Lamentations 2:9
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Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and shattered their bars. Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations, the law is no more, and even her prophets find no vision from the LORD.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Lamentation over the Judgment of Destruction That Has Come on Zion and the Desolation of Judah 1 Alas! how the Lord envelopes the daughter of Zion in His wrath! He hath cast down the glory of Israel from heaven to earth; Nor hath He remembered His footstool in the day of His wrath. 2 The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, He hath not spared: He hath broken down, in His anger, the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; He hath smitten [them] down to the earth. He hath profaned the kingdom and its princes. 3 He hath cut off, in the burning of wrath, every horn of Israel; He hath drawn back His right hand from before the enemy, And hath burned among Jacob like a flaming fire, [which] devours round about. 4 He hath bent His bow like an enemy, standing [with] His right hand like an adversary, And He slew all the desires of the eye; On the tent of the daughter of Zion hath He poured out His fury like fire. 5 The Lord hath become like an enemy; He hath swallowed up Israel. He hath swallowed up all her palaces, He hath destroyed his strongholds, And hath increased on the daughter of Judah groaning and moaning. 6 And He hath violently treated His own enclosure, like a garden; He hat destroyed His own place of meeting: Jahveh hath caused to be forgotten in Zion the festival and the Sabbath, And in the fierceness of His wrath He hath rejected king and priest. 7 The Lord hath spruned His own altar, He hath abhorred His own sanctuary; He hath delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; They have made a noise in the house of Jahvey, as [on] the day of a festival. 8 Jahveh hath purposed to destroy the walls of the daughter of Zion: He hath stretched out a line, He hath not drawn back His hand from demolishing; And He hath made the rampart and the [c…
Open source ↗The second alphabetical elegy is set to the same mournful tune with the former, and the substance of it is much the same; it begins with Ecah, as that did, "How sad is our case! Alas for us!" I. Here is the anger of Zion's God taken notice of as the cause of her calamities (Lam 2:1-9). II. Here is the sorrow of Zion's children taken notice of as the effect of her calamities (Lam 2:10-19). III. The complaint is made to God, and the matter referred to his compassionate consideration (Lam 2:20-22). The hand that wounded must make whole.
Open source ↗2:9 no more visions: Daniel and Ezekiel were prophets of the Lord who had visions while they lived among the exiles far from the land of Judah (Ezek 1:1; Dan 7:1). This verse refers to prophets in Jerusalem who claimed to have visions that proved to be false.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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Disaster upon disaster will come, and rumor after rumor. Then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but instruction from the priests will perish, as will counsel from the elders.
For the Israelites must live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or idol.
For many years Israel has been without the true God, without a priest to instruct them, and without the law.
And they told me, “The remnant who survived the exile are there in the province, in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”
There are no signs for us to see. There is no longer any prophet. And none of us knows how long this will last.
The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting; they sit in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become like women. Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze, the bars of her gates are broken.
The LORD will bring you and the king you appoint to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone.
And the whole army of the Chaldeans under the captain of the guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem.
But I will spread My net over him, and he will be caught in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans; yet he will not see it, and there he will die.
“The prophets are prophesying lies in My name,” replied the LORD. “I did not send them or appoint them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, a worthless divination, the futility and delusion of their own minds.