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Lamentations 2:12-22

Listen to Lamentations 2:12-22

Lamed

12 They cry out to their mothers: Where is the grain and wine?[a] as they faint like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their lives fade away in the arms of their mothers.

Mem

13 What can I say on your behalf? To what can I compare you, Daughter Jerusalem? What can I liken you to, so that I may console you, Virgin Daughter Zion? For your ruin is as vast as the sea. Who can heal you?[b]

Nun

14 Your prophets saw visions for you that were empty and deceptive;[c] they did not reveal your guilt and so restore your fortunes.[d] They saw oracles for you that were empty and misleading.

Samek

15 All who pass by [scornfully] clap their hands[e] at you. They hiss[f] and shake their heads[g] at Daughter Jerusalem: Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty,[h] the joy of the whole earth?[i]

Pe

16 All your enemies open their mouths against you.[j] They hiss and gnash [their] teeth,[k] saying, "We have swallowed [her] up.[l] This is the day we have waited for! We have lived to see [it]."

Ayin

17 The Lord has done what He planned; He has accomplished His decree, which He ordained in days of old. He has demolished without compassion,[m] letting the enemy gloat over you and exalting the horn of your adversaries.

Tsade

18 The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. Wall of Daughter Zion,[n] let [your] tears run down like a river day and night.[o] Give yourself no relief and your[p] eyes no rest.

Qof

19 Arise, cry out in the night, from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water before the Lord's presence.[q] Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children who are fainting from hunger on the corner of every street.[r]

Resh

20 Lord, look and consider who You have done this to. Should women eat their own children, the infants they have nurtured?[s] Should priests and prophets be killed in the Lord's sanctuary?

Shin

21 [Both] young and old are lying on the ground in the streets. My young men and women have fallen by the sword. You have killed [them] in the day of Your anger, slaughtering without compassion.[t]

Tav

22 You summoned my attackers[u] on every side,[v] as if [for] an appointed festival day; on the day of the Lord's anger no one escaped or survived. My enemy has destroyed those I nurtured[w] and reared.

Lamentations 2:12-22 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO LAMENTATIONS 2

This chapter contains another alphabet, in which the Prophet Jeremiah, or those he represents, lament the sad condition of Jerusalem; the destruction of the city and temple, and of all persons and things relative to them, and to its civil or church state; and that as being from the hand of the Lord himself, who is represented all along as the author thereof, because of their sins, La 2:1-9; and then the elders and virgins of Zion are represented as in great distress, and weeping for those desolations; which were very much owing to the false prophets, that had deceived them, La 2:10-14; and all this occasioned great rejoicing in the enemies of Zion, La 2:15-17; but sorrow of heart to Zion herself, who is called to weeping, La 2:18,19; and the chapter is concluded with an address to the Lord, to take this her sorrowful case into consideration, and show pity and compassion, La 2:20-22.

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Footnotes 23

  • [a] Dt 28:51; Hs 2:8-9; 7:14
  • [b] Nah 3:19
  • [c] Ezk 13:8-16
  • [d] Dt 30:1-3; Jr 29:11-14; 30:1-3
  • [e] Nm 24:10; Ezk 25:6
  • [f] 1 Kg 9:8; Jr 19:8
  • [g] Ps 22:7; 109:25; Mk 15:29
  • [h] Ps 50:2
  • [i] Ps 48:2
  • [j] Lm 3:46; Jb 16:10; Ps 22:13
  • [k] Jb 16:9; Ps 35:16; 37:12
  • [l] Lm 2:2,5,8
  • [m] Lm 2:2,21; 3:43; Ezk 7:8-9
  • [n] Lm 2:8
  • [o] Jr 14:17
  • [p] Lit and the daughter of your
  • [q] Ps 77:2; 84:2
  • [r] Isa 51:20
  • [s] Or infants in a healthy condition; Hb obscure
  • [t] Lm 2:2,17; 3:43
  • [u] Or terrors
  • [v] Ps 31:13; Jr 6:25; 20:10
  • [w] Or I bore healthy; Hb obscure
Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

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