Discovery BoxLamentations 2:5 
Contextה (He)
2:5 The Lord, 1 like an enemy,
destroyed 2 Israel.
He destroyed 3 all her palaces;
he ruined her 4 fortified cities.
He made everyone in Daughter Judah
mourn and lament. 5
Lamentations 4:12
Contextל (Lamed)
4:12 Neither the kings of the earth
nor the people of the lands 6 ever thought 7
that enemy or foe would enter
1 tc The MT reads אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “the Lord”) here rather than יהוה (YHWH, “the
2 tn Heb “swallowed up.”
3 tn Heb “swallowed up.”
4 tn Heb “his.” For consistency this has been translated as “her.”
5 tn Heb “He increased in Daughter Judah mourning and lamentation.”
6 tn Heb “inhabitants of the mainland.”
7 tn Heb “they did not believe that.” The verb הֶאֱמִינוּ (he’eminu), Hiphil perfect 3rd person common plural from אָמַן (’aman, “to believe”), ordinarily is a term of faith and trust, but occasionally it functions cognitively: “to think that” (Job 9:16; 15:22; Ps 116:10; Lam 4:12) and “to be convinced that” (Ps 27:13) (HALOT 64 s.v. I אמן hif.1). The semantic relationship between “to believe” = “to think” is metonymical, that is, effect for cause.
8 sn The expression “to enter the gates” of a city is an idiom referring to the military conquest of that city. Ancient Near Eastern fortified cities typically featured double and sometimes triple city gates – the bulwark of the defense of the city. Because fortified cities were enclosed with protective walls, the Achilles tendon of every city was the city gates – the weak point in the defense and the perennial point of attack by enemies (e.g., Judg 5:8, 11; 1 Sam 17:52; Isa 29:6; Jer 17:27; 51:54; Ezek 21:20, 27; Mic 1:9, 12; Neh 1:3; 2:3, 13, 17).
9 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
