Lamentations 2:1
What does Lamentations 2:1 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 2:1 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 2:1 means
This verse opens with astonishment that the Lord Himself has veiled Zion under a dark cloud of anger. The “beauty of Israel” that had seemed secure, perhaps Jerusalem’s splendor and the temple’s glory, has been thrown down from the highest honor to dust. Calling the temple God’s “footstool” underscores how near He once made His presence to dwell. Yet in the day of wrath He does not “remember” it—He refuses to shield what He formerly honored. The point is startling: judgment is not random misfortune but the purposeful act of the Lord who reverses Israel’s fortunes because of sin, turning light to cloud and glory to humiliation.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He hath cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, And hath not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.
KJV
King James Version · 1611How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He hath cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, And hath not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949How has the daughter of Zion been covered with a cloud by the Lord in his wrath! he has sent down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel, and has not kept in memory the resting-place of his feet in the day of his wrath.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862How doth the Lord cloud in His anger the daughter of Zion, He hath cast from heaven <FI>to<Fi> earth the beauty of Israel, And hath not remembered His footstool in the day of His anger.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Aleph. How hath the Lord covered with obscurity the daughter of Sion in his wrath! how hath he cast down from heaven to the earth the glorious one of Israel, and hath not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890How hath the Lord in his anger covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud! He hath cast down from the heavens unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger.
Context
The chapter begins with the Lord portrayed as the active cause of Jerusalem’s downfall. Verse 1 sets the tone: shock and reverence mixed with grief. What follows will describe, in piling images, how God’s anger has dismantled every layer of Zion’s life—from defenses to worship. This first note prepares the reader to see devastation not merely as Babylon’s doing but God’s righteous judgment. The next verses will expand this theme, moving from general ruin to the dismantling of strongholds and leadership.
v.1This passage
v.2The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: He hath thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; He hath brought them down to the ground; he hath profaned the kingdom and the princes thereof.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- 1 Samuel 4:21
And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel; because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband.
- Ezekiel 28:14
Thou wast the anointed cherub that covereth: and I set thee, so that thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
- Ezekiel 24:21
Speak unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pitieth; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have left behind shall fall by the sword.
- Joel 2:2
a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, as the dawn spread upon the mountains; a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after them, even to the years of many generations.
- Ezekiel 32:7
And when I shall extinguish thee, I will cover the heavens, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light.
- Psalms 99:5
Exalt ye Jehovah our God, And worship at his footstool: Holy is he.
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