Yahweh’s anger has scattered them; he will no more regard them: They didn’t respect the persons of the priests, they didn’t favor the elders.
Parallel translations
- KJV The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.
- BSB The presence of the LORD has scattered them; He regards them no more. The priests are shown no honor; the elders find no favor.
- NKJV The face of the Lord scattered them; He no longer regards them. The people do not respect the priests Nor show favor to the elders.
- NASB The presence of the Lord has scattered them, He will not continue to look at them; They did not honor the priests, They did not favor the elders.
- NLT The Lord himself has scattered them, and he no longer helps them. People show no respect for the priests and no longer honor the leaders.
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 Lord Himself has scattered them and no longer regards them, because they dishonored priests and elders.
Overview
God's anger has dispersed the people, and He withdraws His favor from those who showed no respect for His appointed leaders. The judgment falls in part for despising the offices God established. This reminds us that contempt for God's order is serious, and it magnifies the grace by which God still regards sinners in Christ (Ps. 51:11; Eph. 2:4-5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Lam 5:12Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored.
- Isa 9:14–16Therefore Yahweh will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed, in one day.
- Deut 32:26I said that I would scatter them afar. I would make their memory to cease from among men;
- Jer 24:9I will even give them up to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil; to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them.
- Deut 28:25Yahweh will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and will flee seven ways before them. You will be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth.
- Heb 8:9not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they didn’t continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them,” says the Lord.
- Deut 28:64–65Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. There you will serve other gods, which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone.
- Jer 15:4I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.
- Lev 26:33–39I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you. Your land will be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
- 2 Chr 36:17Therefore he brought on them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or gray-headed. He gave them all into his hand.
- Ps 106:44Nevertheless he regarded their distress, when he heard their cry.
- 2 Kgs 25:18–21The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold;
- Gen 49:7Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
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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 4:16 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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