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Lamentations 3:14

I have become the ridicule of all my people— Their taunting song all the day.
Lamentations 3:14 · New King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long.
  • KJV I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
  • BSB I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
  • NASB I have become a laughingstock to all my people, Their song of ridicule all the day.
  • NLT My own people laugh at me. All day long they sing their mocking songs.

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

He has become a laughingstock, the subject of mocking songs all day. It voices the pain of public ridicule in suffering.

Overview

The sufferer is derided by his own people and made the theme of their taunting songs. Mockery adds the wound of shame to the wound of affliction. This experience of being scorned foreshadows Christ, who became the song of mockers and was derided yet bore reproach to redeem (Psalm 69:11-12; Matthew 27:29-31).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 14

  • Jer 20:7Yahweh, you have persuaded me, and I was persuaded; you are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I have become a laughing-stock all day. Every one mocks me.
  • Lam 3:63You see their sitting down and their rising up; I am their song.
  • Ps 22:6–7But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people.
  • Ps 44:13You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and a derision to those who are around us.
  • Job 30:1–9“But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
  • Jer 48:27For wasn’t Israel a derision to you? was he found among thieves? for as often as you speak of him, you shake your head.
  • Matt 27:39–44Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads,
  • Ps 35:15–16But in my adversity, they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together. The attackers gathered themselves together against me, and I didn’t know it. They tore at me, and didn’t cease.
  • 1 Cor 4:9–13For, I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men.
  • Ps 137:3For there, those who led us captive asked us for songs. Those who tormented us demanded songs of joy: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
  • Ps 69:11–12When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.
  • Neh 4:2–4He spoke before his brothers and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, since they are burned?”
  • Ps 79:4We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and derision to those who are around us.
  • Ps 123:3–4Have mercy on us, Yahweh, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Lamentations videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Lamentations 3:14YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on LamentationsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 3:14 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.