Lamentations 2:20

THE PEOPLE'S CRY TO GOD FOR HELP

"See, O Jehovah, and behold to whom thou hast done thus!

Shall the women eat their fruit,

the children that are dandled in the hands?

Shall the priest and the people be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets;

My virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword:

Thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger;

thou hast slaughtered, and not pitied.

Thou hast called, as in the day of a solemn assembly,

my terrors on every side;

And there was none that escaped or remained

in the day of Jehovah's anger:

Those that I dandled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed."

This heart-breaking prayer does not request any specific thing as God's response; it merely pleads for God's attention and consideration of this terrible plight of his people.

"Behold to whom thou hast done thus" (Lamentations 2:20). This does not spell out what was in the minds of the people. They are pleading: "Look God, we are the children of Abraham, through whom Thou hast promised blessings to all mankind! We are the people you rescued from Egypt! We are those to whom you gave the land of Canaan! We are thy Chosen People! Just look at us now!

"Shall the women eat their fruit" (Lamentations 2:20)? Such a terrible thing had actually happened in Israel's history (2 Kings 6:28-29). "The fruit here is the children."[24]

Matthew Henry's words regarding this prayer are priceless:

"Prayer is a salve for very sore, even the sorest, a remedy for every malady, even the most grievous. And our business in prayer is not to prescribe, but to subscribe to the wisdom and will of God; to refer our case to Him and to leave it with Him. Lord, behold and consider, and thy will be done."[25]