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Lamentations 2:20

in Lamentations 2

Look, O LORD, and consider: Whom have You ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

See, O Jehovah, and behold to whom thou hast done thus! Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

KJV

Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

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This verse in Lamentations 2

Commentary

3 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Consider to whom thou hast done this - Perhaps the best sense of this difficult verse is this: “Thou art our Father, we are thy children; wilt thou destroy thy own offspring?

This site's exposition

Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this

on Lamentations 2:20-22

Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this pushes the poem's argument to its final question, addressed to the God the poet has named as the destroyer through the chapter. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long names the siege's worst horror plainly, a famine that drove mothers to their own children, the calamity Moses had warned the covenant curses would bring and that Israel's own history had already seen repeated in an earlier siege. The chapter ends where it began, the day of the Lord's anger, with the swaddled infants once brought up now consumed, grief given its final and hardest sentence before the acrostic runs out of letters.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

(4.) This was the Lord's doing; he suffered the sword of the Chaldeans to devour thus without distinction: Thou has slain them in the day of thy anger, for it is God that kills and makes alive, and saves alive, as he pleases. But that which follows is very harsh: Thou has killed, and not pitied; for his soul is grieved for the misery of Israel.

The words behind it

18 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.

  • רְאֵ֤הsee

    reehH7200 →1300 times

  • יְהוָה֙O Yahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • וְֽהַבִּ֔יטָהand look !

    vehabitahH5027 →69 times

  • לְמִ֖יto whom?

    lemiH4310 →423 times

  • עוֹלַ֣לְתָּhave you dealt severely

    olaltaH5953 →20 times

  • כֹּ֑הthus

    kohH3541 →

  • אִם־<if>?

    ʾim-H518 →1069 times

  • תֹּאכַ֨לְנָהwill they eat

    tokhalnahH398 →810 times

  • נָשִׁ֤יםwomen

    nashimH802 →781 times

  • פִּרְיָם֙descendant[s] their

    piryamH6529 →

  • עֹלֲלֵ֣יchildren of

    ʾolaleiH5768 →20 times

  • טִפֻּחִ֔יםhealth<s>

    tipuchimH2949 →

  • אִם־or?

    ʾim-H518 →1069 times

  • יֵהָרֵ֛גwill he be killed

    yeharegH2026 →167 times

  • בְּמִקְדַּ֥שׁin [the] sanctuary of

    bemikdashH4720 →75 times

  • אֲדֹנָ֖י[the] Lord

    ʾadonaiH136 →440 times

  • כֹּהֵ֥ןpriest

    kohenH3548 →750 times

  • וְנָבִֽיא׃ סand prophet

    venavi'H5030 →314 times

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.

Deuteronomy 28:53Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you.6 worksLamentations 4:10The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.5 worksJeremiah 19:9I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’5 worksPsalms 78:64His priests fell by the sword, but their widows could not lament.4 worksLamentations 1:19I called out to my lovers, but they have betrayed me. My priests and elders perished in the city while they searched for food to keep themselves alive.4 worksLamentations 4:3Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.4 works
The other 12 cross-references, with their words ▾
Exodus 32:11But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God, saying, “O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?3 worksDeuteronomy 9:26And I prayed to the LORD and said, “O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You redeemed through Your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.3 worksLamentations 4:13But this was for the sins of her prophets and the guilt of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst.3 worksIsaiah 22:2O city of commotion, O town of revelry? Your slain did not die by the sword, nor were they killed in battle.3 worksEzekiel 5:10As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’3 worksLuke 13:1At that time some of those present told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.3 worksDeuteronomy 28:18The fruit of your womb will be cursed, as well as the produce of your land, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.3 worksIsaiah 64:8–12But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.2 worksJeremiah 5:31The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?2 worksEzekiel 9:5–6And as I listened, He said to the others, “Follow him through the city and start killing; do not show pity or spare anyone!2 worksJeremiah 14:15–18Therefore this is what the LORD says about the prophets who prophesy in My name: I did not send them, yet they say, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ By sword and famine these very prophets will meet their end!2 worksIsaiah 63:16–19Yet You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O LORD, are our Father; our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.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 19:9

    I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’

    it leads to

    • Leviticus 26:29

      You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Ezekiel 5:10

      As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Isaiah 9:20

      They carve out what is on the right, but they are still hungry; they eat what is on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one devours the flesh of his own…

    • Lamentations 4:10

      The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

  • Through

    Exodus 32:11

    But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God, saying, “O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and…

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 9:18–20

      Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you…

  • Through

    Lamentations 4:10

    The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 49:15

      “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you!

    • 2 Kings 6:26–29

      As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”

  • Through

    Deuteronomy 9:26

    And I prayed to the LORD and said, “O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You redeemed through Your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

    it leads to

    • Titus 2:14

      He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

Where this verse is studied

No study on the site is anchored to this verse yet.

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; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Carl Friedrich Keil, Lamentations and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Lamentations 2 →