Lamentations 2
Study sheet, King James Version, with the original-language words this chapter turns on.
The text
1How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!
2The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.
3He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
4He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.
5The 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.
6And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.
7The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.
8The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.
9Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.
10The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
11Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.
12They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.
13What 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?
14Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.
15All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?
16All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.
17The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.
18Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.
19Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.
20Behold, 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?
21The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.
22Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.
Words in this chapter
Definitions are Strong's own wording from his Exhaustive Concordance (1890). Counts are how often each word appears in this chapter, from the tagged text.
- בַּתbathH132312× in this chapter
a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms of relationship, literally and figuratively)
- כֹּלkôlH36058× in this chapter
properly, the whole; hence, all, any or every (in the singular only, but often in a plural sense)
- לֹאlôʼH38088× in this chapter
not (the simple or abs. negation); by implication, no; often used with other particles
- עַלʻalH59218× in this chapter
above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applications
- אֶרֶץʼeretsH7768× in this chapter
the earth (at large, or partitively a land)
- אֲדֹנָיʼĂdônâyH1367× in this chapter
the Lord (used as a proper name of God only)
- יְהֹוָהYᵉhôvâhH30687× in this chapter
Jehovah, Jewish national name of God
- יוֹםyôwmH31177× in this chapter
a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)
- אֹיֵבʼôyêbH3417× in this chapter
hating; an adversary
- צִיּוֹןTsîyôwnH67267× in this chapter
Tsijon (as a permanent capital), a mountain of Jerusalem
- אַףʼaphH6396× in this chapter
properly, the nose or nostril; hence, the face, and occasionally a person; also (from the rapid breathing in passion) ire
- בָּלַעbâlaʻH11045× in this chapter
to make away with (specifically by swallowing); generally, to destroy
- רֹאשׁrôʼshH72185× in this chapter
the head (as most easily shaken), whether literal or figurative (in many applications, of place, time, rank, itc.)
- חוֹמָהchôwmâhH23464× in this chapter
a wall of protection
- מוֹעֵדmôwʻêdH41504× in this chapter
properly, an appointment, i.e. a fixed time or season; specifically, a festival; conventionally ayear; by implication, an assembly (as convened for a definite purpose); technically the congregation; by extension, the place of meeting; also a signal (as appointed beforehand)
- שָׁפַךְshâphakH82104× in this chapter
to spill forth (blood, a libation, liquid metal; or even a solid, i.e. to mound up); also (figuratively) to expend (life, soul, complaint, money, etc.); intensively, to sprawl out
- בְּתוּלָהbᵉthûwlâhH13303× in this chapter
a virgin (from her privacy); sometimes (by continuation) a bride; also (figuratively) a city or state
- הָרַגhâragH20263× in this chapter
to smite with deadly intent
- חָמַלchâmalH25503× in this chapter
to commiserate; by implication, to spare
- יְרוּשָׁלַ͏ִםYᵉrûwshâlaimH33893× in this chapter
Jerushalaim or Jerushalem, the capital city of Palestine
- יִשְׂרָאֵלYisrâʼêlH34783× in this chapter
Jisrael, a symbolical name of Jacob; also (typically) of his posterity
- מָהmâhH41003× in this chapter
properly, interrogative what? (including how? why? when?); but also exclamation, what! (including how!), or indefinitely what (including whatever, and even relatively, that which); often used with prefixes in various adverbial or conjunctive senses
- אֵלʼêlH4133× in this chapter
near, with or among; often in general, to
- נָבִיאnâbîyʼH50303× in this chapter
a prophet or (generally) inspired man
- אָמַרʼâmarH5593× in this chapter
to say (used with great latitude)
- עוֹלֵלʻôwlêlH57683× in this chapter
a suckling
- עָטַףʻâṭaphH58483× in this chapter
to shroud, i.e. clothe (whether transitive or reflex.); hence (from the idea of darkness) to languish
- עַיִןʻayinH58693× in this chapter
an eye (literally or figuratively); by analogy, a fountain (as the eye of the landscape)
- שׁוּבshûwbH77253× in this chapter
to turn back (hence, away) transitively or intransitively, literally or figuratively (not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point); generally to retreat; often adverbial, again
- שָׁחַתshâchathH78433× in this chapter
to decay, i.e. (causatively) ruin (literally or figuratively)
- אֲשֶׁרʼăsherH8343× in this chapter
who, which, what, that; also (as an adverb and a conjunction) when, where, how, because, in order that, etc.
- דָּמַםdâmamH18262× in this chapter
to be dumb; by implication, to be astonished, to stop; also to perish
- דִּמְעָהdimʻâhH18322× in this chapter
weeping
- הָיָהhâyâhH19612× in this chapter
to exist, i.e. be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary)
- הָרַסhâraçH20402× in this chapter
to pull down or in pieces, break, destroy
- זָקֵןzâqênH22052× in this chapter
old
- חוּץchûwtsH23512× in this chapter
properly, separate by awall, i.e. outside, outdoors
- חָזָהchâzâhH23722× in this chapter
to gaze at; mentally to perceive, contemplate (with pleasure); specifically, to have avision of
- יָדyâdH30272× in this chapter
a hand (the open one (indicating power, means, direction, etc.),
- יְהוּדָהYᵉhûwdâhH30632× in this chapter
Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five Israelites; also of the tribe descended from the first, and of its territory