Lamentations 2:20 is a raw cry of grief and a demand that God look at the suffering of Jerusalem, which had been devastated by a siege. The writer asks God to see the horror of what has happened, including mothers driven to unthinkable hunger and religious leaders killed in the very place of worship. The verse is spoken by the poet of the book, who speaks on behalf of the broken city of Jerusalem and its people, addressing the LORD directly.
“Look, the LORD, and see to whom you have done thus! Should the women eat their offspring, the children that they held and bounced on their knees? Should the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
Lamentations 2:20 (WEB)
What Lamentations 2:20 Means
The verse opens with a command: “Look.” The writer is not asking God for information but urging Him to take notice of the devastation. The phrase “to whom you have done thus” points to the suffering that has fallen on the city, which the poet understands as the outcome of divine judgment. The question is not hostile in spirit so much as desperate, a plea for God to grasp the full weight of what the city has endured.
The two questions that follow describe scenes of extreme horror. Mothers who once cradled and played with their children are now pushed to the point of eating them during the famine of the siege. The second question asks whether priests and prophets, the people who should be closest to God, have been killed in the sanctuary. These images are shocking on purpose, because the poet wants his readers to feel the depth of the collapse.
The verse does not offer a neat explanation or a promise that everything will turn out well. It records grief and asks God to witness it. Lamentation as a form of prayer is honest about pain and does not rush to resolution. That honesty is part of what the verse teaches.
The Context of Lamentations 2:20
Lamentations is a collection of five poems mourning the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 BC. Tradition has long attributed the book to Jeremiah, though the text itself does not name its author. The poems are written from the perspective of a city and its people who have watched their temple destroyed, their leaders killed, and their homes overrun. The book is structured around the loss of a place that once seemed secure.
Verse 20 sits within a larger passage in which the poet calls the people to pour out their hearts before the Lord, to cry out at night, and to lift their hands for their starving children. The surrounding verses describe young and old lying dead in the streets and enemies consuming those once cared for. Reading the verse in this setting shows that its shocking images are part of an extended act of mourning and appeal, not isolated words of despair.
Key Phrases in Lamentations 2:20
Psalm 13:1
How long, the LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
(WEB)
This psalm opens with a similar question of distress directed to God, asking how long He will forget. It shows the same pattern of honest complaint followed by trust, and it helps readers see that lament is a recognized form of prayer in Scripture.
Psalm 22:1
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?
(WEB)
This verse expresses a sense of God’s absence in suffering. Like Lamentations 2:20, it lets raw pain stand before God without softening it, and it reminds readers that even the most anguished prayers belong in Scripture.
A Short Prayer From Lamentations 2:20
Lord, I bring you what has happened and what I cannot yet make sense of. Look at the pain in this place and at the people who are suffering because of it. I do not hide my grief from you, and I ask you to see what I see. Hold me in the middle of this and do not let me feel that you have turned away. Teach me to speak honestly to you and to keep trusting that you hear every word. Amen.
