Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
Parallel translations
- WEB Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
- BSB Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.
- NKJV Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall.
- NASB ¶Remember my misery and my homelessness, the wormwood and bitterness.
- NLT The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words.
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 asks God to remember his affliction, bitterness, and gall. It turns his suffering back toward God in prayer.
Overview
Rather than sinking into despair, the sufferer begins to pray, asking the LORD to 'remember' his wormwood and gall. To ask God to remember is to appeal to his covenant faithfulness. This turn from despair to prayer signals the dawning of hope, the same hope that rests securely on the God who remembers his promises and fulfills them in Christ (Luke 1:54).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Lam 3:15He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
- Lam 3:5He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
- Neh 9:32Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day.
- Job 7:7O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good.
- Ps 89:50Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;
- Ps 132:1Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions:
- Ps 89:47Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
- Jer 9:15Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
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 3:19 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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