He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
Parallel translations
- WEB He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
- BSB He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness instead of light.
- NKJV He has led me and made me walk In darkness and not in light.
- NASB He has driven me and made me walk In darkness and not in light.
- NLT He has led me into darkness, shutting out all light.
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 feels driven by God into darkness rather than light. It expresses the disorientation of walking through divine judgment.
Overview
The sufferer pictures God himself leading him into darkness, a reversal of the LORD who normally leads his people into light (Psalm 23). The image conveys lostness and the absence of God's felt favor. Yet this darkness is not the end; the chapter moves toward the One whose mercies are 'new every morning,' and ultimately to Christ, the light shining in the darkness (John 1:5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Job 30:26When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.
- Isa 59:9Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
- Amos 5:18–20Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.
- Lam 3:53–55They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
- Jer 4:23I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
- Job 18:18He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
- Jude 1:13Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
- Jer 13:16Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.
- Lam 2:1How hath the LORD covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!
- Jude 1:6And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
- Deut 28:29And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.
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 3:2 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.