Although the units of verse 3 have less parallelism of words than verse 2, the basic pattern of successive destructive events continues.

He has cut down in fierce anger …: the sense of the word rendered cut down is “cut off, shatter, break into pieces.” New English Bible says “hacked down.” In fierce anger is another expression of the manner in which the Lord destroys Jerusalem, matching “in his anger” in verse 1 and “without mercy” in verse 2.

All the might is literally “all the horn,” the horn being a symbol of power or pride. See Jeremiah 48.25 “the horn of Moab is cut off”; see also Psalm 75.10; Deuteronomy 33.17. Some translations prefer “pride” as a translation of “horn.” New English Bible retains the term so as to keep the image, and gives at the same time the sense: “In his anger he hacked down the horn of Israel’s pride.” While this is a good translation principle, there is no relation between horn and pride in English, and the sense remains obscure. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy gives a better model to follow: “in one slice he cut off the power of Israel.”

Translators may follow either “power” or “pride.” However, cut down must often be expressed differently; for example, “He took away the power of Israel,” “He caused the strength of Israel to fail,” or “He made Israel weak and helpless.”

In the following unit God’s next act is that he has withdrawn from them his right hand, which is an idiom meaning “refused to help them,” or as New English Bible says, “he withdrew his helping hand.” In other words, when Israel needed God’s help, God refused. The right hand, according to Psalm 98.1, is the source of victory. In Exodus 15.6 it is God’s right hand that defeats the Egyptian army. Now it is held back when Israel needs it the most.

The expression right hand has different meanings in different languages. In some cases it is possible to say, for example, “God did not give them his hand” or “God’s hand was not with them.” In languages where withholding the hand does not convey the idea of holding back from helping, it is better to follow the model of Good News Translation, “refused to help.”

In the face of the enemy means “when the enemy attacks,” or as Bible en français courant translates, “when the enemy has arrived.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “upon meeting the enemy.”

He has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob: as in Isaiah 10.17 the Lord is pictured as a destroying fire. There he would burn up Israel’s enemies; in this verse, however, he destroys Israel itself. The sense is that God has started a fire in Jacob, that is, in Israel. The translation of Jacob will depend on the way the same term has been handled in 2.2. Good News Translation says “He raged against us like fire.” However, “us” identifies the poet more closely with the people of Israel than the original suggests. A better translation is “his people.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .