For the LORD will not cast off for ever:
Parallel translations
- WEB For the Lord will not cast off forever.
- BSB For the Lord will not cast us off forever.
- NKJV For the Lord will not cast off forever.
- NASB For the Lord will not reject forever,
- NLT For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever.
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
God will not reject His people forever; His rejection is not the final word.
Overview
This verse grounds the hope of the preceding lines in God's character: His casting off is temporary, not permanent. Though Judah feels abandoned, the Lord's covenant faithfulness ensures restoration. This anticipates the assurance that in Christ God will never finally forsake those who are His (Rom. 11:1-2; Heb. 13:5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 94:14For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.
- Ps 103:8–10The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
- Ps 77:7Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?
- Isa 54:7–10For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
- Jer 32:40And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.
- Isa 57:16For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.
- 1 Sam 12:22For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.
- Jer 31:37Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.
- Mic 7:18Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.
- Jer 33:24Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.
- Rom 11:1–6I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
Resources, by level
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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 3:31 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.