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Chapter 2

The Lord’s Wrath and Zion’s Ruin[a]

How the Lord in his wrath
    has abhorred daughter Zion,
Casting down from heaven to earth
    the glory of Israel,[b]
Not remembering his footstool
    on the day of his wrath!

The Lord has devoured without pity
    all of Jacob’s dwellings;
In his fury he has razed
    daughter Judah’s defenses,
Has brought to the ground in dishonor
    a kingdom and its princes.

In blazing wrath, he cut down entirely
    the horn[c] of Israel;
He withdrew the support of his right hand
    when the enemy approached;
He burned against Jacob like a blazing fire
    that consumes everything in its path.

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Footnotes

  1. 2:1–22 This chapter continues to move between the voice of the poet (vv. 1–20) and that of personified Zion (vv. 20–22). The persona of the poet, first portrayed in chap. 1 as a detached observer recounting both the desolation as well as the sins of the city, becomes in this chapter an advocate for Zion in her appeal to the Lord and never once mentions her sins.
  2. 2:1 The glory of Israel: the Temple. His footstool: the ark of the covenant (1 Chr 28:2; Ps 99:5; 132:7); or again, the Temple (Ez 43:7).
  3. 2:3 Horn: a symbol of power and strength; cf. v. 17; 1 Sm 2:1, 10; Ps 89:18, 25; 92:11; 112:9.

[a]How the Lord has covered Daughter Zion
    with the cloud of his anger[b]!(A)
He has hurled down the splendor of Israel
    from heaven to earth;
he has not remembered his footstool(B)
    in the day of his anger.(C)

Without pity(D) the Lord has swallowed(E) up
    all the dwellings of Jacob;
in his wrath he has torn down
    the strongholds(F) of Daughter Judah.
He has brought her kingdom and its princes
    down to the ground(G) in dishonor.

In fierce anger he has cut off
    every horn[c][d](H) of Israel.
He has withdrawn his right hand(I)
    at the approach of the enemy.
He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
    that consumes everything around it.(J)

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Footnotes

  1. Lamentations 2:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
  2. Lamentations 2:1 Or How the Lord in his anger / has treated Daughter Zion with contempt
  3. Lamentations 2:3 Or off / all the strength; or every king
  4. Lamentations 2:3 Horn here symbolizes strength.