Lamentations 2:19
What does Lamentations 2:19 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 2:19 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 2:19 means
This verse commands night-long prayer: arise at the beginning of the watches, pour out your heart like water before the Lord, and lift hands for the lives of starving children at every street’s head. The image of water suggests total, unreserved honesty. Intercession targets the most vulnerable, aligning the people’s plea with God’s compassion. When judgment strips away all props, prayer becomes the people’s work. The verse teaches that lament is not passive despair but active seeking. In the darkest hours, when hunger bites hardest, the faithful response is to bring the city’s emptiness to the One who alone can fill it.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; Pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord: Lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street.
KJV
King James Version · 1611Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; Pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord: Lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949Up! give cries in the night, at the starting of the night-watches; let your heart be flowing out like water before the face of the Lord, lifting up your hands to him for the life of your young children who are falling down, feeble for need of food, at the top of every street.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Arise, cry aloud in the night, At the beginning of the watches. Pour out as water thy heart, Over against the face of the Lord, Lift up unto Him thy hands, for the soul of thine infants, Who are feeble with hunger at the head of all out-places.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Coph. Arise, give praise in the night, in the beginning of the watches: pour out thy heart like water, before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands to him for the life of thy little children, that have fainted for hunger at the top of all the streets.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890Arise, cry out in the night, in the beginning of the watches; pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, who faint from hunger at the top of all the streets.
Context
Building on the call to weep (v. 18), verse 19 specifies how and for whom to pray—night watches, poured-out hearts, lifted hands, and especially for children fainting with hunger. This intensive exhortation prepares for the direct address to Jehovah in verse 20, where the horrors of siege are laid before Him. The movement from instruction to petition underscores that lament culminates in talking to God about the unbearable realities, not merely describing them to one another.
v.18Their heart cried unto the Lord: O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night; Give thyself no respite; let not the apple of thine eye cease.
v.19This passage
v.20See, O Jehovah, and behold to whom thou hast done thus! Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Judges 7:19
So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outermost part of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, when they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake in pieces the pitchers that were in their hands.
- Lamentations 4:1
How is the gold become dim! how is the most pure gold changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.
- Psalms 119:55
I have remembered thy name, O Jehovah, in the night, And have observed thy law.
- Lamentations 2:11
Mine eyes do fail with tears, my heart is troubled; My liver is poured upon the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, Because the young children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.
- Job 3:24
For my sighing cometh before I eat, And my groanings are poured out like water.
- 1 Timothy 2:8
I desire therefore that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and disputing.
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