Bible Strands
Lamentations 2:4
He has bent His bow like an enemy; His right hand is positioned. Like a foe He has killed all who were pleasing to the eye; He has poured out His wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes Yahweh’s active judgment on Jerusalem during its siege and fall, following the withdrawal of divine protection noted in the preceding verse.
The words — The verb דָּרַךְ (da.Rakh) literally means "he has bent," describing the drawing of a weapon, while נִצָּב (ni.Tzav) means "taken a stand," indicating the sustained posture of the archer.
The thread — The imagery of poured-out wrath and divine warfare appears in Jeremiah 7:20, which describes God’s fury poured out on the city, and Isaiah 42:25, where His fierce anger envelops people in flames.
Why it lands — The text presents God’s judgment as deliberate, targeted, and total, requiring the reader to acknowledge that divine wrath operates with the precision and finality of a drawn bow.
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
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.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 7:20 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the produce of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished.
- Job 6:4 For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
- Isaiah 42:25 So He poured out on them His furious anger and the fierceness of battle. It enveloped them in flames, but they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.
- Jeremiah 21:5 And I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, with anger, fury, and great wrath.
- Lamentations 3:12 He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow.
- Ezekiel 24:25 And you, son of man, know that on the day I take away their stronghold, their pride and joy—the desire of their eyes which uplifted their souls—and their sons and daughters as well,
- Jeremiah 30:14 All your lovers have forgotten you; they no longer seek you, for I have struck you as an enemy would, with the discipline of someone cruel, because of your great iniquity and your numerous sins.
- Nahum 1:6 Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before Him.
- 2 Chronicles 34:21 “Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for those remaining in Israel and Judah concerning the words in the book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the LORD that has been poured out on us because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD by doing all that is written in this book.”
- 2 Chronicles 34:25 because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. My wrath will be poured out upon this place and will not be quenched.’