Lamentations 2:16

פ (Pe)

2:16 All your enemies

gloated over you. ¹ 

They sneered and gnashed their teeth;

they said, “We have destroyed ²  her!

Ha! We have waited a long time for this day.

We have lived to see it!” ³ 

Lamentations 4:21

The Prophet Speaks:

ש (Sin/Shin)

4:21 Rejoice and be glad for now, ⁴  O people of Edom, ⁵ 

who reside in the land of Uz.

But the cup of judgment ⁶  will pass ⁷  to you also;

you will get drunk and take off your clothes.

[2:16]  ¹ tn Heb “they have opened wide their mouth against you.”

[2:16]  ² tn Heb “We have swallowed!”

[2:16]  ³ tn Heb “We have attained, we have seen!” The verbs מָצָאנוּ רָאִינוּ (matsa’nu ra’inu) 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 1st 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.

[4:21]  ⁴ tn The phrase “for now” is added in the translation to highlight the implied contrast between the present joy of the Gentiles (4:21a) and their future judgment (4:21b).

[4:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “O Daughter of Edom.”

[4:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “the cup.” Judgment is often depicted as a cup of wine that God forces a person to drink, causing him to lose consciousness, red wine drooling out of his mouth – resembling corpses lying on the ground as a result of the actual onslaught of the Lord’s judgment. The drunkard will reel and stagger, causing bodily injury to himself – an apt metaphor to describe the devastating effects of God’s judgment. Just as a cup of poison kills all those who are forced to drink it, the cup of God’s wrath destroys all those who must drink it (e.g., Ps 75:9; Isa 51:17, 22; Jer 25:15, 17, 28; 49:12; 51:7; Lam 4:21; Ezek 23:33; Hab 2:16).

[4:21]  ⁷ tn The imperfect verb “will pass” may also be a jussive, continuing the element of request, “let the cup pass…”