SUMMARY
Lamentations 4:21-22 along with 1:21-22 and 3:64-66 call upon God to punish those who have attacked the community.
ANALYSIS
Most of the pleas for change in Lamentations are directed at and to God. God must see, hear, and act. God must shift away from rejection and anger. But in three brief passages, the speakers in Lamentation demand that their enemies be held accountable for the destruction they have perpetrated, even though they were invited by God (2:22). These petitions are dependent on recognizing the shift in focus from punishment to suffering. Zion’s suffering marks the experience of rejection by God, and the longer the suffering persists the more it looks like God is absent and the enemies will have free reign in the lives of the community. The speakers demand that God punish the current evildoers just as God had punished and continues to punish ZionZion originally referred to a mountain near Jerusalem where David conquered a Jebusite stronghold. Later the term came to mean a number of other things like the Temple, Jerusalem, and even the Promised Land. More and Jerusalem for its rebellion. This is a zero-sum situation. If Edom or other enemies persist in their actions against the speakers, God is not paying attention. Dealing with Edom and others like it will be a sign that God has seen and considered the plight of the speakers. Apart from the extremity experienced by the speakers, these imprecations would quickly be become simply vengeful. In such extremity, however, they are a form of imploring God to change.
