So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.”
Parallel translations
- WEB I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from Yahweh.”
- KJV And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:
- NKJV And I said, “My strength and my hope Have perished from the Lord.”
- NASB So I say, “My strength has failed, And so has my hope from the Lord.”
- NLT I cry out, “My splendor is gone! Everything I had hoped for from the Lord is lost!”
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 concludes that his strength and his hope in the LORD have perished. It marks the depth of despair just before faith revives.
Overview
The sufferer reaches the bottom: 'My strength has perished, along with my expectation from Yahweh.' This is the honest low point where hope itself seems gone. Yet this very verse is the turning point, for the next words begin to recall God's character. Faith often passes through such darkness before it lays hold again of God's faithfulness in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Job 17:15where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me?
- 1 Sam 27:1David, however, said to himself, “One of these days now I will be swept away by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will stop searching for me all over Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”
- Job 6:11What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What is my future, that I should be patient?
- Ps 116:11In my alarm I said, “All men are liars!”
- Ps 31:22In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from Your sight!” But You heard my plea for mercy when I called to You for help.
- Ezek 37:11Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 3:18 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.