Turn us back to You, O Lord, and we will be restored; Renew our days as of old,
Parallel translations
- WEB Turn us to yourself, Yahweh, and we shall be turned. Renew our days as of old.
- KJV Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
- BSB Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, so we may return; renew our days as of old,
- NASB Restore us to You, Lord, so that we may be restored; Renew our days as of old,
- NLT Restore us, O Lord, and bring us back to you again! Give us back the joys we once had!
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 plead for God to turn them back to Himself and renew their days as in former times. True restoration must be God's own work in their hearts.
Overview
The prayer 'turn us... and we shall be turned' confesses that repentance and renewal come only by God's gracious initiative, not human effort alone. The longing for renewed days reaches back toward covenant fellowship and forward to restoration. This is the cry the gospel answers, for God grants the new heart and turns us to Himself through Christ (Ezekiel 36:26; 2 Corinthians 5:17).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Ps 80:3Turn us again, God. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.
- Ps 80:7Turn us again, God of Armies. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.
- Ps 85:4Turn us, God of our salvation, and cause your indignation toward us to cease.
- Jer 31:18“I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf: turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are Yahweh my God.
- Ps 80:19Turn us again, Yahweh God of Armies. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.
- Zech 8:3–6Yahweh says: “I have returned to Zion, and will dwell in the middle of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called ‘The City of Truth;’ and the mountain of Yahweh of Armies, ‘The Holy Mountain.’”
- Ezek 36:37Thus says the Lord Yahweh: For this, moreover, will I be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them: I will increase them with men like a flock.
- Ezek 11:19–20I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh;
- Jer 32:39–40and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their good, and of their children after them:
- Jer 33:10Yahweh says: “Yet again there shall be heard in this place, about which you say, ‘It is waste, without man and without animal, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without animal,’
- Ezek 36:25–27I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
- Hab 3:2Yahweh, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, Yahweh. Renew your work in the middle of the years. In the middle of the years make it known. In wrath, you remember mercy.
- 1 Kgs 18:37Hear me, Yahweh, hear me, that this people may know that you, Yahweh, are God, and that you have turned their heart back again.”
- Jer 31:4I will build you again, and you will be built, O virgin of Israel. You will again be adorned with your tambourines, and will go out in the dances of those who make merry.
- Jer 33:13In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks again pass under the hands of him who counts them,” says Yahweh.
- Mal 3:4Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to Yahweh, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years.
- Jer 31:23–25Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I shall bring again their captivity: ‘Yahweh bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.’
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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 5:21 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
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