Lamentations 2:4
◄  Lamentations 2:4  ►
New International Version (©2011)
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.

New Living Translation (©2007)
He bends his bow against his people, as though he were their enemy. His strength is used against them to kill their finest youth. His fury is poured out like fire on beautiful Jerusalem.

English Standard Version (©2001)
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 American Standard Bible (©1995)
He has bent His bow like an enemy; He has set His right hand like an adversary And slain all that were pleasant to the eye; In the tent of the daughter of Zion He has poured out His wrath like fire.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
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.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
He has bent His bow like an enemy; His right hand is positioned like an adversary. He has killed everyone who was loved, pouring out His wrath like fire on the tent of Daughter Zion.

International Standard Version (©2012)
He bent his bow against us as would an enemy, his right hand cocked as would an adversary. He has killed everyone in whom we took pride; in the tent of cherished Zion he poured out his anger like fire.

NET Bible (©2006)
He prepared his bow like an enemy; his right hand was ready to shoot. Like a foe he killed everyone, even our strong young men; he has poured out his anger like fire on the tent of Daughter Zion.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Like an enemy he bent his bow. Like an opponent his right hand held the arrow steady. He killed all the beautiful people. He poured out his fury like fire on the tent of Zion's people.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
He has bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and has slain all that were pleasant to the eye in the tent of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.

American King James Version
He has 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.

American Standard Version
He hath bent his bow like an enemy, he hath stood with his right hand as an adversary, And hath slain all that were pleasant to the eye: In the tent of the daughter of Zion he hath poured out his wrath like fire.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Daleth. He hath bent his bow as an enemy, he hath fixed his right hand as an adversary: and he hath killed all that was fair to behold in the tabernacle of the daughter of Sion, he hath poured out his indignation like fire.

Darby Bible Translation
He hath bent his bow like an enemy; he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and hath slain all that was pleasant to the eye: in the tent of the daughter of Zion, he hath poured out his fury like fire.

English Revised Version
He hath bent his bow like an enemy, he hath stood with his right hand as an adversary, and hath slain all that were pleasant to the eye: in the tent of the daughter of Zion he hath poured out his fury like fire.

Webster's Bible Translation
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.

World English Bible
He has bent his bow like an enemy, he has stood with his right hand as an adversary, Has killed all that were pleasant to the eye: In the tent of the daughter of Zion he has poured out his wrath like fire.

Young's Literal Translation
He hath trodden His bow as an enemy, Stood hath His right hand as an adversary, And He slayeth all the desirable ones of the eye, In the tent of the daughter of Zion, He hath poured out as fire His fury.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:1-9 A sad representation is here made of the state of God's church, of Jacob and Israel; but the notice seems mostly to refer to the hand of the Lord in their calamities. Yet God is not an enemy to his people, when he is angry with them and corrects them. And gates and bars stand in no stead when God withdraws his protection. It is just with God to cast down those by judgments, who debase themselves by sin; and to deprive those of the benefit and comfort of sabbaths and ordinances, who have not duly valued nor observed them. What should they do with Bibles, who make no improvement of them? Those who misuse God's prophets, justly lose them. It becomes necessary, though painful, to turn the thoughts of the afflicted to the hand of God lifted up against them, and to their sins as the source of their miseries.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - The beginning of the verse seems slightly out of order (see the Septuagint). And slew all that were pleasant, etc. The correct rendering is, And slew all that was pleasant to the eye: in the tent of the daughter of Zion he poured out his fury like fire. The Authorized Version (following the Targum) seems to have thought that the youth of the population alone was intended. But, though Ewald also adopts this view, it seems to limit unduly the meaning of the poet. By "tent" we should probably understand "dwelling," as Jeremiah 4:5, and often; Isaiah 16:5, "the tent of David;" Psalm 78:67, "the tent of Joseph."

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He hath bent his bow like an enemy,.... God sometimes appears as if he was an enemy to his people, when he is not, by his conduct and behaviour; by the dispensations of his providence they take him to be so, as Job did, Job 16:9; he bends his bow, or treads it, for the bending or stretching the bow was done by the foot; and as the Targum,

"and threw his arrows at me:''

he stood with his right hand as an adversary; with arrows in it, to put into his bow or with his sword drawn, as an adversary does. The Targum is,

"he stood at the right hand of Nebuchadnezzar and helped him, when he distressed his people Israel:''

and slew all that were pleasant to the eye; princes and priests, husbands and wives, parents and children, young men and maids; desirable to their friends and relations, and to the commonwealth:

in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion he poured out his fury like fire; that is, either in the temple, or in the city of Jerusalem, or both, which were burnt with fire, as the effect of divine wrath and fury; and which itself is comparable to fire; like a burning lamp of fire, as the Targum; or rather like a burning furnace or mountain; see Nahum 1:6.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. (Isa 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.

Lamentations 2:4 Parallel Commentaries

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God's Anger over Jerusalem
…3He has cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devours round about. 4He has 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 has swallowed up Israel, he has swallowed up all her palaces: he has destroyed his strong holds, and has increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. …

Job 6:4 The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison; God's terrors are marshaled against me.
Job 16:13 his archers surround me. Without pity, he pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground.
Psalm 37:14 The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright.
Isaiah 42:25 So he poured out on them his burning anger, the violence of war. It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.
Jeremiah 7:20 "'Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place--on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the crops of your land--and it will burn and not be quenched.
Jeremiah 10:20 My tent is destroyed; all its ropes are snapped. My children are gone from me and are no more; no one is left now to pitch my tent or to set up my shelter.
Jeremiah 30:14 All your allies have forgotten you; they care nothing for you. I have struck you as an enemy would and punished you as would the cruel, because your guilt is so great and your sins so many.
Lamentations 3:12 He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.
Lamentations 3:13 He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver.
Ezekiel 20:34 I will bring you from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered--with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath.
Ezekiel 24:25 "And you, son of man, on the day I take away their stronghold, their joy and glory, the delight of their eyes, their heart's desire, and their sons and daughters as well--
Ezekiel 36:18 So I poured out my wrath on them because they had shed blood in the land and because they had defiled it with their idols.