Lamentations 1:13
in Lamentations 1He sent fire from on high, and it overpowered my bones. He spread a net for my feet and turned me back. He made me desolate, faint all the day long.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
From on high hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them; He hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: He hath made me desolate and faint all the day.
KJV
From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day.
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This verse in Lamentations 1
Commentary
7 notes on this verseA commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
bones--a fire which not only consumes the skin and flesh, but penetrates even to my "bones" (that is, my vital powers). prevaileth against--not as ROSENMULLER, "He (Jehovah) hath broken them"; a sense not in the Hebrew. net-- (Eze 12:13); image from hunting wild beasts.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
This site's exposition
Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by
on Lamentations 1:12-16
Jerusalem asks every passerby whether any sorrow is like hers, “which the LORD made me suffer on the day of His fierce anger”. The cry is the city's over her ruin, with fire in her bones and the Lord treading “the Virgin Daughter of Judah” in a winepress.
This site's exposition
He sent fire from on high
Lamentations 1:13-15 names the Lord as the one who acts in each image: fire, net, yoke and winepress. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown compare the net spread for Zedekiah in Ezekiel 12:13. Albert Barnes pictures a hunted animal with every way out blocked.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Here is considered the severity of a divine discipline, as the divine master teaches by hard lessons. This severity is done within corrections. As expressed: "From on high he sent fire." That is from a loftiness of counsel, "he sent fire": as an affliction, or …
FROM ABOVE: the fifth topic of complaint. Historical interpretation FROM ABOVE HE HAS SENT FIRE, of heavenly revenge, of which it is said in the Book of Job: The fire of God fell from heaven &c. FIRE, namely the aerial powers, who until this day …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
), a preternatural heat, which prevails against them, so that they are burnt like a hearth ( Ps. cii. 3 ), pained and wasted, and dried away." 2. She is as one in a net, which the more he struggles to get out of the more he is entangled in, and this net is of God's spreading.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens+odd-straight-quotes
From above hath he sent fire into my bones,....
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
Crushing it. It [the fire] crushed it and broke it through punishment and suffering.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
May this not happen to you. Such a calamity should not happen to all those who transgress the law.
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. 4 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
15 Hebrew wordsEvery 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.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מִמָּר֛וֹם | mimarom | from a high place | H4791 → | |
| שָֽׁלַח־ | shalach- | he sent | H7971 → | |
| אֵ֥שׁ | ʾesh | fire | H784 → | 378 times |
| בְּעַצְמֹתַ֖י | beatzmotai | in bones my | H6106 → | 126 times |
| וַיִּרְדֶּ֑נָּה | vaiyirdenah | and he mastered it | H7287 → | |
| פָּרַ֨שׂ | paras | he spread out | H6566 → | 67 times |
| רֶ֤שֶׁת | reshet | a net | H7568 → | |
| לְרַגְלַי֙ | leraglai | for feet my | H7272 → | 247 times |
| הֱשִׁיבַ֣נִי | heshivani | he made turn back me | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| אָח֔וֹר | ʾachor | backward | H268 → | 41 times |
| נְתָנַ֙נִי֙ | netanani | he made me | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| שֹֽׁמֵמָ֔ה | shomemah | desolate | H8076 → | |
| כָּל־ | kol- | all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| הַיּ֖וֹם | haiyom | the day | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| דָּוָֽה׃ ס | davah | faint | H1739 → |
מִמָּר֛וֹםfrom a high place
mimaromH4791 →
שָֽׁלַח־he sent
shalach-H7971 →
אֵ֥שׁfire
ʾeshH784 →378 times
בְּעַצְמֹתַ֖יin bones my
beatzmotaiH6106 →126 times
וַיִּרְדֶּ֑נָּהand he mastered it
vaiyirdenahH7287 →
פָּרַ֨שׂhe spread out
parasH6566 →67 times
רֶ֤שֶׁתa net
reshetH7568 →
לְרַגְלַי֙for feet my
leraglaiH7272 →247 times
הֱשִׁיבַ֣נִיhe made turn back me
heshivaniH7725 →1056 times
אָח֔וֹרbackward
ʾachorH268 →41 times
נְתָנַ֙נִי֙he made me
netananiH5414 →2011 times
שֹֽׁמֵמָ֔הdesolate
shomemahH8076 →
כָּל־all
kol-H3605 →5413 times
הַיּ֖וֹםthe day
haiyomH3117 →2304 times
דָּוָֽה׃ סfaint
davahH1739 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach 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
Ezekiel 17:20I will spread My net over him and catch him in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon and execute judgment upon him there for the treason he committed against Me.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 12:13
But I will spread My net over him, and he will be caught in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans; yet he will not see it, and…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Ezekiel 12:13
Through
Psalms 22:14I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me.
it leads to
- Psalms 31:10
For my life is consumed with grief and my years with groaning; my iniquity has drained my strength, and my bones are wasting away.
- Psalms 22:17
I can count all my bones; they stare and gloat over me.
- Job 30:16
And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction grip me.
- Daniel 5:6
his face grew pale and his thoughts so alarmed him that his hips gave way and his knees knocked together.
- Psalms 31:10
Through
Habakkuk 3:16I heard and trembled within; my lips quivered at the sound. Decay entered my bones; I trembled where I stood. Yet I must wait patiently for the day of distress to come upon the…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 23:9
As for the prophets: My heart is broken within me, and all my bones tremble. I have become like a drunkard, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD, because of His…
- Daniel 10:8
So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision. No strength remained in me; my face grew deathly pale, and I was powerless.
- Jeremiah 23:9
Through
Job 30:30My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.
it leads to
- Lamentations 4:8
But now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.
- Lamentations 4:8
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Lamentations
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Glossa Ordinaria, Commentary (church-history corpus); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Lamentations.