Lamentations 2:19

Prayer Grief Parents and children

¹⁷ The LORD has done what He planned; He has accomplished His decree, which He ordained in days of old; He has overthrown you without pity. He has let the enemy gloat over you and exalted the horn of your foes.

¹⁸ The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. O wall of the Daughter of Zion, let your tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief, and your eyes no rest.

Arise, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children who are fainting from hunger on the corner of every street.

²⁰ Look, O LORD, and consider: Whom have You ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹ Both young and old lie together in the dust of the streets. My young men and maidens have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of Your anger; You have slaughtered them without compassion.

Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: Arise, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children who are fainting from hunger on the corner of every street.
KJV: Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.
WEB: Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.
ASV: Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; Pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord: Lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street.
DARBY: Arise, cry out 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 toward him for the life of thy young children, who faint from hunger at the top of all the streets.
BLB: Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like waters before the face of the Lord! Lift up toward Him your hands over the soul of your infants, those weakened by hunger in the head of every street!

ÅB: Stå opp, rop høyt om natten, når nattevaktene begynner! Utøs ditt hjerte som vann for Herrens åsyn! Løft dine hender til ham for dine barns liv, de som vansmekter av hunger på alle gatehjørner!
OTB: Stå opp, rop ut i natten, ved begynnelsen av nattevaktene; utøs ditt hjerte som vann i Herrens nærvær. Løft hendene dine til ham for dine barns liv, som besvimer av sult på hvert gatehjørne.
B1930: Stå op, rop høit om natten, når nattevaktene begynner! Utøs ditt hjerte som vann for Herrens åsyn! Løft dine hender til ham for dine barns liv, de som vansmekter av hunger på alle gatehjørner!

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

Psalms 62:8
Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge. Selah
Read in context
Isaiah 26:9
My soul longs for You in the night; indeed, my spirit seeks You at dawn. For when Your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.
Read in context
Psalms 119:147–148
I rise before dawn and cry for help; in Your word I have put my hope.
Read in context
Psalms 142:2
I pour out my complaint before Him; I reveal my trouble to Him.
Read in context
Mark 1:35
Early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up and slipped out to a solitary place to pray.
Read in context
1 Samuel 1:15
“No, my lord,” Hannah replied. “I am a woman oppressed in spirit. I have not had any wine or strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the LORD.
Read in context
Psalms 141:2
May my prayer be set before You like incense, my uplifted hands like the evening offering.
Read in context
Lamentations 2:11–12
My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.
Read in context