The acrostic in Lam. 2:16 and 17 is reversed. Normally, the ayin would come before pey, but in this case, they are inverted. In Part 3 we covered the pey revelation. We continue now with the ayin revelation.

The Ayin (Eye) Revelation

Lam. 2:17 says,

¹ [עָ] The Lord has done [asah] what He purposed. He has accomplished His word which He commanded from days of old. He has thrown down without sparing, and He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you. He has exalted the might of your adversaries.

The first word in this verse is עָשָׂה, ʿāsāh, “He has done, accomplished, performed.” In other words, it is evident by observation with one’s eyes that God has not failed but has been the cause of Jerusalem’s demise. In the laws of tribulation, God promised to bless them if they were obedient to their vow in Exodus 19:8, but He also promised to curse them for persistent disobedience.

Lev. 26:17 says,

¹⁷ I will set My face against you so that you will be struck down before your enemies; and those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you.

In Deut. 28:25 this is repeated:

²⁵ The Lord shall cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways before them, and you will be an example of terror [zaʿăwāh, “something shocking, horrifying, terrifying”] to all the kingdoms of the earth.

In today’s language, the curse of the law says that God will raise up terrorists against the disobedient nation. Hence, if a nation becomes terrified by terrorists, it is not ultimately because they hate our way of life or because they hate our freedom but because the people have cast aside the law of God. In other words, it is God who hates our way of life and our insistence upon the having the freedom to sin.

The judgment of God is to make the nation a public spectacle in the sight of all the nations. This judgment applies to the Israeli state for its refusal to keep its Old Covenant vow, and to America and the West in general for its hypocrisy in claiming the New Covenant while remaining in an Old Covenant mindset.

The Tsadi (Hook) Revelation

Lam. 2:18 says,

² [צ] Their heart cried out to the Lord, “O wall of the daughter of Zion, let your tears run down like a river day and night; give yourself no relief, let your eyes have no rest.

The first word of verse 18 is צָעַק (tsaʿaq, “cried out”). The people’s heart cries out to the Lord — like a hook reaching upward, unsuccessfully trying to catch God’s attention. Tsadi here is a hook cast up toward God in a river of tears. However, it is an unsuccessful fishing expedition, because God refuses to take the bait.

Jerusalem cried out to the Lord for help and support, but their request was denied, because they merely wanted to be free from the consequences of their lawlessness. By rejecting the law and refusing to study it, they did not know how to repent. God told the prophet 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.”

God is very patient, but Jerusalem had reached the point where judgment had already been decreed (Jer. 7:14).

Again, we read in Jer. 11:13-15,

¹³ For your gods are as many as your cities, O Judah; and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to the shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal. ¹⁴ Therefore do not pray for this people nor lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not listen when they call to Me because of their disaster. ¹⁵ What right has My beloved in My house when she has done many vile deeds? Can the sacrificial flesh take away from you your disaster?

Ezekiel 14:14 adds,

¹⁴ “Even though these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job were in its midst, by their own righteousness they could only deliver themselves,” declares the Lord.

We see, then, that God did not give either Israel or Judah a free pass to sin, as some seem to believe. God will not support sin, even if they fail to acknowledge their sin.

The Koof (Back of the Head) Revelation

Lam. 2:19 says,

³ [ק] Arise, cry aloud in the night at the beginning of the watches; pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord; lift up your hands to Him for the life of your little ones who are faint because of hunger at the head of every street.

In the Hebrew text, this verse begins with קוּמִי (qûmî), “Arise!” God has turned His back on the city, exposing the back of His head, even as they “cry aloud” to Him.

The koof is the 19^th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The number means “faith and hearing,” but in this case, the people, though sorrowful, lack genuine faith, for they have not heard His word. The Hebrew word shema means both to hear and to obey. They had not obeyed; therefore, they had not heard.

The result is that God Himself refuses to hear their cry.

The Resh (Head) Revelation

Lam. 2:20 says,

⁴ [ר] See, O Lord, and look! With whom have You dealt thus? Should women eat their offspring, the little ones who were born healthy? Should priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

The first word of verse 4 is רְאֵה (rəʾeh),“See!” The resh is a head (also a leader). The cry is directed straight at God: “Turn Your head (face) toward us, see what has happened!” But in this case, the true leaders, who are called as priests and prophets, have been persecuted.

No doubt Jeremiah was referencing the prophet-priest Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, who was stoned for his witness in 2 Chron. 24:20-22,

²⁰ Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people and said to them, “Thus God has said, ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord and do not prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has also forsaken you’.” ²¹ So they conspired against him and at the command of the king [Joash] they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the Lord. ²² Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness which his father Jehoiada had shown him, but he murdered his son. And as he died, he said, “May the Lord see and avenge!”

Jehoiada had protected Joash during a time of danger. Joash’s father was Ahaziah, who was killed by Jehu, the king of Israel (2 Chron. 22:9). Ahaziah’s mother was Athaliah, who then proceeded to kill all of the royal house of Judah. But Jehoiada hid Ahaziah’s son Joash in the temple for six years (2 Chron. 22:12) and then anointed him as king (2 Chron. 23:11), replacing Athaliah, who had usurped power.

Jehoiada then brought a reformation to the temple and restored true worship to the God of Israel. But after Jehoiada died, Joash restored Baal worship in Judah. When Jehoiada’s son Zechariah objected, Joash had him stoned in the temple courtyard.

Most scholars believe that this was the same Zechariah that Jesus mentioned in Matthew 23:34, 35,

³⁴ Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city, ³⁵ so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

The main problem is that there are two prophets named Zechariah. The son of Jehoiada was clearly the one killed between the temple and the altar. The son of Berechiah was the prophet in the minor prophets (Zech. 1:1).

The Targum on Lamentations 2:20 already shows a strand of Jewish tradition linking the prophet Zechariah (son of Berechiah/Iddo) with Temple martyrdom. This has caused confusion between the two prophets. Jesus probably blended the two in order to evoke both figures and to show the full scope of persecution from Abel, the first martyr, to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the last Old Testament prophet. This would be consistent with His point that all of the prophets were persecuted.

The main point of Lam. 1:20 is to show that God had turned His head (face) from Judah on account of their refusal to hear and obey the word of the prophets.

The Shin (Teeth) Revelation

Lam. 2:21 says,

²¹ [שָׁ] On the ground in the streets lie young and old; my virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of Your anger, You have slaughtered, not sparing.

The first word is שָׁכְבוּ, shākhevû, “They have lain down, or collapsed.” The verse pictures the total collapse of the city, consuming even the young and the strong. The letter shin is the 21^st letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Number 21 means “distress,” as in Jer. 30:7,

⁷ Alas! for that day is great, there is none like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved from it.

Jacob himself experienced two times of distress, each being 21 years long. The first was his time of bondage to Laban, or more specifically, the time between his two journeys to Bethel. The second was the time that he was separated from Joseph, where he thought his son was dead.

Again, Psalm 22, which prophesies of Christ’s death on the cross, is actually the 21^st psalm, because Psalm 9 and 10 are two halves of the same psalm. Psalm 22 correlates with Jacob’s time of bondage to Laban. (See The Genesis Book of Psalms.)

Jeremiah laments the carnage in Jerusalem brought about by the Babylonian war. The letter shin itself literally means “teeth,” and it conveys the idea of consuming or conquest. Shin is shaped like three flames or teeth. Jerusalem has three valleys that form the letter shin.

The “shin” section of Psalm 119 (verses 161-168) describes the positive side of the letter. Whereas Lam. 2:21 shows the shin of war, Psalm 119 shows us the solution, which is to consume the word of God to obtain the shin of peace (119:165). Those who eat His word have great peace.

The Tav (Mark or Sign) Revelation

Lam. 2:22 says,

²² [תָּ] You called as in the day of an appointed feast my terrors on every side; and there was no one who escaped or survived in the day of the Lord’s anger. Those whom I bore and reared, my enemy annihilated them.

The first word in the Hebrew text is קָרָאתָ, qārāʾtā, “You have called/summoned.” As the final letter, tav, originally written in the shape of an X, often symbolizes closure or finality. Here, it marks the end of the alphabet of sorrow. The acrostic ends with annihilation, total devastation: no fugitive, no survivor. It is the end of hope in this lament cycle, fulfilling the curse of the law in Deut. 28:62, “You shall be left few in number.”

The law commanded that all the males must appear before God (at the feasts) three times each year (Exodus 23:17) to rejoice before the Lord. But here we see a reverse feast, where God summons them to a slaughter, turning joy into mourning.

Yet the tav also suggests hope for those who believe in Him. In Ezekiel 9:4 the “mark” that is placed on the foreheads of the righteous is the letter tav. Tav means a mark or sign. In Rev. 22:4 this mark is said to be God’s Name. In other words, God signs His name with an X or †, the sign of the cross.

This ends Jeremiah’s second acrostic chapter, each using the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet as a lament over the destruction of Jerusalem.

Lamentations 3

Lamentations 3 is the central and longest chapter of the book, and it is both the most personal and the most hopeful. It is 66 verses in length, and each of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet introduces three successive lines.

The triple acrostic heightens intensity — every letter is hammered three times before moving to the next. Judgment is real, but so is God’s mercy and faithfulness. This reflects the underlying purpose of the law itself, where the purpose of judgment is to correct and ultimately to restore.

As for its content, the “grief” part ends with verse 20, and verse 21 begins with the first word of “hope.” This represents a turning point in Lamentations, showing how those who have faith in God will be spared and ultimately brought into the restored Kingdom of God.

The Alef (Bull) Revelation

The first three verses each begin with alef. Lam. 3:1-3 says,

¹ [א] I am the man who has seen affliction because of the rod of His wrath. ² [א] He has driven me and made me walk in darkness and not in light. ³ [א] Surely against me He has turned His hand repeatedly all the day.

Verse 1 begins with אֲנִי, ani, “I.” It is personal to the prophet. Alef is a bull or ox, a symbol of strength. Hence, verse 1 depicts the spiritual strength of the prophet when confronted by affliction. It is the strength of faith and hope, even though God has made him “walk in darkness.”

David too saw affliction, which is especially reflected in Psalm 22, the psalm that Jesus quoted while He was on the cross. The title of Psalm 22, taken from the first line, is “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” Though David wrote of his own afflictions, He also prophesied of Christ’s affliction.

Lam. 3:2 begins with אוֹתִי, oti, “me.”

In verse 2 the prophet asserts that it was not the Babylonians but God Himself who made him “walk in darkness.” Such dark times test one’s faith and hope, even as fire tests metal. God does not remove us from such times but preserves us through it. Such affliction brings faith to maturity and proves that our hope is genuine.

This reflects the heart of David as well, who wrote in Psalm 23:4,

⁴ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

Lam. 3:3 begins with אַךְ, akh, “surely, indeed.” Again, the prophet attributes his afflictions to God, not to Satan, nor even to the Babylonians. The underlying message in all three verses is the sovereignty (strength, power) of God.

The Beth (House) Revelation

Lam. 3:4-6 reads,

⁴ [ב] He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away, He has broken my bones. ⁵ [ב] He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship. ⁶ [ב] In dark places He has made me dwell, like those who have long been dead.

Beth is a house or household and includes the idea of being inside an enclosure. Beth is also the first letter of Gen. 1:1 (from beresheet), suggesting that God was creating a household and a place where His presence could dwell.

The first word in verse 4 is בִּלָּה, billah, “He has worn away, or wasted.” In Lam. 3:4, we see how one’s body is a personal house, as Paul described it in 2 Cor. 5: 2.

² For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven.

In this case the prophet’s “house,” being mortal, has been bruised and broken. Hence, his house is in need of repair and restoration.

The first word in verse 5 is בָּנָה, banah, “He has built against me.” The prophet felt “encompassed” by the walls of “bitterness and hardship,” even as a house encompasses a family in an enclosure.

The first word in verse 6 is בִּמְחֲשַׁכִּים, B’machashakim, “in dark places.” His dwelling is in the darkness of sheol, “like those who have long been dead.”

The Gimel (Camel) Revelation

Lam. 3:7-9 says,

⁷ [ג] He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy. ⁸ [ג] Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer. ⁹ [ג] He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.

Lam. 3:7 begins with the word גָּדַר, gadar, “walled in.”

The letter gimel was originally pictured as a camel neck and foot. Later it came to signify movement, walking, or carrying something. But here the prophet shows how his movements have been restricted within the darkness of his house. Like a man who has been imprisoned and chained, he says, “I cannot go out” (vs. 7).

Verse 8 begins with the word גַּם, gam, “even, also, too.” The prophet pictures a situation where calls for help are unheard or go unheeded. God Himself “shuts out my prayer.”

As an intercessor, Jeremiah tastes the experience of his fellow Judahites. God had already pronounced His verdict upon the rebellious people, saying in Jer. 7:15, 16,

¹⁵ I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the offspring of Ephraim. 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.

As in Lam. 3:7, verse 9 also begins with גָּדַר, gadar, “walled in,” or (in this case) “blocked my ways.” The walls that imprison him are made of hewn stone, and even if it were possible to escape, the way is crooked and misleading.

Hence, movement is severely restricted.