Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, on Lam 2:8

“Heth. The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Sion: he hath stretched out his line, and hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: and the bulwark hath mourned, and the wall hath been destroyed together.”

“stretched . . . a line--The Easterns used a measuring-line not merely in building, but in destroying edifices (Kg2 21:13; Isa 34:11); implying here the unsparing rigidness with which He would exact punishment.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.