Lamentations 2:3

He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about. HE HATH CUT OFF ... ALL THE HORN OF ISRAEL. Horns are now worn in the East as an ornament on the forehead, and an emblem of power and majesty. The Druse women wear a silver horn as the distinguishing badge of wifehood. There is no proof that they were so originally. But as the horn is the chief instrument of attack in horned animals, it is used in Scripture as the emblem of power, dominion, glory, and fierceness (; ; , note). HE HATH DRAWN BACK ... RIGHT HAND FROM BEFORE THE ENEMY - ...

Jeremiah expresses the same thing in various ways; but all that he says tends to shew that it was an evidence of God’s extreme vengeance, when the people, the city, and the Temple, were destroyed. But it ought to be observed, that God is here represented as the author of that calamity: the Prophet would have otherwise lamented in vain over the ruin of his own country; but as in all adversities he acknowledged the hand of God, he afterwards added, that God had a just reason why he was so grievously displeased with his own people. He then says, that _every horn _had been _broken _by God. We know that by _horn _is meant strength as well as excellency or dignity and I am disposed to include both here, though the word breaking seems rather to refer to strength or power. But the whole clause must be noticed, that God had _broken every horn of Israel in the indignation of his wrath_. The Prophe...

1-9 A sad representation is here made of the state of God's church, of Jacob and Israel; but the notice seems mostly to refer to the hand of the Lord in their calamities. Yet God is not an enemy to his people, when he is angry with them and corrects them. And gates and bars stand in no stead when God withdraws his protection. It is just with God to cast down those by judgments, who debase themselves by sin; and to deprive those of the benefit and comfort of sabbaths and ordinances, who have not duly valued nor observed them. What should they do with Bibles, who make no improvement of them? Those who misuse God's prophets, justly lose them. It becomes necessary, though painful, to turn the thoughts of the afflicted to the hand of God lifted up against them, and to their sins as the source of their miseries....

Verse Lamentations 2:3. _THE HORN OF ISRAEL_] His _power_ and _strength_. It is a metaphor taken from cattle, whose principal strength lies in their _horns_. _HATH DRAWN BACK HIS RIGHT HAND_] He did not support us when our enemies came against us....

Since the horn is the symbol of power, the cutting off of every horn means the depriving Israel of all power of resistance. The drawing back of God’s right hand signifies the withdrawal of that special Providence which used to protect the chosen people. AND HE BURNED ... - Or, “and” he kindled a fire in Jacob: as the active enemy of “Jacob,” Himself applying the torch....

ZION'S JUDGMENT IS OF GOD. LAMENTATIONS AND SUPPLICATIONS. EXPOSITION LAMENTATIONS 2:1 HATH THE LORD COVERED; rather, _doth _… _cover_. THE DAUGHTER OF ZION; _i.e._ Jerusalem. CAST DOWN FROM HEAVEN. Here and in Matthew 11:28 we have a parallel to Isaiah 14:12, where the King of Babylon is compared to a bright star. "Cast down" whither? Into the "pit" or dungeon of Hades (Isaiah 14:15

HE HATH CUT OFF IN [HIS] FIERCE ANGER ALL THE HORN OF ISRAEL,.... All its power and strength, especially its kingly power, which is often signified by a horn in Scripture; see Daniel 7:24; this the Lord took away in his fierce anger, and left the land destitute of all relief, help, defence and protection; whether from its king and princes, or from its men of war or fortified places; all being cut off and destroyed: HE HATH DRAWN BACK HIS RIGHT HAND FROM BEFORE THE ENEMY; either his own right hand, with which he had used to fight for his people, and protect them, but now withdrawing it, left them to the mercy of their enemies; or Israel's right hand, which he so weakened, that they had no power to resist the enemy, and defend themselves: AND HE BURNED AGAINST JACOB LIKE A FLAMING FIRE [WHICH] DEVOURETH ROUND ABOUT; that is, his wrath was like a burning fla

CHAPTER 2 WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE The great catastrophe continues in vivid description throughout this chapter also. Not an enemy has done it, not Nebuchadrezzar and his Chaldean hordes, but the Lord is the executor of all. The beauty of Israel He cast down; He swallowed up the habitations of Jacob; He burned against Jacob like a flame; He bent His bow like an enemy; He poured out His fury like fire; He was as an enemy. These are a few of the many expressions with which the righteousness of the Lord in judging His people is acknowledged. And what a great description of Jerusalem and her inhabitants we read in Lamentations 2:8. Gates broken down; king and princes among the Gentiles; law abandoned; no more visions! Elders on the ground in sackcloth and ashes; virgins hanging their heads; children and sucklings swooning in the streets--and all that pass by clap their hands,

LAMENTATIONS 2. THE SECOND LAMENT. This differs from the first in its contents, and in its literary form. The metrical matters are the same, _i.e._ there are twenty-two verses, wherein the first word of the verse, or stanza, begins with the Heb. A, B, C, etc., and each stanza has three lines, of five accents each. We saw that in Lamentations 1 the singer's wail for Zion filled half the song, and her own cries the second half; but this second Lament is all taken up with God. In Lamentations 2:1 the woes are bemoaned as being of His doing and His alone, and Lamentations 2:13 forms a short ré sumé of this; then, next, Lamentations 2:18 f. urges the city to cry to Him for help; and in the clo

HORN. Put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Cause), App-6, for the self-protection afforded by it. RIGHT HAND. Figure of speech _Anthropopatheia_. App-6....