“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.”
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.
- KJV 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.
- 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.”
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 8:18Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! My heart is faint within me.
- Rev 6:10They cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
- Ps 109:14–15Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered by Yahweh. Don’t let the sin of his mother be blotted out.
- Neh 4:4–5“Hear, our God; for we are despised; and turn back their reproach on their own head, give them up for a plunder in a land of captivity;
- Lam 1:13“From on high has he sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them; He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate and faint all day long.
- Jer 51:35May the violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon!” the inhabitant of Zion will say; and, “May my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea!” will Jerusalem say.
- Jer 18:23Yet, Yahweh, you know all their counsel against me to kill me. Don’t forgive their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight; but let them be overthrown before you. Deal you with them in the time of your anger.
- Ps 137:7–9Remember, Yahweh, against the children of Edom, the day of Jerusalem; who said, “Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation!”
- Lam 5:17For this our heart is faint; For these things our eyes are dim;
- Isa 13:7Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone’s heart will melt.
- Luke 23:31For if they do these things in the green tree, what will be done in the dry?”
- Jer 10:25Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, and on the families that don’t call on your name: for they have devoured Jacob. Yes, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.
- Eph 3:13Therefore I ask that you may not lose heart at my troubles for you, which are your glory.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.