Commentary - Lamentations 2:22

Bird's-eye view

Lamentations 2:22 is the raw, bleeding conclusion to a chapter detailing the fury of God's judgment against His covenant people. Jeremiah, speaking as the personified daughter of Zion, recounts the utter devastation of Jerusalem. This is not a random tragedy; it is a divine summons. God Himself has called for this destruction as a consequence of Judah's deep-seated rebellion. The verse moves from the overwhelming nature of the terror, to the totality of the destruction, and finally to the intensely personal grief of a mother watching her own children, whom she nurtured, being devoured by the enemy. It is a stark portrait of the curses of the covenant being realized in history.

The central theme is the terrifying reality of God's covenant wrath. When God's people are unfaithful, the covenant promises do not simply evaporate; the other side of the coin, the covenant curses, come into full effect. This verse is a case study in Deuteronomy 28. The enemy is God's instrument, the "appointed time" is His sovereign decree, and the result is a complete and heartbreaking reversal of the blessings of life and fruitfulness that He had once promised. Yet, even in this darkest of moments, the fact that this is God's doing means it is not meaningless. It is a righteous, albeit terrible, judgment that must precede any hope of restoration.

Outline

Commentary on the Text

Lamentations 2:22

"You called as in the day of an appointed time My terrors on every side..."

The verse opens with a direct accusation aimed at God. There is no mistaking the source of this calamity. "You called." This was a divine summons. The destruction of Jerusalem was not a geopolitical accident or a case of Babylon simply flexing its imperial muscles. God orchestrated it. He sent out the invitations. And what was He calling together? Not guests for a wedding feast, but "terrors on every side." The imagery is that of a festival, an "appointed time" (moed). This is a bitter, gut-wrenching irony. The word for an appointed time is the same word used for the holy festivals of Israel, like Passover or Tabernacles, times of joy and remembrance of God's deliverance. Here, God has appointed a new kind of festival, a festival of judgment. He has surrounded His people not with pilgrims and worshippers, but with horrors. This is a holy war, but God has switched sides. He is fighting against His own people, using the Babylonians as His rod of discipline. The terror is not just in front of them; it is "on every side." There is no escape route, no flank to turn. This is total, immersive judgment, decreed and executed by a holy God.

"And there was no one who escaped or survived In the day of Yahweh’s anger."

The result of this divine summons is absolute. "No one...escaped or survived." This is the language of utter finality. The covenant curses promised that if Israel forsook Yahweh, He would bring a nation against them to besiege their cities until every last hope was extinguished. This is that promise come to fruition. The phrase "the day of Yahweh's anger" is significant. This is not just a bad day in Israel's history. It is a manifestation of the Day of the Lord, a theme that runs throughout the prophets. It is a day when God steps into history to execute judgment, to settle accounts. For so long, Israel had presumed upon God's patience. They sinned, assuming that their covenant status was a "get out of jail free" card. But the covenant has two sides. Here, in the smoke and ruin of Jerusalem, they are learning that God's anger against sin, particularly the sin of His own people, is a consuming fire. The corporate nature of this judgment is stark. It doesn't matter who you were, king or peasant, priest or child. When the day of His anger comes upon a rebellious covenant community, no one is exempt.

"Those whom I gave birth to and reared, My enemy consumed them."

Here the lament becomes intensely personal and poignant. The speaker is the daughter of Zion, the personification of the covenant community, speaking as a mother. "Those whom I gave birth to and reared." The Hebrew word for "reared" here (tipachti) has the sense of swaddling, of tenderly nursing and bringing up a child. These were not just citizens; they were the children of the promise, the fruit of the womb that was supposed to be a sign of God's blessing. This is the ultimate reversal of the covenant blessing of fruitfulness. The children she lovingly raised were not raised for glory, but for slaughter. And who is the agent of this horror? "My enemy consumed them." But we must be careful here. In light of the first clause, we know who called this enemy to the feast. The enemy is God's instrument. God is sovereign over the actions of the Babylonians. This is the hard truth that Lamentations forces us to confront. God gave the children, and in judgment, God took them away through the teeth of the enemy. This is the cost of apostasy. It is not just the loss of buildings and land; it is the loss of the next generation, the very hope of the future, devoured because of the parents' sin. This is the heart of the lament, the cry of a mother whose covenantal rebellion has led to the destruction of her own children.

The Sovereignty of God in Judgment

A central, and for many, a difficult, theme in this passage is the unblinking affirmation of God's sovereignty over the disaster. Jeremiah does not attribute the fall of Jerusalem to fate, bad luck, or even primarily to the might of Babylon. He says to God, "You called..." This is crucial. If this were a random event, the suffering would be meaningless. But because it is a judgment from a righteous God, it has meaning. It is a terrible meaning, but it is not absurd.

This is the consistent testimony of Scripture. God uses wicked nations as His instruments of judgment. He calls Assyria the "rod of My anger" (Isaiah 10:5). He raises up the Chaldeans to discipline Judah (Habakkuk 1:6). This does not absolve the Babylonians of their own sin and cruelty, for which they too will be judged. But it does mean that from the perspective of God's people, the ultimate cause is found not in Babylon, but in their own covenant-breaking hearts. Acknowledging God's sovereignty here is the first step toward true repentance. You cannot repent of an accident. You can only repent when you recognize that you have sinned against a holy God who has responded with righteous, and in this case, devastating, judgment.

Key Words

Moed, "Appointed time"

The Hebrew word moed typically refers to a set time or a festival appointed by God for worship and remembrance. Its use here is a jarring piece of theological irony. The day of Jerusalem's destruction is presented as a grotesque parody of a religious festival. God has appointed this time, He has summoned the participants (the terrors), and the purpose is to execute judgment. This turns the concept of sacred time on its head, showing that the forms of religion are meaningless when the heart of the people has turned away from God.

Tipachti, "I...reared"

This Hebrew verb carries a deep sense of tender, hands-on care. It can mean to extend the hands, to carry, or to swaddle an infant. It speaks of the intimate, nurturing love of a parent. Zion is lamenting that the very children she swaddled and nursed, the objects of her most tender affections, have been consumed. This word heightens the pathos of the verse, emphasizing that what was lost was not an abstraction, but precious, beloved children. It is the language of a broken heart, highlighting the profound personal cost of corporate sin.

Application

The modern Western Christian has a hard time with a passage like this. We are conditioned to think of God's love in sentimental terms, divorced from His holiness and justice. We prefer a God who is always affirming and never angry. Lamentations 2:22 is a necessary and bracing corrective.

First, it teaches us that sin has consequences, and the sins of God's people have the most severe consequences. God holds His own household to the highest standard. When a church or a nation that has been blessed with the light of the gospel turns its back on God, it should not expect to be coddled. It should expect judgment. The terrors that gather on every side of a decaying Christian civilization are not there by accident. God has called them.

Second, this verse forces us to think corporately. The lament is from a mother for her children. The judgment fell on everyone. We are not isolated individuals in our faith. We are part of a covenant body. The unfaithfulness of one generation heaps up judgment for the next. This means we have a responsibility not only for our own souls, but for the spiritual health of our families, our churches, and our communities. We will either pass on covenant blessings or covenant curses.

Finally, the utter hopelessness of this verse points us to the gospel. If this is the result of "the day of Yahweh's anger," then what we need is someone to stand in our place and absorb that anger for us. This is precisely what Jesus did. On the cross, He was surrounded by terrors. He was forsaken. He endured the full, undiluted wrath of God against our sin. Because He endured that ultimate "day of anger," we who are in Him can be assured that we will never face it. Our judgment is past. This does not mean we are exempt from discipline, but it means the final, consuming wrath of God has been exhausted on our substitute. The grief of Lamentations is real, but for the Christian, it is not the final word. The final word is resurrection.