3:24 From earliest times our worship of that shameful god, Baal,
has taken away 1 all that our ancestors 2 worked for.
It has taken away our flocks and our herds,
and even our sons and daughters.
9:21 ‘Death has climbed in 3 through our windows.
It has entered into our fortified houses.
It has taken away our children who play in the streets.
It has taken away our young men who gather in the city squares.’
1 tn Heb “From our youth the shameful thing has eaten up…” The shameful thing is specifically identified as Baal in Jer 11:13. Compare also the shift in certain names such as Ishbaal (“man of Baal”) to Ishbosheth (“man of shame”).
2 tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 25).
3 sn Here Death is personified (treated as though it were a person). Some have seen as possible background to this lament an allusion to Mesopotamian mythology where the demon Lamastu climbs in through the windows of houses and over their walls to kill children and babies.