Daughter Zion and Weeping in Lamentations 1–2

1. Introduction

Lamentations begins with the striking image of a lonely woman sitting and weeping with ‘her tears upon her cheeks’. The LXX version mirrors this image by introducing the work as a prophet's lament spoken as ‘Jeremiah sat weeping’. Tears powerfully communicate distress and the need for consolation and help. References to weeping in Lamentations use words to draw on the non-verbal eloquence of tears to communicate intense pain and the need for assistance. The motif of weeping in Lamentations 1 and 2 is inextricably bound up with the personification of Jerusalem. She weeps herself, and motivates empathetic weeping. All of this crying is further connected to the suffering and death of children. The interconnected functions of personification, weeping, and the suffering of children in Lamentations have not been fully appreciated because the device of personification has often been understood too literally, emptied of its feminine and relational aspects, and not addressed through the details of the text. Furthermore, the motif of weeping has never been a focus of research. ¹

The present article will first articulate how the text establishes the device of personification within Lamentations 1 and 2 and identifies Zion as both a daughter like the suffering children and a mother like the bereaved mothers. Next, the article addresses two problems with understanding the expression ‘daughter Zion’: some empty ‭תב‬ of its feminine and relational meaning and reduce it to a term of endearment (e.g. ‘dear Zion’), while others think too literally of Zion as an actual daughter (i.e. of God). She is rather a personification that draws on the realities of ancient daughters in kinship systems to highlight Zion's vulnerability and induce empathy for her. Once aspects of the personification are clarified, section 4 describes how the personified Zion heightens the emotional impact of the poetry and allows the poet to offer comfort to the people through the communal and maternal image of Zion. As a daughter, Zion shares solidarity with the suffering children of Jerusalem, and as mother of the people, she weeps for her desolate children and inspires the narrator to weep empathetically. All these references to weeping occur with specific reference to the death of children.

2. The Personification of Jerusalem

Scholars frequently refer to the device of personification in Lamentations 1 and 2, but do not examine in detail how the text establishes this device. ² These textual details, however, are important for understanding ‘daughter Zion’, her relationships to other entities, her function in the poems, and her connection to the motif of weeping. Since each chapter is a complete acrostic poem and there are significant differences between them, I will discuss them separately.

Lamentations 1 opens with the image of an isolated city (‭דיעה‬, 1.1) that was once a princess (‭יתבך‬, ‭יתךש‬, 1.1), but is now like a widow (‭הנםלאב‬, 1.1). The passage refers to this female figure through several titles, noun phrases, and an array of independent and suffixed pronouns. She is most remembered as ‘daughter Zion’ (‭ךזיצתב‬, 1.6), a figure known from prophetic texts that also personify Jerusalem (e.g. Isa. 1.8; 52.2; Jer. 4.31; 6.2). She is also called ‘virgin daughter Judah’ (‭הדזהי‬ ‭תב‬ ‭תלזתב‬, 1.15), ³ and should be understood as the referent of ‘Zion’ (1.4, 17), ‘Jerusalem’ (1.7, 8, 17), ‘the city’ (1.1), ‘princess’ (1.1) and ‘widow’ (1.1) as well as the many third-person feminine pronouns in 1.1–11 and 1.17 and the first-person pronouns in 1.9b, 11b–22. There are three places where other figures may intrude. Lam. 1.17 says ‘Yhwh commanded concerning Jacob that his neighbors be his enemies’. This statement is sandwiched between statements about Zion and Jerusalem without an evident change of subject/topic, so ‘Jacob’ should be understood as another reference to the personification of Jerusalem, here representing the whole nation of Israel. ⁴ In Lam. 1.3, the whole stanza refers to Judah and describes the flight of many Judeans to neighboring nations in search of refuge, and not the Babylonian exile as is often assumed. ⁵ The verse personifies Judah, who, like Jacob in v. 17, should not be understood as a separate entity from Zion. ⁶ Elsewhere, it is clear that the personification of Zion includes those who have left the land (1.5, 18). Similarly, ‘the roads of Zion mourn’ (1.4) is also an extension of the personification of Jerusalem rather than a separate figure. ⁷ The only personifications independent of Zion may appear in Lam. 1.20. ⁸

The personification of Jerusalem is clear from the human traits the text attributes to her. Her human-like relationships with other nations are described in terms of friends (‭היעד‬, 1.2), lovers (‭היבהא‬, 1.2; cf. 1.19), masters (‭שאד‬, 1.1), adversaries (‭הידצ‬, 1.5; cf. 1.7 [×2], 10, 17), and enemies (‭ביא‬, 1.2, 5, 9, 16, 21). ⁹ Like a person, she speaks (1.9b, 11b–22), groans (1.22), wears clothing (1.9), commits sin (1.14), has life (1.16), thinks of her future (1.9), and has body parts: cheeks (1.2), bones (1.13), feet (1.13), neck (1.14), eyes (1.16), hands (1.17), belly (1.20), and heart (1.20, 22). These human features are applied to Jerusalem in the course of describing how she suffers like a human. At the same time, she is clearly identified as a city (1.1) and has gates (1.4) and a sanctuary (1.10). Similarly, ‘Judah’ in Lam. 1.3 goes into exile, sits/dwells, does not find peace, and is pursued, which are all actions of people rather than lands. Furthermore, the roads to Zion mourn (1.4). As noted above, Judah and the roads are part of the larger figure of Zion. Naomi Seidman speaks of Zion as the ‘city-woman’ given the mix of human and architectural attributes evident in the text. ¹⁰

Jerusalem's relationships to those outside the community of Judah were noted above in terms of friends and enemies. Many phrases also identify Zion's relationship to those within the community also employing possessive suffixes: ‘her young women’ (1.4), ‘her little ones’ (1.5), ‘her leaders’ (1.6), ‘her people’ (‭הםע‬, 1.7, 11), ‘my strong men’ (1.15), ‘my young men’ (1.15), ‘my children’ (‭ינב‬, 1.16), ‘my young women and my young men’ (1.18), ‘my priests and my elders’ (1.19). Two of these expressions seem to encompass the population as a whole: ‘her people’ and ‘my children’. Zion uses a suffixed relational term, ‭ינב‬, to identify herself as the mother of the population of the city and the several non-relational terms appear to be subsumed under this broader umbrella of ‘my children’. ¹¹ In other words, the expression in 1.16 does not imply that the people envisioned are young, as the expression in 1.5 does. But unlike ‭היללזע‬ in 1.5, ‭ינב‬ does specify that Zion is the mother of those identified as ‭םינב‬. Thus, the suffering of various segments of the population affects Zion the way that the suffering of children affects their mother. This point is significant because it connects to the motif of weeping and the debated issue of how to understand the expression ‭ןזיצ‬ ‭תב‬ (see below).

Lamentations 2 also personifies Jerusalem with several familiar titles: ‘daughter Zion’ (2.1, 4, 5, 8, 10), ‘virgin daughter Zion’ (2.13), ‘Zion’ (2.6), ‘daughter Jerusalem’ (2.13, 15), and ‘Jerusalem’ (2.10). As in ch. 1, the references to ‘daughter Judah’ (2.2, 5), ‘Israel’ (2.1, 3, 5), and ‘Jacob’ (2.2, 3) refer to the same personified figure since Zion is understood to represent the whole community of Israel, and not only Jerusalem. Indeed, ‘Israel’ is understood as feminine in 2.5. ¹² Zion strictly referred to a part of Jerusalem but is well established as a term for the city as a whole (e.g. Isa. 10.24; 33.20; Pss. 51.20; 87.2). By a similar metonymy Zion encompasses Judah and Israel/Jacob (cf. Isa. 51.3, where Zion has waste places, wilderness, and desert). The expression ‘my daughter people’ (‭יטעתב‬, 2.11) also refers to personified Zion. ¹³ After v. 5, the references to Judah, Israel, and Jacob vanish and feminine pronominal forms that refer to Zion become frequent in vv. 9–10. ¹⁴ The figure continues throughout the rest of the poem, and Zion herself speaks in 2.20–22.

Where ch. 1 had many examples of Zion assuming human-like qualities that established the personification, ch. 2 has fewer. Rather, the speaker focuses much more on her architectural features: mansions (1.5, 7), strongholds (1.5), wall (2.8, 18), gates (2.9), and bars (2.9). However, Zion does have some human qualities that establish the personification. She speaks (2.20–22) and is spoken to (2.13–19), she can be comforted and healed (2.13), she has guilt (2.14), and she weeps (2.18–19). Lam. 2.8 briefly personifies wall and rampart as grieving. The wall is further personified in 2.18, but like the roads of Zion in Lamentations 1.4, these references should be read as part of the personification of Jerusalem, not as separate figures. Later in the poem, the speaker shifts attention from architecture to the inhabitants of the city. The language accords with ch. 1 and indicates segments of the population as belonging to Zion as to a mother: ‘her king and her rulers’ (2.9), ‘her prophets’ (2.9), ‘the elders of the daughter of Zion’ (2.10; cf. 1.19), ‘the young women of Jerusalem’ (2.10; cf. 1.4), ‘your prophets’ (2.14), ‘my young women and my young men’ (2.21; cf. 1.18). The last line of the chapter establishes Zion as the mother of these previously mentioned people, since she identifies them as ‘those whom I bore and reared’ (2.22). As in 1.16, Zion is the mother of the people. As noted above, Zion's relationship as mother is important to the understanding of the motif of weeping and the interpretation of the phrase ‭ןזיצ‬ ‭תב‬.

Scholars have sometimes read personified Zion too literally by seeking to identify the people she represents precisely. Some think she represents the people left behind in the land. However, she also laments for her children who have gone into exile (Lam. 1.5b, 18b; 2.9a), or who have fled in search of refuge (1.3). Delbert R. Hillers rightly notes that she is ‘Zion, the city of God, the community of the elect, who in her historical being is not identical with those alive at any one time’. ¹⁵ Even within Lamentations, Zion represents earlier generations of Israelites who enjoyed prosperity (1.1) as well as the present generation who have suffered conquest (1.11, 15), exile (1.5, 18), or death (1.19). In sum, the daughter of Zion represents the whole community of Israel in a way that accentuates her empathy with the suffering of a community torn apart by the ravages of war. The references to her architectural features keep the city in view. She is not only the people, but their homeland also. The connection between the people and their homeplace appears significant considering the ancient Israelite emphasis on identifying people by their kinship ties and homeplace. ¹⁶ Consequently, Zion laments the devastation of the city and land, the alienation of people from the land through exile, and the human relationships broken by death and exile. The personified figure of Jerusalem embraces the city, the land, and the whole human community that called the land home, both past and present. The text establishes ‘daughter Zion’ as the mother of all the people. As a daughter, she resembles the children of Zion, and as a mother, she resembles the mothers whose children are dying. Furthermore, she knows a mother's grief over the suffering and death of her children, since she is the mother of the whole afflicted community.

3. ‘Daughter Zion’

As seen above, the texts identify the personified figure of Jerusalem using a variety of expressions. However, the phrase ‭ןזיצ‬ ‭תב‬ has attracted the most attention since it occurs in several biblical texts and signals the personification of Jerusalem more reliably than the simple terms ‘Zion’ or ‘Jerusalem’, which may refer to the literal or personified city. The various proposals for understanding the historical origins of the expression ‭ןזיצ‬ ‭תב‬ and its analogues (e.g. ‭לבב‬ ‭תב‬) suggest that these origins, and therefore the origins of the personification, are beyond recovery. ¹⁷ Consequently, the expression needs to be interpreted based only on its contexts. Discussion of the phrase ‭ןזיצ‬ ‭תב‬ has tended to result in two opposite conclusions, both mistaken. Some translators and interpreters empty the term ‭תב‬ of its feminine and relational meaning and translate it as ‘dear Zion’, ‘fair Zion’, or simply ‘Zion’. ¹⁸ Others retain its kinship sense and the translation ‘daughter’, but understand Zion as actually a daughter, typically of God. ¹⁹ The second interpretation is too literal, but the first is not literal enough. Zion has the title ‘daughter’, which should be understood metaphorically rather than literally, since Zion is a personified figure, not part of an Israelite pantheon. The tendency to empty ‭תב‬ of its relational force derives from the use of ‭ןזיצ‬ ‭תב‬ and more generally expressions of the type ‭תב‬-plus-geographic-name. Expressions of this type occur disproportionately in contexts where the suffering of the people and place are contemplated or lamented (e.g. ‭ןזיצ‬ ‭תב‬ in Isa. 1.8; Lam. 1.6; 2.1, 4, 8, 10, 13, 18; ‭לבב‬ ‭תב‬ in Isa. 47.1; Jer. 50.42; 51.33). ²⁰ Even in happier contexts, the joy is often understood in contrast to previous pain (Isa 52.2; 62.11). Consequently, Stinespring and others have understood ‭תב‬ as an endearment like ‘fair’, ‘dear’, or something similar. Indeed, ‭תב‬ seems to convey a connotation of'desired, vulnerable, endangered femininity’. ²¹ However, the tender aspect of ‭תב‬-plus-geographic-name is communicated in significant measure by the relational or kinship aspect of the term ‭תב‬. Israelite daughters were embedded in a family system in which they are at once valued and devalued. Biblical texts reflect a wider ancient Near Eastern preference for sons over daughters. In Ugaritic literature, Kirta and Daniel both desire sons, and in biblical literature, Hannah prays for a male child (1 Sam. 1.11). ²² Ancient Israelite and Babylonian parents preferred to offer their daughters as equity for a loan rather than their sons, perhaps because daughters had limited inheritance rights. ²³ However, fathers could be solicitous of their daughters (e.g. Laban) and one motive to reject kingship was that a king would take one's daughters to serve the king as perfumers, cooks, and bakers (1 Sam. 8.13). The term ‘my daughter’ is used metaphorically outside kinship relations to suggest parental care and concern (Ps. 45.11; Ruth 2.2, 8, 22; 3.1, 10, 11, 16, 18; cf. ‘my son’ in 1 Sam. 26.21, 25; 2 Sam. 19.1, 5; Prov. 1.8, 10), and Nathan illustrates a man's tender care for a lamb by saying he treated it ‘like a daughter’ (2 Sam. 12.3). Understood in this context, ‭תב‬-plus-geographic-name appropriates parental concern for a daughter heightened by the vulnerability of daughters in ancient Near Eastern societies. The endearing quality of ‭תב‬-plus-geographic-name draws on the feminine and kinship aspects of ‭תב‬, so ‭תב‬ should not be reduced to a vague, non-familial, and gender-neutral ‘dear’ or the like. However, as Othmar Keel notes, ‭ןזיצ‬ ‭תב‬ is never said to be the daughter of Yhwh. ²⁴ Keel's caution against inserting Zion into kinship relation with Yhwh is correct, but he overreacts by emptying the expression of any metaphorical meaning, reducing it to a term of endearment. ²⁵ As I will show in the next section, the function of the personified figure depends in part on the feminine and kinship dimensions of ‭תב‬.

4. Personification and Weeping in Lamentations

The above discussion clears a way for appreciating more fully the function of the personification of Jerusalem and its role in the motif of weeping. Given that Zion is both a daughter and a mother, it is possible to appreciate how she heightens the emotion of the poetry. This section will show how she serves as a unifying figure who knows the suffering of her children, feels the pain of maternal grief, seeks human and divine intervention for her children, expresses the community's pain in vivid terms, and provides a collective audience through whom the narrative voice seeks to offer comfort to the people. Descriptions of her weeping augment the power of her appeal and elicit empathetic tears from the narrator. All this weeping is motivated especially by sorrow over the death of children.

Commentators generally agree that the personification of Zion heightens the emotional impact of the poetry, but do not usually describe how personification achieves this end. The personification of Jerusalem as a woman adds considerable pathos to the representation of the community. ²⁶ The effect of personification may be observed by comparing the people described in Lamentations 5 with the daughter of Zion in Lamentations 1. Both poems focus on the human cost of the fall of Jerusalem. ²⁷ Both name some of the same categories of people, but the personification device creates a difference. While Lam. 5.11–14 speaks of ‘young women’ (5.11), ‘leaders’ (5.12), ‘elders’ (5.12, 14), and ‘young men’ (5.13, 14), these same people in Lamentations 1 are ‘my young women’ (1.18), ‘her leaders’ (1.6), ‘my elders’ (1.19), and ‘my young men’ (1.18). The device of personification creates a personal corporate identity to which everyone, young and old (2.21), is connected—like a child to a mother (1.16; 2.22). By extension, Zion connects these diverse people to each other so that they are not isolated, but belong to a community that can have common pain and perspectives even in the midst of diverse individual experiences. The ‘we’ of the communal lament in Lamentations 5 never develops into a corporate identity that can claim the young women as ‘our young women’. Unlike the briefly noted sufferings of parts of the population in Lam. 5.11–15, the pain of personified Zion is elaborated in considerable detail. She speaks in her own voice (1.9b, 11b–22; 2.20–22) and is addressed by another (2.13–19). This comparison elucidates the emotional force that personification can achieve by depicting an entire defeated population as an abused and suffering woman. Lamentations 5.11 mentions that women are raped within enemy-occupied Judah, but 1.10 intimates that Zion herself is a rape victim. ²⁸ Keel notes that ‘the primary problem in Lamentations is not the destruction of the temple as such, but rather the humiliation of Woman Jerusalem/Zion (1.7, 17, 21). “Her” holiness is desecrated.’ ²⁹ The audience that identifies with personified Zion understands her pain and violation as their own. This empathy for the personified figure both draws on and reinforces empathy for the individual victims.

Marc Wischnowsky notes that in Lamentations, ‘Zion is personified—apart from the honorific titles “daughter” and “virgin”—only under the aspect of maternal intercession’. ³⁰ However, the title ‘daughter’ places Zion in solidarity with the other children mentioned. The title ‘daughter’ connects with other terms for children (‭זב‬ [1.16], ‭ללע‬ [1.5; 2.11, 19, 20], ‭קנזי‬ [2.11], ‭ידבּ‬ [2.22], ‭יתיבדז‬ ‭יתחבּט‬ ‭דשא‬ [2.22]). Furthermore, the examples in 1.16 and 2.22 embrace the whole community and thereby place Zion in solidarity even with adult members of the community as fellow ‘children’. Similarly, Zion is a ‭הלזתב‬ and therefore stands in solidarity with the ‭תזלזתב‬ of Jerusalem (‘her/my young women’, Lam. 1.4, 18; 2.10, 21) whom she also represents. Thus, the title ‘daughter’ significantly places Zion in the same semantic domain as other named sections of Jerusalem's population. Like ‭זב‬ in 1.16, ‭תב‬ is a relational or kinship term. However, Wischnowsky is right to indicate Zion's relationship as mother to the population as more significant than her identity as a daughter. Zion understands the pain of broken relationships from both the child's and mother's perspective, but the mother's experience is the focus of the poetry. As a mother (1.16; 2.22), she knows the pain of losing a child to death (2.21) or exile (1.5, 18) and so stands in solidarity with the bereaved mothers of Jerusalem (1.16; 2.11, 19–22) whom she also represents. More broadly, daughter Zion is the mother of all the people and endures what a mother suffers when she witnesses the misery of her children or experiences forced separation from them through death or exile. Her pain mirrors the pain of the people of Jerusalem. Although without a comforter, she may offer comfort to the people who know that she experiences their pain, that she seeks divine and human intervention, and that her survival means that the community continues. As the people hear her speak, she becomes a spokesperson for the suffering of each individual. ³¹ She also provides a collective audience through which the speaker of Lam. 2.1–19 seeks to offer comfort to the community (2.13). ³² As a personified figure and spokesperson, Zion can voice anger and frustration with a vehemence that might not have been acceptable from a ‘simply’ human speaker. ³³ By emptying ‭תב‬ of its specifically feminine and relational meaning, ‘daughter’, interpreters miss the close connections between the personified figure and (especially) the women and children she represents. Since these connections are depicted in personal and relational language (e.g. ‘my children’ in 1.16), the text underscores the close attachment that mother Zion has to her children. Furthermore, this close attachment explains her suffering and weeping.

The death of children leaves parents with a sorrow that differs from other kinds of grief. Modern studies show that those who have lost a child suffer more intense grief for a longer period of time than those who endure other losses. ³⁴ Although child death was much more common in the ancient world than the modern West, parents who expect to suffer multiple child losses in areas of high infant mortality still experience intense grief over these losses. ³⁵ The death of children occurs in biblical literature as an indication of extreme punishment or doom (1 Sam. 2.34; Ps. 137.9; Isa. 47.8–9). Evidence also indicates that mothers suffer greater distress following child death than fathers. The construction of ‭ןזיצ‬ ‭תב‬ as the mother of the people taps into the intensity of maternal grief and represents her as a figure who knows the pain of the bereaved mothers in the community, and by extension the grief and sorrow of everyone. Furthermore, bereaved mothers are powerful figures (Jer. 31.15; Isa. 49.17–23; 54.1–3) evocative of profound grief and rage. ³⁶ The depiction of mother Zion weeping adds to the presentation of her pain and her plea for empathy from the divine and human audiences (Lam. 1.9, 11, 12, 18, 20, 21). Weeping should evoke empathy, comfort, and help, and can be a much more impactful means of persuasion than words. ³⁷ Several texts in Lamentations draw attention to weeping and seek to present it in eloquent language in order to enlist the wordless power of tears in the verbal effort of persuasion. Zion weeps and causes others to weep, and this weeping is especially connected to the death of children.

In Lamentations 1, Zion is depicted as weeping twice (1.2, 16). In Lamentations 2, the narrator weeps (2.11) and calls on the wall of Zion (i.e. Zion) to weep (2.18). All these instances of weeping are connected to the death of children. This connection is least evident in the first example. The narrator introduces the isolated and humiliated city-woman who ‘weeps incessantly (‭הבבת‬ ‭זבב‬) in the night, her tears (‭התעטך‬) upon her cheeks’ (1.2). Tears signal that a person is in distress or crisis. We typically measure the degree of distress by the frequency, intensity, and duration of crying episodes. The construction ‭הבבת‬ ‭זבב‬ indicates that Zion's weeping is continuous, meaning that her crying episodes are frequent and prolonged and therefore her distress is profound. The common translation ‘she weeps bitterly’ seems to capture this sense if English speakers understand bitter weeping to mean incessant weeping. However, the term ‘bitter’ suggests the presence of the Hebrew root ‭ררט‬, which is absent here. When ‭ררט‬ appears in contexts of weeping, it foregrounds the negative emotions motivating the tears rather than the frequency or duration of crying episodes (1 Sam. 1.10; 2 Sam. 7.18; Jer. 6.26). Consequently, I prefer the translation ‘she weeps incessantly’. The narrator interprets Zion's tears as caused primarily by her humiliation (Lam. 1.1, 5a, 7–10) and her grief over her dead and exiled children (1.1a, 4a, 3, 5b, 6a). Zion herself explains her tears with more explicit reference to the death of her children. In her own speech, Zion says:

Zion describes her weeping twice, once using the participle of ‭הבב‬ and once the participle of ‭דרי‬ in the idiomatic construction ‘my eyes go down’, meaning ‘I weep’. The participles and the doubling of expressions for weeping continue the narrator's description of Zion's weeping as copious and continuous. Zion explicitly identifies her motive for weeping both backward and forward in the text. The opening ‘because of these things’ refers to her earlier speech in 1.11–15, and the following ‭יב‬ refers to the remainder of the verse. The speech in 1.11–15 focuses on Zion's military defeat, her consequent suffering, the incomparable quality of her pain, and especially on Yhwh as the agent of her affliction. ⁴⁰ Zion is betrayed by her lovers, and the betrayal of Yhwh is the worst of all. These shattered relationships, isolation, and pain motivate her constant crying. Zion explicitly connects her weeping to her isolation and lack of a comforter, a connection that is present also in Lam. 1.2. Zion provides several reasons to explain her tears, but when she finally mentions her crying, the suffering of her children comes immediately into view. She says they are desolate (‭םיטטזש‬) because the enemy has prevailed. The term ‭םטש‬ is hard to translate, and several options have been proposed here (including ‘desolate’, ‘destitute’, ‘shattered’, ‘forlorn’, ‘devastated’). It may characterize uninhabited or deserted cities (Gen. 47.9; Isa. 49.8), rape victims (2 Sam. 13.20), or barren women (Isa. 54:1). Within this poem, Zion is herself twice described as desolate (‘her gates’ in Lam. 1.4 and ‘Zion’ in 1.13). She shares this miserable state of being with her children, who in 1.16 seem to be the survivors suffering at the hands of the enemy rather than the dead who are beyond the enemy's reach. Lamentations 5.11–15 indicates some of the tortures inflicted on the people by the occupying army. Zion weeps because she witnesses the torment of her children.

While the narrator in Lamentations 1 offers a description of Zion's suffering and weeping, the narrator in Lamentations 2 actually weeps and expresses his own anguish at the devastation of Zion. In ch. 2, the narrator begins by focusing on the suffering of the city in terms of architectural language, but then shifts focus to the suffering of the people in 1.9. When the narrator describes his own weeping, the death of children comes immediately into view:

The verb ‭הלב‬ with ‭זיע‬ as subject appears many times (e.g. Job 11.20; 17.5; Pss. 69.4; 119.82, 123; Lam. 4.11; Jer. 14.6), but clearly refers to weeping only here, where it occurs with ‭העטד‬. ⁴¹ The sense may be that the speaker's vision is clouded with tears, that he has wept so extensively that his eyes are sore and his tears exhausted, or, more likely, that his tears indicate his hopelessness. ⁴² The end of v. 11 introduces the topic of v. 12: the death of children. The image of infants slowly dying in their mothers’ arms is especially heart-rending and calls forth the empathetic tears of the speaker. The narrator is controlled while lamenting the destruction of the city, but speaks of his tears when considering the starvation of children. Word-plays in the passage heighten the empathetic connections among the narrator, the children, and the soldiers. The narrator's liver ‘is poured out’ (‭ךבּשנ‬, 2.11) just as the lives of the children ‘are poured out’ (‭ךבּתשהב‬, 2.12), establishing ‘an empathetic vibration’ between the children and the speaker. ⁴³ Also, the ‘fainting’ (‭ףטעב‬, 2.11) of infants resembles the ‘fainting’ (‭םבּטעתהב‬, 2.12) of wounded soldiers, creating a similar resonance between these disparate groups. The death of children finds an echo in the speaker's reference to ‘the ruin of my daughter people’. As argued above, the term ‭תב‬ in ‭ןזיצ‬ ‭תב‬ connects the personification of Zion to the suffering of her people, especially the death of children. The same is true in the expression ‭יטעתב‬ ‭דבש‬, which appears in other contexts involving weeping and the conquest of Judah (Jer. 8.11, 21; Lam. 3.48).

The second reference to weeping in Lamentations 2 shares significant similarities with the first instance. But here the narrator calls on Zion to weep, and she replies in vv. 20–22:

Inanimate things may weep in ancient literature, although it is rare. In the Ugaritic Kirta poem, both Ilha'u and Thitmanit speak the same exclamation over Kirta's impending death:

These mountains may themselves weep, or they may stand in for the gods who are associated with the mountains. The description of each mountain as a ‘stronghold’ (ḥl) resembles the reference to the ‘rampart and wall’ (‭הטזחז‬ ‭לח‬) of Zion, which lament and languish together in Lam. 2.8. Thus, both Kirta and Lam. 2.8 personify similar architectural features. Also, the phrase ‭ןזיצ‬ ‭תב‬ ‭הטזח‬ from Lam. 2.8 reappears in 2.18, although the second appearance of the wall of daughter Zion occurs without the rampart being explicitly mentioned. Thus, both biblical and Ugaritic literature speak of inanimate architectural features as weeping over human suffering. Similar personifications of architectural features appear in Ps. 24.7, 9; Isa. 14.31 and in Sumerian lament literature. ⁴⁸ Furthermore, the ‘roads to Zion mourn’ in Lam. 1.4. Like the roads that mourn for lack of people coming to the festivals, the damaged or destroyed walls and ramparts in 2.8 and 2.18 also lack people that would normally walk in procession along them in liturgical celebrations. These features may be personified in part for their association with people and ritual (cf. Ps. 48.13). ⁴⁹ In Lam. 2.18, the incessant quality of the weeping is emphasized with the expression ‘let your eyes flow like a torrent’, which indicates both the copious quantity of tears and their constant flow. The addition of ‘day and night’ further enhances and clarifies the continuous pattern of weeping (cf. Ps. 42.4; Jer. 8.23; 14.17), and the following lines deny rest or respite to the weeping eyes. The more she weeps, the more likely Yhwh may be to respond (cf. Pss. 6.6–8; 39.13). The next stanza employs an image especially fitting with mention of the wall: the watches of the night. The image of watches suggests walls and security even as the weeping expresses grief over the destruction of the city and consequent lack of safety. Like Lam. 1.2, this expression highlights night as a time of weeping, although weeping is not confined to the nighttime (here or in 1.2). Like the previous example of weeping, this episode of crying is connected to strong language describing the death of children. As in 2.11–12, the term ‭תב‬ connects to the image of dying children (2.11, 19, 20, 22). Zion is asked to lift up her hands for the life of her children, the same life that was being poured out in 2.12. Most interpreters see a change of speaker in 2.20, and understand Zion to conclude the chapter with a response to the narrator's call to lift up her hands for her children. ⁵⁰ She then evokes the image of women consuming their own children as food (cf. 4.10) while also employing a word-play on ‘children’ and ‘to deal (severely) with’. The narrator previously spoke to Zion of ‘your children’ (‭ךיללזע‬, 2.19) whose lives are at stake, and Zion also refers to her endangered ‘children’ (‭יללע‬, 2.20) while asking Yhwh ‘whom have you treated (‭תללזע‬) like this?’ (1.20). Yhwh has treated Zion badly and by extension has treated the vulnerable children harshly. Like much of this chapter, the language emphasizes the merciless quality (‭לטח‬ ‭לא‬, 2.2, 17; cf. 2.21) of Yhwh‘s treatment of Zion, and this word-play on ‭ללע‬ connects vivid language describing cannibalism to divine cruelty as the ultimate cause of women eating their babies. The language strikingly refers to women eating ‘their fruit’, which seems natural enough until the following phrase identifies this fruit as new-born babies. ⁵¹ Zion's plea to God flows from the narrator's invitation to her to weep over her dead children, and she picks up the theme and intensifies it by depicting the children being consumed by their own mothers. She continues her concern for her dead children through the remainder of the poem, referring to her young men and women who have fallen by the sword (2.21) and the enemy killing those whom she bore and reared (2.22).

The weeping in Lamentations 1 and 2 draws on the pathos of child death, especially from the perspective of maternal grief. The personification of Zion is key to this weeping, since her maternal perspective draws forth her own tears (1.2, 16; 2.18–20) and the empathetic tears of the narrator (2.11–12). These two poems employ a range of means for realizing the motif of crying. Of these four instances of weeping, one employs the term ‭הבב‬ (1.2), one uses the poetic idiom ‭ךדי‬ ‭זיע‬ (1.16; 2.18), and one uses both (1.16). The remaining example (2.9) speaks of the eye ‘failing with tears’. Lamentations 1.2 is the only biblical text to mention the cheek in connection with crying. The other three examples mention the eyes as the organ of weeping. All four instances draw attention to tears specifically, although one of them uses the term ‘water’ to refer to tears (1.16; cf. Ps. 119.136). Amidst the varying wording, the centrality of ‘daughter Zion’ (or ‘my daughter people’) and the death of children are both consistently present in the instances of weeping. Moreover, the maternal image of Zion heightens the vividness and pathos of the suffering of children, and the weeping is motivated by maternal bereavement.

5. Conclusion

The personification of Zion as a daughter and mother draws together the motifs of child death and weeping in Lamentations 1–2. Daughter Zion adds considerable pathos to the poetry by representing the community as a vulnerable and isolated woman who is also the mother of the people. As a daughter, she stands in solidarity with the starving children, and as a mother, she knows the grief of the bereaved mothers in the community. She seeks to gain comfort and help from Yhwh and humans, and her tears, motivated in part by the death of children, add further power to her plea. The community hears her, as a mediating maternal figure, intercede for them and they also hear a narrator's voice offering them comfort by addressing her. She expresses the pain of the community in harsh language that indicts divine cruelty or indifference. Her survival provides hope that the community will endure. Zion's status as both daughter and mother significantly enhances the functions of the personification noted above, so ‘daughter’ in ‘daughter Zion’ should not be understood merely as a term of endearment. However, neither does it denote a kinship relation between Zion and Yhwh. It indicates Zion's vulnerability, heightens empathy for her, and places her in solidarity with the suffering children. Furthermore, the related motifs of weeping and child death cohere within the maternal figure of Zion. All the weeping is driven in significant measure by the death of children, and the text employs both the miserable state of the children and the pitiable weeping of mother Zion to intensify the presentation of Zion's pain and draw empathy from divine and human audiences.