Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Let all their wickedness come before you; Do to them as you have done to me for all my transgressions. For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.
- BSB Let all their wickedness come before You, and deal with them as You have dealt with me because of all my transgressions. For my groans are many, and my heart is faint.
- NKJV “Letall their wickedness come before You, And do to them as You have done to me For all my transgressions; For my sighs are many, And my heart is faint.”
- NASB “May all their wickedness come before You; And deal with them just as You have dealt with me For all my wrongdoings. For my groans are many and my heart is faint.”
- NLT “Look at all their evil deeds, Lord. Punish them, as you have punished me for all my sins. My groans are many, and I am sick at heart.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
She asks God to deal with her enemies' wickedness as he dealt with her, for her heart is faint. It commits final judgment of evil into God's hands.
Overview
Closing the chapter, Jerusalem entrusts the recompense of her enemies to God rather than taking vengeance herself, even as her own sighs are many and her heart faints. The prayer flows from confessed sin and weary grief, leaving justice to the LORD. This surrender of vengeance to God anticipates the New Testament call to leave wrath to him (Romans 12:19).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Jer 8:18When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.
- Rev 6:10And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
- Ps 109:14–15Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
- Neh 4:4–5Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity:
- Lam 1:13From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day.
- Jer 51:35The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
- Jer 18:23Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.
- Ps 137:7–9Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.
- Lam 5:17For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
- Isa 13:7Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt:
- Luke 23:31For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
- Jer 10:25Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.
- Eph 3:13Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
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Christ at the center
The weeping over a ruined city and the steadfast mercies that are new every morning point to the man of sorrows who wept over Jerusalem and whose mercy rises new from the grave.
How Lamentations 1:22 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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