Eikha Chapter 1, Part 9: Verses 12-15

The second part of this chapter (verses 12-22) features Jerusalem, who recounts her anguish in the first person (with the exception of verse 17).

 

In the first part of the chapter, we observed Jerusalem from the outside, judging and censuring her. When Jerusalem begins to speak, she springs to life, sharing the depths of her pain. We no longer regard her with disapproval; instead, we are party to her agony, experiencing it alongside her. In Jerusalem’s direct plea to the passersby, “Look and see! Is there any pain like my pain?” she appeals also to us, the readers, eliciting our attention and giving us pause to consider her suffering.

 

The advent of Jerusalem’s personal perspective shifts the narrative in other ways as well. In verse 5, the narrator balances his description of God’s destructive role (ki Hashem hoga) with an explanatory statement that focuses on Israel’s transgressions (al rov pesha’eha). Jerusalem uses a nearly identical phrase in verse 12 to describe God’s punitive acts (asher hoga Hashem). Nevertheless, Jerusalem follows this description with the explanatory, be-yom charon apo, “on the day of His great anger.” God’s justice disappears from Jerusalem’s account, replaced by her claim that God’s anger triggers His acts. Perhaps Jerusalem’s misery obscures her ability to recognize the justness of God’s action. Possibly, however, she remains unconvinced that her sins warrant this terrible recompense, illustrating how difficult it is for Jerusalem to assume responsibility.

 

Jerusalem seems to posit that God singled her out for punishment. The word “me” (li) appears as a direct object of God’s acts (olal li), hinting to this disquieting notion. A midrash regards Jerusalem’s words as a complaint:

 

 

The prophet Amos unabashedly asserts that God does behave in a more exacting fashion with His chosen nation:

 

 

God selected the children of Israel in order to cultivate a unique relationship with them. Chosen-ness entails both advantages and obligations. Closeness to God requires more vigilance; God expects more from those whom He nurtures and loves.[2]

 

The next few verses contain a bold description of God’s punishments. These expressions, while characteristic of Eikha (and often found elsewhere in Tanakh), offer a harsh portrait of God. Taking our cues from Eikha, we will interpret these verses without sparing the reader, while attempting to grapple with some of the delicate issues that they raise.

Turning her attention to God, Jerusalem describes the day of God’s anger. Richly drawn metaphors impart the variety and force of these torments. First, God sends a fire from His heavenly abode, which penetrates her bones and overpowers the city.[4] God spreads a metaphoric net for Jerusalem’s feet, causing her to retreat backward.[5] Twisted into a thick rope,[6] God wraps Jerusalem’s transgressions around her neck like a yoke, draining the city of its potency. Like a winepress, God tramples upon Jerusalem,[7] squeezing out its vigor, as wine bleeds out of grapes. Depleted of her strength, Jerusalem collapses, without energy to rise.

 

In the span of just three verses, God employs a wide range of actions – scorching, trapping, choking, and crushing the people. The afflicted city retreats, languishes, and falls, battered mercilessly from all directions.

 

God’s acts seem premeditated; nets suggest foresight and planning. Moreover, verse 15 depicts God planning the events in advance, by designating an appointed time (mo’ed)[8] to break Jerusalem’s young strong men.

 

 

The description of Jerusalem’s afflictions evokes the typical manner in which enemies conquer and destroy a city. They set fire to the buildings, capture the inhabitants, place a yoke on their neck,[9] kill the young strong men, and trample on the ruins of the razed city. In Jerusalem’s account, the human intermediary vanishes; Jerusalem identifies God as the sole agent of her destruction.

 

Events that the narrator had previously attributed to human agency reappear in Jerusalem’s description; the city, however, shifts the responsibility from the human enemy to God. In contrast to the narrator’s account, Jerusalem maintains that God causes Jerusalem’s desolation,[10] her failing strength,[11] her downward fall,[12] and the abuse of her young people.[13] Even Jerusalem’s recoil backwards, previously (in verse 8) ascribed to her own self-loathing, is here recast as God’s doing (verse 13). The word paras, previously used to describe the enemy’s hand closing in on Jerusalem (verse 10), now features God, carefully spreading the net that will entrap Jerusalem’s feet (verse 13).

 

 

God’s affliction of Jerusalem linguistically (and ironically) evokes the ideal biblical relationship, in which God protects Israel from these specific travails and uses them to punish Israel’s enemies. In this section, God makes Jerusalem desolate (1:14); in Isaiah 49:8, God repopulates Israel’s desolate areas.[14] Instead of spreading out a net to trip Jerusalem (1:13), Tehillim 25:15 and 31:5 describe God delivering individuals from the nets that entrap them. Isaiah 9:3 and Jeremiah 2:20 portray God breaking the yoke that has been placed on Israel, instead of twisting a yoke around their neck (1:14). God elsewhere deploys measures that he wields here against Jerusalem in a different protective context – to punish Israel’s enemies. God uses fire to destroy Israel’s adversaries (e.g. Amos 1:3-2:5; Ezekiel 39:6), sends Israel’s enemies reeling backward (e.g. Tehillim 9:4; 56:10), and crushes Israel’s foes by stomping on them like a winepress (e.g. Isaiah 63:3; Joel 4:13). The day of God’s anger is often depicted as a day of punishment for Israel’s enemies (e.g. Isaiah 13:13; Tehillim 110:5). In this way, the book ominously depicts the breakdown of the protective relationship between God and His nation.

 

It is particularly noteworthy (and unsettling) that Jerusalem does not address God directly in this passage; she does not implore Him to rectify the situation. Instead, Jerusalem speaks about God in the third person, underscoring the alienation that prevails between Jerusalem and God.

 

Nevertheless, prophets often warned that God’s day of anger threatens a sinful Israel as well.[15] Undoubtedly then, if these punishments are brandished against Israel, they must be somewhat responsible. Despite Jerusalem’s tone of outrage (and her difficulty in assuming responsibility, as noted above in our examination of verse 12), one glimmer of self-accountability disrupts Jerusalem’s litany of God’s excessive torments. God depletes Jerusalem’s strength by winding a twisted rope around her neck. Jerusalem’s transgressions (pesha’ai) constitute the material used in weaving this cord; had she been blameless, God would not have had the means to manufacture this instrument of torture. In fact, the word pesha is the very word omitted by Jerusalem in verse 12, as noted above. Although Jerusalem does not properly confess, her description of this cord of twisted sins gives us pause to consider its implications. The ruined city may well suffer beyond reason, but she cannot pretend to be entirely innocent of sin. Jerusalem moves steadily toward the goal of this chapter: admission of sinfulness.

 

 

The metaphor of God trampling on Judah like grapes in a winepress is vivid and violent. The color and viscosity of the liquid that emerges from the crushed grapes pictorially evokes the blood of the victims. It also (as noted) recalls similar metaphoric language used to describe the punishment of Israel’s enemies. Isaiah 63:1-6 employs this image to depict God crushing Edom like one tramples on grapes in a winepress; Edom’s red blood splatters, soiling the environs.[16] Similarly, Joel 4:13 describes a winepress overflowing with the blood of unnamed nations, evil enemies of Israel. Now, Israel experiences a stunning blow, as God directs against Israel the punishments that He previously aimed at Israel’s enemies.

 

The wine image, however, recalls other, more promising biblical metaphors.[17] Often described as a grapevine, a vineyard or grapes, the Bible uses this metaphor to hint to Israel’s ultimate objective:[18]

 

 

Israel’s likeness to a vine contains several layers of meaning. The vineyard produces wine, a highly desirable product.[20] It has a regal association and may suggest Israel’s princely status among nations.[21] It is also associated specifically with Judah (Bereishit 49:11), the kingship tribe whose ancestral land produces grapes. Although the crushed grapes in the winepress is undoubtedly a punitive image, it implicitly recalls hopeful times, a national ideal.

 

Wine intoxicates, and while it can create a higher state of consciousness, it often reduces humans to a state of crudeness and impropriety (e.g. Hosea 4:11). In fact, the vineyard retains the potential to produce greatness or baseness, nobility or vulgarity. Thus, the vineyard image frequently becomes negative, and prophets bemoan the manner in which the metaphoric vineyard betrays its owner. Despite the favorable conditions and God’s tireless labor on behalf of His vineyard (Israel), the vines sometimes produce inferior fruit. Several prophets employs this metaphor to describe Israel’s failure:[22]

 

 

As punishment to the vineyard, God opens its protective barriers, allowing the enemies inside to trample the ground and consume the fruits (Isaiah 5:5; Tehillim 80:13-14). A related punishment emerges in Eikha 1:15, where God tramples Judah in a winepress, evoking Israel’s failure as a vineyard.

 

Nevertheless, the trampling of grapes may hint to a positive aspect to this punishment. In the ancient world, the process of making wine involved stepping carefully on the ripened grapes, thereby releasing the red liquid without crushing the seeds. Rather than an image of wanton, unmediated violence, this image may suggest a careful balance of delicacy and clout. God tramples Judah, administering His punishment on the day of His anger. Nevertheless, it appears to be a measured act, designed not to crush the people entirely. Isaiah’s prophecy hints to a similar idea:

 

 

When viewed within its broader biblical context, the metaphor in which God crushes Israel like grapes recalls the vineyard that God planted in the land, the hopes that it will produce fine grapes, and the bid to construct a regal and noble society. We also recall the poignant plea of Psalm 80, expressing the hope that God will return to favor His beloved vine: