Passage

Lamentations 3.21-26

Book: Lamentations · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

19. Remember mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. 20. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is bowed down within me.

21. This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope. 22. It is of Jehovah's lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. 24. Jehovah is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. 25. Jehovah is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. 26. It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Jehovah.

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 28. Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he hath laid it upon him. (Lamentations 3:19-28, ASV)

WEB

19. Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. 20. My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.

21. This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope. 22. It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail. 23. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24. “Yahweh is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.” 25. Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 26. It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 28. Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him. (Lamentations 3:19-28, WEB)

KJV

19. Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. ^{Remembering: or, Remember} 20. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. ^{humbled: Heb. bowed}

21. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. ^{recall: Heb. make to return to my heart} 22. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 24. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. 25. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. 26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 28. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. (Lamentations 3:19-28, KJV)

YLT

19. Remember my affliction and my mourning, Wormwood and gall! 20. Remember well, and bow down doth my soul in me.

21. This I turn to my heart, therefore I hope. 22. The kindnesses of Jehovah! For we have not been consumed, For not ended have His mercies. 23. New every morning, abundant [is] thy faithfulness. 24. My portion [is] Jehovah, hath my soul said, Therefore I hope for Him. 25. Good [is] Jehovah to those waiting for Him, To the soul [that] seeketh Him. 26. Good! when one doth stay and stand still For the salvation of Jehovah.

Good for a man that he beareth a yoke in his youth. 28. He sitteth alone, and is silent, For He hath laid [it] upon him. (Lamentations 3:19-28, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: the unnamed sufferer of chapter 3, "the man that hath seen affliction" (3:1). The book is anonymous. Tradition, from the Septuagint's opening note and the Talmud (Baba Bathra 15a), assigns it to Jeremiah, who lamented in an earlier crisis (2 Chronicles 35:25); many modern commentators treat the five poems as the work of one or more unnamed poets writing in the same years
Audience: the surviving community of Judah, and Yahweh himself, to whom the poems repeatedly turn in protest and prayer
Location: Judah; the poems speak from within or beside ruined Jerusalem, and the book names no place of composition
Time period: the aftermath of Jerusalem's fall to Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian army in 587/586 BC, when the temple was burned and the walls broken down (2 Kings 25:8-10; Jeremiah 52:12-14). Most scholars date the poems before the first return from exile in 538 BC
Literary context: chapter 3, the book's centre: a triple acrostic of 66 verses, three verses for each Hebrew letter. A single sufferer, "the man" (3:1), speaks first; the voice widens into the community's "we" (3:40-47) and returns to the individual for a closing plea (3:48-66). These verses are the turning point of chapter 3 and of the whole book.

Theological reading

"It is of Jehovah's lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22-23, ASV)

The turn. "This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope" (3:21). Nothing in the sufferer's circumstances has changed. What changes is what he calls to mind: Yahweh's lovingkindnesses (chesed, covenant loyalty), his compassions, and his faithfulness. The Hebrew of verse 22 can be read either "we are not consumed" (as ASV) or, with a one-letter difference, "they have not ceased" of the lovingkindnesses themselves; either way the ground of hope is God's character, not Israel's merit.

Jehovah is my portion. Verse 24 borrows the language of the land allotment. The priests received no tribal territory because the LORD was their portion (Numbers 18:20), and the psalmists claim the same (Psalm 16:5; 73:26). With the land lost, the sufferer still has the Lord.

Waiting. Verses 25-26 commend patient waiting "for the salvation of Jehovah". The hope is real but not instant. Thomas Chisholm's hymn "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" (1923) is drawn from verse 23, and these verses remain among the most quoted words of comfort in the Old Testament.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

H7356 - rachamim, rachamim, Strong's H7356
H0530 - emunah, emunah, Strong's H0530
H2617 - hesed, hesed, Strong's H2617
H2896 - tov, tov, Strong's H2896
H3820 - lev, lev, Strong's H3820
H5315 - nephesh, nephesh, Strong's H5315

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

H0530 - emunah, via Lamentations 3.23
H0539 - aman, via Lamentations 3.23
H5315 - nephesh, via Lamentations 3.24-25
H7356 - rachamim, via Lamentations 3.22

Notes

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Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.