We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
Parallel translations
- WEB “We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned.
- BSB “We have sinned and rebelled; You have not forgiven.”
- NKJV We have transgressed and rebelled; You have not pardoned.
- NASB We have done wrong and rebelled; You have not pardoned.
- NLT “We have sinned and rebelled, and you have not forgiven us.
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
The people confess they have sinned and rebelled, and acknowledge God has not yet pardoned them.
Overview
This honest confession owns both transgression and rebellion as the cause of their suffering. The painful admission that 'You have not pardoned' expresses the felt weight of unforgiven sin and unresolved judgment. Such confession is the necessary prelude to grace, which is freely offered in Christ to all who repent (1 John 1:9).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Jer 5:7–9How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
- Luke 15:18–19I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
- Neh 9:26Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations.
- Lam 5:16The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
- Jer 3:13Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.
- 2 Kgs 24:4And also for the innocent blood that he shed: for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the LORD would not pardon.
- Ezek 24:13In thy filthiness is lewdness: because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee.
- Lam 1:18The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
- Zech 1:5Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
- Job 33:27–28He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not;
- Dan 9:5–14We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
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 3:42 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.