Lamentations 2:9
What does Lamentations 2:9 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 2:9 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 2:9 means
The city’s gates have collapsed into the ground, bars shattered—defense is gone. The king and princes are scattered among nations “where the law is not,” signaling the loss of covenant order in exile. Prophets find no vision from Jehovah; the normal means of guidance is silent. Physical ruin, political displacement, and spiritual drought converge. The verse paints a society stripped of protection, leadership, and revelation. When God withdraws, all pillars of communal life fail together. The exile’s disorientation is complete: no secure entry, no governing presence, and no fresh word from the Lord to light the way.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000Her 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.
KJV
King James Version · 1611Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901Her 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.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949Her doors have gone down into the earth; he has sent destruction on her locks: her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not; even her prophets have had no vision from the Lord.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Sunk into the earth have her gates, He hath destroyed and broken her bars, Her king and her princes <FI>are<Fi> among the nations, There is no law, also her prophets Have not found vision from Jehovah.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Teth. Her gates are sunk into the ground: he hath destroyed, and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more, and her prophets have found no vision from the Lord.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations: the law is no [more]; her prophets also find no vision from Jehovah.
Context
Building on the purposeful demolition in verse 8, verse 9 lists the consequences: shattered gates, displaced rulers, and prophetic silence. This trifecta of collapse transitions the poem from structural ruin to human grief. The following verse will show elders and virgins sitting in dust and silence, intensifying the picture of communal mourning. The movement matters: after establishing that God has acted decisively against the city and its institutions, the lament now enters the lived sorrow of the people, preparing for Jeremiah’s personal anguish and the heartbreaking suffering of children.
v.8Jehovah 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.
v.9This passage
v.10The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, they keep silence; They have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Ezekiel 12:13
My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare; and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there.
- Jeremiah 14:14
Then Jehovah said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name; I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake I unto them: they prophesy unto you a lying vision, and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their own heart.
- 2 Kings 25:7
And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
- Ezekiel 17:20
And I will spread my net upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will enter into judgment with him there for his trespass that he hath trespassed against me.
- Amos 8:11
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah.
- Jeremiah 52:14
And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about.
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