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Lamentations 3:19-24

World English Bible

Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness. My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope. It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. “Yahweh is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.”

In the King James Version

Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. 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 LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

What was happening around this

The speaking “I” addresses Yahweh and speaks to his own soul in a poem of grief; the book as a whole voices the aftermath of Jerusalem’s destruction. Breed describes Lamentations as a multi-voiced response to that trauma and says the connection of 3:22–33 to the despairing voice in 3:1–21 is contested. The immediately preceding vv. 16–20 name crushed teeth, ashes, lost peace, and remembered misery; vv. 25–27 continue with waiting and bearing a yoke.

Source: Breed, Working Preacher

The verses on either side

Lamentations 3, verses either side, World English Bible

  1. He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes.
  2. You have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity.
  3. I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from Yahweh.”
  4. Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness.
  5. My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
  6. This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.
  7. It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail.
  8. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
  9. “Yahweh is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.”
  10. Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
  11. It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.
  12. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

Where this comes up

  • Grief that comes back months later

    Why grief returns in the later months, what Cruse and Marie Curie say about the second year, and a psalm that asks the same question four times over.

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