Lamentations 3:40
in Lamentations 3Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the LORD.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Jehovah.
KJV
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.
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This verse in Lamentations 3
Commentary
2 notes on this verseLet us search - How are we to get the pardon of our sins? The prophet tells us: 1. Let us examine ourselves. 2. “Let us turn again to the Lord.” 3. “Let us lift up our heart;” let us make fervent prayer and supplication for mercy. 4. “Let us lift up our hand;” let us solemnly promise to be his, and bind ourselves in a covenant to be the Lord’s only: so much lifting up the hand to God implies.
This site's exposition
Let us search and try our ways
on Lamentations 3:40-42
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord marks the chapter's turn from the individual voice to the whole community, the man's own confession becoming a summons the people can take up together. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens pairs inward examination with outward gesture, the hands lifted matching the heart searched. We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned states the confession in its plainest form, and the bench notes the honesty of the last clause, the community naming its sin without yet claiming the forgiveness the chapter's center already declared for the man who spoke first.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| נַחְפְּשָׂ֤ה | nachpesah | let us examine | H2664 → | |
| דְרָכֵ֙ינוּ֙ | derakheinu | ways our | H1870 → | 707 times |
| וְֽנַחְקֹ֔רָה | venachkorah | and let us examine | H2713 → | |
| וְנָשׁ֖וּבָה | venashuvah | and let us return | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| עַד־ | ʾad- | to | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| יְהוָֽה׃ | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
נַחְפְּשָׂ֤הlet us examine
nachpesahH2664 →
דְרָכֵ֙ינוּ֙ways our
derakheinuH1870 →707 times
וְֽנַחְקֹ֔רָהand let us examine
venachkorahH2713 →
וְנָשׁ֖וּבָהand let us return
venashuvahH7725 →1056 times
עַד־to
ʾad-H5704 →1261 times
יְהוָֽה׃Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
2 Corinthians 13:5Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Can’t you see for yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you—unless you actually fail the test?
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 11:28
Each one must examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.
- Psalms 139:23–24
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns.
- 1 Corinthians 9:27
No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
- Revelation 2:5
Therefore, keep in mind how far you have fallen. Repent and perform the deeds you did at first. But if you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from…
- Galatians 6:4
Each one should test his own work. Then he will have reason to boast in himself alone, and not in someone else.
- 1 Corinthians 11:28
Through
Isaiah 55:7Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely…
it leads to
- Proverbs 28:13
He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.
- James 4:8–10
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- Ezekiel 18:21–23
But if the wicked man turns from all the sins he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die.
- Proverbs 28:13
Where this verse is studied
2 studies on this verseOn Lamentations 3:40
Great Is Thy Faithfulness: Lamentations 3:22–24 · MannaFest
Open the study →
On Lamentations 3:40
The Weeping Prophet — the Confessions of Jeremiah
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Also on Lamentations 3: 4 studies that walk through this chapter ▾
About Lamentations

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
