Lamentations 2 Background Information with Maps and Images (Picture Study Bible

Lamentations 2

1 - How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger!He has cast the beauty of Israel down from heaven to the earth,and hasn't remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.

2 - The Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacobwithout pity.He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah.He has brought them down to the ground.He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

3 - He has cut off all the horn of Israel in fierce anger.He has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy.He has burned up Jacob like a flaming fire,which devours all around.

4 - He has bent his bow like an enemy.He has stood with his right hand as an adversary.Has killed all that were pleasant to the eye.In the tent of the daughter of Zion, he has poured out his wrath like fire.

5 - The Lord has become as an enemy.He has swallowed up Israel.He has swallowed up all her palaces.He has destroyed his strongholds.He has multiplied mourning and lamentation in the daughter of Judah.

6 - He has violently taken away his tabernacle,as if it were of a garden.He has destroyed his place of assembly.The LORD has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion.In the indignation of his anger, he has despised the king and the priest.

7 - The Lord has cast off his altar.He has abhorred his sanctuary.He has given the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy.They have made a noise in The LORD's house,as in the day of a solemn assembly.

8 - The LORD has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion.He has stretched out the line.He has not withdrawn his hand from destroying;He has made the rampart and wall lament.They languish together.

9 - Her gates have sunk into the ground.He has destroyed and broken her bars.Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not.Yes, her prophets find no vision from The LORD.

10 - The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground.They keep silence.They have cast up dust on their heads.They have clothed themselves with sackcloth.The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

11 - My eyes fail with tears.My heart is troubled.My liver is poured on the earth,because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city.

12 - They ask their mothers,"Where is grain and wine?"when they swoon as the wounded in the streets of the city,when their soul is poured out into their mothers' bosom.

13 - What shall I testify to you?What shall I liken to you, daughter of Jerusalem?What shall I compare to you,that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion?For your breach is as big as the sea.Who can heal you?

14 - Your prophets have seen false and foolish visions for you.They have not uncovered your iniquity,to reverse your captivity,but have seen for you false revelations and causes of banishment.

15 - All that pass by clap their hands at you.They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying,"Is this the city that men called 'The perfection of beauty,the joy of the whole earth'?"

16 - All your enemies have opened their mouth wide against you.They hiss and gnash their teeth.They say, "We have swallowed her up.Certainly this is the day that we looked for.We have found it.We have seen it."

17 - The LORD has done that which he planned.He has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old.He has thrown down,and has not pitied.He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you.He has exalted the horn of your adversaries.

18 - Their heart cried to the Lord.O wall of the daughter of Zion,let tears run down like a river day and night.Give yourself no relief.Don't let the your eyes rest.

19 - Arise, cry out in the night,at the beginning of the watches!Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children,who faint for hunger at the head of every street.

20 - "Look, The LORD, and see to whom you have done thus!Should the women eat their offspring,the children that they held and bounced on their knees?Should the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 - "The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets.My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword.You have killed them in the day of your anger.You have slaughtered, and not pitied.

22 - "You have called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side.There was no one that escaped or remained in the day of The LORD's anger.My enemy has consumed those whom I have cared for and brought up.

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Lamentations Images and Notes

The Book of Lamentations

Lamentations 2:5 - 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.

Lamentations 5:19-22 - Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation. Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, [and] forsake us so long time? Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.

The Old Testament - A Brief Overview

Bible Survey - Lamentations
Hebrew Name - Eikah "How"
Greek Name - Threnos "Lament"
Author - Jeremiah (According to Tradition)
Date - 588 BC Approximately
Theme - 5 Poetic laments over the destruction of Jerusalem
Types and Shadows - In Lamentations Jesus is the weeping prophet

Summary of The Book of Lamentations

In the Hebrew the word for the name of the book of Lamentations is "Eikah" which means "How." The book of Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah according to Jewish tradition. The book contains five poems that depict the condition of the forsaken city of Jerusalem which had been burnt to the ground and utterly demolished by the Babylonians on the ninth of Av in the Jewish calendar in 586 BC, in contrast to the magnificent splendor that it once possessed. The reason for God's chastisement on the people of Judah and on the city of Jerusalem are spelled out in the form of an appeal made to God to remember the great suffering of his people and to take vengeance upon the conquerors of His city and the people of Judah.

The first four poems are arranged in an acrostic form with each containing 22 verses which correspond with the 22 consonants of the Hebrew alphabet. In chapter 3 each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is allotted 3 of the 66 verses which comprise the poem. Some conclude that the reason for this was because Israel had sinned from beginning to end (A-Z, or in the Hebrew aleph-tav).

Jeremiah, who wrote the lamentations was an eyewitness of the events, and this brought him great sorrow for he knew the people, he knew the city, he knew the children, and he knew the festivities that existed among the people of Judah.

Interesting note: The Jewish translators of the Septuagint (LXX) attribute Jeremiah as the author of the Lamentations, and so do other ancient translations: The Aramaic Targum, the Latin Vulgate, and the Syriac Peshitta, and the Babylonian Talmud.

Outline of the Book of Lamentations

The five lament poems are outlined here:

Lamentations 1 - Jerusalem's desolation is lamented
Lamentations 2 - God's wrath against the city of Jerusalem
Lamentations 3 - God's faithfulness is acknowledged
Lamentations 4 - God's faithfulness is viewed as chastisement
Lamentations 5 - God's faithfulness is worthy of trust

Lamentations Resources

The Divided Kingdom
The Northern Kingdom of Israel
The Southern Kingdom of Judah
The Assyrian Captivity
The Babylonian Captivity
The Return From Babylon
The Prophets
The Messiah

The Book of Lamentations

More About the Book of Lamentations
Lamentations in the Picture Study Bible
Timeline of the Ancient World
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