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 The Lord has withdrawn his protection as the enemy attacks.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.
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.
- BSB In fierce anger He has cut off every horn of Israel and withdrawn His right hand at the approach of the enemy.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.
- 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.
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 Divine protection withdrawn is itself an act of judgment.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 draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it out of your pocket and consume them!
- Ps 75:10I will cut off all the horns of the wicked, but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.
- Isa 42:25Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, and the strength of battle; and it set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know; and it burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”
- Ps 75:5Don’t lift up your horn on high. Don’t speak with a stiff neck.”
- Ps 89:46How long, Yahweh? Will you hide yourself forever? Will your wrath burn like fire?
- Ps 79:5How long, Yahweh? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?
- Jer 48:25The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken,” says Yahweh.
- Isa 1:31The strong will be like tinder, and his work like a spark. They will both burn together, and no one will quench them.”
- Jer 21:4–5‘Yahweh, the God of Israel says, “Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans who besiege you, without the walls; and I will gather them into the middle of this city.
- Jer 4:4Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go out like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
- Ps 89:24But my faithfulness and my loving kindness will be with him. In my name, his horn will be exalted.
- Ps 132:17There I will make the horn of David to bud. I have ordained a lamp for my anointed.
- Mal 4:1“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
- Job 16:15I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and have thrust my horn in the dust.
- Deut 32:22For a fire is kindled in my anger, that burns to the lowest Sheol, devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.
- Jer 21:14I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says Yahweh; and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is around her.’”
- Luke 1:69and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David
- Jer 7:20Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, my anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on animal, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.”
- Luke 3:17whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor, and will 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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