Tafsiran Ratapan 2:6: Tze'enah Ure'enah & Rashi

“And He cut down” [2:6]. He cut down His hut like a garden and He destroyed the holy place in the Temple where the Shekhinah had always rested. God caused Sabbath and Festivals to be forgotten in Zion. He was angered and He allowed King Zedekiah, and Shariah, the high priest to be killed.¹⁴Rashi, 2:6. Rashi writes that the Holy One did an act of kindness with Israel that he poured out His wrath on the stone and wood of the Temple and caused Israel to have a shorter exile.¹⁵Rashi, 2:6.

He cut down. An expression of cutting, and similarly, “He will cast off like a vine,”¹⁷Iyov 15:33. [and] “your steps were cut off.”¹⁸Yirmiyahu 13:22.

Like a garden. As they cut off the vegetables of a garden.

His dwelling place. His abode.¹⁹The Kodesh Hakodoshim. (Palgei Mayim) It is written שִׁכּוֹ [to indicate] that He lightened²⁰As in Bereishis 8:1, ‘and the waters subsided’ [וישכו]. His anger against His children with the destruction of His House. [So it is expounded] in the Midrash of Lamentations.²¹Eichah Rabbah 2:10.

He destroyed His place of Communion. The Holy of Holies,²²Alternatively, the Beis Hamikdosh. (Palgei Mayim) where He would meet with His children, as it is stated, “I will set My meeting you there.”²³Shemos 25:22. See footnote for 1:4 above.

The king and the kohein. King Tzidkiyahu²⁴See II Melochim 25:7. and Serayahu the Kohein Gadol.²⁵See II Melochim 25:18-21. Rashi explains that the king and the kohein must be two individuals rather than a king who is a kohein, because the kings who ruled during the period of the first Beis Hamikdosh were descendants of the non-kohein Dovidic dynasty. (Sifsei Chachomim)