Weep for your allies in Lebanon. Shout for them in Bashan. Search for them in the regions east of the river. See, they are all destroyed. Not one is left to help you.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim; for all your lovers are destroyed.
- KJV Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed.
- BSB Go up to Lebanon and cry out; raise your voice in Bashan; cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers have been crushed.
- NKJV “Go up to Lebanon, and cry out, And lift up your voice in Bashan; Cry from Abarim, For all your lovers are destroyed.
- NASB “Go up to Lebanon and cry out, And raise your voice in Bashan; Cry out also from Abarim, For all your lovers have been crushed.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jerusalem is told to cry out from the mountains, for all her allies are destroyed. The nations she trusted cannot save her.
Overview
The personified city is summoned to wail from Lebanon, Bashan, and Abarim, surveying the ruin of her lovers, the foreign allies and false gods she relied upon. Their destruction leaves her defenseless. This judgment exposes the futility of trusting in political alliances or idols instead of the LORD, a recurring lesson that security is found only in faithful dependence on God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Num 27:12Yahweh said to Moses, “Go up into this mountain of Abarim, and see the land which I have given to the children of Israel.
- Lam 1:2She weeps bitterly in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her: All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies.
- Ezek 23:22“Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Behold, I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom your soul is alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side:
- Jer 25:9behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,” says Yahweh, “and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations around. I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
- Isa 20:5–6They will be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.
- Ezek 23:9“Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, on whom she doted.
- Jer 22:22The wind shall feed all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity. Surely then you will be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness.
- Deut 32:49“Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is across from Jericho; and see the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession.
- Isa 30:1–7“Woe to the rebellious children”, says Yahweh, “who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin,
- Isa 31:1–3Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they don’t look to the Holy One of Israel, and they don’t seek Yahweh!
- Jer 25:17–27Then took I the cup at Yahweh’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, to whom Yahweh had sent me:
- 2 Kgs 24:7The king of Egypt didn’t come out of his land any more; for the king of Babylon had taken, from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates, all that belonged to the king of Egypt.
- Jer 30:13–15There is no one to plead your cause, that you may be bound up. You have no healing medicines.
- Lam 1:19“I called for my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city, while they sought food for themselves to refresh their souls.
- Jer 2:36Why do you go about so much to change your ways? You will be ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria.
- Jer 4:30You, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with makeup, you make yourself beautiful in vain. Your lovers despise you. They seek your life.
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 22:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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