Jeremiæ 2:20

Nova Vulgata

RES. "Vide, Domine, et considera, cui feceris ita; ergone comedent mulieres fructum suum, parvulos diligenter fovendos? Num occidetur in sanctuario Domini sacerdos et propheta?

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
A s�culo confregisti jugum meum, rupisti vincula mea, et dixisti : Non serviam. In omni enim colle sublimi, et sub omni ligno frondoso, tu prosternebaris meretrix.

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
Vide, Domine, et considera
quem vindemiaveris ita.
Ergone comedent mulieres fructum suum,
parvulos ad mensuram palm�?
si occiditur in sanctuario Domini
sacerdos et propheta?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

consider: Exodus 32:11, Deuteronomy 9:26, Isaiah 63:16-19, Isaiah 64:8-12, Jeremiah 14:20-21

Shall the women: Lamentations 4:10, Leviticus 26:29, Deuteronomy 28:53-57, 2 Kings 6:28, 2 Kings 6:29, Jeremiah 19:9, Ezekiel 5:10

of a span long: or, swaddled with their hands

shall the priest: Lamentations 1:19, Lamentations 4:13, Lamentations 4:16, Psalms 78:64, Isaiah 9:14-17, Jeremiah 5:31, Jeremiah 14:15-18, Jeremiah 23:11-15, Ezekiel 9:5, Ezekiel 9:6

Reciprocal: Genesis 47:13 - so that Deuteronomy 28:18 - the fruit of thy body 2 Chronicles 36:17 - in the house Job 39:16 - as Psalms 119:153 - Consider Isaiah 22:2 - thy slain Jeremiah 6:21 - fathers Jeremiah 14:21 - disgrace Jeremiah 37:21 - until Jeremiah 51:51 - for strangers Lamentations 1:11 - see Lamentations 1:16 - my children Lamentations 2:11 - because Lamentations 3:50 - General Lamentations 4:3 - the daughter Lamentations 5:1 - Remember Lamentations 5:12 - General Ezekiel 6:7 - slain Ezekiel 16:4 - nor Hosea 9:12 - yet Zechariah 8:4 - There Mark 13:17 - General Luke 13:1 - mingled

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this,.... On whom thou hast brought these calamities of famine and sword; not upon thine enemies, but upon thine own people, that are called by thy name, and upon theirs, their young ones, who had not sinned as their fathers had: here the church does not charge God with any injustice, or complain of hard usage; only humbly entreats he would look upon her, in her misery, with an eye of pity and compassion; and consider her sorrowful condition; and remember the relation she stood in to him; and so submits her case, and leaves it with him. These words seem to be suggested to the church by the prophet, as what might be proper for her to use, when praying for the life of her young children; and might be introduced by supplying the word "saying" before "behold, O Lord", c.

shall the women eat their fruit their children, the fruit of their womb, as the Targum; their newborn babes, that hung at their breasts, and were carried in their arms; it seems they did, as was threatened they should, Leviticus 26:29; and so they did at the siege of Samaria, and at the siege of Jerusalem, both by the Chaldeans and the Romans:

[and] children of a span long? or of a hand's breadth; the breadth of the palms of the hand, denoting very little ones: or "children handled", or "swaddled with the hands" c; of their parents, who are used to stroke the limbs of their babes, to bring them to; and keep them in right form and shape, and swaddle them with swaddling bands in a proper manner; see Lamentations 2:22; and so the Targum,

"desirable children, who are wrapped in fine linen.''

Jarchi d interprets it of Doeg Ben Joseph, whom his mother slew, and ate:

shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? as very probably some were, who fled thither for safety when the city was broken up; but were not spared by the merciless Chaldeans, who had no regard to their office and character; nor is it any wonder they should not, when the Jews themselves slew Zechariah, a priest and prophet, between the porch and the altar; of whom the Targum here makes mention; and to whom Jarchi applies these words.

c עללי טפחים "parvulos qui educantur", Pagninus; "parvulos educationum", Montanus; "educationis", Calvin; "infantes palmationum, [sive] tractationis palmarum", Michaelis; "pueros palmis tractatos", Cocceius. d E Talmud Bab. Yoma, fol. 38. 2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The sense is: “See, Yahweh, and look! whom hast Thou treated thus? Shall women eat their fruit - children whom they must still carry?” the swaddled child being one still needing to be nursed and borne in their arms.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Lamentations 2:20. Consider to whom thou hast done this — Perhaps the best sense of this difficult verse is this: "Thou art our Father, we are thy children; wilt thou destroy thy own offspring? Was it ever heard that a mother devoured her own child, a helpless infant of a span long?" That it was foretold that there should be such distress in the siege, - that mothers should be obliged to eat their own children, is evident enough from Leviticus 26:29; Deuteronomy 28:53; Deuteronomy 28:56-57; but the former view of the subject seems the most natural and is best supported by the context. The priest and the prophet are slain; the young and old lie on the ground in the streets; the virgins and young men are fallen by the sword. "THOU hast slain them in the day of thine anger; THOU hast killed, and not pitied." See Lamentations 4:10.