What Does Lamentations 4:11 Mean in the King James?
The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The word translated “accomplished” carries the sense of bringing fury to its end, and the fire reaches even the foundations.
THE MEANING
You encounter the verse’s full severity: the LORD brings fury to completion, pours out fierce anger, and kindles a fire that devours Zion’s foundations. The image leaves no supporting layer untouched. It speaks now of devastation reaching beneath what seems to hold a people or a life together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what lies beneath visible damage is automatically safe: here, even the foundations are devoured.
THE ROOT
כִּלָּה
killah
GROWS FROM
כלה
to finish, complete, or bring to an end
“accomplished” in this verse is killah. The fury is described as brought to completion, not merely begun. The same root can describe an ending or destruction, so the word’s sense of completion meets the fire’s total devastation.
ALSO GROWS
kalah: to finish, come to an end
כָּלָה
This form shares the root’s language of reaching an endpoint, clarifying the force of “accomplished.”
kilyon: destruction, annihilation
כִּלָּיוֹן
This noun carries the root into the meaning of ruin, resonating with the fire’s destruction of Zion’s foundations.
יְסוֹדֹתֶיהָ
yesodoteha
GROWS FROM
יסד
to establish, set in place, or lay a foundation
The foundations are what has been set in place to support what stands above. The verse says the fire consumes that established base itself, leaving no safe underside.
ALSO GROWS
yasad: to establish, found, or lay a foundation
יָסַד
The verb shows that the foundations are what has been deliberately set in place.
mosad: foundation or established institution
מוֹסָד
This related noun carries the root from a base beneath a structure to an established support.
THE PATTERN
Divine judgment is pictured as fire that consumes what sustains or shelters a people.
For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.For our God is a consuming fire.THE THREAD
I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad.The word translated “end” is תִּכְלָה (tikhlah), from the same Hebrew root כלה as “accomplished” here. Psalm 119 uses the root for an endpoint; Lamentations shows completion as fury reaching its devastating end in the destruction of Zion’s foundations.
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