For the sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How devastated we are! How great is our shame! For we have abandoned the land because our dwellings have been torn down.’”
Parallel translations
- WEB For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, ‘How are we ruined! We are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.’”
- KJV For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.
- NKJV For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How we are plundered! We are greatly ashamed, Because we have forsaken the land, Because we have been cast out of our dwellings.’ ”
- NASB “For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How devastated we are! We are put to great shame, For we have abandoned the land Because they have torn down our homes.’ ”
- NLT Hear the people of Jerusalem crying in despair, ‘We are ruined! We are completely humiliated! We must leave our land, because our homes have been torn down.’”
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
A cry of ruin rises from Zion as the people are confounded, driven from their land and homes. The lament voices the shame of exile.
Overview
From Zion comes a wail over devastation: the people are ruined, ashamed, and cast out of their dwellings. The lament captures the humiliation of losing the land God had given them. The verse shows the bitter end of covenant unfaithfulness and the loss of home that points to humanity's deeper exile from God, answered by the gospel's promise of an eternal home.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Jer 4:13Behold, he advances like the clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!
- Deut 28:29and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you.
- Ezek 7:16–18The survivors will escape and live in the mountains, moaning like doves of the valley, each for his own iniquity.
- Lam 4:15“Go away! Unclean!” men shouted at them. “Away, away! Do not touch us!” So they fled and wandered. Among the nations it was said, “They can stay here no longer.”
- Jer 2:14Is Israel a slave? Was he born into slavery? Why then has he become prey?
- Lev 20:22You are therefore to keep all My statutes and ordinances, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.
- Mic 2:4In that day they will take up a proverb against you and taunt you with this bitter lamentation: ‘We are utterly ruined! He has changed the portion of my people. How He has removed it from me! He has allotted our fields to traitors.’”
- Jer 4:20Disaster after disaster is proclaimed, for the whole land is laid waste. My tents are destroyed in an instant, my curtains in a moment.
- Lam 5:2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.
- Lev 18:28So if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it spewed out the nations before you.
- Lev 18:25Even the land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.
- Mic 1:8–9Because of this I will lament and wail; I will walk barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and mourn like an ostrich.
- Jer 4:30–31And you, O devastated one, what will you do, though you dress yourself in scarlet, though you adorn yourself with gold jewelry, though you enlarge your eyes with paint? You adorn yourself in vain; your lovers despise you; they want to take your life.
- Mic 2:10Arise and depart, for this is not your place of rest, because its defilement brings destruction—a grievous destruction!
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 9:19 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.