The People Cry To The Sovereign Lord. They Call On The Wall Of Jerusalem To Weep For Jerusalem and Its Inhabitants And On YHWH To Consider What He Has Done (Lamentations 2:18-22).
The change between Lamentations 2:17 and Lamentations 2:18 is abrupt. But the acrostic confirms that they are united. Lamentations 2:18 begins with a heading defining what is happening, ‘their heart cried to the Sovereign Lord', and this is followed immediately by the people's plea to the wall of the daughter of Zion not to refrain from crying out on their behalf and especially on behalf of the starving children. This is a retrospective plea made as if the wall were still standing with the siege continuing.
(Tsade) Their heart cried to the Lord,
This forms a heading to what follows. But the cry that it speaks of is indirect, addressed rather to the wall of Jerusalem, inviting it to plead on their behalf,
O Wall of the daughter of Zion,
Let tears run down like a river,
Day and night,
Give yourself no respite,
Do not let the apple of your eye cease.
The wall was, of course, the place where the watchmen stood as they watched over the city day and night (see Lamentations 2:19). The thought is therefore that the watchmen should plead on behalf of the city continuously. They are called on to weep copiously with their tears running down like a river, and to do it day and night giving themselves no respite, their pupils never being allowed to dry.
Alternately the heading could be, ‘Their heart cried to the Lord, the Wall of the daughter of Zion', thus seeing YHWH as the city's protective wall. But in view of the mention of the watches in Lamentations 2:19 the first option is the more probable.
(Qoph) Arise, cry out in the night,
At the beginning of the watches,
Pour out your heart like water,
Before the face of the Lord,
Lift up your hands towards him for the life of your young children,
Who faint for hunger at the head of every street.
The watchmen are called on to arise and cry in the night, and to do it also at the beginning of the watches, pouring out their heart like water before the face of the Lord, and lifting up their hands (the usual attitude of prayer) for the life of their young children who, at the head of every street, were fainting with hunger.
(Resh) See, O YHWH,
And behold to whom you have done thus!
Shall the women eat their fruit,
The children who are dandled in the hands?
Shall the priest and the prophet,
Be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
They are to call on YHWH to consider what He is doing. Does He really want the mothers to eat the very children that they have nurtured? (Note that this was something God had warned them about in the curses in Leviticus 26:26; Deuteronomy 28:57. Now it was happening) Does He really want the priest and the prophet to be slain in His sanctuary?
The two things described were the greatest horrors that the prophet could think of, mothers eating their own children, and the desecration of the Temple by the slaughter in it of YHWH's priests and prophets, who were, of course, seen as holy. we must recognise, however, that both mothers, and priest and prophets, had brought it on themselves by their behaviour to observe the covenant.
(Shin) The youth and the old man,
Lie on the ground in the streets,
My virgins and my young men,
Are fallen by the sword.
You have slain them in the day of your anger,
You have slaughtered, and not pitied.
But the cry is unavailing. Both youth and old man lie dead in the streets. The virgins and young men of the city lie slain by the sword. For YHWH has slain them in the day of His anger, and shown no pity. He has allowed the invaders free rein. It is a reminder to all that one day God's patience will run out.
(Tau) You have summoned (called), as in the day of a solemn assembly,
My terrors on every side,
And there was none who escaped or remained,
In the day of YHWH's anger,
Those who I have dandled and brought up,
Have my enemy consumed.
For it is YHWH Himself Who, as though He was calling them to a festival, has summoned the terrors that have come upon them, so that none have escaped or remained. It is the day of His anger, something which is the theme of the lament. The contrast between the normal summons to a joyful feast, and the summoning of ‘terrors on every side' is striking.
‘My terrors on every side' is a typical Jeremaic description (Jeremiah 6:25; Jeremiah 20:3; Jeremiah 20:10; Jeremiah 46:25; Jeremiah 49:29), the ‘my' referring to Jerusalem. And Jerusalem goes on to complain because those whom it had dandled on its knees had been consumed by its enemy. Note how the chapter which commenced with a series of references to YHWH's anger now ends on the same note. The whole chapter is expressing the fact of YHWH's anger against Jerusalem, and against His people, because of their extremes of idolatry and continuing disobedience of His commandments.