Bible Strands
Lamentations 2:15
All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes the scornful reaction of passersby directed at Jerusalem after its prophets failed to expose guilt or prevent captivity.
The words — סָֽפְק֨וּ (sa.fe.Ku) = they have clapped and שָֽׁרְקוּ֙ (sha.re.Ku) = they have hissed denote the specific gestures of mockery accompanying the rhetorical question.
The thread — The description of the city as "the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth" mirrors Psalms 48:2 and Psalms 50:2, while the image of passersby shaking their heads in scorn aligns with Jeremiah 18:16.
Why it lands — The text juxtaposes Jerusalem’s former reputation against its current ruin, requiring the reader to confront the gap between past honor and present devastation without softening the observation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
All 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?
Cross-references
- Psalms 48:2 Beautiful in loftiness, the joy of all the earth, like the peaks of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the great King.
- Jeremiah 18:16 They have made their land a desolation, a perpetual object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and shake their heads.
- Psalms 50:2 From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.
- Jeremiah 19:8 I will make this city a desolation and an object of scorn. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds.
- Ezekiel 25:6 For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you clapped your hands and stomped your feet and rejoiced over the land of Israel with a heart full of contempt,
- Psalms 22:7 All who see me mock me; they sneer and shake their heads:
- Isaiah 37:22 this is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: ‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you.
- 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.
- Zephaniah 2:15 This carefree city that dwells securely, that thinks to herself: “I am it, and there is none besides me,” what a ruin she has become, a resting place for beasts. Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist.
- Matthew 27:39 And those who passed by heaped abuse on Him, shaking their heads