Chapter 2 (Verse by Verse)
Verse 1:
"How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion
with a cloud in His anger": The cloud was a beacon of
God to lead His people through the wilderness (Exo 13:21). But this leadership
and care and protection is withdrawn here. (Cp 3:44: "Thou hast covered thyself
with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.")
The "cloud" that God uses to cover Judah is Babylon:
"A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of
thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a
strong" (Joel 2:2).
This is the same figure as that used prophetically by Ezekiel
in speaking of the Northern Host in the latter days:
"And thou shalt come up against My people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the
land..." (Ezek 38:16).
God uses Babylon as a cloud to "enshroud in gloom" (Roth.) the
ruling bodies of Israel, the "sun" and "stars" of the Jewish "heavens" (as in
Ezek 32:7, 8).
Notice the accumulated effect of the verses in which God
Himself is pictured as chastening His people; it is overwhelming (Lam
1:13-15; 2:1-8; 3:1-19 are examples). Jeremiah did not pile verse upon verse
without a purpose. He desired his people to know that the worst feature of all
in their calamity was their alienation from God (2:1, 6, 7; 3:17, 18, 31, 33,
49, 50; 5:20, 22).
"And cast down from heaven": Judah loses her place of
preeminence: "She that was great among the nations..."1:1). (It is interesting
to note that Babylon, whom God used to accomplish this, experienced the same
fate soon thereafter, when "Lucifer" was cast down by the Medes and Persians --
Isa 14:12; Jer 51:53. cp Mat 11:23; Luke 10:18).
"The beauty of Israel":
- This refers especially to God's temple: "the beauty of holiness" (or
"glorious sanctuary", margin) of Psa 29:2. See also Psa 74:7; 96:9; Isa 60:7;
64:11 ("our beautiful house, where our fathers praised Thee"); and Ezek 24:21
("the desire of your eyes"). The temple was the center of Jewish religious and
national life. It was the sanctuary, the retreat, the resting place of the true
ruler of Judah -- Yahweh (see notes, 1:6, 10).
- Also, the "beauty of Israel"
may well symbolize those persons who should have been stones and pillars in
God's spiritual temple (1Pe 2; Heb 3:6), but who were discarded as of no value,
like her king and princes (eg 2Sa 1:19)
"Remembered not His footstool": Similarly, God's
footstool is, most simply, the place where His "feet" will stand -- ie,
Jerusalem (Zec 14:4), It is also a designation of the ark of the covenant. In
1Ch 28:2, the two (ark and footstool) are mentioned synonymously. And in Psa
99:5 and 132:7, the listeners are commanded to "worship at his footstool." In
1Sa 4:21 the ark of God is called the "glory of Israel" (cp Psa 78:60, 61; Ezek
43:7; Isa 60:13).
The ark had been placed by Solomon in the Most Holy Place of
his temple (1Ki 8:1-9). It disappeared from history when Nebuchadnezzar defiled
and burned the temple. This was fitting, since the ark represented God's glory,
which was seen by Ezekiel to depart from Jerusalem at the same time (see
1:6).
We could have no more vivid presentation of the lesson: The
presence and the favor of God, at one time, is no guarantee of its
permanence. We must never assume, because God used us at one time, that He can
never reject us. If He spared not the "natural branches", let us take heed -- we
too are expendable (Rom 11:21)!
Verse 2:
"The Lord hath swallowed up": Meaning to "consume" or
to "destroy utterly"; the verb appears also in vv 5, 8 and 16.
"Habitations": "Pastures" (Roth.). The word refers to
the open plains and hills, the dwellings of the shepherds of Israel -- thus
showing that Nebuchadnezzar's influence was not confined merely to the city (Jer
52:16).
"The strongholds of the daughter of Judah": "Take away
her battlements, for they are not the LORD'S" (Jer 5:10). But the strongholds of
Judah were more than walls and towers of stone: The "strongholds" of flesh,
which men trust in rather than in God, are pride and stubbornness and the wisdom
of men. God established Jeremiah as His prophet "over the kingdoms, to root out,
and to pull down, and to destroy" (Jer 1:10). Paul, alluding to this and similar
verses from the Old Testament, speaks of the same power of God "to the pulling
down of strongholds":
"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing
that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God" (2Co
10:5).
The walls of Judah were only symbolic of the real opposition
to God, found in the minds of the men of Judah: haughtiness and self-will, a
stiff neck.
"He hath polluted ('profaned' -- Roth.) the
kingdom": Which had been sanctified unto God:
"Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt:
Thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.
Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause
it to take deep root, and it filled the land...
Why hast Thou then broken down her hedges, so
that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?" (Psa 80:8, 9,
12)
Why did God do this? Why did He profane His crown (Psa
89:39)? The answer is as before: Judah was responsible; she had first of all
polluted herself, and her day had finally come, "when iniquity (would) have an
end... I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: And it shall be no more, until he
come whose right it is, and I will give it him" (Ezek 21:25, 27).
Verse 3:
"He hath cut off in His fierce anger all the horn of
Israel": The horn is a symbol of strength, either in a nation's ruler or her
army (cp v 17; 1Sa 2:1; Psa 92:10; 112:9).
"He hath drawn back His right hand from before the enemy":
God's right hand, or His might, had been holding back or restraining
Babylon; but He now releases her.
"He burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which
devoureth round about": Just as the fiery serpents had been released
upon the Jews who complained and murmured against God (Num 21:6). God is a
"consuming fire" (Heb 12:29), Who manifests Himself in fiery judgments upon the
wicked (as in Mal 4:1; 2Th 1:8). His fire devours round about, but God never
allows it to consume completely the bush of Israel -- as He showed in sign to
Moses (Exo 3:2) -- for these Jews are His special plant (Isa 5:7) and He will
not make a full end of them (Jer 31:11).
Verse 4:
From v 4 through v 7, the theme is that THE LORD IS THE
ENEMY OF ISRAEL. He is the One Who brings "evil" upon His people
(Amos 3:6)!
"He stood with His right hand as an adversary": He was
in the obvious posture of an adversary, standing and with a weapon in the right
hand. There is a strong irony here, in that God's right hand is often spoken of
in Scripture as the hand of help and deliverance.
"Tabernacle": Hebrew "o'hel" -- signifying a temporary
dwelling, a modest structure, or a "tent" (RSV, NIV). This does not refer to
Solomon's temple.
Verse 5:
"Lamentation": From a root meaning "groaning" or
"sorrow", but not the same word as in the title.
Verse 6:
"And He hath violently taken away His tabernacle": Not
the same word as in v 4. From the margin it may be seen that this word means a
booth (RSV) or shed, as that built for the celebration of the Feast of
Tabernacles (Isa 1:8). This feast had celebrated the bountiful harvests of the
land (Lev 23:39), now taken away. Also, it had celebrated, in the past,
deliverance from slavery in Egypt (Lev 23:43). But alas, a new period of slavery
is here beginning!
"As if it were of a garden": Omitting the italicized
words, this reads simply: "as a garden". Israel was once God's garden,
well-tended and watered (Psa 80; Isa 5). Now Israel is seen as a mere hut,
isolated and besieged in the midst of a desolate vineyard (Isa 1:8;
3:26).
The metaphor, of course, is the ease with which a disciplined
army might destroy a garden (or a hut in the garden). It is recorded that Titus
with his Roman army so destroyed Gethsemane in the siege of Jerusalem.
"He hath destroyed His places of the assembly": The
temple and the synagogues (Psa 74:7, 8). See note, 1:4.
"Sabbaths forgotten": The land was forced to observe
her sabbaths 70 years (see 1:7; Jer 25:11).
"The king and the priest": See 4:16, 20;
5:12.
Verse 7:
"Sanctuary": See note, 2:1.
"They have made a noise in the house of the LORD": Oh,
but what a noise! Instead of the exalted tones of trumpet and cymbal, there is
the discordant clanging of weapons and armor! Instead of sweet voices singing
forth glorious praise, there are strident cries of brutish warriors!
"Solemn feast": See note, 1:15: "an
assembly".
Verse 8:
"The Lord hath purposed...": Yahweh hath done this, not
the "we" (v 16) of Israel's enemies. The central thought of this
chapter.
"He hath stretched out a line...": Thus signifying a
measured period of chastisement, which ended in 70 years (Jer 25:11, 12), was
resumed in 70 A. D., and will end forever when "the times of the Gentiles" are
finally and conclusively fulfilled (Luke 21:24), ie, when "the set time to favor
Zion" arrives (Psa 102:13). (This same idea of a measured period of time
is expounded in Eureka, vol 2, p 595 -- a discussion of Rev
11:1).
The figure of a measuring line, to discover defects in the
building, appears also in Amos 7:7-9; 2Ki 21:13; Isa 28:13, 17; 34:11.
Verse 9:
PROPHET, PRIEST, AND KING: all fell (compare
4:12-16)!
"Gates": See 1:4.
"Sunk into the ground": A vivid figure for complete
disappearance.
"Bars": The same word is used often in the description
of the tabernacle -- see especially Exo 26 and 36. Neither the gates nor the
bars were found sufficient when the Almighty resolved to lead the Chaldeans into
His city.
"The law is no more": It had been reduced to a hollow
shell by the speculations of the priests and people, weakened by the growth of
paganism -- which had been planted by various kings from even as early a time as
Solomon (1:2, notes). See Ezek 7:26, 27 and Hosea 3:4 ("For the children of
Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a sacrifice, and
without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim").
Jeremiah perceives that the Jewish law has, in essence, come
to an end now that it has no physical habitation. This is also the argument, at
a much later date, employed by Paul when writing to the Hebrews. The imminent
destruction of the Jewish temple and the dissolution of the Jewish nation was
God's way of declaring the Law no longer valid.
"Her prophets also find no vision from the Lord": The
false prophets, like Hananiah (Jer 29:2-4), who opposed Jeremiah. Cp Psa 74:9,
Ezek 13:3, 4, 9.
Verse 10:
"The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the
ground": See 1:1 and Isa 3:26. Mourning and deep distress, despondency -- as
Job's friends (Job 2:13).
"And keep silence": No words are adequate to express
their sorrow.
"They have cast up dust upon their heads": Josh 7:6;
1Sa 4:12; 2Sa 13:19; Neh 9:1; Job 2:12. An enactment of the original curse:
"Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Gen
3:19)!
Verses 11, 12:
Compare vv 19, 20 and 4:3, 4, 9, 10.
"My liver is poured upon the earth": The liver is
figurative of the seat of the emotions (cp Job 16:13 -- "He poureth out my gall
upon the ground"). It is the source of bile, or bitterness (Heb "mara", Ruth
1:20). Thus, it represents a bitter feeling evoked by the destruction of God's
people. See 3:5, note; Psa 62:8.
Verse 12:
"Their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom":
Seeking nourishment from me dry breasts of their exhausted mothers, they
silently breathed out their lives. Such sorrows, almost unutterable! Can we
still be shaken from our comfortable lethargy, to be moved -- really
moved -- by such a spectacle? Or have we been taking life too easy for too long?
A God Who could allow such sufferings in the past could well allow them again.
Let us remember Christ's words about AD 70:
"Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved"
(Mat 24:22).
Verse 13:
"What thing shall I liken to thee?": There is a
beautiful little echo of this plaintive cry in a customary phrase of Jesus.
Jeremiah, surveying the misery of Jerusalem, can find nothing to compare. But
Jesus, surveying the wonder and joy of God's Kingdom, can ask, "Whereunto shall
I liken the kingdom of God?" (Luke 13:20). As our troubles may be great, so are
the tender mercies of the Father. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound
(Rom 5:20); and in that thought is supreme consolation for the
faithful.
"Thy breach is great":
"Destruction" or "ruin" ("The LORD hath broken forth, as a
breach of waters..." -- 2Sa 5:20), as Jeremiah had prophesied (Jer
14:17).
Also, the great gulf between Israel and Yahweh, brought about
by Israel's sins: "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God" (Isa
59:2).
"Like the sea...": Signifying vast extent and
depth.
"Who can heal thee?": Who can heal thy wounds (both
physical and moral)? Indeed, "thy bruise is incurable (ie, by mere man), and thy
wound is grievous... (but) I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee
of thy wounds, saith the LORD..." (Jer 30:12, 17). This is the central theme of
the Lamentations, expressed in 3:31, 32:
"For the LORD will not cast off for ever:
But though He cause grief, yet will He
have compassion according to the multitude
of His mercies."
"Who can heal thee?" To ask such a question is to
answer it. Through the long ages there has been only one answer; there can be
only one answer. But poor deluded man will continue to try everything else
first. He will seek out every "physician" -- only to find his condition worse
(Mark 5:26) -- before he will think to turn to the One who can truly heal. Then,
if he is wise, he will turn his back on the wreckage of all his past
hopes:
"Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life" (John 6:68).
Verse 14:
"Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things ('false
and deceptive visions' -- RSV) for thee":
"Thy prophets", not God's prophets. Men like
Hananiah (v 9; Jer 29) were "prophets of the deceit of their own heart" (Jer
23:26), who preached "smooth things" (Isa 30:10) and "inventions" (Eccl 7:29),
and who caused the people to err (Isa 9:15, 16).
The common people here are to blame as well as the leaders,
because they consented to follow them and failed to censure their counsellors.
So finally, through repetition and following the course of least resistance,
they came to believe the lies of their leaders (2Th 2:11, 12).
"Foolish things": Hillers and others suggest a slight
textual emendation, to read "whitewash". The sense, of course, would be that of
Ezek 13:10-16 (cp 22:28): false prophets of peace (Jer 23:17) being compared
with dishonest builders covering up a rickety wall with whitewash!
"They have not discovered thine iniquity": They
promised life and blessing to the wicked (Ezek 13:22) and failed to declare the
"whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:26, 27). If they had not been afraid to expose
the nation's iniquities, there might have been time to repent and ward off the
captivity. They should have behaved like Isaiah:
"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew My people
their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins"
(58:1).
"But they have seen for thee false burdens and causes of
banishment": The "burden of the Lord" was the cause of punishment. The false
prophets offered the counsel of "lightness", or indifference, thus calling God a
liar. But God said, "Every man's word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted
the words of the living God..." (Jer 23:32-36). The true cause of banishment was
persistent apostasy, and the following of wicked leaders.
Verses 15, 16:
The scorn, anger and exultation of Jerusalem's enemies and
conquerors. See notes, 1:12.
"All that pass by clap their hands at thee": In this
instance, the clapping of hands represents contempt, as also in Job
27:23.
"They hiss and wag their head": As the Jews did
to Jesus at his death (Mat 27:39; Mark 15:29).
"The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth":
The quotations are from Psa 50:2 ("Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God hath shined") and Psa 48:2 ("Beautiful for situation -- or 'elevation': cp
Zec 14:10; Psa 68:15, 16 -- the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion...
the city of the great King").
This also recalls the prophecy of Isaiah:
"Is this your exultant city, whose origin is from days of
old?" (23:7, RSV).
As always, God's enemies see only the present. They fail to
comprehend the vast changes to be made in the future -- as guaranteed by God --
such as the exaltation of mount Zion and Jerusalem in the Millennial Age (Isa
2:2-4; 24:23).
Verse 16:
"All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee":
As roaring and ravening beasts (Job 16:9, 10 and Psa 22:13 -- the latter
prophetic of the treatment of Christ).
"We have swallowed her up": A false boast. See notes, v
8. Mic 4:11-13 speaks of the Gentiles' hatred of the Jews, their ignorance of
God's purpose, and their eventual overthrow -- at the same time that the
"daughter of Zion" is lifted up. Finally, see Zep 2:8, 9.
Verse 17:
"He hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee": "To
gloat over you" (NIV). Compare Psa 38:16 and 89:42.
"The horn": See v 3, note.
Verse 18:
The previous verses (15 and 16) contain the ignorant scorn of
Israel's enemies, while this verse pictures a true remnant of "Israel" praying
for deliverance and the fulfillment of the "hope of Israel". This is not only a
picture of Jeremiah's day, but of our day as well.
Gottwald translated the first phrase: "Cry aloud to the Lord,
the Wall of the daughter of Zion", with an allusion to Zec 2:5 for the
notion of God as a protective wall for His city and His people.
"Let tears run down like a river": Hebrew "nahal": a
"torrent", or mountain stream, rushing down its rugged gorge.
"Give thyself no rest": "Pray for the peace of
Jerusalem" (Psa 122:6). "Ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, and
give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the
earth" (Isa 62:6, 7).
"The apple of thine eye": Literally, the "daughter of
thine eye" -- that which the eye gives birth to; ie, tears. The same expression
occurs also in Psa 17:8.
Verse 19:
"Arise, cry out in the night": The "night" is the time
for mourning, because darkness is upon the nations, and God's plan for His
people is obscured (see notes on "night", 1:2).
"In the beginning of the watches": The Jewish tradition
was three night-watches of four hours each (Jdg 7:19); the Roman, four watches
of three hours each (Mat 14:25; Mark 13:35).
"Lift up thy hands toward Him": A common posture in
prayer (Psa 28:2; 134:2; 141:2; 1Ti 2:8). Jeremiah goes a step further in Lam
3:41 when he says: "Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in
the heavens." Is this a posture we should adopt?
Verse 20:
"Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom Thou hast done
this": Again the truth of the Jews' awesome responsibility to God (and our
responsibility as well) is emphasized: "You only have I known... therefore I
will punish you..." (Amos 3:2).
"Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span
long?": As actually happened (4:10; Jer 19:9). The famine of the siege here
brought such almost unimaginable horrors as this.
"Children of a span long": Several different renderings
are suggested-- none of which change the sense of the passage appreciably: ie,
"children they have raised" (Hillers), "children of their care" (Keil);
"children whom they must still carry" (Smith).
"The young and old lie on the ground in the streets":
Compare 2Ch 36:17.
"Thou hast killed and not pitied": This may be true of
those who deserved no pity, but God is never unrighteous or unfair. There is
still discernible here in this statement the attitude of complaint and
bitterness. But "God does not willingly afflict..."All suffering is
brought about for an ultimate purpose, and God will have achieved that purpose
if the sufferer is led to repentance and righteousness (see 3:33,
notes).
Verse 22:
"As in a solemn day": See notes, 1:15.
"My terrors round about": Unreasoning fear (as Isa
24:17,18). This expression, "magor-missabib", is Jeremiah's watchword (Jer 6:25;
20:3, 10; 46:5; 49:29).
"Those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy
consumed": For this reason, Jeremiah was commanded to take no wife "in this
place" (Jer 16:2-4). Compare Luke 23:39, 40.
"Swaddling-clothes" were bandages which were tightly wrapped
around a newborn baby -- apparently to keep it quiet and to encourage the growth
of straight limbs (Job 38:9; Ezek 16:4; Luke 2:7, 12).