Like Water Before the Lord

The second poem is the most intense in the book. Its first section describes the Lord acting as an enemy against his own city: he cut off Israel's strength, swallowed up its palaces, and cast off his altar. The temple, once the place of God's presence, became like a garden hut torn down. Feasts and Sabbaths were forgotten, and the king and priests were rejected.

The poet then speaks of his own grief. My eyes fail with tears. He sees the suffering of children and asks what he can compare Zion's ruin to; it is as vast as the sea. He names a key cause: Your prophets have seen false and foolish visions for you. They have not uncovered your iniquity, to reverse your captivity.

Verse 17 states the theology plainly: Yahweh has done that which he planned. He has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old. This echoes the warnings of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. Yet the response called for is prayer, not despair. The wall of Zion is told to let tears run down like a river, to pour out the heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lament takes God's judgment seriously and still turns toward him.