The joy of our heart has ceased; Our dance has turned into mourning.
Parallel translations
- WEB The joy of our heart is ceased; Our dance is turned into mourning.
- KJV The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
- BSB Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.
- NASB The joy of our hearts has ended; Our dancing has been turned into mourning.
- NLT Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.
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
All gladness is gone, and their dancing has been replaced by mourning. The verse names the total loss of joy.
Overview
The joy that once filled their hearts has ceased, and festive dance has become grief—a complete inversion of celebration into lament. This captures the emotional desolation of a people under judgment. Yet the same God who turns joy to mourning is the One who, in Christ, turns mourning into dancing for those He redeems (Psalm 30:11).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Amos 8:10I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day.
- Jer 25:10Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.
- Ps 30:11You have turned my mourning into dancing for me. You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness,
- Amos 6:4–7Who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the middle of the stall;
- Jas 4:9–10Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 5:15 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.