Lamentations 2:8
What does Lamentations 2:8 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 2:8 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 2:8 means
The destruction is deliberate, not chaotic: Jehovah “purposed” to tear down Zion’s wall and stretched out the measuring line, a builder’s tool now used to mark demolition. He does not withdraw His hand until the work is done. The rampart and wall “lament,” a personification that captures the city’s grief and helplessness as its defenses sag and fail. God’s sovereign intent guides even the enemy’s siege. What once was built with care is unbuilt under His command. This verse asserts that the fall is measured, certain, and just—God has weighed it, marked it, and completed it according to His righteous plan.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000Jehovah hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; He hath stretched out the line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying; And he hath made the rampart and wall to lament; they languish together.
KJV
King James Version · 1611The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901Jehovah hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; He hath stretched out the line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying; And he hath made the rampart and wall to lament; they languish together.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949It is the Lord's purpose to make waste the wall of the daughter of Zion; his line has been stretched out, he has not kept back his hand from destruction: he has sent sorrow on tower and wall, they have become feeble together.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Devised hath Jehovah to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion, He hath stretched out a line, He hath not turned His hand from destroying, And He causeth bulwark and wall to mourn, Together--they have been weak.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Heth. The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Sion: he hath stretched out his line, and hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: and the bulwark hath mourned, and the wall hath been destroyed together.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890Jehovah hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out the line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying; and he hath made the rampart and the wall to lament: they languish together.
Context
Following the rejection of altar and sanctuary (vv. 6–7), verse 8 returns to the city’s fabric, insisting that God’s destruction is purposeful. This prepares for the visible outcomes in verse 9: sunken gates, broken bars, and exiled rulers, along with prophetic silence. The measured imagery also counters any notion that events spun out of control; rather, they unfold under divine sovereignty. With this frame, the next verse will depict the resulting civic collapse and spiritual vacuum—no law-guided king, no vision-bearing prophet—to show the full cost of God’s executed purpose.
v.7The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary; He hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces: They have made a noise in the house of Jehovah, as in the day of a solemn assembly.
v.8This passage
v.9Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not; Yea, her prophets find no vision from Jehovah.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Job 13:21
Withdraw thy hand far from me; And let not thy terror make me afraid.
- Lamentations 2:2
The 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.
- Isaiah 5:5
And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
- Amos 7:7
Thus he showed me: and, behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand.
- Isaiah 34:11
But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it; and the owl and the raven shall dwell therein: and he will stretch over it the line of confusion, and the plummet of emptiness.
- 2 Samuel 8:2
And he smote Moab, and measured them with the line, making them to lie down on the ground; and he measured two lines to put to death, and one full line to keep alive. And the Moabites became servants to David, and brought tribute.
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