Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Lamentations 2:21

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 [them] in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, [and] not pitied.

Omit them and and, which weaken the intensity of the passage.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Lam 2:21

The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets.

Unburied

1. When God punisheth a people for sin, He spareth neither age nor sex.

2. It is a sign of Gods anger upon a people, when they want decent burial (Psa 79:3).

3. The wicked will do most barbarous things, when God bridleth them not.

4. As God is full of mercy in His longsuffering, so is His anger unappeasable when it breaketh out. (J. Udall.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

None of what sex or age soever are spared: though the hands of the Chaldeans have done this, yet they have been set on and assisted by thee, and have been but the executioners of thy wrath and displeasure.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

21. (2Ch36:17).

Tau.

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

The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets,…. Young men and old men, virgins and aged women; these promiscuously lay on the ground in the public streets, fainting and dying for want of food; or lay killed there by the sword of the enemy; the Chaldeans sparing neither age nor sex. The Targum interprets it of their sleeping on the ground,

“young men slept on the ground in the villages, and old men who used to lie on pillows of fine wool, and on beds of ivory;”

but the former sense is confirmed by what follows:

my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; by the sword of the Chaldeans, when they entered the city:

thou hast slain [them] in the day of thine anger: thou hast killed,

[and] not pitied; the Chaldeans were only instruments; it was the Lord’s doing; it was according to his will; it was what he had purposed and decreed; what he had solemnly declared and threatened; and now in his providence brought about, for the sins of the Jews, by which he was provoked to anger; and so gave them up into the hands of their enemies, to slay them without mercy; and which is here owned; the church takes notice of the hand of God in all this.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Here he relates in the person of the Church another calamity, that the young and the aged were lying prostrate in the streets; and he joins children to the old men, to shew that there was no difference as to age. Then he says that dead bodies were lying promiscuously in public places. He adds, that virgins and young men had fallen by the sword; by which he confirms the previous clause, for there is nothing new said here, but only the manner is shewn by which they had been slain; for slain by the sword had been the young men and young women without any distinction; the enemies at the same time had not spared the old, while they killed the very flower of the people.

But the Prophet at the same time shews that all this was to be ascribed to God, not. that the Jews might expostulate with him, but that they might cease vainly to lament their calamities, and in order that they might on the contrary turn to God. Hence he does not say that the young and the old had been slain by the enemies, but by God himself. But it was difficult to convince the Jews of this, for they were so filled with rage against their enemies, that they could not turn their thoughts to the consideration of God’s judgments. This, then, is the reason why the Prophet makes God the author of all their calamities; Thou, he says, hast slain in the day of thy wrath; thou hast killed and not spared. And though the people seem here in a manner to contend with God, we must yet bear in mind the design of the Prophet, even to teach the people to look to God himself, so that they might know that they had to do with him. For there ought to be a passing from one truth to another, so that men, conscious of their sins, should first give glory to God, and then humbly deprecate the wrath which they have deserved. It follows at length, —

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(21) The young and the old . . .The thoughts of the mourner turn from the massacre in the sanctuary to the slaughter which did its dread work in every corner of the city.

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

21. Young and old More literally, boy and old man.

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