Still our eyes failed us, Watching vainly for our help; In our watching we watched For a nation that could not save us.
Parallel translations
- WEB Our eyes still fail, looking in vain for our help: In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.
- KJV As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.
- BSB All the while our eyes were failing as we looked in vain for help. We watched from our towers for a nation that could not save us.
- NASB Yet our eyes failed, Looking for help was useless; At our observation point we have watched For a nation that could not save.
- NLT We looked in vain for our allies to come and save us, but we were looking to nations that could not help us.
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 wore out their eyes watching in vain for help from a nation that could not save them.
Overview
Judah looked for rescue, likely to Egypt, but no foreign ally could deliver them. Their hope in human power proved empty. The verse exposes the folly of trusting in nations rather than God and turns the heart toward the only sure Deliverer, the Lord and His Christ (Ps. 146:3; Isa. 31:1).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ezek 29:16It shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing iniquity to memory, when they turn to look after them: and they shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh.”’”
- Isa 20:5They will be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.
- 2 Kgs 24:7The king of Egypt didn’t come out of his land any more; for the king of Babylon had taken, from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates, all that belonged to the king of Egypt.
- Isa 31:1–3Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they don’t look to the Holy One of Israel, and they don’t seek Yahweh!
- Jer 2:18Now what do you gain by going to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? Or why do you to go on the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?
- Jer 37:7–10“Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘You shall tell the king of Judah, who sent you to me to inquire of me: “Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which has come out to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land.
- Lam 1:19“I called for my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city, while they sought food for themselves to refresh their souls.
- Isa 30:1–7“Woe to the rebellious children”, says Yahweh, “who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin,
- Lam 1:7Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old: when her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and no one helped her, The adversaries saw her, they mocked at her desolations.
- Jer 8:20“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”
- Ezek 29:6–7All the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am Yahweh, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.
- Jer 2:36Why do you go about so much to change your ways? You will be ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria.
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 4:17 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.