Lamentations 2:2
What does Lamentations 2:2 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 2:2 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 2:2 means
The verse emphasizes totality: the Lord has “swallowed up” dwellings and strongholds throughout Jacob and Judah. The language of not pitying conveys the severity and justice of His wrath. To “profane the kingdom and the princes” means their sacred standing has been stripped. Royal dignity, once set apart for God’s purposes, is treated as common and cast down. This is not a mere military loss; it is the collapse of the nation’s structures under divine judgment. The repetition underscores that what made Israel secure—homes, fortresses, rulers—has been undone by the very One who once established and protected them.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000The 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.
KJV
King James Version · 1611The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901The 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.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949The Lord has given up to destruction all the living-places of Jacob without pity; pulling down in his wrath the strong places of the daughter of Judah, stretching out on the earth the wounded, even her king and her rulers.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Swallowed up hath the Lord, He hath not pitied any of the pleasant places of Jacob, He hath broken down in His wrath The fortresses of the daughter of Judah, He hath caused to come to the earth, He polluted the kingdom and its princes.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Beth. The Lord hath cast down headlong, and hath not spared, all that was beautiful in Jacob: he hath destroyed in his wrath the strong holds of the virgin of Juda, and brought them down to the ground: he hath made the kingdom unclean, and the princes thereof.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890The Lord hath swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob, and hath not spared; 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.
Context
Continuing the opening lament, verse 2 expands from the cloud over Zion to the swallowing up of all dwellings and defenses. The poetry stacks verbs—swallowed, thrown down, brought down, profaned—to show completeness. It builds toward the grim picture in verses 3–5 where God is depicted as a warrior fighting against His own people. Understanding this frame is crucial: the chapter insists the fall is theological before it is political. After this, attention will turn from palaces and princes to the extinguishing of Israel’s strength and God’s withdrawal of protective power.
v.1How 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.
v.2This passage
v.3He hath cut off in fierce anger all the horn of Israel; He hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy: And he hath burned up Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Lamentations 2:5
The Lord is become as an enemy, he hath swallowed up Israel; He hath swallowed up all her palaces, he hath destroyed his strongholds; And he hath multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
- 2 Corinthians 10:4
(for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds);
- Ezekiel 5:11
Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, and I also will have no pity.
- Ezekiel 7:4
And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity; but I will bring thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.
- Lamentations 3:43
Thou hast covered with anger and pursued us; thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.
- Jeremiah 21:7
And afterward, saith Jehovah, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, even such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.
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