The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword; you have slain them in the day of your anger; you have killed, and not pitied.
All Commentaries on Lamentations 2:21 Go To Lamentations 2
Thomas Aquinas
AD 1274
Here is proclaimed a universality of punishment. About this three more views are advanced. First is viewed common punishment for everyone. As said: "in the dust of the streets", That is, the dead: "the young and the old," Namely, the strong ones, inside and outside the city. For, Jeremiah 51:22 declares: "with you I break in pieces man and woman; with you I break in pieces the old man and the youth; with you I break in pieces the young man and the maiden."
Second, the indignation of the person punishing is reckoned. For, it says: "In the day of thy anger thou hast slain them, slaughtering without mercy." Namely, by thy authority, yet by the ministry of the Chaldeans. Since, Isaiah 63:3 says: "I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath."
Third, any idea of mercy, or pity, is excluded. As stated: "slaughtering without mercy." And as Deuteronomy 32:39 states: "See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god besides me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand." Also, Job 5:19 says: "He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven there shall no evil touch you."
