Lamentations 2:20
Good News Translation
Look, O LORD! Why are you punishing us like this? Women are eating the bodies of the children they loved! Priests and prophets are being killed in the Temple itself!

New Revised Standard Version
Look, O LORD, and consider! To whom have you done this? Should women eat their offspring, the children they have borne? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

Contemporary English Version
Think about it, LORD! Have you ever been this cruel to anyone before? Is it right for mothers to eat their children, or for priests and prophets to be killed in your temple?

New American Bible
“Look, O LORD, and pay attention: to whom have you been so ruthless? Must women eat their own offspring, the very children they have borne? Are priest and prophet to be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Res. Behold, O Lord, and consider whom thou hast thus dealt with: shall women then eat their own fruit, their children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Res. Behold, O Lord, and consider whom thou hast thus dealt with: shall women then eat their own fruit, their children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

consider

Exodus 32:11 But Moses besought the Lord his God, saying: Why, O Lord, is thy indignation enkindled against thy people, whom thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, with great power, and with a mighty hand?

Deuteronomy 9:26 And praying, I said: O Lord God, destroy not thy people, and thy inheritance, which thou hast redeemed in thy greatness, whom thou hast brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.

Isaiah 63:16-19 For thou art our father, and Abraham hath not known us, and Israel hath been ignorant of us: thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer, from everlasting is thy name. . . .

Isaiah 64:8-12 And now, O Lord, thou art our father, and we are clay: and thou art our maker, and we all are the works of thy hands. . . .

Jeremiah 14:20-21 We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, the iniquities of our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. . . .

shall the women

Lamentations 4:10 Jod. The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Leviticus 26:29 So that you shall eat the flesh of your sons and of your daughters.

Deuteronomy 28:53-57 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy womb, and the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God shall give thee, in the distress and extremity wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee. . . .

2 Kings 6:28,29 This woman said to me: Give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. . . .

Jeremiah 19:9 And I will feed them with the flesh of their sons, and with the flesh of their daughters: and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege, and in the distress wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.

Ezekiel 5:10 Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers: and I will execute judgments in thee, and I will scatter thy whole remnant into every wind.

Lamentations 1:19 Coph. I called for my friends, but they deceived me: my priests and my ancients pined away in the city: while they sought their food, to relieve their souls.

Lamentations 4:13,16 Mem. For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her. . . .

Psalm 78:64 Their priests fell by the sword: and their widows did not mourn.

Isaiah 9:14-17 And the Lord shall destroy out of Israel the head and the tail, him that bendeth down, and him that holdeth back, in one day. . . .

Jeremiah 5:31 The prophets prophesied falsehood, and the priests clapped their hands: and my people loved such things: what then shall be done in the end thereof?

Jeremiah 14:15-18 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, whom I did not send, that say: Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed. . . .

Jeremiah 23:11-15 For the prophet and the priest are defiled: and in my house I have found their wickedness, saith the Lord. . . .

Ezekiel 9:5,6 And to the others he said in my hearing: Go ye after him through the city, and strike: let not your eyes spare, nor be ye moved with pity. . . .

Context
God's Anger over Jerusalem
19Coph. Arise, give praise in the night, in the beginning of the watches: pour out thy heart like water, before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands to him for the life of thy little children, that have fainted for hunger at the top of all the streets. 20Res. Behold, O Lord, and consider whom thou hast thus dealt with: shall women then eat their own fruit, their children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?21Sin. The child and the old man lie without on the ground: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword: thou hast slain them in the day of thy wrath: thou hast killed, and shewn them no pity.…
Cross References
Exodus 32:11
But Moses besought the Lord his God, saying: Why, O Lord, is thy indignation enkindled against thy people, whom thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, with great power, and with a mighty hand?

Deuteronomy 9:26
And praying, I said: O Lord God, destroy not thy people, and thy inheritance, which thou hast redeemed in thy greatness, whom thou hast brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.

Deuteronomy 28:53
And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy womb, and the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God shall give thee, in the distress and extremity wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee.

Psalm 78:64
Their priests fell by the sword: and their widows did not mourn.

Isaiah 22:2
Full of clamour, a populous city, a joyous city: thy slain are not slain by the sword, nor dead in battle.

Jeremiah 14:15
Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, whom I did not send, that say: Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.

Jeremiah 19:9
And I will feed them with the flesh of their sons, and with the flesh of their daughters: and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege, and in the distress wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.

Jeremiah 23:11
For the prophet and the priest are defiled: and in my house I have found their wickedness, saith the Lord.

Jeremiah 23:12
Therefore their way shall be as a slippery way in the dark: for they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evils upon them, the year of their visitation, saith the Lord.

Lamentations 1:19
Coph. I called for my friends, but they deceived me: my priests and my ancients pined away in the city: while they sought their food, to relieve their souls.

Lamentations 4:10
Jod. The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Lamentations 2:19
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