You have covered Yourself with a cloud that no prayer can pass through.
Parallel translations
- WEB You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
- KJV Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
- NKJV You have covered Yourself with a cloud, That prayer should not pass through.
- NASB You have veiled Yourself with a cloud So that no prayer can pass through.
- NLT You have hidden yourself in a cloud so our prayers cannot reach you.
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 feel God has hidden Himself behind a cloud so that their prayers seem unanswered.
Overview
The image of God veiled in a cloud expresses the agony of seemingly unheard prayer during judgment. This is the experience of God's hiddenness, a real anguish in seasons of discipline. Yet Scripture assures that God does hear the penitent, and in Christ the veil is finally removed for access to God (Heb. 4:16; 10:19-22).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Lam 3:8Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer.
- Zech 7:13And just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD of Hosts.
- Ps 97:2Clouds and darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are His throne’s foundation.
- Jer 15:1Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go.
- Jer 14:11Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of this people.
- Ps 80:4O LORD God of Hosts, how long will Your anger smolder against the prayers of Your people?
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 3:44 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.