“The attention of the Lord has divided them; He will not

Midrash Rabbah Eikhah Rabbah 4:19

Curated by The Jewish Mythology Team · Published January 6, 2025

“The attention of the Lord has divided them; He will not continue to look at them. They did not respect priests and were not gracious to elders” (Lamentations 4:16).“The attention of the Lord has divided them,” divided them into one hundred each or two hundred [matayim] each, as there, they call cities matan.43Whereas previously they lived in cities with large populations, after the destruction there were only small groups in each town or settlement. The Aramaic word matan means towns, implying that two hundred residents could be the entire population of two towns.

Themes

Exile Tragedy Mourning

Biblical References

Lamentations 4:16

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