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Lamentations 2:13

in Lamentations 2

What can I say for you? To what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may console you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? For your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can ever heal you?

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

What shall I testify unto thee? what shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? For thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?

KJV

What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?

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This verse in Lamentations 2

Commentary

2 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

What thing shall I take - Or, rather, as Dr. Blayney, “What shall I urge to thee?” How shall I comfort thee? Thy breach is great like the sea - Thou hast a flood of afflictions, a sea of troubles, an ocean of miseries.

This site's exposition

What thing shall I take to witness for thee

on Lamentations 2:13-17

The poet's own voice breaks in, what thing shall I take to witness for thee, what shall I equal to thee, admitting that no comparison is equal to a breach as great as the sea. The false prophets are named directly as a cause, they have not discovered thine iniquity to turn away thy captivity, but have seen for thee false burdens, the failure of true prophetic warning set against the passersby who now hiss and clap their hands where the city once stood as the perfection of beauty. The unit closes on the hardest line of the chapter's theology, the Lord hath done that which he had devised, the enemy's triumph read as the fulfilment of a word spoken long before, not an accident of history.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

What testimony can I offer you, to what can I compare you. To say to you, “Why do you wonder about your destruction?
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Lamentations 2:13:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Falsehood and stupidity. Words that have no taste, in O.F. aplastrement.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Lamentations 2:14:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 2 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

21 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • מָֽה־what?

    mah-H4100 →752 times

  • אֲעִידֵ֞ךְwill I testify for you

    ʾaidekhH5749 →

  • מָ֣הwhat?

    mahH4100 →752 times

  • אֲדַמֶּה־will I liken

    ʾadameh-H1819 →

  • לָּ֗ךְto you

    lakh

  • הַבַּת֙O daughter of

    habatH1323 →588 times

  • יְר֣וּשָׁלִַ֔םJerusalem

    yerushalimH3389 →643 times

  • מָ֤הwhat?

    mahH4100 →752 times

  • אַשְׁוֶה־will I make equal

    ʾashveh-H7737 →

  • לָּךְ֙to you

    lokh

  • וַאֲנַֽחֲמֵ֔ךְso I may comfort you

    vaanachamekhH5162 →108 times

  • בְּתוּלַ֖תO virgin of

    betulatH1330 →50 times

  • בַּת־[the] daughter of

    bat-H1323 →588 times

  • צִיּ֑וֹןZion

    tziyonH6726 →154 times

  • כִּֽי־for

    ki-H3588 →4482 times

  • גָד֥וֹל[is] great

    gadolH1419 →

  • כַּיָּ֛םlike the sea

    kaiyamH3220 →

  • שִׁבְרֵ֖ךְbrokenness your

    shivrekhH7667 →45 times

  • מִ֥יwho?

    miH4310 →423 times

  • יִרְפָּא־will he heal

    yirpa'-H7495 →

  • לָֽךְ׃ ס<to> you

    lakh

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

18 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

2 Kings 19:21This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: ‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you.7 worksLamentations 1:12Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see! Is there any sorrow like mine, which was inflicted on me, which the LORD made me suffer on the day of His fierce anger?6 worksJeremiah 14:17You are to speak this word to them: ‘My eyes overflow with tears; day and night they do not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people has been shattered by a crushing blow, a severely grievous wound.5 worksIsaiah 30:26The light of the moon will be as bright as the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days—on the day that the LORD binds up the brokenness of His people and heals the wounds He has inflicted.4 worksMatthew 11:16To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:4 works2 Samuel 5:20So David went to Baal-perazim, where he defeated the Philistines and said, “Like a bursting flood, the LORD has burst out against my enemies before me.” So he called that place Baal-perazim.3 works
The other 12 cross-references, with their words ▾
Jeremiah 8:22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?3 worksJeremiah 30:12–15For this is what the LORD says: “Your injury is incurable; your wound is grievous.3 worksJeremiah 31:4Again I will build you, and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out in joyful dancing.3 worksDaniel 9:12You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.3 worksIsaiah 37:22this is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: ‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you.3 worksMark 4:30Then He asked, “To what can we compare the kingdom of God? With what parable shall we present it?3 worksNahum 3:7Then all who see you will recoil from you and say, ‘Nineveh is devastated; who will grieve for her?’ Where can I find comforters for you?”3 worksEzekiel 26:3–4therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, O Tyre, I am against you, and I will raise up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves.2 worksJeremiah 51:8–9Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been shattered. Wail for her; get her balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed.2 worksPsalms 60:2You have shaken the land and torn it open. Heal its fractures, for it is quaking.2 worksJeremiah 14:19Have You rejected Judah completely? Do You despise Zion? Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We hoped for peace, but no good has come, and for the time of healing, but there was only terror.2 worksJeremiah 30:7How awful that day will be! None will be like it! It is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved out of it.2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Jeremiah 8:22

    Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 46:11

      Go up to Gilead for balm, O Virgin Daughter of Egypt! In vain you try many remedies, but for you there is no healing.

    • Genesis 37:25

      And as they sat down to eat a meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh on their way down to…

    • Jeremiah 51:8

      Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been shattered. Wail for her; get her balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed.

    • Jeremiah 30:12–17

      For this is what the LORD says: “Your injury is incurable; your wound is grievous.

    • Luke 8:43

      including a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. She had spent all her money on physicians, but no one was able to heal her.

  • Through

    2 Samuel 5:20

    So David went to Baal-perazim, where he defeated the Philistines and said, “Like a bursting flood, the LORD has burst out against my enemies before me.” So he called that place Baal-perazim.

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 28:21

      For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim. He will rouse Himself as in the Valley of Gibeon, to do His work, His strange work, and to perform His task, His disturbing…

  • Through

    Jeremiah 14:17

    You are to speak this word to them: ‘My eyes overflow with tears; day and night they do not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people has been shattered by a crushing blow,…

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 8:21

      For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am crushed. I mourn; horror has gripped me.

    • Jeremiah 13:17

      But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.

Where this verse is studied

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Also on Lamentations 2: 1 study that walk through this chapter ▾

About Lamentations

People Mourn over the Destruction of Jerusalem — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
People Mourn over the Destruction of Jerusalem — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Lamentations: the study guide →Read Lamentations 2 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament.

Read on in Lamentations 2 →