Lamentations 2:11-22
How great is the prophet’s desolation at the picture portrayed in the previous verses. He cannot stop his tears from flowing in the presence of the ruin which is "great like the sea" (v. 13). The Lord Jesus also wept over Jerusalem, as He knew in advance what the consequences of His rejection would be for the guilty city (Luke 19:41 . . .).
If the kings, the princes, the priests, the false prophets (v. 14) and the majority of the people deserved these blows which befell them, there are also many others who suffer without being directly responsible. Babies die of hunger; old people and young children collapse in the streets from lack of food (vv. 11, 19, 21). However, Jeremiah does not ask for any reason why. He puts himself "in the breach" (Psalms 106:23) on the behalf of the people whom he loves.
Vv. 15, 16 again present to us those who "pass by". But here it is not only a matter of indifference, as in Lamentations 1:12. This time they wag their heads, gnash their teeth, stare shamelessly, hurl insults and scorn. The Lord Jesus, the holy Victim, during those hours of His crucifixion, experienced all these expressions of man’s wickedness (Psalms 22:7-8; Psalms 35:21).