Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
- KJV Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.
- NKJV Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.
- NASB Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer.
- NLT And though I cry and shout, he has shut out my prayers.
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
Even when he cries for help, he feels God shuts out his prayer. It voices the painful sense of unanswered prayer.
Overview
The anguish deepens as the sufferer feels his very prayers are blocked, 'he shuts out my prayer.' This is among the hardest trials of faith, crying to God and sensing no response. Yet the honest cry itself is still directed to God, and the believer trusts that in Christ the way to the Father is forever opened (Ephesians 2:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Job 30:20I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.
- Ps 22:2I cry out by day, O my God, but You do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest.
- Job 19:7Though I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.
- Matt 27:46About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
- Lam 3:44You have covered Yourself with a cloud that no prayer can pass through.
- Hab 1:2How long, O LORD, must I call for help but You do not hear, or cry out to You, “Violence!” but You do not save?
- Ps 80:4O LORD God of Hosts, how long will Your anger smolder against the prayers of Your people?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 3:8 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.