Wrapped thyself with anger is a picturable metaphor. In similar terms the mountain is “wrapped in darkness” in Deuteronomy 4.11, while Ezekiel 7.27 has “wrapped in despair,” and Psalm 109.29 says “wrapped in … shame.” Wrapped in the sense of “cover” is taken by Moffatt to refer to a veil: “thou hast veiled thy face in anger.” This is ambiguous, meaning either “because of anger” or “with a covering of anger.” A better sense is expressed in Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, “You surround us with your anger.” In languages which cannot follow the figure of being wrapped in an abstract expression such as anger, it may be possible to follow Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, or to say, for example, “All around us we see that you are angry” or “Everywhere we turn we find that you are angry.” In some languages it may be necessary to translate verse 43, for example, as “You have been angry, and so you chased us and killed us, and you have had no pity on us.”

Slaying without pity: slaying translates a different Hebrew verb than that used in the similar expression in 2.21; however, the two verbs mean the same. Without pity is the same in Hebrew as “without mercy” in 2.2 and 2.21. See there for comments.

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 .