Lamentations 2:13 is a sorrowful question the prophet asks about Jerusalem after its destruction: what can he say, or compare her to, that could comfort her, and who could possibly heal her wound? The verse does not promise a quick fix. It records a grieving witness who looks at a ruined city and finds that words fail, and it is written by the prophet traditionally identified as Jeremiah, speaking to the people of Jerusalem as the city lies in ruins.
What shall I testify to you? What shall I liken to you, daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare to you, that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? For your breach is as big as the sea. Who can heal you?
Lamentations 2:13 (WEB)
What Lamentations 2:13 Means
The verse opens with two questions: “What shall I testify to you?” and “What shall I liken to you?” The speaker is searching for a fitting word. He wants to name the city’s suffering truthfully, and he wants to find an image large enough to hold it. Nothing he reaches for seems adequate, so he turns from describing her to asking how anyone could comfort her at all.
The phrase “daughter of Jerusalem” and “virgin daughter of Zion” are poetic ways of speaking to the city and its people as a beloved, vulnerable community, the way a parent might speak to a child. The speaker then compares her breach to the sea, a picture of something so vast that it cannot be measured or closed. The final question, “Who can heal you?”, admits that the damage seems beyond human repair.
What the verse does not do is offer a neat solution in its own sentences. It is an honest expression of loss. Its comfort lies in the fact that God’s people are allowed to voice despair before God rather than hide it, and the wider book goes on to bring that grief into prayer.
The Context of Lamentations 2:13
Lamentations is a collection of five poems mourning the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon in 586 BC. Its authorship is traditionally attributed to Jeremiah, who lived through the siege and its aftermath. The poems are written in a deeply emotional style, using acrostic structure in several chapters, which gives the grief a sense of order even as the content spills over.
Verse 13 sits inside a passage (verses 10 to 16) that describes children fainting in the streets, mothers asking for bread and wine that no longer exist, and enemies mocking the city. Just before the verse, the poet has described the elders sitting in silence with dust on their heads. Just after, the prophets are blamed for false visions and the watching nations clap and hiss. The verse is therefore not a calm reflection but the cry of someone standing amid public humiliation and death.
Read in this setting, the question “Who can heal you?” carries the weight of a whole ruined community. It is not a rhetorical flourish. It reflects a real crisis in which the people have lost their city, their leaders and much of their hope, which is why the book is so raw.
Key Phrases in Lamentations 2:13
Lamentations 3:22-23
22 It is because of the LORD’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail. 23 They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
(WEB)
These verses come later in the same book and answer the question of verse 13 with a turn toward God’s steadfast love and faithfulness. They show that the lament does not end in despair but moves toward hope rooted in God’s character, which is why the book is read as a whole.
Psalm 147:3
He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.
(WEB)
This psalm directly speaks of God as the one who heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. It offers an answer to the question “Who can heal you?” by pointing to God as the healer, giving the grieving reader a clear place to take their question.
A Short Prayer From Lamentations 2:13
Lord, I do not have the words to describe what has been broken in my life. Some losses feel as wide as the sea, and I do not know how they could ever be made whole. I bring you my honest questions and my tears, trusting that you hear them. Show me your faithfulness in the days ahead, and let me find in you the healing that no one else can give. Amen.
