Lamentations 2:22
What does Lamentations 2:22 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 2:22 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 2:22 means
The prophet says God has called together terrors as one would summon a congregation for a feast day. But this is an inverted festival—an assembly of dread. On the day of Jehovah’s anger, none escaped or remained. Those once cradled and raised are consumed by the enemy. The verse closes the lament with aching finality: the community is emptied, the future cut off, and the past cherished in vain. It underlines the completeness of judgment and leaves the reader in silence before God. The only path forward, implied but not yet spoken, is to seek the Lord whose wrath has been fully revealed.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000Thou hast called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side; And there was none that escaped or remained in the day of Jehovah’s anger: Those that I have dandled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.
KJV
King James Version · 1611Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lord’s anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901Thou hast called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side; And there was none that escaped or remained in the day of Jehovah’s anger: Those that I have dandled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949As in the day of a holy meeting you have made fears come round me on every side, and no one got away or was kept safe in the day of the Lord's wrath: those who were folded in my arms, whom I took care of, have been sent to their destruction by my hater.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Thou dost call as <FI>at<Fi> a day of appointment, My fears from round about, And there hath not been in the day of the anger of Jehovah, An escaped and remaining one, They whom I stretched out and nourished, My enemy hath consumed!
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Thau. Thou hast called as to a festival, those that should terrify me round about, and there was none in the day of the wrath of the Lord that escaped and was left: those that I brought up, and nourished, my enemy hath consumed them.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890Thou hast called up, as on the day of a set feast, my terrors on every side; and in the day of Jehovah's anger there was none that escaped or remained: those that I have nursed and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.
Context
This final verse gathers the chapter’s themes—God’s active judgment, the pervasiveness of ruin, and the end of earthly refuge—into one last image: a grim “assembly” of terrors with no survivors. It follows the confession of indiscriminate death (v. 21) and concludes the chapter without resolution. The lack of a tidy ending is intentional, teaching the reader to linger in lament. Only later will the book pivot toward hope. For now, the last word underscores divine sovereignty and the total cost of disobedience experienced in Jerusalem’s desolation.
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.
v.22This passage
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Isaiah 24:17
Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
- Jeremiah 6:25
Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy, and terror, are on every side.
- Psalms 31:13
For I have heard the defaming of many, Terror on every side: While they took counsel together against me, They devised to take away my life.
- Jeremiah 46:5
Wherefore have I seen it? they are dismayed and are turned backward; and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace, and look not back: terror is on every side, saith Jehovah.
- Amos 9:1
I saw the Lord standing beside the altar: and he said, Smite the capitals, that the thresholds may shake; and break them in pieces on the head of all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: there shall not one of them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape.
- Luke 23:29
For behold, the days are coming, in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the breasts that never gave suck.
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