The second chapter of Lamentations is an acrostic in the same manner as chapter 1. The first letter of each of these verses begins with a Hebrew letter in ascending order of the Hebrew alphabet.

The Alef (Bull) Revelation

Lam. 2:1 begins,

¹ [אֵ] How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in His anger! He has cast from heaven to earth the glory of Israel and has not remembered His footstool in the day of His anger.

As we saw in Lam. 1:1, the first word above is אֵיכֹה, ay-ko, “Alas!” whose first letter (on the right) is an alef. This word ay-ko is also the Hebrew title of the book itself. The letter alef literally means “bull” and suggests primacy, or strength. Yet under divine judgment, the city has been cast down from its pinnacle “in the day of His anger.”

Jeremiah thus shows the sharp contrast between strength and weakness. The “glory of Israel” is probably a reference to the Ark of the Covenant. In Psalm 78:61, the Ark is called “His strength.” Thus, the removal of the Ark has made Israel weak, because “the glory has departed” (1 Sam. 4:22).

The Beth (House) Revelation

Lam. 2:2 reads,

² [בָּ] The Lord has swallowed up; He has not spared all the habitations of Jacob. In His wrath He has thrown down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; He has brought them down to the ground; He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

The first word of verse 2 is בִּלַּע (bilaʿ), “He has swallowed up” or “He has engulfed.” The word begins with beth, “house; household.” It depicts the Lord consuming Jacob’s houses and households “in His wrath.”

A house is a place where families eat, but in this case the house itself has been consumed by Babylon. To consume is to conquer or assimilate, according to Hebrew thought.

The Gimel (Camel) Revelation

Lam. 2:3 says,

³ [גָּ] In fierce anger He has cut off all the strength of Israel; He has drawn back His right hand from before the enemy. And He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire consuming round about.

In the Hebrew text, this verse begins with גָּדַע (gadaʿ), “He has cut off.” Gimel is a camel, which can signify pride, being lifted up, but the root g-m-l (גמל) can also mean to deal with, recompense, nourish. This has to do with lifting people up, encouraging them, nourishing them, or helping them achieve justice through recompense.

In fact, the letter itself (ג) resembles a person walking and taking action for or against someone. Justice is negative to the guilty sinner, for it puts them under divine judgment. Recompense can be for good or ill, depending on which side of the law the person is standing.

Jeremiah uses the gimel in his acrostic lament to picture divine justice going against Jerusalem on account of its rebellion against His laws and the people’s refusal to hear the prophetic word that Jeremiah preached to them.

The Daleth (Door) Revelation

Lam. 2:4 says,

⁴ [דֶּ] He has bent His bow like an enemy; He has set His right hand like an adversary and slain all that were pleasant to the eye; in the tent of the daughter of Zion He has poured out His wrath like fire.

The first word of verse 4 is דָּרַךְ (darakh), “He bent (His bow).” The daleth is a door, which signifies an opening, an entry point, humility, or vulnerability (in the sense of a needy man asking for help). Yet in this case, God Himself has become their enemy shooting arrows through the door. Likewise, He stands outside the door and puts a torch to “the tent of the daughter of Zion.”

Most of the people and the priests failed to understand that when they violated the law of God, they became God’s enemies, and God also became their enemy. This principle is seen clearly in Lev. 26:40-42 and in Isaiah 63:10.

God chose Israel but did not give them immunity. He warned them, in fact, that He would cast them out of the land and treat them as He had treated the Canaanites. God is impartial in His judgments.

The Hey (Window) Revelation

Lam. 2:5 says,

⁵ [הָ] The Lord has become like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel; He has swallowed up all its palaces, He has destroyed its strongholds and multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and moaning.

The first word in verse 5 is הָיָה hâyâh, “to exist, to be or become.” The emphasis is on God becoming Jerusalem’s enemy. The letter hey points to inspiration or revelation, the window into the spiritual realm.

However, when the hey is positioned at the beginning of a word, it normally means “the.” For example, ha-eretz is “the land.” In the case of verse 5 it emphasizes that God is not only an enemy, but THE enemy that Judah needed to deal with. This is the true underlying revelation. The people’s big mistake was they had tried to fight the Babylonians instead of dealing with God. But Babylon was not their problem. Babylon was directed by God Himself to overthrow Jerusalem and to destroy the temple.

The Vav (Nail) Revelation

Lam. 2:6 says,

⁶ [וַ] And He has violently treated His tabernacle like a garden booth; He has destroyed His appointed meeting place. The Lord has caused to be forgotten the appointed feast and sabbath in Zion, and He has despised king and priest in the indignation of His anger.

The first word in verse 6 is וַיַּחֲמֹס (vayyaḥamos), “He has violently destroyed” or “He has laid waste.” The word begins with the vav, a nail on the wall or a tent peg that secures the tent and makes it immovable. The vav hooks things together, giving it both connection and continuity. However, His tabernacle (ohel) was destroyed as easily and as quickly as one might destroy a flimsy garden booth.

It shows the disconnection in Zion’s spiritual order. It emphasizes God unhooking His covenantal structures — worship, sabbaths, feasts, priesthood, monarchy. The Old Covenant was thus broken, ending in failure to establish an enduring Kingdom, because it was based on the will of man and man’s ability to keep his vow in Exodus 19:8.

The Zayin (Weapon) Revelation

Lam. 2:7 says,

⁷ [זָ] The Lord has rejected His altar, He has abandoned His sanctuary; He has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces. They have made a noise in the house of the Lord as in the day of an appointed feast.

The first word in verse 7 is זָנַח (zanach), “rejected or cast off.” The word begins with a zayin, “weapon, cut.” God “rejected His altar” and “abandoned His sanctuary.”

The sanctuary had two altars: the brazen altar and the golden altar. The brazen altar was the place where sin was covered and ultimately forgiven. The golden altar of incense represented the place of prayer (Psalm 141:2; Rev. 5:8; 8:3, 4). God had cast both altars out with the sanctuary as a whole. He no longer would forgive sin by those means; neither would he answer their prayers.

After 70 years in captivity, a remnant of Judah returned to build the second temple. However, the glory of God did not fill that temple, because God had forsaken that site even as He had forsaken Shiloh in the days of Eli (Jer. 7:14). Just as God’s presence never returned to Shiloh, so also will it never return to the earthly Jerusalem—even though God instructed them to build the second temple.

When God moves on, He does not turn back. Instead, He does a new thing. In this case, He is building a temple made of living stones, whose foundation is Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:20-22). This is the final temple that He will indwell.

Further, God instructed the prophet to cease praying for Jerusalem in Jer. 7:16,

¹⁶ As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you.

The Chet (Fence, Inner Room, Heart) Revelation

Lam. 2:8 says,

⁸ [חָ] The Lord has determined to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a line, He has not restrained His hand from destroying, and He has caused rampart and wall to lament; they have languished together.

The first word in the Hebrew text of verse 8 is חָשַׁב (chashav), “determined; planned; devised.” This word begins with the chet, “a fence or inner room,” often representing one’s heart.

This is the revelation of God’s plan. It begins with God’s plan to destroy the wall of Jerusalem, because the priests and the people had cast down the law of God. The law is pictured as a wall of protection as well as a boundary marker to keep sinners out. As we will see in the next verse, this is explained as “the law is no more.” Just as the people had cast out the law, God then cast out the wall of the city.

Jeremiah shows us that this destruction of Jerusalem and its wall was a deliberate act of God, who “caused rampart and wall to lament.” Although the Babylonians did the work on an earthly level, God took full credit for it. God has now replaced the earthly city with the heavenly city, for that too is His plan.

The chet pictures an inner room especially the heart. This suggests that we are now the temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16), and He indwells us, that is, in our inner room, our spirit.

The Teth (Snake) Revelation

Lam. 2:9 says,

⁹ [טָ] Her gates have sunk into the ground, He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations; the law is no more. Also, her prophets find no vision from the Lord.

The first word in verse 9 is טָבְעוּ (tavʿu) — “sank down, collapsed, were sunk.” The word begins with teth, a snake, signifying “to surround.” This word picture correlates the wall surrounding the city to the snake surrounding it. This takes us back to Gen. 3:1, where the snake is the devil, yet we must acknowledge that, as with Babylon, the devil can do nothing without God’s permission. God uses them to judge sinners.

The teth not only pictures a serpent but also an embryo surrounded by its mother’s womb. Hence, teth is associated with the word ṭov (טוב), “good.” Here we see Jeremiah’s use of subtle irony, because the letter associated with good also introduces a verse portraying utter loss.

We know, of course, that loss was suffered by the earthly city on account of the failure of the Old Covenant. But this loss also begat the hope of a heavenly city and a New Covenant, by which the goodness of God is manifested.

The Yod [Hand] Revelation

Lam. 2:10 says,

¹⁰ [יָ] The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground; they are silent. They have thrown dust on their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.

The first word in verse 10 is יֵשְׁבוּ (yeshvu), “They sit,”clothed in sackcloth.These elders bear the main responsibility for the fate of the city, because their bad leadership has adversely affected even “the virgins of Jerusalem.”

The yod has to do with works or actions. In this case, the prophet tells us that the elders can do nothing more than throw dust on their heads.

The Kaf (Open Palm) Revelation

¹¹ [כ] My eyes fail because of tears, my spirit is greatly troubled; my heart is poured out on the earth because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, when little ones and infants faint in the streets of the city.

Verse 11 begins with the word כָּלוּ (kalu), “They are spent, exhausted, consumed.” The kaf literally means an open palm, signifying emptiness or “to ask or beg.” It is shaped like an open palm and resembles a man bowing.

The biblical number eleven also signifies imperfection, disorder, or incompleteness. This too paints a word picture showing stress and deprivation. Even children are deprived of food. The deeper meaning, of course, is that the people lacked the bread of the word of God, having refused to hear the prophetic warnings prior to the destruction of Jerusalem.

The Lamed (Ox Goad) revelation

Lam. 2:12 says,

¹²[ל] They say to their mothers, “Where is grain and wine?” As they faint like a wounded man in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers’ bosom.

Verse 12 begins with the Hebrew word לֹאלְאִמֹּתָם (le’immotam), “To their mothers…” It highlights the horror of famine, as children die in their mothers’ arms. The lamed was a goad or a shepherd’s staff. Hence, it pictures the crook at the top of the staff, which was used to guide or extract a lamb that was stuck.

Twelve is the biblical number for authority, guidance, or teaching. In this case, it is a shepherd’s staff, associated with the staff of life (bread and wine), basic necessities.

The Mem (Water) Revelation

Lam. 2:13 says,

¹³ [מָ] How shall I admonish you? To what shall I compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? To what shall I liken you as I comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is as vast as the sea; who can heal you?

The first word in this verse is מָה (mah), “What?” or “How?” The verse asks a series of rhetorical questions that seem to have no answer. The Hebrew letter mem literally means “water” and can refer to literal water or the chaos of the sea or the purifying water of the word of God (Heb. 10:22). Jeremiah uses this metaphor to point to the chaos of destruction and perhaps repentance through the purifying water. He says, “your ruin is as vast as the sea.”

Mem is the thirteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The biblical number thirteen means “rebellion, depravity,” as we see in Gen. 14:4, “the thirteenth year they rebelled.” The verse suggests that rebellion against God is the cause of this chaos. It points to repentance as the solution.

The Nun (Swarm of Fish) Revelation

Lam. 2:14 says,

¹⁴ [נִ] Your prophets have seen for you false and foolish visions (shavʾ v’taphel, “vanity & nonsense”); and they have not exposed your iniquity so as to restore you from captivity; but they have seen for you false and misleading oracles.

The first Hebrew word in verse 14 is נִשְׂקַדנְבִיאַיִךְ (neviʾaikh), “Your prophets.” The fourteenth letter in the Hebrew alphabet is נִ (nun, “fish,” teeming with life, continuance). Prophets were called to bring the living word to the people, showing them how to live righteously and ultimately how to achieve immortality.

The nun is also the 14^th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, signifying “salvation or deliverance.” The prophets were called to bring the message of salvation that would deliver the people from the power of sin and retain God’s hand of protection upon them as a nation. However, they presented the people with “false and foolish visions,” as we see, for example, in the case of the prophet Hananiah (Jer. 28:15).

The Samech (Support) Revelation

Lam. 2:15 says,

¹⁵ [סָ] All who pass along the way clap their hands in derision at you; they hiss and shake their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem; “Is this the city of which they said, ‘The perfection of beauty, a joy to all the earth’?”

Lam. 2:15 begins with the word סָפְקוּ (safqu), “They clap (their hands).” The letter samech, means “support.” Note Ps. 145:14, “The Lord sustains all who fall.” Jeremiah, however, uses it in the opposite manner, showing how the nations mock Jerusalem. They clap their hands as if to say, “Way to go! Well done!” Yet they mean the opposite.

The irony is that Zion, once upheld as the “perfection of beauty” and the “joy of the earth,” is now mocked by all who pass by, without support, protection, or honor.

The Pey (Mouth) Revelation

Here the prophet inverts the order of the Hebrew letters. The 16^th letter is ayin, and the 17^th is pey; however, Jeremiah puts the pey in front of the ayin here and again in chapters 3 and 4. Why?

Acrostics usually symbolize order and completeness (as in A to Z). By disrupting the alphabet order, Jeremiah mirrors the disruption of creation order in Jerusalem’s destruction. Likewise, ayin is about seeing; pey is about speaking. The prophet infers that the mockers spoke before actually seeing the truth behind Jerusalem’s judgment.

Lam. 2:16 says,

¹⁶[עַ] All your enemies have opened their mouths wide against you; they hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, “We have swallowed her up! Surely this is the day for which we waited; we have reached it, we have seen it.”

The first word in the Hebrew text is עַל־אֵלֶּהפָּצוּ (patsu), “They opened wide (their mouth).” Lam. 2:16 begins with the letter pey, “mouth,” which signifies something spoken—a word. In this case the focus is upon what the mockers say with their mouths. They say, “We have swallowed her up!”

This reminds us of the story of Jonah, who was swallowed up by a great fish. It was prophetic of Nineveh, “City of Fish” that was to swallow up the House of Israel. We read in Hosea 8:8, 9,

⁸ Israel is swallowed up; they are now among the nations like a vessel in which no one delights. ⁹ For they have gone up to Assyria….

To consume is to conquer. To swallow up is to absorb or assimilate populations, making them either slaves or citizens or another country. Jeremiah uses this metaphor in regard to Judah also, because the people were resettled in Babylon.