How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!
All Commentaries on Lamentations 2:1 Go To Lamentations 2
Thomas Aquinas
AD 1274
The destruction of the city, (Jerusalem), the people, and the entire city is lamented.
So, this Verse 1 is divided into two parts. First is deplored destruction itself, second the desperation of the people becomes exclusive. As later expressed in Chapter 3:1: "1 am the.man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath
The idea of destruction itself has two views. First, misery from destruction is lamented, second, the inward destruction to oneself beseeches divine mercy. As the later Verse 18 says: "Cry aloud to the Lord! O daughter of Zion."
On the misery from inward destruction to oneself two more notions are presented. First is lamented destruction in general, second in particular. As Verse 2 states: "The Lord has destroyed without mercy all the habitations of Jacob."
Regarding destruction in general it is wondered at, due to the multiple glory that preceeded it. First the prerogative as to divine knowledge. Since, Psalm (147):20: "He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they donot know his ordinances. Praise the Lord!"
The contrary is within Verse 1: "How the Lord in his anger has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud!" Namely, within ignorance and sadness. As Isaiah 59:9 declares: "We look for light, and behold darkness, and for brightnes, but we walk in gloom."
Second is the particular destruction in relation to the power of royal dignity. The Book of I Esdras 4:20 so states: "And mighty kings have been over Jerusalem, who ruled over the whole province Beyond the River, to whom trubute, custom, and toll were paid." Thus, Verse 1 continues: He hast cast down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel."
Such is the end of royal dignity and power, or heavenly conversation. As Revelation 6:13 declares: "and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale."
Third is the destruction in reference to the cult of divine instruction, or religion. So Psalm l44(l43):15 claims: "Happy the people to whom such blessings fall! Happy the people whose God is the Lord."
In contrary, Verse 1 records: "he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger." That is, not remembered in goodness, the footstool of his footstool, within which he (the Lord) is adored, like a king is reverenced around the footstool beneath his feet.
As the prophet Ezekiel 43:7 states: "and he said to me, 'Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel for ever'".
