In fierce anger He has cut off every horn of Israel and withdrawn His right hand at the approach of the enemy. He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire that consumes everything around it.
Parallel translations
- WEB He has cut off in fierce anger all the horn of Israel; He has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy: He has burned up Jacob like a flaming fire, which devours all around.
- KJV He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
- NKJV He has cut off in fierce anger Every horn of Israel; He has drawn back His right hand From before the enemy. He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire Devouring all around.
- NASB In fierce anger He has cut off All the strength of Israel; He has pulled back His right hand From the enemy. And He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire Consuming on all sides.
- NLT All the strength of Israel vanishes beneath his fierce anger. The Lord has withdrawn his protection as the enemy attacks. He consumes the whole land of Israel like a raging fire.
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
In fierce anger God broke Israel's strength and withdrew his protecting hand before the enemy. It shows the LORD removing the help that once defended his people.
Overview
The 'horn' symbolizes strength, now cut off, and God's right hand, which once fought for Israel, is drawn back, leaving Jacob to burn like consuming fire. Divine protection withdrawn is itself an act of judgment. This sobering picture underscores the security believers have in Christ, from whose hand none can snatch his own (John 10:28-29).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Ps 74:11Why do You withdraw Your strong right hand? Stretch it out to destroy them!
- Ps 75:10“All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous will be exalted.”
- Isa 42:25So 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.
- Ps 75:5Do not lift up your horn against heaven or speak with an outstretched neck.’”
- Ps 89:46How long, O LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath keep burning like fire?
- Ps 79:5How long, O LORD? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire?
- Jer 48:25The horn of Moab has been cut off, and his arm is broken,” declares the LORD.
- Isa 1:31The strong man will become tinder and his work will be a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the flames.
- Jer 21:4–5this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will turn against you the weapons of war in your hands, with which you are fighting the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the wall, and I will assemble their forces in the center of this city.
- Jer 4:4Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem. Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it, because of your evil deeds.”
- Ps 89:24My faithfulness and loving devotion will be with him, and through My name his horn will be exalted.
- Ps 132:17There I will make a horn grow for David; I have prepared a lamp for My anointed one.
- Mal 4:1“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”
- Job 16:15I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my horn in the dust.
- Deut 32:22For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains.
- Jer 21:14I will punish you as your deeds deserve, declares the LORD. I will kindle a fire in your forest that will consume everything around you.’”
- Luke 1:69He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David,
- Jer 7:20Therefore 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.
- Luke 3:17His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
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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 2:3 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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