The adversary has stretched out his hand Over all her precious things, For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, The ones whom You commanded That they were not to enter Your congregation.
Parallel translations
- WEB The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things: for she has seen that the nations are entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.
- KJV The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.
- BSB The adversary has seized all her treasures. For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary—those You had forbidden to enter Your assembly.
- NKJV The adversary has spread his hand Over all her pleasant things; For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, Those whom You commanded Not to enter Your assembly.
- NLT The enemy has plundered her completely, taking every precious thing she owns. She has seen foreigners violate her sacred Temple, the place the Lord had forbidden them to enter.
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
The enemy has plundered the temple, entering the sanctuary God had forbidden to foreigners. It marks the deepest violation: the desecration of God's holy place.
Overview
The adversary's hand on Jerusalem's 'pleasant things' climaxes in the violation of the sanctuary, where the nations were never to enter the assembly (Deuteronomy 23:3). This profaning of the holy place is the supreme outrage of the conquest. It heightens the longing for a true and undefiled temple, fulfilled in Christ, whose body is the temple raised up forever (John 2:19-21).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Deut 23:3An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into Yahweh’s assembly; even to the tenth generation shall no one belonging to them enter into Yahweh’s assembly forever;
- Jer 51:51“We are confounded, because we have heard reproach. Confusion has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of Yahweh’s house.”
- Lam 1:7Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old: when her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and no one helped her, The adversaries saw her, they mocked at her desolations.
- Neh 13:1On that day they read in the book of Moses in the hearing of the people; and it was found written in it that an Ammonite and a Moabite should not enter into the assembly of God forever,
- Ps 74:4–8Your adversaries have roared in the middle of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs.
- Isa 64:10–11Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
- Jer 52:13He burned Yahweh’s house, and the king’s house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, he burned with fire.
- Jer 52:17–20The Chaldeans broke the pillars of brass that were in Yahweh’s house, and the bases and the bronze sea that were in Yahweh’s house in pieces, and carried all of their brass to Babylon.
- Ezek 7:22I will also turn my face from them, and they will profane my secret place. Robbers will enter into it, and profane it.
- Jer 20:5Moreover I will give all the riches of this city, and all its gains, and all the precious things of it, yes, all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies; and they shall make them captives, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.
- Isa 5:13–14Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched with thirst.
- Jer 15:13Your substance and your treasures will I give for a plunder without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.
- Isa 63:18Your holy people possessed it but a little while. Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.
- Ezek 44:7in that you have brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to profane it, even my house, when you offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant, to add to all your abominations.
- Mark 13:14But when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains,
- Ezek 9:7He said to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” They went out, and struck in the city.
- Ps 79:1–7A Psalm by Asaph. God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The weeping over a ruined city and the steadfast mercies that are new every morning point to the man of sorrows who wept over Jerusalem and whose mercy rises new from the grave.
How Lamentations 1:10 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.