Lamentations 2:22

22 You called as in the day of an appointed feast My 1terrors on every side; And there was 2no one who escaped or survived In the day of the LORD'S anger. Those 3whom I bore and reared, My enemy annihilated them.

Lamentations 2:22 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 2:22

Thou hast called, as in a solemn day, my terrors round about,
&c.] Terrible enemies, as the Chaldeans; these came at the call of God, as soldiers at the command of their general; and in as great numbers as men from all parts of Judea flocked to Jerusalem on any of the three solemn feasts of passover, pentecost, and tabernacles. The Targum paraphrases it very foreign to the sense;

``thou shall proclaim liberty to thy people, the house of Israel, by the Messiah, as thou didst by Moses and Aaron on the day of the passover:''
so that in the day of the Lord's anger none escaped or remained;
in the city of Jerusalem, and in the land of Judea; either they were put to death, or were carried captive; so that there was scarce an inhabitant to be found, especially after Gedaliah was slain, and the Jews left in the land were carried into Egypt: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed;
or "whom I could span", as Broughton; or "handled"; whose limbs she had stroked with her hands, whom she had swathed with bands, and had carried in her arms, and had most carefully and tenderly brought up: by those she had "swaddled" are meant the little ones; and by those she had "brought up" the greater ones, as Aben Ezra observes; but both the enemy, the Chaldeans, consumed and destroyed without mercy, without regard to their tender years, or the manner in which they were brought up; but as if they were nourished like lambs for the day of slaughter.

Lamentations 2:22 In-Context

20 See, O LORD , and look! With whom have You dealt thus? Should women eat their offspring, The little ones who were born healthy? Should priest and prophet be slain In the sanctuary of the Lord ?
21 On the ground in the streets Lie young and old; My virgins and my young men Have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of Your anger, You have slaughtered, not sparing.
22 You called as in the day of an appointed feast My terrors on every side; And there was no one who escaped or survived In the day of the LORD'S anger. Those whom I bore and reared, My enemy annihilated them.

Cross References 3

  • 1. Psalms 31:13; Isaiah 24:17; Jeremiah 6:25
  • 2. Jeremiah 11:11
  • 3. Jeremiah 16:2-4; Jeremiah 44:7

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Lit "bore healthy" or, "tenderly cared for"
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