Lamentations 2:5
in Lamentations 2The Lord is like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation for the Daughter of Judah.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The Lord is become as an enemy, he hath swallowed up Israel; He hath swallowed up all her palaces, he hath destroyed his strongholds; And he hath multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
KJV
The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
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This verse in Lamentations 2
Commentary
8 notes on this verseHere is bewailed the destruction of edifices relating to defense. About this idea three further aspects are expressed. First is touched upon the indignation of the Lord God. As asserted: "The Lord has become like an enemy." And Isaiah 63:10: "therefore he turned to be …
This site's exposition
He has bent His bow like an enemy
on Lamentations 2:4-6
The covenant God is described in an invader's terms: “He has bent His bow like an enemy; His right hand is positioned”. He “has laid waste His tabernacle like a garden booth”. Each loss in the unit is traced to the LORD's own hand, behind Babylon's siege.
This site's exposition
The Lord is like an enemy
Albert Barnes notes that the title here is Adonai, and the Lord has become as an enemy to Israel. John Gill hears grief past bearing in the repeated swallowed up, first Israel and then her palaces and strongholds. Mourning and lamentation rhyme in the Hebrew.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
The Lord was as an enemy,.... Who formerly was on their side, their God and guardian, their protector and deliverer, but now against them; and a terrible thing it is to have God for an enemy, or even to be as one; this is repeated, as being exceeding distressing, and even intolerable.
), though those were most stately, and strong, and rich, and well guarded. God's judgments, when they come with commission, level palaces with cottages, and as easily swallow them up. If palaces be polluted with sin, as theirs were, let them expect to be visited with a curse, which shall consume them, with the timber thereof and the stones thereof, Zech. v. 4 .
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), He has destroyed his strong-holds; for what strength could they have against God? And thus he increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation, for they could not but be in a dreadful consternation when they saw all their defence departed from them. This is again insisted on,
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The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
an enemy-- (Jer 30:14). mourning and lamentation--There is a play of similar sounds in the original, "sorrow and sadness," to heighten the effect (Job 30:3, Hebrew;
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A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Literally, אדני 'ădonāy has become “as an enemy.”
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הָיָ֨ה | hayah | he has become | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| אֲדֹנָ֤י׀ | ʾadonai | [the] Lord | H136 → | 440 times |
| כְּאוֹיֵב֙ | keoyev | like an enemy | H341 → | 282 times |
| בִּלַּ֣ע | bila' | he has swallowed up | H1104 → | 49 times |
| יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל | yisrael | Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
| בִּלַּע֙ | bila' | he has swallowed up | H1104 → | 49 times |
| כָּל־ | kol- | all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| אַרְמְנוֹתֶ֔יהָ | ʾarmenoteiha | palaces its | H759 → | |
| שִׁחֵ֖ת | shichet | he has ruined | H7843 → | 146 times |
| מִבְצָרָ֑יו | mivtzarav | fortifications its | H4013 → | |
| וַיֶּ֙רֶב֙ | vaiyerev | and he has multiplied | H7235 → | |
| בְּבַת־ | bevat- | in [the] daughter of | H1323 → | 588 times |
| יְהוּדָ֔ה | yehudah | Judah | H3063 → | 819 times |
| תַּאֲנִיָּ֖ה | taaniyah | mourning | H8386 → | |
| וַאֲנִיָּֽה׃ ס | vaaniyah | and lamentation | H592 → |
הָיָ֨הhe has become
hayahH1961 →3559 times
אֲדֹנָ֤י׀[the] Lord
ʾadonaiH136 →440 times
כְּאוֹיֵב֙like an enemy
keoyevH341 →282 times
בִּלַּ֣עhe has swallowed up
bila'H1104 →49 times
יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לIsrael
yisraelH3478 →2507 times
בִּלַּע֙he has swallowed up
bila'H1104 →49 times
כָּל־all
kol-H3605 →5413 times
אַרְמְנוֹתֶ֔יהָpalaces its
ʾarmenoteihaH759 →
שִׁחֵ֖תhe has ruined
shichetH7843 →146 times
מִבְצָרָ֑יוfortifications its
mivtzaravH4013 →
וַיֶּ֙רֶב֙and he has multiplied
vaiyerevH7235 →
בְּבַת־in [the] daughter of
bevat-H1323 →588 times
יְהוּדָ֔הJudah
yehudahH3063 →819 times
תַּאֲנִיָּ֖הmourning
taaniyahH8386 →
וַאֲנִיָּֽה׃ סand lamentation
vaaniyahH592 →
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
Jeremiah 52:13He burned down the house of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.
it leads to
- 2 Chronicles 36:19
Then the Chaldeans set fire to the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem. They burned down all the palaces and destroyed every article of value.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Micah 3:12
Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 79:1
The nations, O God, have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 2 Chronicles 36:19
Through
Lamentations 2:2Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob. In His wrath He has demolished the fortified cities of the Daughter of Judah. He brought to the ground and defiled her…
it leads to
- Lamentations 3:43
You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have killed without pity.
- Psalms 89:39–40
You have renounced the covenant with Your servant and sullied his crown in the dust.
- Lamentations 3:43
Through
Lamentations 2:4He has bent His bow like an enemy; His right hand is positioned. Like a foe He has killed all who were pleasing to the eye; He has poured out His wrath like fire…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 7:20
Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the produce…
- Jeremiah 7:20
Through
2 Kings 25:9He burned down the house of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.
it leads to
- Psalms 74:3–7
Turn Your steps to the everlasting ruins, to everything in the sanctuary the enemy has destroyed.
- Psalms 74:3–7
Through
Jeremiah 30:14All your lovers have forgotten you; they no longer seek you, for I have struck you as an enemy would, with the discipline of someone cruel, because of your great iniquity and your numerous…
it leads to
- Lamentations 1:2
She weeps aloud in the night, with tears upon her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is no one to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.
- Lamentations 1:2
Where this verse is studied
About Lamentations
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Lamentations; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Lamentations.