This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
Parallel translations
- WEB This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.
- BSB Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have 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 is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
- Ps 130:7Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.
- Ps 77:7–11Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?
- Lam 3:24–29The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
- Ps 119:81My soul fainteth for thy salvation: but I hope in thy word.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
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.