Rashi, on Lam 2:5

“He. The Lord is become as an enemy: he hath cast down Israel headlong, he hath overthrown all the walls thereof: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath multiplied in the daughter of Juda the afflicted, both men and women.”

“and He increased in the daughter of Judah He increased in the congregation of Judah. pain and wailing Heb. תַּאֲנִיָה וַאֲנִיָה, pain and wailing. and He increased Heb. וַיֶרֶב. The “yud” is vowelized with a small “pattah” (seggol), which is an expression of increasing others. (Exod. 1:20): “and the people multiplied (וַיִרֶב) and became very strong,” is vowelized with a “hirik”, which is an expression meaning that he himself increased, and so every word whose radical ends with a “hey,” e.g. פנה, to turn, זנה to go astray, בכה, to weep, are vowelized in that manner when the “hey” is missing, when it speaks of itself [i.e., the simple (קַל) conjugation, not the causative], e.g. (Exod. 7:23): “And Pharaoh turned (וַיִפֶן).” But when he speaks of others [i.e, the causative conjugation (הפעיל)], it is vowelized with a small “pattah” (seggol), e.g. (Jud. 15:4): “and he turned (וַיֶפֶן) tail to tail”; (II Kings 25: 21): “And Judah went into exile (וַיִגֶל) from his land”; (ibid. 18:11): “and the king of Babylon (sic) exiled (וַיֶגֶל) Israel to Assyria.””

Hebrew and Aramaic words are the commentator’s citations of the sacred text; the English translation that follows each is the translator’s.

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