unless You have utterly rejected us and remain angry with us beyond measure.
Parallel translations
- WEB But you have utterly rejected us; You are very angry against us.
- KJV But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
- NKJV Unless You have utterly rejected us, And are very angry with us!
- NASB Unless You have utterly rejected us And are exceedingly angry with us.
- NLT Or have you utterly rejected us? Are you angry with us still?
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
The book ends on a sobering note, acknowledging that God seems to have utterly rejected them in great anger. It leaves the lament unresolved, casting the people on God's mercy.
Overview
Lamentations closes not with tidy comfort but with raw honesty about God's wrath, though some translations and faithful readers render it as a question or 'unless'—'unless you have utterly rejected us.' Either way the verse holds the lament open, refusing presumption and throwing the people entirely upon God's mercy after the prayer of verse 21. This unresolved ending magnifies the grace finally secured in Christ, who absorbed God's wrath so that those who trust Him are never finally cast off (Romans 8:1).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Hos 1:6Gomer again conceived and gave birth to a daughter, and the LORD said to Hosea, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I should ever forgive them.
- Ps 60:1–2For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Lily of the Covenant.” A Miktam of David for instruction. When he fought Aram-naharaim and Aram-zobah, and Joab returned and struck down 12,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. You have rejected us, O God; You have broken us; You have been angry; restore us!
- Jer 15:1–5Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go.
- Isa 64:9Do not be angry, O LORD, beyond measure; do not remember our iniquity forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray; we are all Your people!
- Ezek 37:11Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’
- Ps 44:9But You have rejected and humbled us; You no longer go forth with our armies.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
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 5:22 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.