“Clap their hands at you in scorn”
All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem (Lamentations 2:15 BSB)
What it sounds like today
People clapping, as if applauding or celebrating.
The cultural key
The gestures form a vocabulary of contempt that reads backwards to us. Clapping the hands here is not applause but a jeering, mocking gesture aimed at someone brought low; 'hissing' (a sharp hiss or whistle through the teeth) expressed shock, scorn, and appalled horror at a ruin so complete it took the breath away; and shaking or wagging the head was the standard body language of derision and disgust. Together they paint a scene of travelers passing the smoking rubble of Jerusalem and reacting the way the ancient world reacted to a fallen enemy or a spectacular downfall: with mocking claps, contemptuous hisses, and shaken heads, sneering, 'Is this the city they called the perfection of beauty?' The same cluster of gestures is turned on the suffering figure at the cross, where 'those who passed by shook their heads.' A modern reader sees applause; the first hearers saw a crowd of scoffers gloating over the corpse of a city.
Recovered meaning
Clapping, hissing, and head-wagging were gestures of scorn and horror at another's ruin, not applause. Passersby are gloating over fallen Jerusalem, sneering that the once-glorious city now lies in rubble.