Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.
Parallel translations
- WEB It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail.
- KJV It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
- NKJV Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.
- NASB The Lord’s acts of mercy indeed do not end, For His compassions do not fail.
- NLT The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease.
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
It is the LORD's steadfast love that keeps us from being consumed, for his compassion never fails. It anchors hope in God's unfailing covenant mercy.
Overview
At the book's center stands this great confession: only the LORD's 'loving kindnesses' (his covenant steadfast love, hesed) have spared a remnant from total destruction. God's compassion does not run out even in judgment. This unfailing mercy reaches its fullest expression in Christ, in whom the love and compassion of God are poured out to save sinners (Titus 3:4-5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 86:15But You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness.
- Luke 1:50His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation.
- Neh 9:31But in Your great compassion, You did not put an end to them; nor did You forsake them, for You are a gracious and compassionate God.
- Mic 7:18–19Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?
- Mal 3:6“Because I, the LORD, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.
- Ps 78:38And yet He was compassionate; He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often restrained His anger and did not unleash His full wrath.
- Ps 106:45And He remembered His covenant with them, and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.
- Ps 77:8Is His loving devotion gone forever? Has His promise failed for all time?
- Ezek 20:8–9But they rebelled against Me and refused to listen. None of them cast away the abominations before their eyes, and they did not forsake the idols of Egypt. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the land of Egypt.
- Ezra 9:8–9But now, for a brief moment, grace has come from the LORD our God to preserve for us a remnant and to give us a stake in His holy place. Even in our bondage, our God has given us new life and light to our eyes.
- Ezra 9:13–15After all that has come upon us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt (though You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such a remnant as this),
- Ezek 20:21–22But the children rebelled against Me. They did not walk in My statutes or carefully observe My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they profaned My Sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the wilderness.
- Ezek 20:13–14Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not follow My statutes and they rejected My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they utterly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and put an end to them in the wilderness.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 3:22 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.