Lamentations 1:21 · Bible study
Lamentations 1:21 Commentary: Cry for God's Just Vengeance
Hebrew · 11 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
How can a plea for enemies to suffer the same judgment as Jerusalem be reconciled with Jesus' call to love enemies? This study explores the tension.
Research Summary
- Meaning: Jerusalem laments that her enemies rejoice over her downfall, then prays that God would bring His announced judgment upon them so they share her fate.
- Key words: “sigh/groan” (נֶאֱנָחָה, Niphal ptc.), “comforter” (מְנַחֵם), “glad/rejoice” (שׂוּשׂ), “the day you proclaimed” (יוֹם קָרָאתָ).
- Main debate: Whether this imprecatory prayer is compatible with Jesus’ command to love enemies, or whether it represents an older ethical stage of revelation.
- Theological theme: Divine justice is both present (Jerusalem’s fall) and future (Babylon’s fall); God’s covenant includes judgment on oppressors as part of His righteousness.
- Best use: Preaching on the honesty of lament, the doctrine of just retribution, and the distinction between personal vengeance and the cry for God’s justice.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
People have heard my groaning, but there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that You have caused it. May You bring the day You have announced, so that they may become like me.
WEB World English Bible 2000
“They have heard that I sigh. There is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble. They are glad that you have done it. You will bring the day that you have proclaimed, and they will be like me.
KJV King James Version 1769
They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
They have heard that I sigh; there is none to comfort me; All mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: Thou wilt bring the day that thou hast proclaimed, and they shall be like unto me.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
They have heard that I have sighed, There is no comforter for me, All my enemies have heard of my calamity, They have rejoiced that Thou hast done it , Thou hast brought in the day Thou hast called, And they are like to me.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
They have heard that I sigh: I have no comforter: all mine enemies have heard of my calamity; they are glad that thou hast done it. Thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
Sin. They have heard that I sigh, and there is none to comfort me: all my enemies have heard of my evil, they have rejoiced that thou hast done it: thou hast brought a day of consolation, and they shall be like unto me.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Oyeron que gemía, y no hay consolador para mí: todos mis enemigos han oído mi mal, se han holgado de que tú lo hiciste. Harás venir el día que has anunciado, y serán como yo.
Eles me ouvem gemendo, porém não tenho consolador. Todos meus inimigos, quando ouvem minha aflição se alegram, pois tu o fizeste. Quando tu trouxeres o dia que anunciaste, eles serão como eu.
On a entendu mes soupirs, et personne ne m’ a consolée;
Man hört's wohl, daß ich seufze, und habe doch keinen Tröster; alle meine Feinde hören mein Unglück und freuen sich; das machst du. So laß doch den Tag kommen, den du ausrufest, daß es ihnen gehen soll wie mir.
Schin. Zij horen, dat ik zucht, maar ik heb geen trooster; al mijn vijanden horen mijn kwaad; en zij zijn vrolijk, dat Gij het gedaan hebt; als Gij den dag zult voortgebracht hebben, dien Gij uitgeroepen hebt, zo zullen zij zijn, gelijk ik ben.
M’odon sospirare… non v’è chi mi consoli. Tutti i miei nemici hanno udita la mia sciagura, e si rallegrano che tu l’abbia cagionata; tu farai venire il giorno che hai annunziato, e allora saranno come me.
Słysząć, że ja wzdycham, ale niemasz, ktoby mię pocieszył; wszyscy nieprzyjaciele moi słysząc o nieszczęściu mojem weselą się, żeś ty to uczynił, a przywiodłeś dzień przedtem ogłoszony; aleć będą mnie podobni.
Услышали, что я стенаю, а утешителя у меня нет; услышали все враги мои о бедствии моем и обрадовались, что Ты соделал это: о, если бы Ты повелел наступить дню, предреченному Тобою, и они стали бы подобными мне!
聽見 我 歎息的有人；安慰 我的 卻無人！我的仇敵 都 聽見 我所遭的患難；因 你 做這事，他們都喜樂。你必使 你報告 的日子 來到，他們就 像我一樣。
Give ear to the voice of my grief; I have no comforter; all my haters have news of my troubles, they are glad because you have done it: let the day of fate come when they will be like me.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Lamentations 1:21
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree that Lamentations 1:21 voices Jerusalem’s appeal for divine retribution. The city laments that her enemies have heard her groaning, seen her desperation, and rejoiced because they recognized it as God’s doing (Clarke, Calvin). Gill notes that the enemies, neighboring nations like Edom, Moab, and Ammon, exulted in Jerusalem’s ruin. The final line, “Thou wilt bring the day that thou hast proclaimed, and they shall be like unto me” (ASV), is read as either a confident prediction or a prayer that God’s announced judgment on Babylon and the other nations will come to pass (Barnes, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown). Calvin adds that the enemies’ joy was rooted in the belief that God had abandoned Israel. The consensus is clear: this is not a cry of personal malice but an appeal to God’s justice, grounded in His covenant promises to judge oppressors.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- Imprecatory prayer for divine justice: Most commentators (Clarke, Barnes, Calvin, Gill) read this as a plea for God to fulfill His own announced judgment on the enemies, not as a personal curse.
- Ethical tension with Jesus' commands: The Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:44) commands love for enemies; some Christians find it difficult to pray these words without modification or reinterpretation.
- Wish/petition rather than prediction: Some translations (e.g., BSB, Darby) render the final clause as a wish ('May You bring the day'), softening it as a prayer rather than a prediction.
What is clear: Jerusalem cries out to God in her pain, acknowledges that her fall is God’s doing, and appeals for the same standard of justice to fall on those who rejoiced over her calamity.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Nature of the prayer (imprecation) | All traditions recognize that Jerusalem is calling for God’s judgment on her enemies, not taking matters into her own hands. | Some Christians see this as a model for praying Psalm-like imprecations against evil (often in public justice contexts); others argue that the New Testament supersedes such prayers, limiting them to the Old Covenant era. |
| The 'day' in the final line | It refers to a day of judgment that God has already proclaimed through the prophets, especially for Babylon and other oppressive nations. | Whether the text is a confident prediction (ASV, WEB) or a wish/prayer (Bible de Jérusalem opts for the imperative 'Bring on the day'). The Hebrew form (prophetic perfect) can be read either as certainty affirmed or as petition. |
| Enemies' motivation | The enemies rejoiced because they saw God’s hand against Jerusalem, interpreting it as divine rejection of Israel. | Calvin is cautious about assuming the enemies consciously thought God had abandoned Israel; he suggests their joy may be mere malice, regardless of theology. Other commentators (e.g., Gill) take their theological conclusion at face value. |
| Application for Christians today | The verse is part of Scripture and can be prayed honestly; it expresses a desire for God’s justice to prevail. | Some traditions (e.g., Lutherans as quoted by Lange) distinguish between praying against personal enemies (forbidden) and praying against God’s enemies/impediments to the gospel (permitted). Others, especially those emphasizing the Sermon on the Mount, restrict all imprecatory prayers and read this verse as a historically conditioned lament. |
Historical & Cultural Context
The book of Lamentations mourns the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The city is personified as a bereft widow crying out from the rubble. Chapter 1 alternates between third-person description and the city’s own voice, with verse 21 falling in her direct address to God. The structure follows the Hebrew alphabet (acrostic), giving the grief an ordered, liturgical shape.
Culturally, in the ancient Near East, a nation’s defeat was seen as proof that its god had been defeated or had turned against it. The enemies’ gladness (שׂוּשׂ, śāśû) stems directly from that assumption: they thought Yahweh had become Jerusalem’s adversary (Calvin, Gill). The “day you have proclaimed” alludes to the prophecies of Jeremiah (e.g., Jer 25:17-26; Jer 50-51) where Babylon and other nations are destined to drink the same cup of wrath. The verb “you have brought” (הֵבֵאתָ, hēvēʾtā) is a prophetic perfect, speaking of a future judgment as if already accomplished (Cambridge Bible). Jerusalem’s appeal, therefore, is not a novel curse but an echo of earlier prophetic announcements.
Literarily, the verse contains the repeated motif “no one to comfort me” (אֵין מְנַחֵם, ʾên mǝnaḥēm), which punctuates the chapter (vv. 2, 9, 16, 17, 21). The absence of comfort highlights the totality of Israel’s isolation. The enemies, by contrast, have each other’s camaraderie in gloating. Jerusalem asks God to invert that situation: let them know the same desolation, the same loneliness under judgment.
Textual Notes
The consulted sources note no significant variation in the Hebrew text of Lamentations 1:21. The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges points out a metrical irregularity in the second and third lines (the Ḳinah rhythm fails) and suggests a possible transposition: moving “They are glad … done it” after “Thou wilt bring … proclaimed” to restore the meter. It also notes that the first verb “they have heard” may have been assimilated to the same form in the next line; if emended to an imperative, the verse would begin “Hear thou” (parallel to “Behold” in v. 20). These are speculative proposals; the Masoretic Text is stable.
Reception History
Lamentations 1:21 has been read within the broader Christian tradition as part of the church’s struggle to reconcile Old Testament imprecations with New Testament ethics. Early and medieval commentators, following Augustine, often interpreted such verses allegorically: the enemies represent spiritual foes (sin, death, the devil) who will be destroyed on the final day. During the Reformation, Lutheran and Reformed expositors (e.g., Hunnius, quoted by Lange) distinguished between personal enemies and enemies of God. They taught that while private revenge is forbidden, the church may pray for God to judge those who oppose His kingdom. This distinction appeared in many catechisms and was echoed by Puritan writers like Matthew Henry, who stressed that Jerusalem’s prayer is for God’s justice, not personal spite. Modern conservative and evangelical commentators (e.g., Keil & Delitzsch, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown) treat the verse straightforwardly as a plea for covenant justice within the historical context of the exile.
Preaching This Verse
Three-Point Outline
- The public nature of suffering. Enemies hear our sighs (v. 21a). Jerusalem’s pain is exposed. In a connected world, our falls are visible too. The temptation is to hide, but the text models raw honesty before God.
- The wrong response from the world. Enemies rejoice rather than comfort (v. 21b). They treat divine judgment as an excuse to gloat. This is the perennial human pattern: we take pleasure in others’ downfall.
- The right appeal to God. “You will bring the day … and they will be like me” (v. 21c). Jerusalem does not take revenge into her own hands. She hands the final account to the One who judges justly.
Five-Point Outline
- The sigh that goes public. Verse 21 opens with “they have heard that I sigh.” Suffering is seldom private; it becomes a spectacle.
- The comforter who does not come. “There is no one to comfort me.” Human comforts fail, allies are silent, lovers are deceptive (v. 19).
- The enemies who celebrate. “All my enemies have heard … they are glad.” Their joy is based on a theological mistake: they think God’s judgment on Israel exempts them.
- The recognition that Yahweh is behind it. “They are glad that you have done it.” Both the enemies and Jerusalem agree: God is the first cause.
- The prayer for equal justice. “You will bring the day … and they will be like me.” This is not a curse from a bitter heart; it is a plea for God’s announced justice to run its full course.
Illustration Hooks
- Classroom cheating ring: A student sees classmates who cheated get away with it while the honest ones suffer. The natural cry is “that’s not fair!” The verse gives language to bring that cry to God, trusting Him to right what humans cannot.
- Corporate downsizing: After layoffs, a former employee watches competitors celebrate the company’s struggles. Rather than retaliate, they pray: “Lord, let justice fall where it is due, including on me, if I have wronged anyone.”
Questions Your Congregation Is Asking
- Is it okay to pray for bad things to happen to my enemies? Doesn’t Jesus say to love them?
- How do I reconcile the angry prayers of the Psalms with the Sermon on the Mount?
- What does it look like to trust God’s justice when I am powerless to defend myself?
Leading a Discussion
This small-group guide explores the tension between crying out for justice and loving our enemies. Lamentations 1:21 gives voice to a raw, biblical prayer. As you discuss, remember that Jerusalem is speaking, not with a personal grudge, but as a crushed community appealing to God’s covenant promises. The goal is not to argue about whether imprecatory prayers are allowed, but to understand them as part of a real relationship with a just God.
Discussion Questions
- Read Lamentations 1:21 aloud. What single phrase strikes you most? Why?
- The city says she has “no comforter.” Where else in Lamentations 1 does this phrase appear? What does the repetition tell us about the depth of grief?
- The enemies are glad “that you [Yahweh] have done it.” Why does their joy rest on a theological claim? How might that make the pain worse for Jerusalem?
- What is “the day that you have proclaimed”? How does this connect to the prophecies of Jeremiah (e.g., Jer 50-51)?
- How does this verse differ from a personal curse spoken out of vengeance? What clues in the text show that Jerusalem is looking to God, not taking matters into her own hands?
- Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:44). How can a Christian pray through an imprecatory psalm like this one without contradicting Jesus?
- In what situation right now do you need to trust God’s justice rather than retaliate? How can this group support you?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Deuteronomy 32:41 | if I sharpen my glittering sword, my hand grasps it in judgment; I will take vengeance on my adversaries, and will repay those who hate me. |
| Deuteronomy 32:43 | Rejoice, you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will take vengeance on his adversaries, and will make atonement for his land and for his people. |
| Psalms 35:15 | But in my adversity, they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together. The attackers gathered themselves together against me, and I didn’t know it. They tore at me, and didn’t cease. |
| Psalms 37:13 | The Lord will laugh at him, for he sees that his day is coming. |
| Psalms 38:16 | For I said, “Don’t let them gloat over me, or exalt themselves over me when my foot slips.” |
| Psalms 137:7 | Remember, Yahweh, against the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who said, “Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation!” |
| Psalms 137:8 | Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, he will be happy who repays you, as you have done to us. |
| Psalms 137:9 | Happy shall he be, who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock. |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
9 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke notes that the enemies rejoice over Jerusalem's suffering because they see it as God's work, yet they fail to grasp that the same God will turn judgment on them. They will be made like the city they mocked, suffering a similar desolation in their own time.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes points out that the enemies who now gloat over Jerusalem's fall are missing the larger meaning. Judah's own punishment is the proof and guarantee that the same day of judgment God has proclaimed will certainly come upon them. They will share Jerusalem's fate.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin highlights that the prophet doubles the word "heard" to emphasize that enemies witnessed the people's suffering and lack of comfort. He notes that having enemies rejoice over one's misery intensifies the pain. Calvin cautiously considers whether the enemies rejoiced because they thought God was against His people, but he does not firmly commit to this view.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva Bible notes highlight the speaker's confidence amid desolation. Though her enemies rejoice at the judgment God has brought, she trusts that God will bring the day He has pronounced against them, making them like her.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill observes that the enemies rejoice at Jerusalem's ruin, but he stresses the destruction comes from God Himself, which calls for patient submission. Some read the next line as a prayer: that God would bring the day He has proclaimed, when those enemies will be reduced to the same desolate state.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil and Delitzsch highlight Jerusalem's intensely physical description of distress, with glowing bowels and a churning heart. They interpret the puzzling phrase "within like death" as referring not just to one kind of death but to every deadly force—pestilence, famine, and plague—that ravages the city from within. The commentary also traces the shift from faithless friends to rejoicing enemies, noting the certainty of judgment expressed through the perfect tense.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange reads Lamentations 1 as a highly dramatic poem where the speaker shifts among three distinct personified figures: the ruined city, the exiled tribe of Judah, and the desolate daughter of Zion. He treats the daughter of Zion as the religious heart of the nation, whose loss of worship and sanctuary marks the deepest tragedy, deeper than political or national collapse.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Henry observes that Jerusalem does not merely lament her suffering but summons passersby to see whether any sorrow compares, all while acknowledging that her affliction comes directly from God's fierce anger. Her grief is deepened by the clear recognition that her own rebellion provoked this judgment, making her confession of sin inseparable from her cry of pain.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley identifies "they" as the neighboring nations and points out that God has revealed their coming destruction through the same prophet who now suffers. The prophet's present affliction foreshadows what those nations will experience: the same sad condition brought upon them by God.