Lamentations 3:17

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
I have been deprived of peace;I have forgotten what prosperity is.

Hebrew Names Version
You have removed my soul far off from shalom; I forgot prosperity.

King James Version
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.

English Standard Version
my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is;

New American Standard Bible
My soul has been excluded from peace; I have forgotten happiness.

New Century Version
I have no more peace. I have forgotten what happiness is.

Amplified Bible
My soul has been cast far away from peace; I have forgotten happiness.

World English Bible
You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Thus my soule was farre off from peace: I forgate prosperitie,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness.

Legacy Standard Bible
My soul has been rejected from peace;I have forgotten goodness.

Berean Standard Bible
My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.

Contemporary English Version
I cannot find peace or remember happiness.

Complete Jewish Bible
I have been so deprived of peace, I have so forgotten what happiness is,

Darby Translation
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I have forgotten prosperity.

Easy-to-Read Version
I thought I would never have peace again. I forgot about good things.

George Lamsa Translation
My soul has gone astray from peace, I have forgotten prosperity.

Good News Translation
I have forgotten what health and peace and happiness are.

Lexham English Bible
My life has been removed from peace, I have forgotten goodness.

Literal Translation
And You cast off my soul from peace; I have forgotten goodness.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
He hath put my soule out of rest, I forget all good thinges.

American Standard Version
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace; I forgat prosperity.

Bible in Basic English
My soul is sent far away from peace, I have no more memory of good.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And my soul is removed far off from peace, I forgot prosperity.

King James Version (1611)
And thou hast remoued my soule farre off from peace: I forgate prosperitie.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
He hath put my soule out of rest, I forget all good thinges.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
He has also removed my soul from peace: I forgot prosperity.

English Revised Version
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace; I forgat prosperity.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Vau. And my soule is putte awei; Y haue foryete goodis.

Update Bible Version
And you have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.

Webster's Bible Translation
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.

New English Translation
I am deprived of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is.

New King James Version
You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity.

New Living Translation
Peace has been stripped away, and I have forgotten what prosperity is.

New Life Bible
Peace has left my soul. I have forgotten what it is like to be happy.

New Revised Standard
my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And thou hast thrust away from welfare, my soul, I have forgotten prosperity;

Douay-Rheims Bible
Vau. And my soul is removed far off from peace, I have forgotten good things.

Revised Standard Version
my soul is bereft of peace, I have forgotten what happiness is;

Young's Literal Translation
And Thou castest off from peace my soul, I have forgotten prosperity.

Contextual Overview

¹ I'm the man who has seen trouble, trouble coming from the lash of God 's anger. He took me by the hand and walked me into pitch-black darkness. Yes, he's given me the back of his hand over and over and over again. ⁴He turned me into a scarecrow of skin and bones, then broke the bones. He hemmed me in, ganged up on me, poured on the trouble and hard times. He locked me up in deep darkness, like a corpse nailed inside a coffin. ⁷He shuts me in so I'll never get out, manacles my hands, shackles my feet. Even when I cry out and plead for help, he locks up my prayers and throws away the key. He sets up blockades with quarried limestone. He's got me cornered. ¹⁰He's a prowling bear tracking me down, a lion in hiding ready to pounce. He knocked me from the path and ripped me to pieces. When he finished, there was nothing left of me. He took out his bow and arrows and used me for target practice. ¹³He shot me in the stomach with arrows from his quiver. Everyone took me for a joke, made me the butt of their mocking ballads. He forced rotten, stinking food down my throat, bloated me with vile drinks. ¹⁶He ground my face into the gravel. He pounded me into the mud. I gave up on life altogether. I've forgotten what the good life is like. I said to myself, "This is it. I'm finished. God is a lost cause." ¹⁹I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed. I remember it all—oh, how well I remember— the feeling of hitting the bottom. But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

thou: Lamentations 1:16, Psalms 119:155, Isaiah 38:17, Isaiah 54:10, Isaiah 59:11, Jeremiah 8:15, Jeremiah 14:19, Jeremiah 16:5, Zechariah 8:10

I forgat: Genesis 41:30, Job 7:7, Jeremiah 20:14-18

prosperity: Heb. good

Reciprocal: Psalms 77:3 - I complained John 14:1 - not John 14:27 - not

Cross-References

Genesis 3:2
The Woman said to the serpent, "Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It's only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don't eat from it; don't even touch it or you'll die.'"

Genesis 3:6
When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she'd know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.

Genesis 3:7
Immediately the two of them did "see what's really going on"—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves.

Genesis 3:9
God called to the Man: "Where are you?"

Genesis 3:11
God said, "Who told you you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?"

Genesis 3:13
"The serpent seduced me," she said, "and I ate."

Genesis 3:14
God told the serpent: "Because you've done this, you're cursed, cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals, Cursed to slink on your belly and eat dirt all your life. I'm declaring war between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers. He'll wound your head, you'll wound his heel."

Genesis 3:16
He told the Woman: "I'll multiply your pains in childbirth; you'll give birth to your babies in pain. You'll want to please your husband, but he'll lord it over you."

Genesis 3:17
He told the Man: "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree That I commanded you not to eat from, ‘Don't eat from this tree,' The very ground is cursed because of you; getting food from the ground Will be as painful as having babies is for your wife; you'll be working in pain all your life long. The ground will sprout thorns and weeds, you'll get your food the hard way, Planting and tilling and harvesting, sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk, Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried; you started out as dirt, you'll end up dirt."

Genesis 3:20
The Man, known as Adam, named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace,.... From the time the city was besieged by the Chaldeans, and now the people was carried captive; who could have no true peace, being in a foreign land, in an enemy's country, and out of their own, and far from the place of divine worship; nor could the prophet have any peace of soul, in the consideration of these things, the city, temple, and nation, being desolate, though he himself was not in captivity.

I forgat prosperity; or "good" q; he had been so long from the enjoyment of it, that he had lost the idea of it, and was thoughtless about it, never expecting to see it any more.

q טובה "bonorum", V. L. "boni", Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Michaelis.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Having dwelt upon the difficulties which hemmed in his path, he now shows that there are dangers attending upon escape.

Lamentations 3:11

The meaning is, “God, as a lion, lying in wait, has made me turn aside from my path, but my flight was in vain, for springing upon me from His ambush lie has torn me in pieces.”

Desolate - Or, astonied, stupefied that he cannot flee. The word is a favorite one with Jeremiah.

Lamentations 3:12

This new simile arises out of the former one, the idea of a hunter being suggested by that of the bear and lion. When the hunter comes, it is not to save him.

Lamentations 3:14

Metaphor is dropped, and Jeremiah shows the real nature of the arrows which rankled in him so deeply.

Lamentations 3:15

“He hath” filled me to the full with bitterness, i. e. bitter sorrows Job 9:18.

Lamentations 3:16

Broken my teeth with gravel stones - His bread was so filled with grit that in eating it his teeth were broken.

Lamentations 3:17

Prosperity - literally, as in the margin, i. e. I forgot what good was, I lost the very idea of what it meant.

Lamentations 3:18

The prophet reaches the verge of despair. But by struggling against it he reaches at length firm ground.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 17. Thou hast removed my soul — Prosperity is at such an utter distance from me, that it is impossible I should ever reach it; and as to happiness, I have forgotten whether I have ever tasted of it.