Commentary for Lamentations 2:5

He magnified in the community of Yehudah. He increased in the congregation of Yehudah.

Suffering and lamentation. Pain and wailing.

He magnified. The yud is vowelized with a small patach [=segol], which is an expression of increasing others, [as in,] “And the people increased וַיִּרֶב and were very mighty,”¹²Shemos 1:20. See Rashi there on וייטב. is vowelized [under the yud] with a chirik, which is an expression meaning that he himself increased. Similarly, every word whose radical ends with a hei, e.g., to turn פָּנָה, to go astray זָנָה, to weep בָּכָה, are vowelized in that manner when the hei is missing, when it speaks of itself it is vowelized with a chirik, e.g., “And Pharaoh turned.”¹³Shemos 17:23. But when it speaks of others it is vowelized with a small patach [=segol], e.g., “and he turned [the foxes] tail to tail,”¹⁴Shoftim 15:4. [and] “and Yehudah went into exile from his land,”¹⁵II Melochim 25:21. Here, ויגל is vowelized with a chirik. [and] “and the king of Bavel exiled Yisroel into Assyria.”¹⁶Ibid., 18:11.