Peace has been stripped away, and I have forgotten what prosperity is.
Parallel translations
- WEB You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.
- KJV And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
- BSB My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
- NKJV You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity.
- NASB My soul has been excluded from peace; I have forgotten happiness.
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
His soul is robbed of peace until he forgets what prosperity feels like. It voices the loss of all sense of well-being.
Overview
So prolonged is his suffering that he has 'forgotten prosperity,' his soul far removed from peace. The verse marks the lowest point of the lament before hope breaks in. This deep absence of peace heightens the wonder of the gospel, for Christ is our peace, reconciling us to God and giving a peace the world cannot take away (John 14:27; Ephesians 2:14).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Isa 59:11We all roar like bears, and moan bitterly like doves. We look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
- Isa 38:17Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
- Ps 119:155Salvation is far from the wicked, for they don’t seek your statutes.
- Isa 54:10For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed; but my loving kindness will not depart from you, and my covenant of peace will not be removed,” says Yahweh who has mercy on you.
- Job 7:7Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye shall no more see good.
- Jer 8:15We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!
- Jer 16:5For Yahweh says, “Don’t enter into the house of mourning, neither go to lament, neither bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this people,” says Yahweh, “even loving kindness and tender mercies.
- Jer 20:14–18Cursed is the day in which I was born. Don’t let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.
- Gen 41:30There will arise after them seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land,
- Lam 1:16“For these things I weep. My eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me. My children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.”
- Jer 14:19Have you utterly rejected Judah? Has your soul loathed Zion? Why have you struck us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!
- Zech 8:10For before those days there was no wages for man, nor any wages for an animal; neither was there any peace to him who went out or came in, because of the adversary. For I set all men everyone against his neighbor.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 3:17 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.