Add parallel Print Page Options

10 The ·enemy [foe] ·reached out and took [spread his hands on]
    all her ·precious [desired; coveted] things.
She even saw ·foreigners [nations]
    enter her ·Temple [L holy place; Ps. 74:4–8].
·The Lord had commanded foreigners [L …those you commanded]
    never to enter the meeting place of ·his [L your] people.

11 All of ·Jerusalem’s [L its] people groan,
    ·looking for [seeking] bread.
They ·are trading [L give] their ·precious [desired; coveted] things for food
    so they can stay alive.
The city says, “Look, Lord, and see.
    I am ·hated [despised].”

Read full chapter

10 
The adversary has spread out his hand
Over all her precious and desirable things;
For she has seen the [Gentile] nations enter her sanctuary (the Jerusalem temple)—
[a]The ones whom You commanded
That they should not enter into Your congregation [not even in the outer courts].(A)
11 
All her people groan, seeking bread;
They have exchanged their desirable and precious things for food
To restore their lives.
“See, O Lord, and consider
How despised and repulsive I have become!”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Lamentations 1:10 The Ammonites and Moabites, descendants of Lot and related to Israel, were forbidden to enter the congregation of the Lord, “even to their tenth generation,” because they refused to assist the sons of Israel when they were escaping from Egypt, and because they hired Balaam to curse Israel (Deut 23:3, 4). The Israelites never assembled any closer to the sanctuary of the temple than in the court outside its door. No Jew, not even David was authorized to enter the sanctuary proper except for certain Levites to whom such service was assigned. But now, Jeremiah says, the forbidden pagan nations enter the Holy of Holies to vandalize.