My eyes bring grief to my soul because of all the daughters of my city.
Parallel translations
- WEB My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
- KJV Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.
- NKJV My eyes bring suffering to my soul Because of all the daughters of my city.
- NASB My eyes bring pain to my soul Because of all the daughters of my city.
- NLT My heart is breaking over the fate of all the women of Jerusalem.
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
What he sees of his city's suffering grieves him to the soul.
Overview
The sight of the women and people of his city in distress pierces the poet's inmost being. His eyes affect his heart, deepening his grief over the fall of Jerusalem. This wholehearted lament over a ruined city again points toward the compassion of Christ for His people (Matt. 23:37).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Jer 19:9I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’
- Luke 19:41–44As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it
- Lam 1:18The LORD is righteous, for I have rebelled against His command. Listen, all you people; look upon my suffering. My young men and maidens have gone into captivity.
- 1 Sam 30:3–4When David and his men came to the city, they found it burned down and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive.
- Jer 14:16And the people to whom they prophesy will be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem because of famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them or their wives, their sons or their daughters. I will pour out their own evil upon them.
- Lam 2:21Both young and old lie together in the dust of the streets. My young men and maidens have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of Your anger; You have slaughtered them without compassion.
- Jer 14:18If I go out to the country, I see those slain by the sword; if I enter the city, I see those ravaged by famine! For both prophet and priest travel to a land they do not know.’”
- Jer 4:19–21My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the pain in my chest! My heart pounds within me; I cannot be silent. For I have heard the sound of the horn, the alarm of battle.
- Lam 5:11Women have been ravished in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.
- Jer 11:22So this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine.
- Gen 44:34For how can I go back to my father without the boy? I could not bear to see the misery that would overwhelm him.”
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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 3:51 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.