Limitless Word

Lamentations 5:22

Or have you utterly rejected us? Are you angry with us still?
Lamentations 5:22 · New Living Translation
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.
  • 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.

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 1:6She conceived again, and bore a daughter. Then he said to him, “Call her name Lo-Ruhamah; for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, that I should in any way pardon them.
  • Ps 60:1–2For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “The Lily of the Covenant.” A teaching poem by David, when he fought with Aram Naharaim and with Aram Zobah, and Joab returned, and killed twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt. God, you have rejected us. You have broken us down. You have been angry. Restore us, again.
  • Jer 15:1–5Then Yahweh said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not be toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go out!
  • Isa 64:9Don’t be furious, Yahweh, and don’t remember iniquity forever. Look and see, we beg you, we are all your people.
  • Ezek 37:11Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.
  • Ps 44:9But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor, and don’t go out with our armies.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Lamentations videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Lamentations 5:22YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on LamentationsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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.