Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Lamentations 2:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse searches for a comparison and comfort equal to Daughter Zion's sea-wide wound and finds none.
Read It With
- Lamentations 2:10-13
Read Lamentations 2:13 with 2:10-13. This verse searches for a comparison and comfort equal to Daughter Zion's sea-wide wound and finds none. The complete unit establishes this movement: Silent public grief becomes the poet's visceral tears as children faint in streets and die in their mothers' arms; Zion's wound is compared to the sea precisely because no easy comparison or cure is adequate.
Why This Verse Appears Here
After institutions collapse, the poem moves to embodied mourners and children, refusing to keep destruction at the level of walls and offices. Within that movement, this verse searches for a comparison and comfort equal to Daughter Zion's sea-wide wound and finds none.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“What thing shall I take to witness for”
In plain language: This verse searches for a comparison and comfort equal to Daughter Zion's sea-wide wound and finds none.
Some wounds exceed quick analogy and consolation.
Why it matters: The wording marks this verse's distinct contribution to the poem.
How certain? strongWhat Remains True
Some wounds exceed quick analogy and consolation.
How It Can Shape Life
- Offer presence and care without manufacturing an answer.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Lamentations 2:10-13 — Silent Mourners and Starving ChildrenSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed Scripture, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and canonical verse coverage.
Exact location: Lamentations 2:10-13, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Lamentations
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, alphabet sequence, person and number, repeated vocabulary, and translation questions.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Lam.xml, OSIS Lam.2.10-Lam.2.13
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Lamentations with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level Hebrew, syntax, textual, acrostic, literary, historical, and translation notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Lamentations PDF, printed pp. 1559-1565, translation and notes on 2:10-13
Open source ↗