Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Lamentations 2:21 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 21. 21The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse names young and old, women and men fallen in streets and accuses divine killing without pity.
Read It With
- Lamentations 2:20-22
Read Lamentations 2:21 with 2:20-22. This verse names young and old, women and men fallen in streets and accuses divine killing without pity. The complete unit establishes this movement: Zion confronts God with the siege's most unbearable scenes—starving mothers, dead children, slain worship leaders, indiscriminate street death, and a grotesque reversal of festival gathering—without receiving an answer.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The summons to pray for children becomes a direct accusation that places the moral horror of their deaths before God. Within that movement, this verse names young and old, women and men fallen in streets and accuses divine killing without pity.
Follow the Context
- Zion commands the LORD to behold who has been treated this way.
- She names starving women consuming the children they bore and nurtured.
- Priest, prophet, young, old, women, and men lie slain.
- Terrors replace festival guests and the enemy consumes those Zion raised.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“The young and the old lie on the”
In plain language: This verse names young and old, women and men fallen in streets and accuses divine killing without pity.
Lament can protest suffering experienced as indiscriminate.
Why it matters: The wording carries textual, theological, ethical, or pastoral risk requiring its complete unit and stated limits.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
This verse does not turn alleged divine agency into permission for indiscriminate human killing.
What Remains True
Lament can protest suffering experienced as indiscriminate.
How It Can Shape Life
- Name civilian and vulnerable deaths and reject contempt for grief.
Teach It Back
Explain Lamentations 2:21's contribution to Lamentations 2:20-22: names young and old, women and men fallen in streets and accuses divine killing without pity. Include the surrounding alphabet stanza, the stated uncertainty, and what this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Lamentations 2:20-22 — Zion Confronts God with Siege AtrocitiesSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The accusatory second-person language is the sufferer's prayer, not a detached explanation.
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 2:20-22, 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.2.20-Lam.2.22
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 2:20-22
Open source ↗