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Scripture · Old Testament

Lamentations 2:20

Lamentations 2:20 is verse 20 of Lamentations chapter 2, shown here in the Berean Standard Bible.

Berean Standard Bible

Look, O LORD, and consider: Whom have You ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

BSB source and public domain terms

King James Version

Behold, 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?

World English Bible

“Look, Yahweh, and see to whom you have done thus! Should the women eat their offspring, the children that they held and bounced on their knees? Should the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

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Lamentations 2:18–22 · Berean Standard Bible

18 The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. O wall of the Daughter of Zion, let your tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief, and your eyes no rest.

19 Arise, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children who are fainting from hunger on the corner of every street.

20 Look, O LORD, and consider: Whom have You ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 Both young and old lie together in the dust of the streets. My young men and maidens have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of Your anger; You have slaughtered them without compassion.

22 You summoned my attackers on every side, as for the day of an appointed feast. In the day of the LORD’s anger no one escaped or survived; my enemy has destroyed those I nurtured and reared.

Read all of Lamentations 2

Hebrew words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

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Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

Exodus 32:11

But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God, saying, “O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?

Deuteronomy 9:26

And I prayed to the LORD and said, “O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You redeemed through Your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

Isaiah 63:16

Yet You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O LORD, are our Father; our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.

Isaiah 63:17

Why, O LORD, do You make us stray from Your ways and harden our hearts from fearing You? Return, for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage.

Isaiah 63:18

For a short while Your people possessed Your holy place, but our enemies have trampled Your sanctuary.

Isaiah 63:19

We have become like those You never ruled, like those not called by Your name.

Isaiah 64:8

But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.

Isaiah 64:9

Do not be angry, O LORD, beyond measure; do not remember our iniquity forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray; we are all Your people!

Isaiah 64:10

Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wasteland and Jerusalem a desolation.

Isaiah 64:11

Our holy and beautiful temple, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire, and all that was dear to us lies in ruins.

Isaiah 64:12

After all this, O LORD, will You restrain Yourself? Will You keep silent and afflict us beyond measure?

Jeremiah 14:20

We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD, the guilt of our fathers; indeed, we have sinned against You.

Jeremiah 14:21

For the sake of Your name do not despise us; do not disgrace Your glorious throne. Remember Your covenant with us; do not break it.

Lamentations 4:10

The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Leviticus 26:29

You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.

Deuteronomy 28:53

Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you.

Deuteronomy 28:54

The most gentle and refined man among you will begrudge his brother, the wife he embraces, and the rest of his children who have survived,

Deuteronomy 28:55

refusing to share with any of them the flesh of his children he will eat because he has nothing left in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within all your gates.

Deuteronomy 28:56

The most gentle and refined woman among you, so gentle and refined she would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge the husband she embraces and her son and daughter

Deuteronomy 28:57

the afterbirth that comes from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within your gates.

2 Kings 6:28

Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him, and tomorrow we will eat my son.’

2 Kings 6:29

So we boiled my son and ate him, and the next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him.’ But she had hidden her son.”

Jeremiah 19:9

I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’

Ezekiel 5:10

As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’

Lamentations 1:19

I called out to my lovers, but they have betrayed me. My priests and elders perished in the city while they searched for food to keep themselves alive.

Lamentations 4:13

But this was for the sins of her prophets and the guilt of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst.

Lamentations 4:16

The presence of the LORD has scattered them; He regards them no more. The priests are shown no honor; the elders find no favor.

Psalms 78:64

His priests fell by the sword, but their widows could not lament.

Isaiah 9:14

So the LORD will cut off Israel’s head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day.

Isaiah 9:15

The head is the elder and honorable man, and the tail is the prophet who teaches lies.

Isaiah 9:16

For those who guide this people mislead them, and those they mislead are swallowed up.

Isaiah 9:17

Therefore the Lord takes no pleasure in their young men; He has no compassion on their fatherless and widows. For every one of them is godless and wicked, and every mouth speaks folly. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

Jeremiah 5:31

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?

Jeremiah 14:15

Therefore this is what the LORD says about the prophets who prophesy in My name: I did not send them, yet they say, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ By sword and famine these very prophets will meet their end!

Jeremiah 14:16

And the people to whom they prophesy will be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem because of famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them or their wives, their sons or their daughters. I will pour out their own evil upon them.

Jeremiah 14:17

You are to speak this word to them: ‘My eyes overflow with tears; day and night they do not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people has been shattered by a crushing blow, a severely grievous wound.

Jeremiah 14:18

If I go out to the country, I see those slain by the sword; if I enter the city, I see those ravaged by famine! For both prophet and priest travel to a land they do not know.’”

Jeremiah 23:11

“For both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 23:12

“Therefore their path will become slick; they will be driven away into the darkness and fall into it. For I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment,” declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 23:13

“Among the prophets of Samaria I saw an offensive thing: They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray.

Jeremiah 23:14

And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns his back on wickedness. They are all like Sodom to Me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.”

Jeremiah 23:15

Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says concerning the prophets: “I will feed them wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout the land.”

Ezekiel 9:5

And as I listened, He said to the others, “Follow him through the city and start killing; do not show pity or spare anyone!

Ezekiel 9:6

Slaughter the old men, the young men and maidens, the women and children; but do not go near anyone who has the mark. Now begin at My sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the temple.

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