Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope:
Parallel translations
- WEB This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.
- KJV This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
- NKJV This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.
- NASB I recall this to my mind, Therefore I wait.
- NLT Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this:
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
By deliberately calling something to mind, he recovers hope. It marks the decisive turn from despair to confident hope.
Overview
This pivotal verse shows hope returning not by a change of circumstances but by a deliberate act of remembering, 'This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.' What he recalls is unveiled in the following verses: God's steadfast love and faithfulness. This is the heart of Lamentations, teaching that hope rests on God's unchanging character, fully revealed in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Hab 2:3For the vision awaits an appointed time; it testifies of the end and does not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it, since it will surely come and will not delay.
- Ps 130:7O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is loving devotion, and with Him is redemption in abundance.
- Ps 77:7–11“Will the Lord spurn us forever and never show His favor again?
- Lam 3:24–29“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”
- Ps 119:81My soul faints for Your salvation; I wait for Your word.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 3:21 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.