He has bent his bow like an enemy, with his right hand set like a foe; and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes; in the tent of the daughter of Zion, he has poured out his fury like fire.
God took up arms against His own people, not merely abandoning them but standing as their armed adversary. The bow means every weapon; His right hand stood against them. This is crucial: the war was not the Chaldeans' doing but God's decree to punish their wickedness and desperate obstinacy.
AI summary
The weight of these verses falls entirely on God's hand in the affliction. What cuts deepest is not that Jerusalem suffered, but that God made her suffer in His anger as an enemy. To those who prize His favor, His wrath is the true bitterness; His corrections in love wound most deeply because they come from Him.
AI summary
Commenting on Lamentations 2:1-9
God appears as an enemy to His people when He is not, yet by His conduct they take Him so. He bent His bow, stood with sword drawn like an adversary, and slew all the desirable ones: princes, priests, the young and fair. In Jerusalem's very temple He poured out His fury like fire.
AI summary