Her gates are sunk into the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the nations: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.
All Commentaries on Lamentations 2:9 Go To Lamentations 2
Thomas Aquinas
AD 1274
Verse 9 thus refers: "Her gates have sunk into the ground", That is, the ground filled with tribulations, and so unable to be torn up. Psalm 69(68):2 thus states: I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold." Again: "her gates", That is, the kings for whom there is the power of a judge who is exercised at the gates, (of the city, Jerusalem). Also: "he has ruined and broken her bars." That is by capturing and leading her into captivity. So: "her bars", namely princes in whom the kingdom is entrusted regarding its gates and bars.
Then is declared: "her king and princes are among the nations." For, Psalm l07(106):l6 claims: "For he shatters the doors of bronze, and cuts into the bars of iron." Besides, Isaiah 3:26 asserts: "And her gates shall lament and mourn; ravaged, she shall sit upon the ground."
Second, regarding humankind's dignity, spiritual princes like priests, are referred to. Then is said: "the law is no more". That is, through the teachings of priests. Like the prophet Malachi 2:7 proclaims: "For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts."
Finally Verse 9 states: "and her prophets obtain no vision from the Lord." And as Psalm 74(73):9 declares: "We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long."
