ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Lamentations 3.22-23

Book: Lamentations · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

There are ads on our codex that pay for hosting and keep the codex free. If you can, please consider whitelisting ris3n.com or allowing scripts to support the work.

Sponsored

Brands, events, influencers advertise here

ASV

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.

  1. 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. (Lamentations 3:20-25, ASV)
WEB

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.

  1. “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. (Lamentations 3:20-25, WEB)
KJV

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.

  1. 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. (Lamentations 3:20-25, KJV)
YLT

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.

  1. 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. (Lamentations 3:20-25, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

  • Speaker: the anonymous poet of Lamentations, traditionally identified as Jeremiah
  • Audience: survivors of the destruction of Jerusalem
  • Location: Judah, among the ruins
  • Time period: c. 586 BC or shortly after

Theological reading

It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The lines are printed on more devotional merchandise than almost any other in the Old Testament, and their setting is a city that has just been burned to the ground.

That setting is the point. Chapter 3 sits at the centre of a book of five poems, four of them alphabetic acrostics, and the third is the most tightly structured of all, running the alphabet three times over. The form matters: the poet imposes the strictest possible order on the least ordered possible experience. Verses 1 to 20 are unrelieved, and they are first-person: he hath led me and caused me to walk in darkness, ending at verse 20 with the soul humbled within.

Verse 21 is the hinge, and it is a deliberate act rather than a change of feeling: this I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. The hope is produced by recollection, not by improvement in circumstances, which are identical before and after.

Chesed, rendered mercies, is the covenant-loyalty word, and emunah, faithfulness, is from the root behind amen. The claim is not that the poet feels better but that God's character is unchanged by the catastrophe, and that this is a fact available to be remembered when nothing else is. Verse 24 draws the conclusion in the language of the tribe of Levi, who received no land: the LORD is my portion. The man who has lost the land claims the giver instead.

The book does not end in resolution. Chapter 5 closes with a question rather than an answer. Any use of 3:22-23 that treats it as a conclusion rather than as something wrested mid-grief has taken the comfort without the cost.

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; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

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.