Lamentations 2:4

Lamentations 2:4 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)He 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.
• New International Version (NIV)Like an enemy he has strung his bow; his right hand is ready. Like a foe he has slain all who were pleasing to the eye; he has poured out his wrath like fire on the tent of Daughter Zion.
• English Standard Version (ESV)He has bent his bow like an enemy, with his right hand set like a foe; and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes in the tent of the daughter of Zion; he has poured out his fury like fire.
• New King James Version (NKJV)Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow; With His right hand, like an adversary, He has slain all who were pleasing to His eye; On the tent of the daughter of Zion, He has poured out His fury like fire.

Context of Lamentations 2:4

2The Lord has swallowed up; He has not spared All the country places of Jacob. In His wrath He has thrown down The strongholds of the Daughter of Judah (Jerusalem). He has brought them down to the ground [in disgrace]; He has debased the kingdom and its princes. 3In fierce anger He has cut off and destroyed Every horn of Israel. He has withdrawn His right hand From the presence of the enemy. And He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire Consuming all around. He has bent His bow like an enemy; He has set His right hand like an adversary And slain all that were delightful and pleasing to the eye; In the tent of the Daughter of Zion He has poured out His wrath like fire. 5The Lord has become like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all its palaces; He has destroyed its strongholds And multiplied in the Daughter of Judah Mourning and lamentation (expressions of grief). 6And He has violently broken down His temple like a [fragile] garden hedge; He has destroyed His appointed meeting place. The Lord has caused the appointed feast and Sabbath To be forgotten in Zion And has despised and rejected the king and the priest In the indignation of His anger.

Lamentations 2:4 word by word

דָּרַ֨ךְ קַשְׁתּ֜וֹ כְּאוֹיֵ֗ב נִצָּ֤ב יְמִינוֹ֙ כְּצָ֔ר וַֽיַּהֲרֹ֔ג כֹּ֖ל מַחֲמַדֵּי־עָ֑יִן בְּאֹ֙הֶל֙ בַּת־צִיּ֔וֹן שָׁפַ֥ךְ כָּאֵ֖שׁ חֲמָתֽוֹ׃ סRead the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• He hath bentדָּרַךְdârak · to treadH1869
• his bowקֶ֫שֶׁתqesheth · bowH7198
• like an enemyאֹיֵב'ôyêb 'ôyêb · enemyH341
• he stoodנָצַבnâtsab · to standH5324
• with his right handיָמִיןyâmîyn · rightH3225
• as an adversaryצַרtsar tsâr · enemyH6862
• and slewהָרַגhârag · to killH2026
• pleasantמַחְמָדmachmâd · desireH4261
• to the eyeעַ֫יִן‛ayin · eyeH5869
• in the tabernacleאֹ֫הֶל'ôhel · tentH168
• of the daughterבַּתbath · daughterH1323
• of Zionצִיּוֹןtsîyôn · ZionH6726
• he poured outשָׁפַךְshâphak · to pour: pourH8210
• his furyחֵמָהchêmâh chêmâ' · rageH2534
• like fireאֵשׁ'êsh · fireH784

Cross-references for Lamentations 2:4

• Lamentations 2:5The Lord has become like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all its palaces; He has destroyed its strongholds And multiplied in the Daughter of Judah Mourning and lamentation (expressions of grief).
• Lamentations 3:3Surely He has turned His hand against me Repeatedly all the day.
• Job 6:4Because the arrows of the Almighty are within me, My spirit drinks their poison; The terrors of God are arrayed against me.
• Job 16:12I was [living] at ease, but He crushed me and broke me apart, And He has seized me by the neck and has shaken me to pieces; He has also set me up as His target.
• Isaiah 63:10But they rebelled And grieved His Holy Spirit; Therefore He changed into their enemy, And He fought against them.
• Jeremiah 21:5I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm in anger, in fury, and in great indignation and wrath.
• Jeremiah 30:14All your lovers (allies) have forgotten you; They do not seek and long for you. For I have injured you with the wound of an enemy, With the punishment of a cruel and merciless foe, Because your guilt is great And your sins are glaring and innumerable.
• Ezekiel 24:25‘As for you, son of man, on the day when I take their strength and their stronghold from them, their joy and their glory, the desire of their eyes and their heart’s [chief] delight (the temple), and I also take their sons and their daughters,
• Lamentations 4:1How dark and dim the gold has become, How the pure gold has changed! The sacred stones [of the temple] are poured out and scattered At the head of every street.
• 2 Chronicles 34:21“Go, inquire of the Lord for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah in regard to the words of the book which has been found; for great is the wrath of the Lord which has been poured out on us because our fathers have not kept and obeyed the word of the Lord, to act in accordance with everything that is written in this book.”
• Isaiah 42:25Therefore He poured out on Israel the heat of His anger And the fierceness of battle; And engulfed him in fire, Yet he did not recognize [the lesson of repentance which the Assyrian conquest was intended to teach]; It burned him, but he did not take it to heart.
• Isaiah 51:17Wake yourself up! Wake yourself up! Stand up, O Jerusalem, You who have drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His wrath, You who have drunk the cup of staggering and intoxication to the dregs [leaving only sediment].
• Isaiah 63:6I trampled the peoples in My anger And made them drunk with [the cup of] My wrath, And I spilled their lifeblood on the earth.”
• Jeremiah 4:4Circumcise (dedicate, sanctify) yourselves to the Lord And remove the foreskin [sins] of your heart, Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Or else My wrath will go forth like fire [consuming all that gets in its way] And burn and there will be no one to quench it, Because of the evil of your acts.”
• Jeremiah 7:20Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and [the fire will] not be quenched.”
• Jeremiah 36:7It may be that their supplication [for mercy] will come before the Lord, and everyone will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and the wrath that the Lord has pronounced against this people.”

Commentaries on Lamentations 2:4

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 4He hath bent his bow - he stood with his right hand - This is the attitude of the archer. He first bends his bow; then sets his arrow upon the string; and, lastly, placing his right hand on the lower end of the arrow, in connection with the string, takes his aim, and prepares to let fly.Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 4He stood with his right hand … - i. e. that right hand so often stretched out to help now grasped a weapon ready for Judah‘s destruction. Were pleasant - Or, was “pleasant.” Put full stop after “eye.” Begin the third distich thus: In the tabernacle - (or, tent) of the daughter of Zion.Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 3-4bent His bow: In the past, the Lord had been a powerful warrior for Israel (see Exodus 14:13–15:21; Joshua 23:9–11; Judges 7; 2 Kings 19:32–35). Now he waged war against Jerusalem (see Isaiah 63:10; Ezekiel 24:25).Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 44. (Is 63:10). stood with ... right hand--He took His stand so as to use His right hand as an adversary. Henderson makes the image to be that of an archer steadying his right hand to take aim. Not only did He withdraw His help, but also took arms against Israel. all ... pleasant to ... eye--(Eze 24:25). All that were conspicuous for youth, beauty, and rank. in ... tabernacle--the dwellings of Jerusalem. He.Read the comment

Topics related to Lamentations 2:4

• Bow

In the dictionaries

• Bosom
• Cord
• Poetry
• Acrostic
• Alphabet
• Lamentations, Book of
• Poetry, Hebrew
• Proverbs, the Book of
• bow and arrow, a bow

Commentaries on Lamentations 2

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Rashi on Tanakh
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings