In the remainder of chapter 2, the poet continues the thought of the appeal made to Jerusalem to pray in verse 19, by giving the content of Jerusalem’s prayer. Jerusalem appeals to the LORD to look at what is happening, as she did in 1.11.
In this verse, after the request to the LORD to look at what is taking place in the first unit, the second and third units are structurally parallel, and each expresses a question of disbelief (Revised Standard Version).
Look, O LORD, and see! opens the plea in which Jerusalem calls out for the LORD to see how he is causing her to suffer.
With whom hast thou dealt thus? may mean, as New International Version says, “Whom have you ever treated like this?” or in other words, “Have you ever made anyone suffer as I am suffering?” Another interpretation makes a contrast between Israel’s position as God’s chosen people and the horrors Jerusalem is now going through. In this case the expression can be, for example, “Remember who it is you are doing this to!” AB translates “… consider whom you have treated so,” and New Jerusalem Bible “See … To whom You have done this.” Lying behind these words is the question of how God’s promises to his people can be reconciled with his present treatment of them. That treatment is described in the rest of the verse and takes the form of two questions.
Should women eat their offspring…?: in Hebrew this expression is made up of a particle followed by the imperfect form of the verb, a construction which translators handle in various ways. AB suggests that these forms may be translated as questions of disbelief, which may be rendered in English, for example, “Can it be that women eat their children?” or “Is it really possible that women can eat their own children?” Bible en français courant translates “Can women go so far as to eat their children?” and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy asks “Should mothers have to eat their own children?” In other words these events are looked upon as unbelievable, and translators are encouraged to translate them in this mode.
Their offspring translates the Hebrew “their fruit,” a general term to be followed by what that term really refers to, children. New English Bible expresses this as “the fruit of their wombs.” Translators may be able to use a general term that lends itself to poetry here, but they should not force images that will not be correctly understood.
The children of their tender care: children matches offspring in the previous half-line. For translation notes on children, see 1.5. Of their tender care means “whom they have raised, cared for, given affection to, loved.”
Should priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?: this question should follow the construction used in the unit: “Should women eat…?” Here the unbelievable aspect is that priests and prophets who ministered in the Temple were not safe in God’s own house, but rather were murdered there. For priest see 1.4, and for prophet see 2.9. For sanctuary see 1.10.
The final unit of this verse may be translated, for example, “Can it be that priests and prophets are killed even in the Lord’s Temple?” or in the active voice, “Is it possible that the enemy kills the priests and prophets in the Lord’s own Temple?”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .