Lamentations 2:20

My Notes

What Does Lamentations 2:20 Mean?

Lamentations 2:20 is arguably the most harrowing verse in the entire Bible. The poet addresses God directly with a demand: "Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this." Then he describes the unthinkable: women eating their own children — "their fruit, and children of a span long" (or "swaddled with their hands," indicating infants). Priests and prophets are being slaughtered inside the sanctuary itself.

This is not metaphor. During the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, famine became so severe that cannibalism occurred — 2 Kings 6:28-29 records a similar horror during an earlier siege, and Deuteronomy 28:53-57 had prophesied that this exact atrocity would result from covenant unfaithfulness. The poet is describing real events, and he's doing it in God's face. "Consider to whom thou hast done this" — the Hebrew re'eh (behold) and habbitah (consider) are imperatives. He's commanding God to look.

The theological boldness is staggering. The poet doesn't blame Babylon. He blames God. "To whom thou hast done this" — You, God. You did this. To Your own people. To women and babies and priests in Your own sanctuary. The verse doesn't resolve the tension. It simply holds up the horror and demands that God see it. Lamentations gives us permission to do something most religious systems don't: confront God with the full weight of what He has allowed.

Reflection Questions

• 1.Have you ever experienced something so devastating that it made you question whether God is good? Were you able to bring that accusation to Him, or did you go silent?
• 2.The poet commands God to look at the horror. How comfortable are you with prayers that confront God rather than praising Him?
• 3.This verse is in the Bible — uncensored, unresolved. What does it tell you about God that He included the accusation in His own book?
• 4.Is there something you've been afraid to say to God because it feels too angry, too raw, or too disrespectful? What would happen if you said it?

Devotional

This is the verse most people skip, and honestly, part of you might want to. Women eating their own babies. Priests murdered in the temple. And the poet looks straight at God and says: You did this. Look at it. Look at who You did this to.

There is no easy devotional here. No silver lining. No "but God works all things for good" tacked on at the end. Lamentations 2:20 exists in the Bible as raw, unprocessed confrontation with the worst things that can happen in a world governed by God. And the fact that it's here — in Scripture, in the canon, not edited out — means God is willing to be accused to His face. He doesn't need you to protect Him from the hardest questions. He can hold the weight of your "how could You?"

If you've experienced or witnessed something so terrible that it's shaken your faith at the foundation — not a theological inconvenience but something that genuinely made you question whether God is good — this verse says you're not the first. Someone stood in the rubble of God's own city, watched the most unimaginable horrors unfold, and said: God, look at this. And that prayer became Scripture. Your rage, your confusion, your accusation — if it's honest, it has a place in God's presence. He'd rather hear you scream than watch you walk away silent.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture