Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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 strongholds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

5. her palaces his strong holds ] In “her” Jeremiah was thinking of the city, in “his” of the people at large; hence the change in the gender of the pronouns.

mourning and lamentation ] groaning and moaning, or better (as Cheyne) moaning and bemoaning. The original words are substantives from the same root, and occur again (there also in combination) only in Isa 29:2.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Literally, ‘adonay has become as an enemy.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

See Lam 2:2. Several pathetical expressions signifying the same things, properly imitating the dialect of mourners, whose passion suffers them not to speak according to art, but frequently they say the same things over and over.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

5. an enemy (Jer30:14).

mourning andlamentationThere is a play of similar sounds in the original,”sorrow and sadness,” to heighten the effect (Job30:3, Hebrew; Eze 35:3,Margin).

Vau.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

The Lord was as an enemy,…. Who formerly was on their side, their God and guardian, their protector and deliverer, but now against them; and a terrible thing it is to have God for an enemy, or even to be as one; this is repeated, as being exceeding distressing, and even intolerable. Mr. Broughton renders it, “the Lord is become a very enemy”; taking “caph” for a note of reality, and not of similitude;

he hath swallowed up Israel; the ten tribes, or the Jewish nation in general; as a lion, or any other savage beast, swallows its prey, and makes nothing of it, and leaves none behind:

he hath swallowed up all her palaces: the palaces of Zion or Jerusalem; the palaces of the king, princes, nobles, and great men; as an earthquake or inundation swallows up whole streets and cities at once;

[See comments on La 2:2];

he hath destroyed his strong holds: the fortified places of the land of Israel, the towers and castles:

and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation; exceeding great lamentation, for the destruction of its cities, towns, villages, and the inhabitants of them.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Lord has become like an enemy. is not separated from by the accents (Pesik and Mahpak before, and Kadma after); so that there appears to be nothing to justify the remark of Gerlach, that, “as if the prophet were hesitating whether he should state explicitly that the Lord had become an enemy, he breaks off the sentence he had begun, ‘The Lord hath become…,’ and continues, ‘He hath destroyed like a mighty one.’ ” As to , cf. Lam 2:2. “Israel” is the name of Judah viewed as the covenant people. The swallowing or destruction of Israel is explained in the clauses which follow as a destruction of the palaces and fortresses. The mention of the palaces points to the destruction of Jerusalem, while the “fortresses” similarly indicate the destruction of the strong cities in the country. The interchange of the suffixes and is accounted for on the ground that, when the writer was thinking of the citadels, the city hovered before his mind; and when he regarded the fortresses, the people of Israel similarly presented themselves. The same interchange is found in Hos 8:14; the assumption of a textual error, therefore, together with the conjectures based on that assumption, is shown to be untenable. On the expression, “He hath destroyed his strongholds,” cf. Jer 47:1-7:18; on , Isa 29:2: in this latter case, two word-forms derived from the same stem are combined for the sake of emphasis. “Daughter of Judah,” as in Lam 2:2, cf. Lam 1:15.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

These words might seem superfluous, since the Prophet has often repeated, that God was become an enemy to his own people; but we shall hereafter see, that though they were extremely afflicted, they yet did not rightly consider whence their calamity arose. As, then, they had become so stupified by their evils, that they did not turn their eyes to God, they were on this account often urged and stimulated, that they might at length understand by their evils that God was a judge. Now, as it was difficult to convince them of this truth, the Prophet did not think it enough briefly to touch on it, but found it necessary to dwell on it at large, so that the people might at length be roused from their insensibility.

He then says that God himself was to them as an enemy, lest the Israelites should fix their eyes on the Chaldeans, and thus think that they had been the chief movers of the war. He therefore says, that they had undertaken that war through the secret influence of God, and had carried it on successfully, because God endued them with his own power. And hence the faithful ought to have concluded, that nothing could have been more grievous than to have God as their adversary; for as long as they had suffered themselves to be defended by the hand of God, they were victorious, we know, over all their enemies, so that they could then brave all dangers with impunity. The Prophet now reminds them, that as they had been successful and prosperous under the defense and protection of God, so now they were miserable, for no other reason but that God fought against them. But we ought at the same time to bear in mind the truth, which we have noticed, that God is never angry with men without reason; and since he was especially inclined to shew favor to his people, we must understand that he would not have been thus indignant, had not necessity constrained him.

He has destroyed Israel, he says; he has destroyed all his palaces; and afterwards, he has dissipated or demolished all his fortresses; and finally, he has increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation; תאניה ואניה tanie veanie, words derived from the same root, but joined together for the sake of amplifying, not only in this place, but also in the twenty-ninth chapter of Isaiah, and in other places. The meaning is, that God had not put an end to his vengeance, because the people had not resolved to put an end to their obstinate wickedness. He afterwards adds, —

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(5) Her palaces: . . . his strong holds . . .The change of gender is remarkable, probably rising from the fact that the writer thought of the palaces in connection with the daughters of Zion, and of the strong holds in connection with the land or people. A like combination is found in Hos. 8:14.

Mourning and lamentation.The two Hebrew nouns are formed from the same root, and have an assonance like the sorrow and sighing of Isa. 35:10.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

5. Her palaces his strongholds The change of gender here is explained by Keil by the fact that when the “palaces,” or, more correctly, citadels, are mentioned, the city is in the mind of the writer, but when the “strongholds” are mentioned he was thinking of the whole country, Judah.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Lam 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.

Ver. 5. The Lord was an enemy. ] This the secure and foolish people would not be drawn to believe, till now they felt it; therefore it is so reiterated.

He hath swallowed up Israel, he hath destroyed, &c. ] This he had said before, Lam 2:2 but in cases of this kind people love to say the same things over and over. Redundanti copia exponit quae antea dixerat.

And hath increased mourning and lamentation.] Heb., Lamentation and lamentation – q.d., this is all he hath left us. And this she speaketh mourning, but not murmuring: Non litem intendit Deo, sed confessionem edit.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)