What Does Lamentations 2:22 Mean?
You call my terrors all around, as on the day of appointed time, so that in the day of the LORD's burning none escapes or remains. My enemy has finished those I cradled in my palm and raised.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD’s anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.THE KEY
Terror is summoned like a festival gathering, while the children tenderly raised are consumed within it.
THE MEANING
The verse gives you language for devastation that feels summoned: terror gathers all around, and on the day of the LORD’s burning anger no one escapes or remains. The children held and raised are consumed by the enemy. The verse leaves the brutal collision between care and loss fully visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that loving care guarantees safety: the children are swaddled and raised, yet the enemy consumes them.
THE ROOT
קָרָאתָ
qārāʾtā
GROWS FROM
קרא
To call out, summon, or proclaim.
The verse says the terrors are called, giving the surrounding devastation the force of a summons. Beside the appointed festival day, that call makes terror sound like a gathering convened on purpose.
ALSO GROWS
miqra: Convocation; a called assembly.
מִקְרָא
This branch gives the call a gathering shape, echoing the terrors assembled all around.
qeriʾah: Calling or reading aloud.
קְרִיאָה
The root holds both summoning and proclamation, making the call in the verse feel declared rather than accidental.
מוֹעֵד
moʿed
GROWS FROM
יעד
To appoint, designate, or set a meeting.
“day of appointed time” in this verse is moʿed. Moʿed names an appointed time or festival gathering, not merely a date. Paired with “called,” it gives the terror the chilling shape of a convocation.
ALSO GROWS
yaʿad: To appoint or designate; to set a meeting.
יָעַד
The appointed day is a set time, sharpening the verse’s image of terror arriving by summons.
ʿedah: Congregation or assembly.
עֵדָה
This related branch evokes a gathered company, echoing the terrors surrounding the speaker.
כִּלָּם
killam
GROWS FROM
כלה
To finish, bring to an end, or consume.
“finished” in this verse is killam. The verb names an ending, not merely an injury: the enemy consumes those the speaker raised. Beside “none escaped nor remained,” its root presses the verse’s terrible totality.
ALSO GROWS
kalah: To finish, end, or come to completion.
כָּלָה
The verb’s sense of ending gives weight to the fate of those the enemy consumes.
killayon: Destruction or complete ruin.
כִּלָּיוֹן
This branch carries the root’s force toward total loss, echoing “none escaped nor remained.”
kalil: Whole or complete.
כָּלִיל
The idea of completeness underscores how fully the verse describes the devastation.
THE PATTERN
When terror gathers around people on an appointed day of judgment, no human refuge can guarantee escape.
And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, The LORD has not called your name Pashur, but Magor-missabib, terror on every side.That day is a day of overflowing, of narrowing and pressing, of stunning and devastation, of darkness and murk, a day of cloud and thick darkness.For the great day of their anger comes, and who is able to stand?THE THREAD
And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, The LORD has not called your name Pashur, but Magor-missabib, terror on every side.Both verses use קרא (qaraʾ, “call”) around מָגוֹר (magor, “terror”): Lamentations says the terrors are called all around, while Jeremiah’s “Magormissabib” means “terror on every side.” One describes terror summoned around the speaker; the other compresses that encirclement into a name.
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