My eyes bring pain 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.
- BSB My eyes bring grief to my soul because of all the daughters of my city.
- NKJV My eyes bring suffering 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 cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies, and those who seek their life, shall distress them.”’
- Luke 19:41–44When he came near, he saw the city and wept over it,
- Lam 1:18“Yahweh is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment. Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.
- 1 Sam 30:3–4When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters were taken captive.
- Jer 14:16The people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. They shall have no one to bury them — them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness on them.
- 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.
- Jer 14:18If I go out into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! If I enter into the city, then, behold, those who are sick with famine! For both the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and have no knowledge.’”
- Jer 4:19–21My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I can’t hold my peace; because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
- Lam 5:11They ravished the women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah.
- Jer 11:22therefore Yahweh of Armies says, ‘Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine;
- Gen 44:34For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn’t with me? — lest I see the evil that will come on my father.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 3:51 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.