What is the meaning of Lamentations 2:22? You summoned my terrors on every side • Jeremiah recognizes that God Himself has called forth the calamities, not merely permitted them. They come “from every side,” underscoring total encirclement—Judah has no escape route. • Compare Psalm 88:17 “All day long they surround me like floodwaters,” and Jeremiah 6:25 “Terror is on every side.” These echoes emphasize that the onslaught is comprehensive and divinely ordered. • The literal siege of Jerusalem (2 Kings 25:1-4) proved that what the Lord summons cannot be resisted. As for the day of an appointed feast • Ironically, the very language of Israel’s joyful festivals (Leviticus 23:2) is used to describe a gathering for judgment. God “summons” enemies as easily as He once summoned worshipers to celebrate. • Zephaniah 1:7 draws the same contrast: “The LORD has prepared a sacrifice; He has consecrated His guests.” Here, those “guests” are invading armies. • The twist shocks the reader: the calendar that once marked seasons of gladness now marks devastation, highlighting how sin reverses blessing into curse. In the day of the LORD’s anger no one escaped or survived • The phrase “day of the LORD” (Isaiah 13:6; Joel 2:1) typically signals decisive, visible judgment. Lamentations presents the historical fulfillment of that warning in 586 BC. • “No one escaped” recalls Deuteronomy 32:39 where God declares, “there is no one who can deliver out of My hand.” The totality of loss validates the covenant warnings (Leviticus 26:14-39). • The statement also exposes false hopes in alliances, walls, or rituals. When divine wrath is active, human defenses crumble (Psalm 33:16-17). My enemy has destroyed those I nurtured and reared • Jerusalem speaks as a bereaved mother. The children she “nurtured and reared” are gone (Isaiah 1:2). This image intensifies the grief: destruction is not abstract; it is personal. • God allowed Babylon—the “enemy”—to become the rod of correction (Jeremiah 25:9). What seems like enemy victory is ultimately divine discipline. • Hosea 11:1-7 shows the same heartbreaking reversal: the One who taught Israel to walk must let them fall because they refused to return. summary Lamentations 2:22 paints a sobering picture of Jerusalem’s fall. God Himself summons comprehensive terror, overturns festival joy into a grim convocation, unleashes a day in which no one escapes, and permits enemies to destroy the very people He once nurtured. The verse affirms the faithfulness of God’s covenant warnings: persistent sin brings certain judgment. Yet by recording this tragedy, Scripture also invites repentance and renewed trust in the Lord whose discipline, though severe, aims ultimately at restoration. |
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