm">Jeremiah 23:14-40</a>). <span class="cmt_word">Have seen vain and foolish things;</span> <span class="accented">i.e.</span> have announced "visions" (prophecies) of an unreal and irrational tenor. Comp. <a href="/jeremiah/23-13.htm">Jeremiah 23:13</a>, where the same word here paraphrased as "irrational" (literally, <span class="accented">insipid</span>) occurs. <span class="cmt_word">Discovered</span>; <span class="accented">i.e.</span> disclosed. <span class="cmt_word">To turn away thy captivity.</span> The Captivity, then, might have been "turned away," if the other prophets had, like Jeremiah, disclosed the true spiritual state of the people, and moved them to repentance. <span class="cmt_word">False burdens.</span> Suggestive references to these false prophecies occur in <a href="/jeremiah/14-13.htm">Jeremiah 14:13, 14</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/23-31.htm">Jeremiah 23:31, 32</a> (see the Exposition on these passages). <span class="cmt_word">Causes of banishment.</span> So Jeremiah (<a href="/jeremiah/27-10.htm">Jeremiah 27:10</a>; comp. 15), "They prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land." </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-15.htm">Lamentations 2:15</a></div><div class="verse">All that pass by clap <i>their</i> hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, <i>saying, Is</i> this the city that <i>men</i> call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 15.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Clap... hiss... wag their heads</span>. Gestures of malicious joy (<a href="/job/27-23.htm">Job 27:23</a>) or contempt (<a href="/jeremiah/19-8.htm">Jeremiah 19:8</a>; <a href="/psalms/22-7.htm">Psalm 22:7</a>). <span class="cmt_word">The perfection of beauty;</span> literally, the <span class="accented">perfect in beauty.</span> The same phrase is used in Ezekiel (Ezekiel 27:3; 28:12) of Tyro, and a similar one in <a href="/psalms/1-2.htm">Psalm 1:2</a> of Zion. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-16.htm">Lamentations 2:16</a></div><div class="verse">All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed <i>her</i> up: certainly this <i>is</i> the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen <i>it</i>.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verses 16, 17.</span> - On the transposition of the initial letters in these verses, see Introduction. <span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 16.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Have opened their mouth against thee.</span> As against the innocent sufferer of <a href="/psalms/22.htm">Psalm 22</a>. (ver. 13). <span class="cmt_word">Gnash the teeth.</span> In token of rage, as <a href="/psalms/35-16.htm">Psalm 35:16</a>; <a href="/psalms/37-12.htm">Psalm 37:12</a>. <span class="cmt_word">We have seen it</span> (comp. <a href="/psalms/35-21.htm">Psalm 35:21</a>). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-17.htm">Lamentations 2:17</a></div><div class="verse">The LORD hath done <i>that</i> which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused <i>thine</i> enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 17.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">His word that he had commanded,</span> etc. "Commanded," <span class="accented">i.e.</span> given in charge to. Comp. <a href="/zechariah/1-6.htm">Zechariah 1:6</a>, My words and my statutes, which I <span class="accented">commanded</span> my servants the prophets." Zechariah continues, in language which illustrates the foregoing words of this verse, "Did they not take hold of [overtake] your fathers;" where the persons spoken of as "your fathers" are the same as those who are represented by the speaker of the elegy. "In the days of old;" alluding, perhaps, to such passages as <a href="/deuteronomy/28-52.htm">Deuteronomy 28:52</a>, etc. <span class="cmt_word">The horn of thine adversaries</span>. "Horn" has a twofold meaning - "strength" or "defence" (comp. ver. 3), and "honour" or "dignity" (comp. <a href="/1_samuel/2-1.htm">1 Samuel 2:1</a>). The figure is too natural to need explanation. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-18.htm">Lamentations 2:18</a></div><div class="verse">Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 18.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Their heart cried unto the Lord,</span> etc. "Their heart" can only mean "the heart of the people of Jerusalem." For the expression, comp. <a href="/psalms/84-2.htm">Psalm 84:2</a>, "My heart and my flesh cry aloud to the living God." To avoid the rather startling prosopopoeia in the next clause, Thenius supposes a corruption in the group of letters rendered "wall," and attaches the corrected word to the first clause, rendering thus: "Their heart crieth unto the Lord in vain; O daughter of Zion, let tears run down," etc. Another resource, which also involves an emendation, is that of Ewald, "Cry with all thy heart, O wall of the daughter of Zion." <span class="cmt_word">O wall,</span> etc. The prosepopoeia is surprising, but is only a degree more striking than that of ver. 8 and <a href="/lamentations/1-4.htm">Lamentations 1:4</a>. In <a href="/isaiah/14-31.htm">Isaiah 14:31</a> we find an equally strong one, "Howl, O gate." Most probably, however, there is something wrong in the text; the following verses seem to refer to the daughter of Zion. Bickell reads thus: "Cry aloud unto the Lord, O virgin daughter of Zion." <span class="cmt_word">Like a river;</span> rather, <span class="accented">like a torrent. <span class="cmt_word"></span>Give thyself no rest.</span> The word rendered "rest" means properly the stiffness produced by cold. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-19.htm">Lamentations 2:19</a></div><div class="verse">Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 19.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">In the beginning of the watches</span>. This would seem to be most naturally explained as referring to the first watch of the night. When most are wrapped in their first and sweetest sleep, the daughter of Zion is to "arise and cry." Others explain, "at the beginning of each of the night watches;" <span class="accented">i.e.</span> all the night through. Previously to the Roman times, the Jews had divided the night into three watches (comp. <a href="/judges/3-19.htm">Judges 3:19</a>). <span class="cmt_word">Pour out thine heart like water;</span> <span class="accented">i.e.</span> give free course to thy complaint, shedding tears meanwhile. The expression is parallel partly to phrases like "I am poured out like water" (<a href="/psalms/22-14.htm">Psalm 22:14</a>), partly to "Pour out your heart before him" (<a href="/psalms/62-8.htm">Psalm 62:8</a>). <span class="cmt_word">In the top of every street;</span> rather, <span class="accented">at every street corner</span> (and so <a href="/lamentations/4-1.htm">Lamentations 4:1</a>). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-20.htm">Lamentations 2:20</a></div><div class="verse">Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, <i>and</i> children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 20.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">To whom thou hast done this;</span> viz. to Israel, the chosen people. And <span class="cmt_word">children</span>; rather, (<span class="accented">even</span>) <span class="accented">children.</span> The children are the "fruit" referred to. Comp. the warnings in <a href="/leviticus/26-26.htm">Leviticus 26:26</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/28-56.htm">Deuteronomy 28:56</a>; and especially <a href="/jeremiah/19-9.htm">Jeremiah 19:9</a>; also the historical incident in <a href="/2_kings/6-28.htm">2 Kings 6:28, 29</a>. <span class="cmt_word">Of a span long;</span> rather, borne in the hands. The word is derived from the verb renders to swaddle" in ver. 22 (see note). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-21.htm">Lamentations 2:21</a></div><div class="verse">The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain <i>them</i> in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, <i>and</i> not pitied.</div><div class="comm"></div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/2-22.htm">Lamentations 2:22</a></div><div class="verse">Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 22.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Thou hast called as in a solemn day.</span> The passage is illustrated by <a href="/lamentations/1-15.htm">Lamentations 1:15</a>, according to which the instruments of Jehovah's vengeance are "summoned" by him to a festival when starting for the holy war. <span class="cmt_word">My terrors round about.</span> Almost identical with one of the characteristic phrases of Jeremiah's prophecies, "fear [or rather, 'terror'] on every side" (see on Jeremiah 6:25). <span class="cmt_word">Have swaddled;</span> rather, have borne <span class="accented">upon the hands</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span> <span class="p"><br /><br /></span> </div></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">The Pulpit Commentary, Electronic Database. 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