Lamentations 2:8,9

The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of Zion The word wall is here to be taken in a metaphorical sense, for the strength and security of the city. He hath stretched out a line, &c. Called emphatically, Isaiah 34:11, קו תהו, the line of confusion or devastation, being designed to mark out the extent of what was to be pulled down. For the instruments designed for building are in some places applied to destroying, because men sometimes mark out those buildings they intend to demolish. Thus, 2 Kings 21:13, God says, I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: see likewise Amos 7:7. Therefore he made the rampart, &c., to lament Made their walls and ramparts feeble, ready to shake like a man under some languishing distemper, who had no strength left. Her gates are sunk into the ground, &c. The gates of Jerusalem are destroyed and covered over with rubbish, and the bolts of the gates are broken. Her king and her princes are among the Gentiles Zedekiah and the nobles of Judah, who were not slain, are in a state of miserable captivity. The law is no more It is no longer read and expounded; the priests and the Levites, whose office it is to instruct the people, being dispersed among the heathen; and that part of the law which respects the public worship of God, being rendered impracticable by the temple's being destroyed. Her prophets also find no vision from the Lord The prophets are either dead, or in a state of captivity, and these latter are not favoured with divine revelations as they were wont to be, and so cannot resolve the doubts of those who come to them for advice.