Lamentations 2:20
What does Lamentations 2:20 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 2:20 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 2:20 means
Now the prophet pleads: “See, O Jehovah, and behold to whom thou hast done thus!” The horrors named—women eating their own children, priests and prophets slain in the sanctuary—are unspeakable signs of covenant curses realized. The prayer is not an accusation but a desperate appeal: consider the extremity visited on a people once Yours. By putting these atrocities before God, the prophet invites divine pity and intervention. He also acknowledges that judgment has reached shocking depths. The verse models bold, reverent complaint—naming the unthinkable to the One whose mercy is the only hope left.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000See, 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?
KJV
King James Version · 1611Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901See, 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?
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949Look! O Lord, see to whom you have done this! Are the women to take as their food the fruit of their bodies, the children who are folded in their arms? are the priest and the prophet to be put to death in the holy place of the Lord?
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862See, O Jehovah, and look attentively, To whom Thou hast acted thus, Do women eat their fruit, infants of a handbreadth? Slain in the sanctuary of the Lord are priest and prophet?
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Res. Behold, O Lord, and consider whom thou hast thus dealt with: shall women then eat their own fruit, their children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890See, Jehovah, and consider to whom thou hast done this! Shall the women eat their fruit, the infants that they nursed? Shall priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
Context
After calls to lament and intercede (vv. 18–19), verse 20 shifts into direct prayer that describes the siege’s worst atrocities. This prepares for verses 21–22, which continue the confession of devastation—youth and old, virgins and young men slain, terrors gathered as at a festival, none escaping. The closing movement stays in the key of lament, without yet offering resolution, teaching readers to remain before God with honest grief when answers are not yet given.
v.19Arise, 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.
v.20This passage
v.21The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets; My virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword: Thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast slaughtered, and not pitied.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Isaiah 9:14
Therefore Jehovah will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm-branch and rush, in one day.
- Jeremiah 23:11
for both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith Jehovah.
- Lamentations 4:16
The anger of Jehovah hath scattered them; he will no more regard them: They respected not the persons of the priests, they favored not the elders.
- Leviticus 26:29
And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
- Isaiah 64:8
But now, O Jehovah, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
- Jeremiah 14:15
Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
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