Lamentations 2:5

The Lord was as an enemy ,.... Who formerly was on their side, their God and guardian, their protector and deliverer, but now against them; and a terrible thing it is to have God for an enemy, or even to be as one; this is repeated, as being exceeding distressing, and even intolerable. Mr. Broughton renders it, "the Lord is become a very enemy"; taking "caph" for a note of reality, and not of similitude;

he hath swallowed up Israel ; the ten tribes, or the Jewish nation in general; as a lion, or any other savage beast, swallows its prey, and makes nothing of it, and leaves none behind:

he hath swallowed up all her palaces : the palaces of Zion or Jerusalem; the palaces of the king, princes, nobles, and great men; as an earthquake or inundation swallows up whole streets and cities at once; See Gill on Lamentations 2:2 ;

he hath destroyed his strong holds : the fortified places of the land of Israel, the towers and castles:

and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation ; exceeding great lamentation, for the destruction of its cities, towns, villages, and the inhabitants of them.