Lamentations 4:12
What does Lamentations 4:12 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 4:12 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 4:12 means
The kings and peoples of the world could not imagine that an enemy would breach Jerusalem’s gates. The city seemed unassailable, both by its defenses and by its reputation as the place of God’s presence. This incredulity magnifies the judgment: what human wisdom deemed impossible happened because God withdrew His protection. The verse exposes the danger of trusting in perceived impregnability—walls, traditions, or past experiences of blessing—rather than in obedience to God. When He judges, no human expectation or alliance can stand. The shock of the nations becomes a testimony that this fall was not ordinary but an act of the sovereign Lord.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000The kings of the earth believed not, neither all the inhabitants of the world, That the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.
KJV
King James Version · 1611The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901The kings of the earth believed not, neither all the inhabitants of the world, That the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949To the kings of the earth and to all the people of the world it did not seem possible that the attackers and the haters would go into the doors of Jerusalem.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Believe not did the kings of earth, And any of the inhabitants of the world, That come would an adversary and enemy Into the gates of Jerusalem.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Lamed. The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed, that the adversary and the enemy should enter in by the gates of Jerusalem.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should enter into the gates of Jerusalem.
Context
After stating that Jehovah kindled Zion’s destruction (verse 11), verse 12 records how astonishing the fall appeared to the world. This situates Jerusalem’s ruin on a global stage, preparing for verse 13’s explanation that the leaders’ sins brought this about. The sequence moves from divine action (verse 11), to global reaction (verse 12), to moral causation (verse 13). The following verses (14–16) will trace the disgrace and scattering of those leaders, showing the public consequences of their private and public iniquities. Thus, the narrative links theological, political, and social dimensions of the catastrophe.
v.11Jehovah hath accomplished his wrath, he hath poured out his fierce anger; And he hath kindled a fire in Zion, which hath devoured the foundations thereof.
v.12This passage
v.13It isbecause of the sins of her prophets, andthe iniquities of her priests, That have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Psalms 48:4
For, lo, the kings assembled themselves, They passed by together.
- 1 Kings 9:8
And though this house is so high, yet shall every one that passeth by it be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath Jehovah done thus unto this land, and to this house?
- Jeremiah 21:13
Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, and of the rock of the plain, saith Jehovah; you that say, Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?
- Deuteronomy 29:24
even all the nations shall say, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?
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