“You have engulfed us with your anger, chased us down, and slaughtered us without mercy.
Parallel translations
- WEB “You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied.
- KJV Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.
- BSB You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have killed without pity.
- NKJV You have covered Yourself with anger And pursued us; You have slain and not pitied.
- NASB You have covered Yourself with anger And pursued us; You have slain and have not spared.
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
They lament that God has pursued them in anger and shown no pity in slaying them.
Overview
The confession turns to lament over the severity of God's judgment, experienced as relentless wrath. The covering 'with anger' depicts God acting as enemy against His sinful people. Yet this very anger against sin underscores why a Savior is needed, one who would bear that wrath in our place (Rom. 5:9).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Lam 2:17Yahweh has done that which he purposed; he has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old; He has thrown down, and has not pitied: He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you; he has exalted the horn of your adversaries.
- Lam 2:21“The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets. My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword. You have killed them in the day of your anger. You have slaughtered, and not pitied.
- Lam 2:1–2How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He has cast down from heaven to the earth the beauty of Israel, And hasn’t remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.
- Lam 3:66You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.
- Ps 83:15so pursue them with your tempest, and terrify them with your storm.
- Ps 44:19Though you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.
- Ezek 9:10As for me also, my eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way on their head.”
- 2 Chr 36:16–17but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until Yahweh’s wrath arose against his people, until there was no remedy.
- Ezek 7:9My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. I will bring on you according to your ways. Your abominations will be among you; and you will know that I, Yahweh, strike.
- Ezek 8:18Therefore will I also deal in wrath. My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them.”
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 3:43 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.