The Violation of Jerusalem

Lamentations is multi-vocal: it includes a male narrator and בַּת צִיּוֹן [Bat Tzion], “daughter Zion,” the feminine personification of Jerusalem (chs. 1-2); the man [gever] (of ch. 3 and perhaps ch. 4), who is a survivor of the destruction and whom classical commentaries identify with Jeremiah; the collective voice of the people (predominant in the prayer of ch. 5, as well as ch. 4); and a lone woman’s voice (3:48–72, perhaps personified Jerusalem again).^[1]

The opening lament (ch. 1) presents a dialogue between the male narrator and Bat Tzion, a victim of sexual assault and a mother who has watched calamity befall her children. She sometimes concurs with the narrator’s judgment but more often resists it. Their exchange begins with the male narrator’s disquisition on Bat Tzion’s downfall, which he attributes to some unspecified sin:

‏^{איכה א:ח} חֵטְא חָטְאָה יְרוּשָׁלִַם עַל כֵּן לְנִידָה....

^{Lam 1:8a} Grievously has Jerusalem sinned, therefore she has been banished….^[2]

While her transgression is never named, the narrator is more explicit about her punishment. Adele Berlin renders נִידָה (niddah) as “banished,” from the rootנ.ו.ד , meaning “to wander.”^[3] The term, however, also connotes the state of impurity for a woman bleeding, such as a menstruant (in v. 17).^[4] Could the blood that would render her impure (niddah) be a consequence of sexual assault?^[5] This niddah is not associated with sin but with shame, as the rest of the verse intimates:

‏^{איכה א:ח} ...הָיָתָה כָּל מְכַבְּדֶיהָ הִזִּילוּהָ כִּי רָאוּ עֶרְוָתָהּ גַּם הִיא נֶאֶנְחָה וַתָּשָׁב אָחוֹר.

^{Lam 1:8b} …All who once respected her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; Indeed, she herself groans, and turns away.

The allusion to rape is more direct in the next verse:

^{איכה א:ט} טֻמְאָתָהּ בְּשׁוּלֶיהָ....

^{Lam 1:9a} Her impurity^[6] is on her skirts….

“Her impurity” uses the same root (ט.מ.א, “to be impure, unclean”) that describes Dinah’s “defilement” by Shechem:

^{בראשׁית לד:ה} וְיַעֲקֹב שָׁמַע כִּי טִמֵּא אֶת דִּינָה בִתּוֹ....

^{Gen 34:5} Now Jacob heard that he (Shechem) had defiled his daughter Dinah…. (cf. vv. 13, 27).^[7]

But the narrator in Lamentations implicates Bat Tzion, suggesting that she took risks she should not have, perhaps walking the streets alone at night, with “no regard for her future”:

^{איכה א:ט} ...לֹא זָכְרָה אַחֲרִיתָהּ וַתֵּרֶד פְּלָאִים אֵין מְנַחֵם לָהּ....

^{Lam 1:9a} …She had no regard for her future; and she has come down astonishingly,^[8] with none to comfort her….

As is common in the shame-blame language of rape culture, one might ask: “What was she wearing?” or “Was she drinking?”^[9] It is precisely on this distinction, between having sinned and being shamed, that Bat Tzion interrupts the narrator and cries out to YHWH:

^{איכה א:ט} ...רְאֵה יְ־הוָה אֶת עָנְיִי כִּי הִגְדִּיל אוֹיֵב.

^{Lam 1:9b} …“Look, O YHWH, upon my misery, for the enemy is triumphant!”

The rape imagery is intensified in the next verse, where the narrator’s description of the enemy spreading his hands connotes sexual groping as a metaphor for plundering the city:

‏^{איכה א:י} יָדוֹ פָּרַשׂ צָר עַל כָּל מַחֲמַדֶּיהָ....

^{Lam 1:10a} The foe spread his hand over all her treasures….

Her treasures (cf. 1:7, 2:4) may refer to the Temple treasures (1 Chron 36:10), but the term also carries erotic connotations, fraught with irony here, as the female speaker in Song of Songs uses the same word to describe her beloved:

^{שׁיר השׁירים ה:טז} חִכּוֹ מַמְתַקִּים וְכֻלּוֹ מַחֲּמַדִּים זֶה דוֹדִי וְזֶה רֵעִי בְּנוֹת יְרוּשָׁלִָם.

^{Song 5:16} His speech is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

The subsequent description of foreign invaders entering (בוא) her temple is suggestive of sexual penetration:

‏^{איכה א:י} ...כִּי רָאֲתָה גוֹיִם בָּאוּ מִקְדָּשָׁהּ אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתָה לֹא יָבֹאוּ בַקָּהָל לָךְ.

^{Lam 1:10b} …Indeed, she has seen the nations enter her temple, concerning whom you had commanded: “They shall not enter your assembly.”^[10]

Ezekiel similarly likens entering the Temple (23:39) to entering a prostitute:^[11]

^{יחזקאל כג:מד} וַיָּבוֹא אֵלֶיהָ כְּבוֹא אֶל אִשָּׁה זוֹנָה כֵּן בָּאוּ אֶל אָהֳלָה וְאֶל אָהֳלִיבָה אִשֹּׁת הַזִּמָּה.

^{Ezek 23:44} They have gone in to her as one goes in to a prostitute. Thus they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, wanton women.

Alan Mintz draws out the analogy between the female body and the Temple, but seems to corroborate the narrator’s implication of Bat Tzion in her own rape:

Fair Zion conducted herself with easy virtue and “gave no thought to her end” (1:8), so that what began as unwitting voluntary promiscuity, suddenly turned into unwished for, forcible defilement. The force of this image of violation is founded on the correspondence body//Temple and genitals//Inner Sanctuary. So far have things gone that even in the secret place of intimacy to which only the single sacred partner may be admitted, the enemy has thrust himself and “spread his hands over everything dear to her” (v. 10).^[12]

However, Bat Tzion, as a figura, is not wholly implicated in her debasement. The narrator does not accuse her of whoring or harlotry (as a metaphor for apostasy, as in Ezekiel 16 and 23 and Jeremiah 3), nor does he enumerate any moral transgressions (as in the description of Jerusalem as a whore in Isaiah 1).

Yet the imagery of the sexual assault and defilement of Bat Tzion is not merely a metaphor. It is well known that rape is used as a common tool in war to shame and humiliate the conquered people; it violates not only the women but also the men who are held responsible for protecting them.^[13] Hints of sexual violation run just below the surface of the text,^[14] but it is also mentioned explicitly:

^{איכה ה:יא} נָשִׁים בְּצִיּוֹן עִנּוּ בְּתֻלֹת בְּעָרֵי יְהוּדָה.

^{Lam 5:11} Women were raped in Zion, maidens in the cities of Judah.

Look and See! Refusing to Be Shamed

The blame embedded in the narrative voice is precisely what Bat Tzion resists in her direct plea. She insistently demands that YHWH look and see her suffering, and bear witness directly to her degradation:

‏^{איכה א:יא} ...רְאֵה יְ־הוָה וְהַבִּיטָה כִּי הָיִיתִי זוֹלֵלָה.

^{Lam 1:11b} …Look, YHWH, and see what a beggar^[15] I have become.

Her sense of worthlessness, loss of value or honor, may be a consequence of sexual violation. The litany of woe continues, as she describes YHWH handing her over to her enemies and allowing her warriors to be crushed (vv. 12–16). She concludes with a description of her defeated state:

^{איכה א:טז} עַל אֵלֶּה אֲנִי בוֹכִיָּה עֵינִי עֵינִי יֹרְדָה מַּיִם כִּי רָחַק מִמֶּנִּי מְנַחֵם מֵשִׁיב נַפְשִׁי הָיוּ בָנַי שׁוֹמֵמִים כִּי גָבַר אוֹיֵב.

^{Lam 1:16} For these things do I sob; my eyes, my eyes flow with water. For far from me is any comforter, anyone to keep me alive. My children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed.

Here the narrator interjects:

^{איכה א:יז} פֵּרְשָׂה צִיּוֹן בְּיָדֶיהָ אֵין מְנַחֵם לָהּ צִוָּה יְ־הוָה לְיַעֲקֹב סְבִיבָיו צָרָיו הָיְתָה יְרוּשָׁלִַם לְנִדָּה בֵּינֵיהֶם.

^{Lam 1:17} Zion spread out her hands, there is no comforter for her. YHWH has commanded for Jacob that those around him are his foes. Jerusalem has become a menstruating woman among them.

Now, instead of the enemy spreading their hands all over her, he observes that she is spreading her hands out in supplication to YHWH. He bemoans that that there is no one to comfort her. The calamity at the hands of the Babylonian invaders (generalized as Jacob’s “foes”) is by divine decree. Jerusalem has become a menstruant (נִדָּה): She is impure by her own blood, from slaughter or sexual assault, but she is also exiled or cut off (נוד) from all that surround her, echoing her isolation [nidah] in v. 8—“she has been banished” [עַל כֵּן לְנִידָה].

Bat Tzion then resumes her discourse, not because of his false accusation but, rather, in response to his sympathy. She opens with a general confession:

^{איכה א:יח} צַדִּיק הוּא יְ־הוָה כִּי פִיהוּ מָרִיתִי שִׁמְעוּ נָא כָל עַמִּים [הָעַמִּים] וּרְאוּ מַכְאֹבִי בְּתוּלֹתַי וּבַחוּרַי הָלְכוּ בַשֶּׁבִי.

^{Lam 1:18} YHWH is in the right, for I have rebelled against his mouth. Listen well, all you peoples, and see my pain. My maidens and youths have gone into captivity.

She acknowledges being deceived by her “lovers” (foreign allies):

^{איכה א:יט} קָרָאתִי לַמְאַהֲבַי הֵמָּה רִמּוּנִי כֹּהֲנַי וּזְקֵנַי בָּעִיר גָּוָעוּ כִּי בִקְשׁוּ אֹכֶל לָמוֹ וְיָשִׁיבוּ אֶת נַפְשָׁם.

^{Lam 1:19} I called to my lovers, they deceived me. My priests and elders expired in the city as they searched for food to sustain their life.

Throughout, she reasserts that people are dying from hunger and by the sword, while young men and women are dragged into captivity (v. 20). Now she appropriates the narrator’s language regarding the absence of someone to comfort her:

^{איכה א:כא} שָׁמְעוּ כִּי נֶאֱנָחָה אָנִי אֵין מְנַחֵם לִי כָּל אֹיְבַי שָׁמְעוּ רָעָתִי שָׂשׂוּ כִּי אַתָּה עָשִׂיתָ הֵבֵאתָ יוֹם קָרָאתָ וְיִהְיוּ כָמוֹנִי.

^{Lam 1:21} They heard that I was groaning, “There is no comforter for me.” All my enemies who heard my distress rejoiced that you had caused it. O bring the day that you have proclaimed, and let them be like me.

She concludes with a call for God to avenge her:

^{איכה א:כב} תָּבֹא כָל רָעָתָם לְפָנֶיךָ וְעוֹלֵל לָמוֹ כַּאֲשֶׁר עוֹלַלְתָּ לִי עַל כָּל פְּשָׁעָי כִּי רַבּוֹת אַנְחֹתַי וְלִבִּי דַוָּי.

^{Lam 1:22} Let their evildoing come before you, and do to them what you did to me for all my transgressions. For many are my groans, and my heart is languishing. (cf. 3:64–66; 4:21–22).

The Call for Compassion, Not Accountability

Over the course of chapter 2, we see the narrator more intensely expressing sympathy for the daughter figure, variously referred to as בַּת צִיּוֹן, Daughter Zion (e.g., 2:1), בַּת יְהוּדָה, Daughter Judah (e.g., 2:2), בַּת עַמִּי, “Daughter My People” (e.g., 2:11), and בַּת יְרוּשָׁלִַם, Daughter Jerusalem (e.g., 2:13). After the acrostic litany of destruction of the city, its Temple, and its leaders at YHWH’s hand (vv. 1–10), and a gruesome account of starvation, with children and babies collapsing in the city square and dying in their mother’s arms (vv. 11–12), the narrator finally calls out for a witness and a source of consolation:

^{איכה ב:יג} מָה אֲעִידֵךְ מָה אֲדַמֶּה לָּךְ הַבַּת יְרוּשָׁלִַם מָה אַשְׁוֶה לָּךְ וַאֲנַחֲמֵךְ בְּתוּלַת בַּת צִיּוֹן כִּי גָדוֹל כַּיָּם שִׁבְרֵךְ מִי יִרְפָּא לָךְ.

^{Lam 2:13} How can I affirm you (or bear witness to you), what can I liken to you, Dear Jerusalem? What can I compare to you so that I may console you, Dear Maiden Zion? For as vast as the sea is your devastation. Who can heal you?

The call to witness and to compare (or the impossibility thereof) will eventually draw Daughter Zion out of her isolation, like the contemporary answer of #IBelieveYou to victims of sexual assault in the #MeToo movement. It is the call, ultimately, to hear the daughter’s charge.

First, however, the narrator in chapter 2 continues to describe her current state, deceived by her own prophets (v. 14) and publicly scorned by her enemies (vv. 15–17). Eventually, he acknowledges that YHWH has more than fulfilled His punitive decree, and Bat Tzion is now “more sinned against than sinning”:^[16]

^{איכה ב:יז} עָשָׂה יְ־הוָה אֲשֶׁר זָמָם בִּצַּע אֶמְרָתוֹ אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה מִימֵי קֶדֶם הָרַס וְלֹא חָמָל וַיְשַׂמַּח עָלַיִךְ אוֹיֵב הֵרִים קֶרֶן צָרָיִךְ.

^{Lam 2:17} YHWH did what he planned, he carried out his word, as he ordained long ago. He destroyed and showed no mercy. And He made the enemy rejoice over you, He raised the horn of your foes.

When she finally speaks, Bat Tzion again calls upon YHWH to see her suffering:

‏^{איכה ב:כ} רְאֵה יְ־הוָה וְהַבִּיטָה לְמִי עוֹלַלְתָּ כֹּה אִם תֹּאכַלְנָה נָשִׁים פִּרְיָם עֹלֲלֵי טִפֻּחִים אִם יֵהָרֵג בְּמִקְדַּשׁ אֲדֹנָי כֹּהֵן וְנָבִיא.

^{Lam 2:20} See, YHWH, and look, to whom you have done this. Should women eat their own fruit, the little children they care for? Should priests and prophets be killed in the Lord’s sanctuary?

The gruesome image of cannibalism, of mothers eating their children (cf. 4:10) is the ultimate breach in human compassion, when the biological maternal bond is broken.

Her sins alone cannot justify the punishment that YHWH has inflicted upon her. The narrator’s implied accusation (in 1:8–9c, 10–11c) is intercepted by her plea for YHWH to bear witness (vv. 9d, 11d), shifting “the focus away from the issues of sin and guilt towards the experience of pain and suffering.”^[17] Lamentations is ultimately not a call for the people’s repentance but a call for YHWH’s compassion.

Yet YHWH is silent in Lamentations. One might read the scroll as a desperate attempt by many voices jostling to justify YHWH—a theodicy of retributive justice in which the people sinned and brought YHWH’s wrath upon themselves in this calamity (as in Lam 1:5, 8, 14, 20; 3:1-20; 4:13, 31-42, 5:7). At the same time, there is also a strong antitheodic thread, a refusal “to justify the ways of God to man.”^[18]

Bearing Witness

Tisha Be’Av commemorates the greatest tragedies that befell the Jewish people—the destruction of the First and Second Temples, repeated exiles and expulsions. To these I would add the most recent events of October 7^th. In one day, more than 1,200 men, women, and children (most of whom were civilians) were killed by Hamas terrorists, over 250 were captured and held for ransom in Gaza, often in appalling conditions.

Many women were subject to sexual abuse, gang rape, and mutilation before being slaughtered. It is their cry, the “scream before the silence” (to borrow Sheryl Sandberg’s title for her recent documentary) that commands me to listen. So too Bat Tzion cries out in Lamentations. Simply by hearing, bearing witness, we may participate in the process of healing, and thereby offer some comfort to her, who poignantly had none to comfort her. I take seriously the questions in Lamentations:

“How can I bear witness for you? What can I liken to you?…How can I comfort you?….Who can heal you?” (2:13)

These are not rhetorical questions, but genuine interrogatives about how we approach trauma in the biblical text, as in life. In the words of Theodor Adorno: “The need to lend a voice to suffering is a condition for all truth.”^[19]