Psalms 123:3-4

123:3 Show us favor, O Lord, show us favor!

For we have had our fill of humiliation, and then some. ¹ 

123:4 We have had our fill ² 

of the taunts of the self-assured,

of the contempt of the proud.

Lamentations 2:15-16

ס (Samek)

2:15 All who passed by on the road

clapped their hands to mock you. ³ 

They sneered and shook their heads

at Daughter Jerusalem.

“Ha! Is this the city they called ⁴ 

‘The perfection of beauty, ⁵ 

the source of joy of the whole earth!’?” ⁶ 

פ (Pe)

2:16 All your enemies

gloated over you. ⁷ 

They sneered and gnashed their teeth;

they said, “We have destroyed ⁸  her!

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

We have lived to see it!” ⁹ 

[123:3]  ¹ tn Heb “for greatly we are filled [with] humiliation.”

[123:4]  ² tn Heb “greatly our soul is full to it.”

[2:15]  ³ 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).

[2:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “of which they said.”

[2:15]  ⁵ 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.

[2:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “the joy of all the earth.” This is similar to statements found in Pss 48:2 and 50:2.

[2:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “they have opened wide their mouth against you.”

[2:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “We have swallowed!”

[2:16]  ⁹ 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.