20“Look, Yahweh, 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 Yahweh’s anger. My enemy has consumed those whom I have cared for and brought up.
20 “Look, Yahweh, 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 Yahweh’s anger. My enemy has consumed those whom I have cared for and brought up.
KJVKing James Version
20 Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
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.
22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD’s anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
20 'See, O LORD, and consider, to whom Thou hast done thus! Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain 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 are fallen by the sword; Thou hast slain them in the day of Thine anger; Thou hast slaughtered unsparingly.
22 Thou hast called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side, and there was none in the day of the LORD'S anger that escaped or remained; those that I have dandled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.'
2 Chronicles 36:17(v21)Therefore he brought on them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had…
Psalms 31:13(v22)For I have heard the slander of many, terror on every side, while they conspire together against me, they plot to take away my life.
Jeremiah 6:25(v22)Don’t go out into the field or walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and terror are on every side.
Jeremiah 19:9(v20)I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters. They will each eat the flesh of his friend in the siege…
Lamentations 4:10(v20)The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children. They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Show all 56 cross-references
Zechariah 11:6(v21)For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land,” says Yahweh; “but, behold, I will deliver the men everyone into his neighbor’s hand,…
Psalms 78:64(v20)Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn’t weep.
Jeremiah 13:14(v21)I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together,” says Yahweh: “I will not pity, spare, or have compassion,…
Lamentations 3:43(v21)“You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied.
Exodus 32:11(v20)Moses begged Yahweh his God, and said, “Yahweh, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought out of the land of…
Deuteronomy 9:26(v20)I prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Lord Yahweh, don’t destroy your people and your inheritance that you have redeemed through your greatness,…
Isaiah 24:17-18(v22)Fear, the pit, and the snare, are on you who inhabit the earth. It will happen that he who flees from the noise of the fear will fall into…
Jeremiah 16:2-4(v22)“You shall not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters, in this place.” For Yahweh says concerning the sons and concerning…
Jeremiah 18:21(v21)Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives become childless and…
Jeremiah 20:3(v22)On the next day, Pashhur released Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “Yahweh has not called your name Pashhur, but…
Lamentations 1:15(v21)“The Lord has set at nothing all my mighty men within me. He has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord has…
Lamentations 2:2(v21)The Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob without pity. He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of…
Lamentations 2:17(v21)Yahweh 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…
Lamentations 4:13(v20)It is because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, That have shed the blood of the just in the middle of her.
Ezekiel 9:5-6(vv20–21)To the others he said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him, and strike. Don’t let your eye spare, neither have pity. Kill utterly…
Leviticus 26:29(v20)You will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters.
Deuteronomy 28:18(v22)The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock will be cursed.
Deuteronomy 28:50(v21)a nation of fierce facial expressions, that doesn’t respect the elderly, nor show favor to the young.
Deuteronomy 28:53-57(v20)You will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom Yahweh your God has given you, in the siege and…
Joshua 6:21(v21)They utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, both young and old, and ox, sheep, and donkey, with the edge of the…
1 Samuel 15:3(v21)Now go and strike Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and don’t spare them; but kill both man and woman, infant and nursing…
2 Kings 6:28-29(v20)The king said to her, “What is your problem?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will…
Esther 3:13(v21)Letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old,…
Psalms 78:62-63(v21)He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance. Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding…
Isaiah 9:14-17(v20)Therefore Yahweh will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed, in one day. The elder and the honorable man is the head, and…
Isaiah 27:11(v21)When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding.…
Isaiah 63:16-19(v20)For you are our Father, though Abraham doesn’t know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, Yahweh, are our Father. Our Redeemer from…
Isaiah 64:8-12(v20)But now, Yahweh, you are our Father. We are the clay and you our potter. We all are the work of your hand. Don’t be furious, Yahweh. Don’t…
Jeremiah 5:31(v20)The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end…
Jeremiah 6:11(v21)Therefore I am full of Yahweh’s wrath. I am weary with holding it in. “Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the assembly of…
Jeremiah 9:21(v21)For death has come up into our windows. It has entered into our palaces to cut off the children from outside, and the young men from the…
Jeremiah 11:22(v21)therefore Yahweh of Armies says, ‘Behold, I will punish them. The young men will die by the sword. Their sons and their daughters will die…
Jeremiah 14:15-18(v20)Therefore Yahweh says concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, but I didn’t send them, yet they say, ‘Sword and famine will not be…
Jeremiah 14:20-21(v20)We acknowledge, Yahweh, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against you. Do not abhor us, for your name’s…
Jeremiah 21:7(v21)Afterward,” says Yahweh, “I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants, and the people, even those who are left in this city from…
Jeremiah 23:11-15(v20)for both prophet and priest are profane. Yes, in my house I have found their wickedness,” says Yahweh. Therefore their way will be to them…
Jeremiah 46:5(v22)Why have I seen it? They are dismayed and are turned backward. Their mighty ones are beaten down, have fled in haste, and don’t look back.…
Jeremiah 51:22(v21)With you I will break in pieces the chariot and him who rides therein. With you I will break in pieces man and woman. With you I will break…
Lamentations 1:18(v21)“Yahweh is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment. Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My virgins and my young…
Lamentations 1:19(v20)“I called for my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city, while they sought food for…
Lamentations 4:16(v20)Yahweh’s anger has scattered them. He will not pay attention to them any more. They didn’t respect the persons of the priests. They didn’t…
Ezekiel 5:10(v20)Therefore the fathers will eat the sons within you, and the sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you; and I will…
Ezekiel 5:11(v21)Therefore as I live,’ says the Lord Yahweh, ‘surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all…
Ezekiel 7:4(v21)My eye will not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will bring your ways on you, and your abominations will be among you. Then you…
Ezekiel 7:9(v21)My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. I will punish you according to your ways. Your abominations will be among you. Then you will…
Ezekiel 8:18(v21)Therefore I will also deal in wrath. My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will…
Ezekiel 9:10(v21)As for me also, my eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way on their head.”
Hosea 9:12-16(v22)Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them, so that not a man shall be left. Indeed, woe also to them when I depart from…
Amos 4:10(v21)“I sent plagues among you like I did Egypt. I have slain your young men with the sword, and have carried away your horses; and I filled…
Amos 9:1-4(v22)I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said, “Strike the tops of the pillars, that the thresholds may shake; and break them in…
Luke 23:29-30(v22)For behold, the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never…
56 distinct cross-references across this passage (57 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (19 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv20–22Here, also, Jeremiah dictates words, or a form of…
Here, also, Jeremiah dictates words, or a form of prayer to the Jews. And this complaint availed to excite pity, that God had thus afflicted, not strangers, but the people whom he had adopted. Interpreters do, indeed, give another explanation, “See, Jehovah, To whom hast thou done this?” that is, Has any people been ever so severely afflicted? But I do not think that the comparison is made here, which they seek to make, but that the people only set before God the covenant which he had made with their fathers, as though they said, “O Lord, hadst thou thus cruelly raged against strangers, there would have been nothing so wonderful; but since we are thine heritage, and the blessed seed of Abraham, since thou hast been pleased to choose us as thy peculiar people, what can this mean, that, thou treatest us with so much severity?”
We now, then, perceive the real meaning of the Prophet, when, in the person of the people, he speaks thus, See, and look on, Jehovah, to whom thou hast done this; for thou hast had to do with thy children: not that the Jews could allege any worthiness; but the gratuitous election of God must have been abundantly sufficient to draw forth mercy. Nor do the faithful here simply ask God to see, but they add another word, Look on. By the two words they more fully express the indignity of what had happened, as though they said, that it was like a prodigy that God’s people should be so severely afflicted, who had been chosen by him: see, then, to whom thou hast done this
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And this mode of praying was very common, as we find it said in the Psalms,
“Pour forth thy wrath on the nations which know not thee, and on the kingdoms which call not on thy name.” (Psalm 79:6.)
And a similar passage we have before observed in our Prophet. (Jeremiah 10:25.) The sum of what is said is, that there was a just reason why God should turn to mercy, and be thus reconciled to his people, because he had not to do with aliens, but with his own family, whom he had been pleased to adopt. But the rest I shall defer until tomorrow.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv20, 22Or, brought up in their own hands.
Or, brought up in their own hands.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv20–22Lam 2:20 Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom…
Lam 2:20 Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, [and] children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
Ver. 20. Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this.] Even to thine own inheritances, who suffer harder and heavier things commonly than any others. And why? Ingentia beneficia, ingentia flagitia, ingentia supplicia; their offences are increased, their punishments are aggravated by their obligations.
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Shall the women eat their fruit, children of a span long?] That they did so in the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldees, it appeareth by this question. In the famine of Samaria, under Joram, they did likewise; {2Ki 6:28-29} as also at the last destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans; {a} and at the siege of Sancerra, in France, A.D. 1572. See the sad effects of sin, and shun it, if but for the ill consequents of it.
Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?] It seems they were so - but who they were we read not - although God had cautioned, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." Priests were slaughtered, where they used to slaughter beasts for sacrifices; but it may be they were nothing better than Thomas Becket, the devil’s martyr, here, and Adam Benton, that butcherly archbishop in Scotland, who, when himself was butchered, cried out, Kill me not, for I am a priest. {b}
{a} Joseph. de Bel., lib. vii. cap. 8.
{b} Acts and Mon.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv20–22Consider to whom thou hast done this; that is,…
Consider to whom thou hast done this; that is, not to heathen, who never owned thee, nor were called by thy name, but to thine own people, called thy portion and thine heritage; let thy former relation to us, and our former acknowledgments of thee, prevail with thee. Wilt thou suffer, or should such a thing be, as for women to satisfy their hunger with the fruit of their own bodies, and that when they are very young? And shall thy ministers be slain, and that in thy sanctuary? Any human blood polluted it; shall not the blood of those that were the ministers of God be judged a pollution and profanation of it?
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv20–22Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast…
Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this,.... On whom thou hast brought these calamities of famine and sword; not upon thine enemies, but upon thine own people, that are called by thy name, and upon theirs, their young ones, who had not sinned as their fathers had: here the church does not charge God with any injustice, or complain of hard usage; only humbly entreats he would look upon her, in her misery, with an eye of pity and compassion; and consider her sorrowful condition; and remember the relation she stood in to him; and so submits her case, and leaves it with him. These words seem to be suggested to the church by the prophet, as what might be proper for her to use, when praying for the life of her young children; and might be introduced by supplying the word "saying" before "behold, O Lord", &c.
shall the women eat their fruit; their children, the fruit of their womb, as the Targum; their newborn babes, that hung at their breasts, and were carried in their arms; it seems they did, as was threatened they should, Lev 26:29; and so they did at the siege of Samaria, and at the siege of Jerusalem, both by the Chaldeans and the Romans:
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and children of a span long? or of a hand's breadth; the breadth of the palms of the hand, denoting very little ones: or "children handled", or "swaddled with the hands" (c); of their parents, who are used to stroke the limbs of their babes, to bring them to; and keep them in right form and shape, and swaddle them with swaddling bands in a proper manner; see Lam 2:22; and so the Targum,
"desirable children, who are wrapped in fine linen.''
Jarchi (d) interprets it of Doeg Ben Joseph, whom his mother slew, and ate:
shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? as very probably some were, who fled thither for safety when the city was broken up; but were not spared by the merciless Chaldeans, who had no regard to their office and character; nor is it any wonder they should not, when the Jews themselves slew Zechariah, a priest and prophet, between the porch and the altar; of whom the Targum here makes mention; and to whom Jarchi applies these words.
(c) "parvulos qui educantur", Pagninus; "parvulos educationum", Montanus; "educationis", Calvin; "infantes palmationum, sive tractationis palmarum", Michaelis; "pueros palmis tractatos", Cocceius. (d) E Talmud Bab. Yoma, fol. 38. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv20, 22Whom - Not the Heathen, but to thy own…
Whom - Not the Heathen, but to thy own people. Women - Wilt thou suffer women to satisfy their hunger with the fruit of their own bodies?
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv20, 22Verse 20. Consider to whom thou hast done this]…
Verse 20. Consider to whom thou hast done this] Perhaps the best sense of this difficult verse is this: "Thou art our Father, we are thy children; wilt thou destroy thy own offspring? Was it ever heard that a mother devoured her own child, a helpless infant of a span long?" That it was foretold that there should be such distress in the siege, - that mothers should be obliged to eat their own children, is evident enough from Le 26:29; De 28:53; De 28:56-57; but the former view of the subject seems the most natural and is best supported by the context. The priest and the prophet are slain; the young and old lie on the ground in the streets; the virgins and young men are fallen by the sword. "THOU hast slain them in the day of thine anger; THOU hast killed, and not pitied." See La 4:10.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v20Lam 2:20-22. Behold, O Lord, to whom thou hast…
Lam 2:20-22. Behold, O Lord, to whom thou hast done this — To thy people, for whom thou hast formerly expressed so much tenderness and affection. Jerusalem seems to be here introduced speaking. Shall the women eat their fruit — We find by comparing this verse with chap. Lam 4:10, that God brought upon them that terrible judgment which he had denounced against them, if they continued to provoke him, namely, that they should eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters. See the margin. And children of a span long — Hebrew, שׂפחים, rendered in the margin, swaddled with their hands, and by the LXX., νηπια θηλαζοντα μαστους, infants sucking the breasts. Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? — Shall thy ministers be slain, and that in thy sanctuary? We learn from this, 1st, That the Chaldeans spared no character, no, not the most distinguished; even the priest and the prophet, who, of all men, one would think, might have expected protection from heaven, and veneration on earth, yet they were slain; not abroad in the field of battle, where they would have been out of their place, as Hophni and Phinehas were, but in the sanctuary of the Lord, the place of their business, and which they hoped would have been a refuge to them. 2d, They spared no age, no, not those who, by reason of their tender or decrepit age, were exempted from taking up the sword; for the young and the old lay on the ground slain in the streets. 3d, They spared no sex, the virgins and the young men fell by the sword. In the most barbarous military executions that we read of, the virgins were spared and made part of the spoil, but here they were put to the sword as well as the young men. We learn, 4th, That this was the Lord’s doing; he suffered the sword of the Chaldeans to devour thus without distinction; he slew them in the day of his anger — Namely, his anger for their many and aggravated sins. Thou hast called, as in a solemn day — A day of awful retribution; my terrors round about — As my people were wont to be called together from all parts on solemn days, when they were to meet at Jerusalem for thy service; so now, by thy providence, my terrible enemies are by thee called together to slay thy people in that holy city in which they were wont to worship thee. So that none escaped nor remained — That is, few or none. Those that I have swaddled, and brought up, hath mine enemy consumed — As if they had been brought forth for the murderer, like lambs for the butcher, Hos 9:13. Zion, that was a mother to them all, laments to see those that were brought up in her courts, and under the tuition of her oracles, thus made a prey of and destroyed.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv20–22The sense is: “See, Yahweh, and look! whom hast…
The sense is: “See, Yahweh, and look! whom hast Thou treated thus? Shall women eat their fruit - children whom they must still carry?” the swaddled child being one still needing to be nursed and borne in their arms.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv20–22Dealt. Literally, "gathered grapes," chap. i. 12. (Haydock) ---…
Dealt. Literally, "gathered grapes," chap. i. 12. (Haydock) --- Long; quite small, Psalm xxxviii. 9. This has been denounced, chap. xix. 9., and Deuteronomy xxviii. 53. (Calmet) It took place at Samaria, and in the last siege of Jerusalem, (Josephus, Jewish Wars vii., and viii.; Worthington) as well as at this time. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv20–22women eat . . . fruit--as threatened (Lev 26:29;…
women eat . . . fruit--as threatened (Lev 26:29; Deu 28:53, Deu 28:56-57; Jer 19:9).
children . . . span long--or else, "children whom they carry in their arms" [MAURER].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv20–22THE PRAYER, Lam_2:20-22.
THE PRAYER, Lam_2:20-22.
20. Behold, O Lord, etc. — The prayer of the prophet. The fearful picture has been seen, the cries of distress and agony have been heard, and the prophet weaves out of them an argument of prayer.
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To whom thou hast done this — An appeal to that covenant upon which their very existence was based.
Their fruit — That is, the fruit of their body.
Children of a span long — Children of their tender care; the word being from a verb, שׂפח, which means to care for tenderly.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv20, 2220. Here begins the prayer made in response to…
20. Here begins the prayer made in response to the prophet’s exhortation. The questions are rhetorical and mean (although the verbs are in the future), Wilt thou look with unconcern at the things which have been done? For the state of things (foretold Jer_19:9; Deu_28:53) cp. 2Ki_6:25-30.
behold, to whom thou hast done thus] viz. Thy chosen ones of old.
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that are dandled in the hands] The thought of maternal tenderness in the forms in which it would ordinarily be displayed towards children of that age heightens the effect of the picture.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv20–22(20) To whom thou hast done this—i.e., not to…
(20) To whom thou hast done this—i.e., not to a heathen nation, but to the people whom Jehovah Himself had chosen.
Shall the women eat their fruit.—Atrocities of this nature had been predicted in Lev_26:26; Deu_28:57; Jer_19:9. They were, indeed, the natural incidents of a besieged city reduced to starvation, as in the case of Samaria (2Ki_6:28), and the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans (Jos., B. J. v. 12), and had been witnessed, as the words show, in that by the Chaldæans. (Comp., as to the famine, Eze_4:16-17; Eze_5:16.)
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Shall the priest . . .—Stress is laid on this as being the next element of horror. The very Holy of Holies was profaned with the blood of the priests and prophets of Jehovah.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv20, 22To whom thou hast done this; viz. to Israel,…
To whom thou hast done this; viz. to Israel, the chosen people. And children; rather, (even) children. The children are the "fruit" referred to. Comp. the warnings in Lev_26:26 Deu_28:56; and especially Jer_19:9; also the historical incident in 2Ki_6:28, 2Ki_6:29. Of a span long; rather, borne in the hands. The word is derived from the verb renders to swaddle" in ver. 22 (see note).
Consideration besought.
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How truly human is this language! How real was the eternal Lord to him who could shape his entreaty thus! As if to urge a plea for pity, the prophet implores him who has been offended by the nation"s sins, who has suffered the nation"s misery and apparent ruin, to consider; to remember who Judah is, and to have mercy.
I THE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT CALL FOR CONSIDERATION.
1. Famine and the inhuman conduct to which famine sometimes leads.
2. Death by the sword,
3. The privation of those religious offices which are the centre and inspiration of the nation"s life.
4. The common suffering of all classes; prophet and priest, children and old men, virgins and youth, are alike overtaken by want, by wounds, by death.
II THE GROUNDS UPON WHICH CONSIDERATION IS BEGGED FOR.
1. The main appeal is to Divine pity and benevolence.
2. The former mercies shown to Judah seem to be brought implicitly forward in this language. Israel has been chosen by God himself, favoured with privileges, delivered, protected, and blessed in a thousand ways. Will God cast off those in whom he has taken an interest so deep, for whom he has done so great things?
III THE HOPE WITH WHICH CONSIDERATION IS ASKED. Hitherto the regard of God in recent events has been a regard of displeasure and of censure. But if the attitude of the stricken be no longer one of defiance, but of submission, it may be that the Lord will turn him again, will be favourable unto his afflicted people, will restore them to former prosperity, enriched with the precious lessons of their adverse experience. T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv20–22Behold, O Ford, and consider to whom Thou hast…
Lam_2:20
Behold, O Ford, and consider to whom Thou hast done this.
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Fervent prayer
1. The only way of remedy in our greatest miseries is to call upon God in fervent prayer.
(1) It declareth that we are humbled and our pride broken, in confessing no power to be in ourselves, and seeking help elsewhere.
(2) He is of greatest power, and none else can help us.
(3) He will have all the glory of our deliverance (Psa_50:15).
2. By this vehement kind of speech we learn that in right prayer to God the frame of our words must be according to our affection.
3. The chief reason to move the Lord to pity us is the remembrance of His covenant of mercy in Christ.
4. Gods wrath overturneth the course of nature in those against whom it is bent.
5. There is sufficient cause and matter in all the infants of Gods people, why God should in His justice destroy them (Psa_51:5).
6. Cruelty exercised by the hands of the wicked upon children and ministers is a special means to move God to hear us when we pray for them.
7. There is no privilege of peace that can free us from punishment when we sin against the Lord. (J. Udall.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v20(ר) Lam_2:20. The prayer is put into words correspondent…
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—
(ר) Lam_2:20. The prayer is put into words correspondent with the circumstances. See, Jehovah, and behold to whom thou hast done this, to the city called thine, to the people whom thou hast chosen to be a name and praise to thee. How shocking are the consequences! See if women eat their fruit, the children whom they carried. The last word relates to that which is spread—as infants on the knees or arms. The Revised Version translates it dandled in the hands, which, if expressing the idea, is too special. The awful incident was a punishment threatened (Deu_28:56-57; Jer_19:9). See if there are slain in the sanctuary of the Lord priest and prophet. His own holy place defiled with blood. If such spectacles were common, as they were, will God not stay His hand?
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(ש) Lam_2:21. From the massacre in the Temple to the general slaughter of all ages and both sexes is another step in the dismal recital. The youth and the old man … my virgins and choice young men, were killed. It was clear that they had to bear the anger of Jehovah—that He was not only full of compassion, but in righteousness he doth judge and make war upon evil.
(ח) Lam_2:22. Thou hast called as in a day of solemn assembly, summoning, as by trumpet, all kinds of terrifying agencies—men, famine, fire, sword—my terrors on every side, and there was none that escaped or remained in the day of Jehovah’s anger. Then, in motherly anguish, she laments again over the children she had carried and brought up, whom the enemy had cruelly consumed. So “the poem concludes, like the first, with deep sorrow, regarding which all attempts at comfort are quite unavailing.”
HOMILETICS
A PRAYER FOR DIVINE COMPASSION
(Lam_2:20-22)
I. Reminding Jehovah of His former favour to the sufferers. “Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom Thou hast done this” (Lam_2:20). The prophet seems to feel that if God would only look and recall to mind who they were who were suffering, He would surely have pity. They are not the heathen, but His own people, the seed of Abraham, whom He raised from obscurity and endowed with unexampled blessings. Their present misery was all the more painful to endure when contrasted with their former affluence and power, and would surely move the compassion of Him who had so often interposed on their behalf. It is a great help in prayer to remind God of His former loving-kindness. Every blessing we receive from God increases His interest in our welfare. Every act of disobedience is a sin against Infinite Love.
II. Uttered from the midst of appalling distress (Lam_2:20-21). In these verses we have a vivid description of the suffering and desolation occasioned by the siege. In the extreme exigencies of famine the most horrible cannibalism was practised: the pangs of hunger devoured maternal affection, and mothers devoured their newly-born infants. Even this had been predicted as the fruit of disobedience (Deu_28:53). How little do we appreciate the great goodness of God in providing daily food for ourselves and our children! Everywhere in the city were visible the most ghastly scenes of indiscriminate massacre—“priest and prophet, young and old, virgins and young men,” lay in promiscuous heaps of the slain. If prayer can reach heaven, it must surely be when ascending from the midst of anguish like this. The greater the distress we are in, the more urgent and importunate should be our prayers.
III. Wrung from a people terrified with startling proofs of the Divine anger. “Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lord’s anger none escaped or remained” (Lam_2:22). Jeremiah had often threatened the terrors of God’s wrath in the destruction of the nation, if the people persisted in idolatry; but they heeded not. They made jests of his warnings, and their earnest repetition only increased their ridicule. But when they saw Jerusalem hemmed round by the victorious Chaldeans and the utter ruin that followed, they then saw the portentous meaning of “the terrors” that had been so often threatened and so recklessly despised. The anger of the Lord became to them a solemn reality, and, overwhelmed with confusion and fear, they cry for help. Whatever impels the soul to pray is a blessing. The beginning of prayer may rise from our fears; but as we persevere, it will be actuated by nobler motives. All that prayer can do is to bring our case before God. We must then leave it there with Him, and say, “Thy will be done.”
LESSONS.—
1. The final appeal of the helpless is to God.
2. When distress induces prayer, deliverance is at hand.
3. Jehovah is graciously moved to help by human entreaty.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Lam_2:20. “Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom Thou hast done this.” The Divine pity:
1. Earnestly implored by a suffering people.
2. Invoked on the ground of former kindnesses, which, it is acknowledged, have been abused.
3. Is never appealed to in vain.
Lam_2:22. The tyranny of fear:
1. Realised when beset by a powerful enemy.
2. When the enemy is summoned and directed by One whom we have consciously offended.
3. When we are witnesses of cruelties we are powerless to prevent.
ILLUSTRATIONS.—Prayer. It is helplessness casting itself on power. It is infirmity leaning on strength, and misery wooing bliss. It is the flight of the soul to the bosom of God, and the spirit soaring upward and claiming nativity beyond the stars. It is the soaring eagle mounting upward in its flight, and with steady gaze pursuing the track till lost to all below. It is the roving wanderer looking towards his abiding-place, where are all his treasures and his gold. It is the prisoner pleading for release. It is the mariner of a dangerous sea, upon the reeling topmast, descrying the broad and quiet haven of repose. It is the soul, oppressed by earthly soarings, escaping to a broader and purer sphere, and bathing its plumes in the ethereal and eternal.—Wells.
Yearning for God.—When my blood flows like wine, when all is ease and prosperity, when the sky is blue and birds sing and flowers blossom, and my life is an anthem moving in time and tune, then this world’s joy and affection suffice. But when a change comes, when I am weary and disappointed, when the skies lower into a sombre night, when there is no song of bird, and the perfume of flowers is but their dying breath, when all is sun-setting and autumn, then I yearn for Him who sits with the summer of love in His soul, and feel that all earthly affection is but a glow-worm light compared to that which blazes with such effulgence in the heart of God.—Beecher.
Divine compassion. We often suffer more on account of other’s troubles than they themselves do in those troubles, for both love and sorrow take their measure as much from the capacity of the nature that experiences them as from the power of the externally exciting cause. How much one suffers with or for another does not depend altogether upon how much that other is suffering, but upon how much that nature which sympathises has with which to suffer. God feels with us, so that our experiences throw their waves upon the shore of His soul. He carries us so near to His heart that all our feelings which are of any moment produce their effects in some degree in His bosom. It seems very strange that the Maker of all the earth should permit Himself to be a participant in all the petty experiences that belong to any human life. No man would have dared to conceive such an idea of God, and to have believed any such thing as that, if it had not been revealed in unequivocal terms.
The compassion of Jesus. Luther said, “I would run into the arms of Christ if He stood with a drawn sword in His hands.” John Butterworth, reading this, resolved to do likewise, and found, as every venturing sinner does, no sword in the hands of Jesus, but open arms and a hearty welcome. Christ’s proclamation, for ever sounding forth to every burdened heart, is “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He demonstrated His marvellous compassion by dying for us. He will not now repulse the approach or disregard the cry of the needy.
The influence of fear. There is a virtuous fear, which is the effect of faith; and there is a vicious fear, which is the product of doubt. The former leads to hope, as relying on God, in whom we believe; the latter inclines to despair, as not relying on God, in whom we do not believe. Persons of the one character fear to lose God; persons of the other character fear to find Him.—Pascal.
Slavish and filial fear. There are two kinds of fear—one full of suspicious watchfulness, of anxious apprehension, of trepidation, terror, and dismay; the other such as can dwell in the same heart with confidence and love, and is but another form of reverence. Filial fear of God is a duty; slavish and servile dread of Him is a sin. Filial fear shrinks from sin; servile fear only from the smart of punishment. Filial fear keeps men from departing from the living God, servile fear drives them from Him. By filial fear men are made like the man Christ Jesus; by servile fear they may be scared from iniquity, as the wolf from the sheepfold by the shepherd’s gun; but it does no more to make them holy than the fright does to destroy the wolf’s ferocity. Filial fear animates us to avoid whatever would be offensive to our Heavenly Father, and, if the expression may be allowed, to consult His feelings and desires; but servile fear, as it springs from selfishness, causes us only to care for ourselves, and at best makes us not better, but only a little more prudent than the devil.—Bertram.
The greatest fear. When a city is compassed round about with a wall that is impregnable, it will be opened still towards heaven, and therefore cannot be out of danger if God be an enemy. For all their walls and bars, God could rain fire and brimstone upon the Sodomites out of heaven. Alexander asked the Scythians what they were most afraid of, thinking they would say of himself, who was so victorious everywhere. But they answered scoffingly they were most afraid lest heaven should fall upon them. We, indeed, need not fear anything but this only, lest the heaven should fall upon us, lest God should be our enemy.—J. Stoughton.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv20–21Should women eat the fruit of their wombs ...…
Should women eat the fruit of their wombs ... for?
This rhetorical question is asked to emphasize that it is not right for women to eat their children. This question can be written as a statement. AT: "Woman should not eat their own children ... for!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
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the fruit of their wombs
This speaks of children having come from their mother as if they were fruit that came from her womb. AT: "their children that they have given birth to" or "their own children" (See: Metaphor)
Should priest and prophet be slaughtered in the sanctuary of the Lord?
This rhetorical question is used to emphasize that the prophets and priests should not be killed. This question can be written as a statement. AT: "The prophets and priests should not be slaughtered in the sanctuary of the Lord!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
Should priest and prophet be slaughtered
This can be stated in active form. AT: "Should our enemies slaughter priests and prophets" (See: Active or Passive)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv20, 222:20 Jeremiah had predicted that the same cannibalism that…
2:20 Jeremiah had predicted that the same cannibalism that occurred during a siege of Samaria (2 Kgs 6:28-29) would happen in Jerusalem (Jer 19:9; see also Lam 4:10; Ezek 5:10; cp. Deut 28:53-57).
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv20–22 Here, also, Jeremiah dictates words, or a form of…
Here, also, Jeremiah dictates words, or a form of prayer to the Jews. And this complaint availed to excite pity, that God had thus afflicted, not strangers, but the people whom he had adopted. Interpreters do, indeed, give another explanation, “See, Jehovah, To whom hast thou done this?” that is, Has any people been ever so severely afflicted? But I do not think that the comparison is made here, which they seek to make, but that the people only set before God the covenant which he had made with their fathers, as though they said, “O Lord, hadst thou thus cruelly raged against strangers, there would have been nothing so wonderful; but since we are thine heritage, and the blessed seed of Abraham, since thou hast been pleased to choose us as thy peculiar people, what can this mean, that, thou treatest us with so much severity?”
We now, then, perceive the real meaning of the Prophet, when, in the person of the people, he speaks thus, See, and look on, Jehovah, to whom thou hast done this; for thou hast had to do with thy children: not that the Jews could allege any worthiness; but the gratuitous election of God must have been abundantly sufficient to draw forth mercy. Nor do the faithful here simply ask God to see, but they add another word, Look on. By the two words they more fully express the indignity of what had happened, as though they said, that it was like a prodigy that God’s people should be so severely afflicted, who had been chosen by him: see, then, to whom thou hast done this
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And this mode of praying was very common, as we find it said in the Psalms,
“Pour forth thy wrath on the nations which know not thee, and on the kingdoms which call not on thy name.” (Psalm 79:6.)
And a similar passage we have before observed in our Prophet. (Jeremiah 10:25.) The sum of what is said is, that there was a just reason why God should turn to mercy, and be thus reconciled to his people, because he had not to do with aliens, but with his own family, whom he had been pleased to adopt. But the rest I shall defer until tomorrow.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv20, 22 Or, brought up in their own hands.
Or, brought up in their own hands.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv20–22 Lam 2:20 Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom…
Lam 2:20 Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, [and] children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
Ver. 20. Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this.] Even to thine own inheritances, who suffer harder and heavier things commonly than any others. And why? Ingentia beneficia, ingentia flagitia, ingentia supplicia; their offences are increased, their punishments are aggravated by their obligations.
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Shall the women eat their fruit, children of a span long?] That they did so in the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldees, it appeareth by this question. In the famine of Samaria, under Joram, they did likewise; {2Ki 6:28-29} as also at the last destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans; {a} and at the siege of Sancerra, in France, A.D. 1572. See the sad effects of sin, and shun it, if but for the ill consequents of it.
Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?] It seems they were so - but who they were we read not - although God had cautioned, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." Priests were slaughtered, where they used to slaughter beasts for sacrifices; but it may be they were nothing better than Thomas Becket, the devil’s martyr, here, and Adam Benton, that butcherly archbishop in Scotland, who, when himself was butchered, cried out, Kill me not, for I am a priest. {b}
{a} Joseph. de Bel., lib. vii. cap. 8.
{b} Acts and Mon.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv20–22 Consider to whom thou hast done this; that is,…
Consider to whom thou hast done this; that is, not to heathen, who never owned thee, nor were called by thy name, but to thine own people, called thy portion and thine heritage; let thy former relation to us, and our former acknowledgments of thee, prevail with thee. Wilt thou suffer, or should such a thing be, as for women to satisfy their hunger with the fruit of their own bodies, and that when they are very young? And shall thy ministers be slain, and that in thy sanctuary? Any human blood polluted it; shall not the blood of those that were the ministers of God be judged a pollution and profanation of it?
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv20–22 Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast…
Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this,.... On whom thou hast brought these calamities of famine and sword; not upon thine enemies, but upon thine own people, that are called by thy name, and upon theirs, their young ones, who had not sinned as their fathers had: here the church does not charge God with any injustice, or complain of hard usage; only humbly entreats he would look upon her, in her misery, with an eye of pity and compassion; and consider her sorrowful condition; and remember the relation she stood in to him; and so submits her case, and leaves it with him. These words seem to be suggested to the church by the prophet, as what might be proper for her to use, when praying for the life of her young children; and might be introduced by supplying the word "saying" before "behold, O Lord", &c.
shall the women eat their fruit; their children, the fruit of their womb, as the Targum; their newborn babes, that hung at their breasts, and were carried in their arms; it seems they did, as was threatened they should, Lev 26:29; and so they did at the siege of Samaria, and at the siege of Jerusalem, both by the Chaldeans and the Romans:
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and children of a span long? or of a hand's breadth; the breadth of the palms of the hand, denoting very little ones: or "children handled", or "swaddled with the hands" (c); of their parents, who are used to stroke the limbs of their babes, to bring them to; and keep them in right form and shape, and swaddle them with swaddling bands in a proper manner; see Lam 2:22; and so the Targum,
"desirable children, who are wrapped in fine linen.''
Jarchi (d) interprets it of Doeg Ben Joseph, whom his mother slew, and ate:
shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? as very probably some were, who fled thither for safety when the city was broken up; but were not spared by the merciless Chaldeans, who had no regard to their office and character; nor is it any wonder they should not, when the Jews themselves slew Zechariah, a priest and prophet, between the porch and the altar; of whom the Targum here makes mention; and to whom Jarchi applies these words.
(c) "parvulos qui educantur", Pagninus; "parvulos educationum", Montanus; "educationis", Calvin; "infantes palmationum, sive tractationis palmarum", Michaelis; "pueros palmis tractatos", Cocceius. (d) E Talmud Bab. Yoma, fol. 38. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv20, 22 Whom - Not the Heathen, but to thy own…
Whom - Not the Heathen, but to thy own people. Women - Wilt thou suffer women to satisfy their hunger with the fruit of their own bodies?
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv20, 22 Verse 20. Consider to whom thou hast done this]…
Verse 20. Consider to whom thou hast done this] Perhaps the best sense of this difficult verse is this: "Thou art our Father, we are thy children; wilt thou destroy thy own offspring? Was it ever heard that a mother devoured her own child, a helpless infant of a span long?" That it was foretold that there should be such distress in the siege, - that mothers should be obliged to eat their own children, is evident enough from Le 26:29; De 28:53; De 28:56-57; but the former view of the subject seems the most natural and is best supported by the context. The priest and the prophet are slain; the young and old lie on the ground in the streets; the virgins and young men are fallen by the sword. "THOU hast slain them in the day of thine anger; THOU hast killed, and not pitied." See La 4:10.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v20 Lam 2:20-22. Behold, O Lord, to whom thou hast…
Lam 2:20-22. Behold, O Lord, to whom thou hast done this — To thy people, for whom thou hast formerly expressed so much tenderness and affection. Jerusalem seems to be here introduced speaking. Shall the women eat their fruit — We find by comparing this verse with chap. Lam 4:10, that God brought upon them that terrible judgment which he had denounced against them, if they continued to provoke him, namely, that they should eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters. See the margin. And children of a span long — Hebrew, שׂפחים, rendered in the margin, swaddled with their hands, and by the LXX., νηπια θηλαζοντα μαστους, infants sucking the breasts. Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? — Shall thy ministers be slain, and that in thy sanctuary? We learn from this, 1st, That the Chaldeans spared no character, no, not the most distinguished; even the priest and the prophet, who, of all men, one would think, might have expected protection from heaven, and veneration on earth, yet they were slain; not abroad in the field of battle, where they would have been out of their place, as Hophni and Phinehas were, but in the sanctuary of the Lord, the place of their business, and which they hoped would have been a refuge to them. 2d, They spared no age, no, not those who, by reason of their tender or decrepit age, were exempted from taking up the sword; for the young and the old lay on the ground slain in the streets. 3d, They spared no sex, the virgins and the young men fell by the sword. In the most barbarous military executions that we read of, the virgins were spared and made part of the spoil, but here they were put to the sword as well as the young men. We learn, 4th, That this was the Lord’s doing; he suffered the sword of the Chaldeans to devour thus without distinction; he slew them in the day of his anger — Namely, his anger for their many and aggravated sins. Thou hast called, as in a solemn day — A day of awful retribution; my terrors round about — As my people were wont to be called together from all parts on solemn days, when they were to meet at Jerusalem for thy service; so now, by thy providence, my terrible enemies are by thee called together to slay thy people in that holy city in which they were wont to worship thee. So that none escaped nor remained — That is, few or none. Those that I have swaddled, and brought up, hath mine enemy consumed — As if they had been brought forth for the murderer, like lambs for the butcher, Hos 9:13. Zion, that was a mother to them all, laments to see those that were brought up in her courts, and under the tuition of her oracles, thus made a prey of and destroyed.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv20–22 The sense is: “See, Yahweh, and look! whom hast…
The sense is: “See, Yahweh, and look! whom hast Thou treated thus? Shall women eat their fruit - children whom they must still carry?” the swaddled child being one still needing to be nursed and borne in their arms.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv20–22 Dealt. Literally, "gathered grapes," chap. i. 12. (Haydock) ---…
Dealt. Literally, "gathered grapes," chap. i. 12. (Haydock) --- Long; quite small, Psalm xxxviii. 9. This has been denounced, chap. xix. 9., and Deuteronomy xxviii. 53. (Calmet) It took place at Samaria, and in the last siege of Jerusalem, (Josephus, Jewish Wars vii., and viii.; Worthington) as well as at this time. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv20–22 women eat . . . fruit--as threatened (Lev 26:29;…
women eat . . . fruit--as threatened (Lev 26:29; Deu 28:53, Deu 28:56-57; Jer 19:9).
children . . . span long--or else, "children whom they carry in their arms" [MAURER].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv20–22 THE PRAYER, Lam_2:20-22.
THE PRAYER, Lam_2:20-22.
20. Behold, O Lord, etc. — The prayer of the prophet. The fearful picture has been seen, the cries of distress and agony have been heard, and the prophet weaves out of them an argument of prayer.
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To whom thou hast done this — An appeal to that covenant upon which their very existence was based.
Their fruit — That is, the fruit of their body.
Children of a span long — Children of their tender care; the word being from a verb, שׂפח, which means to care for tenderly.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv20, 22 20. Here begins the prayer made in response to…
20. Here begins the prayer made in response to the prophet’s exhortation. The questions are rhetorical and mean (although the verbs are in the future), Wilt thou look with unconcern at the things which have been done? For the state of things (foretold Jer_19:9; Deu_28:53) cp. 2Ki_6:25-30.
behold, to whom thou hast done thus] viz. Thy chosen ones of old.
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that are dandled in the hands] The thought of maternal tenderness in the forms in which it would ordinarily be displayed towards children of that age heightens the effect of the picture.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv20–22 (20) To whom thou hast done this—i.e., not to…
(20) To whom thou hast done this—i.e., not to a heathen nation, but to the people whom Jehovah Himself had chosen.
Shall the women eat their fruit.—Atrocities of this nature had been predicted in Lev_26:26; Deu_28:57; Jer_19:9. They were, indeed, the natural incidents of a besieged city reduced to starvation, as in the case of Samaria (2Ki_6:28), and the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans (Jos., B. J. v. 12), and had been witnessed, as the words show, in that by the Chaldæans. (Comp., as to the famine, Eze_4:16-17; Eze_5:16.)
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Shall the priest . . .—Stress is laid on this as being the next element of horror. The very Holy of Holies was profaned with the blood of the priests and prophets of Jehovah.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv20, 22 To whom thou hast done this; viz. to Israel,…
To whom thou hast done this; viz. to Israel, the chosen people. And children; rather, (even) children. The children are the "fruit" referred to. Comp. the warnings in Lev_26:26 Deu_28:56; and especially Jer_19:9; also the historical incident in 2Ki_6:28, 2Ki_6:29. Of a span long; rather, borne in the hands. The word is derived from the verb renders to swaddle" in ver. 22 (see note).
Consideration besought.
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How truly human is this language! How real was the eternal Lord to him who could shape his entreaty thus! As if to urge a plea for pity, the prophet implores him who has been offended by the nation"s sins, who has suffered the nation"s misery and apparent ruin, to consider; to remember who Judah is, and to have mercy.
I THE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT CALL FOR CONSIDERATION.
1. Famine and the inhuman conduct to which famine sometimes leads.
2. Death by the sword,
3. The privation of those religious offices which are the centre and inspiration of the nation"s life.
4. The common suffering of all classes; prophet and priest, children and old men, virgins and youth, are alike overtaken by want, by wounds, by death.
II THE GROUNDS UPON WHICH CONSIDERATION IS BEGGED FOR.
1. The main appeal is to Divine pity and benevolence.
2. The former mercies shown to Judah seem to be brought implicitly forward in this language. Israel has been chosen by God himself, favoured with privileges, delivered, protected, and blessed in a thousand ways. Will God cast off those in whom he has taken an interest so deep, for whom he has done so great things?
III THE HOPE WITH WHICH CONSIDERATION IS ASKED. Hitherto the regard of God in recent events has been a regard of displeasure and of censure. But if the attitude of the stricken be no longer one of defiance, but of submission, it may be that the Lord will turn him again, will be favourable unto his afflicted people, will restore them to former prosperity, enriched with the precious lessons of their adverse experience. T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv20–22 Behold, O Ford, and consider to whom Thou hast…
Lam_2:20
Behold, O Ford, and consider to whom Thou hast done this.
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Fervent prayer
1. The only way of remedy in our greatest miseries is to call upon God in fervent prayer.
(1) It declareth that we are humbled and our pride broken, in confessing no power to be in ourselves, and seeking help elsewhere.
(2) He is of greatest power, and none else can help us.
(3) He will have all the glory of our deliverance (Psa_50:15).
2. By this vehement kind of speech we learn that in right prayer to God the frame of our words must be according to our affection.
3. The chief reason to move the Lord to pity us is the remembrance of His covenant of mercy in Christ.
4. Gods wrath overturneth the course of nature in those against whom it is bent.
5. There is sufficient cause and matter in all the infants of Gods people, why God should in His justice destroy them (Psa_51:5).
6. Cruelty exercised by the hands of the wicked upon children and ministers is a special means to move God to hear us when we pray for them.
7. There is no privilege of peace that can free us from punishment when we sin against the Lord. (J. Udall.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v20 (ר) Lam_2:20. The prayer is put into words correspondent…
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—
(ר) Lam_2:20. The prayer is put into words correspondent with the circumstances. See, Jehovah, and behold to whom thou hast done this, to the city called thine, to the people whom thou hast chosen to be a name and praise to thee. How shocking are the consequences! See if women eat their fruit, the children whom they carried. The last word relates to that which is spread—as infants on the knees or arms. The Revised Version translates it dandled in the hands, which, if expressing the idea, is too special. The awful incident was a punishment threatened (Deu_28:56-57; Jer_19:9). See if there are slain in the sanctuary of the Lord priest and prophet. His own holy place defiled with blood. If such spectacles were common, as they were, will God not stay His hand?
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(ש) Lam_2:21. From the massacre in the Temple to the general slaughter of all ages and both sexes is another step in the dismal recital. The youth and the old man … my virgins and choice young men, were killed. It was clear that they had to bear the anger of Jehovah—that He was not only full of compassion, but in righteousness he doth judge and make war upon evil.
(ח) Lam_2:22. Thou hast called as in a day of solemn assembly, summoning, as by trumpet, all kinds of terrifying agencies—men, famine, fire, sword—my terrors on every side, and there was none that escaped or remained in the day of Jehovah’s anger. Then, in motherly anguish, she laments again over the children she had carried and brought up, whom the enemy had cruelly consumed. So “the poem concludes, like the first, with deep sorrow, regarding which all attempts at comfort are quite unavailing.”
HOMILETICS
A PRAYER FOR DIVINE COMPASSION
(Lam_2:20-22)
I. Reminding Jehovah of His former favour to the sufferers. “Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom Thou hast done this” (Lam_2:20). The prophet seems to feel that if God would only look and recall to mind who they were who were suffering, He would surely have pity. They are not the heathen, but His own people, the seed of Abraham, whom He raised from obscurity and endowed with unexampled blessings. Their present misery was all the more painful to endure when contrasted with their former affluence and power, and would surely move the compassion of Him who had so often interposed on their behalf. It is a great help in prayer to remind God of His former loving-kindness. Every blessing we receive from God increases His interest in our welfare. Every act of disobedience is a sin against Infinite Love.
II. Uttered from the midst of appalling distress (Lam_2:20-21). In these verses we have a vivid description of the suffering and desolation occasioned by the siege. In the extreme exigencies of famine the most horrible cannibalism was practised: the pangs of hunger devoured maternal affection, and mothers devoured their newly-born infants. Even this had been predicted as the fruit of disobedience (Deu_28:53). How little do we appreciate the great goodness of God in providing daily food for ourselves and our children! Everywhere in the city were visible the most ghastly scenes of indiscriminate massacre—“priest and prophet, young and old, virgins and young men,” lay in promiscuous heaps of the slain. If prayer can reach heaven, it must surely be when ascending from the midst of anguish like this. The greater the distress we are in, the more urgent and importunate should be our prayers.
III. Wrung from a people terrified with startling proofs of the Divine anger. “Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lord’s anger none escaped or remained” (Lam_2:22). Jeremiah had often threatened the terrors of God’s wrath in the destruction of the nation, if the people persisted in idolatry; but they heeded not. They made jests of his warnings, and their earnest repetition only increased their ridicule. But when they saw Jerusalem hemmed round by the victorious Chaldeans and the utter ruin that followed, they then saw the portentous meaning of “the terrors” that had been so often threatened and so recklessly despised. The anger of the Lord became to them a solemn reality, and, overwhelmed with confusion and fear, they cry for help. Whatever impels the soul to pray is a blessing. The beginning of prayer may rise from our fears; but as we persevere, it will be actuated by nobler motives. All that prayer can do is to bring our case before God. We must then leave it there with Him, and say, “Thy will be done.”
LESSONS.—
1. The final appeal of the helpless is to God.
2. When distress induces prayer, deliverance is at hand.
3. Jehovah is graciously moved to help by human entreaty.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Lam_2:20. “Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom Thou hast done this.” The Divine pity:
1. Earnestly implored by a suffering people.
2. Invoked on the ground of former kindnesses, which, it is acknowledged, have been abused.
3. Is never appealed to in vain.
Lam_2:22. The tyranny of fear:
1. Realised when beset by a powerful enemy.
2. When the enemy is summoned and directed by One whom we have consciously offended.
3. When we are witnesses of cruelties we are powerless to prevent.
ILLUSTRATIONS.—Prayer. It is helplessness casting itself on power. It is infirmity leaning on strength, and misery wooing bliss. It is the flight of the soul to the bosom of God, and the spirit soaring upward and claiming nativity beyond the stars. It is the soaring eagle mounting upward in its flight, and with steady gaze pursuing the track till lost to all below. It is the roving wanderer looking towards his abiding-place, where are all his treasures and his gold. It is the prisoner pleading for release. It is the mariner of a dangerous sea, upon the reeling topmast, descrying the broad and quiet haven of repose. It is the soul, oppressed by earthly soarings, escaping to a broader and purer sphere, and bathing its plumes in the ethereal and eternal.—Wells.
Yearning for God.—When my blood flows like wine, when all is ease and prosperity, when the sky is blue and birds sing and flowers blossom, and my life is an anthem moving in time and tune, then this world’s joy and affection suffice. But when a change comes, when I am weary and disappointed, when the skies lower into a sombre night, when there is no song of bird, and the perfume of flowers is but their dying breath, when all is sun-setting and autumn, then I yearn for Him who sits with the summer of love in His soul, and feel that all earthly affection is but a glow-worm light compared to that which blazes with such effulgence in the heart of God.—Beecher.
Divine compassion. We often suffer more on account of other’s troubles than they themselves do in those troubles, for both love and sorrow take their measure as much from the capacity of the nature that experiences them as from the power of the externally exciting cause. How much one suffers with or for another does not depend altogether upon how much that other is suffering, but upon how much that nature which sympathises has with which to suffer. God feels with us, so that our experiences throw their waves upon the shore of His soul. He carries us so near to His heart that all our feelings which are of any moment produce their effects in some degree in His bosom. It seems very strange that the Maker of all the earth should permit Himself to be a participant in all the petty experiences that belong to any human life. No man would have dared to conceive such an idea of God, and to have believed any such thing as that, if it had not been revealed in unequivocal terms.
The compassion of Jesus. Luther said, “I would run into the arms of Christ if He stood with a drawn sword in His hands.” John Butterworth, reading this, resolved to do likewise, and found, as every venturing sinner does, no sword in the hands of Jesus, but open arms and a hearty welcome. Christ’s proclamation, for ever sounding forth to every burdened heart, is “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He demonstrated His marvellous compassion by dying for us. He will not now repulse the approach or disregard the cry of the needy.
The influence of fear. There is a virtuous fear, which is the effect of faith; and there is a vicious fear, which is the product of doubt. The former leads to hope, as relying on God, in whom we believe; the latter inclines to despair, as not relying on God, in whom we do not believe. Persons of the one character fear to lose God; persons of the other character fear to find Him.—Pascal.
Slavish and filial fear. There are two kinds of fear—one full of suspicious watchfulness, of anxious apprehension, of trepidation, terror, and dismay; the other such as can dwell in the same heart with confidence and love, and is but another form of reverence. Filial fear of God is a duty; slavish and servile dread of Him is a sin. Filial fear shrinks from sin; servile fear only from the smart of punishment. Filial fear keeps men from departing from the living God, servile fear drives them from Him. By filial fear men are made like the man Christ Jesus; by servile fear they may be scared from iniquity, as the wolf from the sheepfold by the shepherd’s gun; but it does no more to make them holy than the fright does to destroy the wolf’s ferocity. Filial fear animates us to avoid whatever would be offensive to our Heavenly Father, and, if the expression may be allowed, to consult His feelings and desires; but servile fear, as it springs from selfishness, causes us only to care for ourselves, and at best makes us not better, but only a little more prudent than the devil.—Bertram.
The greatest fear. When a city is compassed round about with a wall that is impregnable, it will be opened still towards heaven, and therefore cannot be out of danger if God be an enemy. For all their walls and bars, God could rain fire and brimstone upon the Sodomites out of heaven. Alexander asked the Scythians what they were most afraid of, thinking they would say of himself, who was so victorious everywhere. But they answered scoffingly they were most afraid lest heaven should fall upon them. We, indeed, need not fear anything but this only, lest the heaven should fall upon us, lest God should be our enemy.—J. Stoughton.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv20–21 Should women eat the fruit of their wombs ...…
Should women eat the fruit of their wombs ... for?
This rhetorical question is asked to emphasize that it is not right for women to eat their children. This question can be written as a statement. AT: "Woman should not eat their own children ... for!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
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the fruit of their wombs
This speaks of children having come from their mother as if they were fruit that came from her womb. AT: "their children that they have given birth to" or "their own children" (See: Metaphor)
Should priest and prophet be slaughtered in the sanctuary of the Lord?
This rhetorical question is used to emphasize that the prophets and priests should not be killed. This question can be written as a statement. AT: "The prophets and priests should not be slaughtered in the sanctuary of the Lord!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
Should priest and prophet be slaughtered
This can be stated in active form. AT: "Should our enemies slaughter priests and prophets" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
fruit
priest
prophet
slaughter
sanctuary
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv20, 22 2:20 Jeremiah had predicted that the same cannibalism that…
2:20 Jeremiah had predicted that the same cannibalism that occurred during a siege of Samaria (2 Kgs 6:28-29) would happen in Jerusalem (Jer 19:9; see also Lam 4:10; Ezek 5:10; cp. Deut 28:53-57).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.