Lamentations 2:15-16

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Lamentations 2:15 tn Heb “clap their hands at you.” Clapping hands at someone was an expression of malicious glee, derision, and mockery (Num 24:10; Job 27:23; Lam 2:15).
2. Lamentations 2:15 tn Heb “of which they said.”
3. Lamentations 2:15 tn Heb “perfection of beauty.” The noun יֹפִי (yofi, “beauty”) functions as a genitive of respect in relation to the preceding construct noun: Jerusalem was perfect in respect to its physical beauty.
4. Lamentations 2:15 tn Heb “the joy of all the earth.” This is similar to statements found in Pss 48:2 and 50:2.
5. Lamentations 2:16 tn Heb “they have opened wide their mouth against you.”
6. Lamentations 2:16 tn Heb “We have swallowed!”
7. Lamentations 2:16 tn Heb “We have attained; we have seen!” The verbs מָצָאנוּ רָאִינוּ (matsaʾnu raʾinu) form a verbal hendiadys in which the first retains its full verbal sense and the second functions as an object complement. It forms a Hebrew idiom that means something like, “We have lived to see it!” The three asyndetic first person common plural statements in 2:16 (“We waited; we destroyed; we saw!”) are spoken in an impassioned, staccato style reflecting the delight of the conquerors.