Lamentations 3:17
in Lamentations 3My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace; I forgat prosperity.
KJV
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
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This verse in Lamentations 3
Commentary
7 notes on this verse"My soul is bereft of peace." Here is assumed a rejection: "My soul is bereft": of God's divine mercy. Like Psalm 89:39 declares: "Thou hast renounced the covenant with thy servant; thou hast defiled his crown in the dust." "I have forgotten what happiness is." …
This site's exposition
I am a laughingstock to all my people
on Lamentations 3:14-18
“He has intoxicated me with wormwood”, the bitter plant Deuteronomy 29:18 names as the fruit of turning from the covenant. The unit ends at its lowest point, with hope named as gone: “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD”.
This site's exposition
My soul has been deprived of peace
The Hebrew word for peace is shalom, the soundness of a whole life. Matthew Henry writes that the man has been without prosperity so long that he has lost the very idea of it. Thomas Aquinas set the verse beside Psalm 89:39 and the covenant renounced.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace,.... From the time the city was besieged by the Chaldeans, and now the people was carried captive; who could have no true peace, being in a foreign land, in an enemy's country, and out of their own, and far from the place of divine worship; nor could the prophet have any peace of soul, in the consideration of these things, the city, temple, and nation, being desolate, though he himself was not in captivity.
), so that it is not only not within reach, but no within view. I forget prosperity; it is so long since I had it, and so unlikely that I should ever recover it, that I have lost the idea of it.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
gravel--referring to the grit that often mixes with bread baked in ashes, as is the custom of baking in the East (Pr 20:17). We fare as hardly as those who eat such bread. The same allusion is in "Covered me with ashes," namely, as bread.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
Those hast removed my soul - Prosperity is at such an utter distance from me, that it is impossible I should ever reach it; and as to happiness, I have forgotten whether I have ever tasted of it.
The words behind it
5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַתִּזְנַ֧ח | vatiznach | and it has excluded | H2186 → | 20 times |
| מִשָּׁל֛וֹם | mishalom | from peace | H7965 → | |
| נַפְשִׁ֖י | nafshi | self my | H5315 → | 754 times |
| נָשִׁ֥יתִי | nashiti | I have forgotten | H5382 → | |
| טוֹבָֽה׃ | tovah | good | H2896 → | 538 times |
וַתִּזְנַ֧חand it has excluded
vatiznachH2186 →20 times
מִשָּׁל֛וֹםfrom peace
mishalomH7965 →
נַפְשִׁ֖יself my
nafshiH5315 →754 times
נָשִׁ֥יתִיI have forgotten
nashitiH5382 →
טוֹבָֽה׃good
tovahH2896 →538 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
Isaiah 38:17Surely for my own welfare I had such great anguish; but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
it leads to
- Isaiah 43:25
I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.
- Micah 7:18–19
Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?
- Jonah 2:6
To the roots of the mountains I descended; the earth beneath me barred me in forever! But You raised my life from the pit, O LORD my God!
- Psalms 30:3
O LORD, You pulled me up from Sheol; You spared me from descending into the Pit.
- Jeremiah 31:34
No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I…
- Isaiah 43:25
Through
Job 7:7Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness.
it leads to
- James 4:14
You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
- Psalms 78:39
He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.
- James 4:14
Through
Jeremiah 14:19Have You rejected Judah completely? Do You despise Zion? Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We hoped for peace, but no good has come, and for the time of…
it leads to
- Lamentations 5:22
unless You have utterly rejected us and remain angry with us beyond measure.
- Lamentations 5:22
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies17
On this verse
On this chapter
About Lamentations
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Lamentations.