But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
Parallel translations
- WEB But you have utterly rejected us; You are very angry against us.
- BSB unless You have utterly rejected us and remain angry with us beyond measure.
- 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 1:6And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.
- Ps 60:1–2O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou hast been displeased; O turn thyself to us again.
- Jer 15:1–5Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.
- Isa 64:9Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.
- Ezek 37:11Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
- Ps 44:9But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not 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.