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the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
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Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Lamentations 3:19

I'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 Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Afflictions and Adversities;   Despondency;   Wormwood;   Thompson Chain Reference - Gall;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Afflictions Made Beneficial;   Judgments;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Hemlock;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Providence of God;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Gall;   Hemlock;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Poison;   Wormwood;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Gall;   Lamentations, Book of;   Plants in the Bible;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Acrostic;   Gall;   Lamentations, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Gall ;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Gall;   Hemlock;   Wormwood,;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Wormwood;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - All;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Gall;   Hemlock;   Wormwood;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Gall;   Wormwood;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for January 17;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Remember my affliction and my homelessness,the wormwood and the poison.
Hebrew Names Version
Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
King James Version
Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
English Standard Version
Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!
New American Standard Bible
Remember my misery and my homelessness, the wormwood and bitterness.
New Century Version
Lord , remember my suffering and my misery, my sorrow and trouble.
Amplified Bible
Remember [O LORD] my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall (bitterness).
World English Bible
Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Remembring mine affliction, & my mourning, the wormewood and the gall.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.
Legacy Standard Bible
Remember my affliction and my homelessness, the wormwood and gall.
Berean Standard Bible
Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.
Contemporary English Version
Just thinking of my troubles and my lonely wandering makes me miserable.
Complete Jewish Bible
Remember my utter misery, the wormwood and the gall.
Darby Translation
Remember thou mine affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall.
Easy-to-Read Version
Remember, I am very sad, and I have no home. Remember the bitter poison that you gave me.
George Lamsa Translation
Remember my affliction and my chastisement, the bitterness and the sorrow.
Good News Translation
The thought of my pain, my homelessness, is bitter poison.
Lexham English Bible
Remember my misery and bitterness, the wormwood and venom!
Literal Translation
Remember my affliction and my roaming, as wormwood and bitterness.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
O remembre yet my mysery and my trouble, the wormwod and the gall.
American Standard Version
Remember mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
Bible in Basic English
Keep in mind my trouble and my wandering, the bitter root and the poison.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Remember mine affliction and mine anguish, the wormwood and the gall.
King James Version (1611)
Remembring mine affliction and my miserie, the wormewood & the gall.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
O remember yet my miserie and my trouble, the wormewood and the gall.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
ZAIN. I remembered by reason of my poverty, and because of persecution my bitterness and gall shall be remembered;
English Revised Version
Remember mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Zai. Haue thou mynde on my pouert and goyng ouer, and on wermod and galle.
Update Bible Version
Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall.
Webster's Bible Translation
Remembering my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
New English Translation

ז (Zayin)

Remember my impoverished and homeless condition, which is a bitter poison.
New King James Version
Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall.
New Living Translation
The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words.
New Life Bible
Remember my trouble and my traveling from place to place, the wormwood and bitter feelings.
New Revised Standard
The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall!
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Remember my humiliation and my fleeings, the wormwood and poison;
Douay-Rheims Bible
Zain. Remember my poverty, and transgression, the wormwood and the gall.
Revised Standard Version
Remember my affliction and my bitterness, the wormwood and the gall!
Young's Literal Translation
Remember my affliction and my mourning, Wormwood and gall!

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

Remembering: or, Remember, Nehemiah 9:32, Job 7:7, Psalms 89:47, Psalms 89:50, Psalms 132:1

the: Lamentations 3:5, Lamentations 3:15, Jeremiah 9:15

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 16:12 - General Job 9:18 - filleth me Job 21:6 - Even when Job 23:2 - my complaint Jeremiah 8:14 - water Jeremiah 23:15 - will Lamentations 5:1 - Remember Daniel 4:34 - I blessed Acts 8:23 - the gall Revelation 8:11 - Wormwood

Cross-References

Genesis 3:12
The Man said, "The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and, yes, I ate it." God said to the Woman, "What is this that you've done?"
Genesis 3:13
"The serpent seduced me," she said, "and I ate."
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 3:21
God made leather clothing for Adam and his wife and dressed them.
Genesis 3:22
God said, "The Man has become like one of us, capable of knowing everything, ranging from good to evil. What if he now should reach out and take fruit from the Tree-of-Life and eat, and live forever? Never—this cannot happen!"
Genesis 18:27
Abraham came back, "Do I, a mere mortal made from a handful of dirt, dare open my mouth again to my Master? What if the fifty fall short by five—would you destroy the city because of those missing five?" He said, "I won't destroy it if there are forty-five."
Job 1:21
Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I'll return to the womb of the earth. God gives, God takes. God's name be ever blessed.
Psalms 22:29
All the power-mongers are before him —worshiping! All the poor and powerless, too —worshiping! Along with those who never got it together —worshiping!
Psalms 90:3
So don't return us to mud, saying, "Back to where you came from!" Patience! You've got all the time in the world—whether a thousand years or a day, it's all the same to you. Are we no more to you than a wispy dream, no more than a blade of grass That springs up gloriously with the rising sun and is cut down without a second thought? Your anger is far and away too much for us; we're at the end of our rope. You keep track of all our sins; every misdeed since we were children is entered in your books. All we can remember is that frown on your face. Is that all we're ever going to get? We live for seventy years or so (with luck we might make it to eighty), And what do we have to show for it? Trouble. Toil and trouble and a marker in the graveyard. Who can make sense of such rage, such anger against the very ones who fear you?
Proverbs 21:16
Whoever wanders off the straight and narrow ends up in a congregation of ghosts.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Remembering mine affliction and my misery,.... The miserable affliction of him and his people; the remembrance of which, and poring upon it continually, caused the despondency before expressed: though it may be rendered imperatively, "remember my affliction, and my misery" s; so the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions; and Aben Ezra observes, that the words may be considered as a request to God, and so they seem to be; the prophet, and the people he represents, were not so far gone into despair, as to cast off prayer before God; but once more looked up to him, beseeching that he would, in his great mercy and pity, remember them in their distressed condition, and deliver out of it; for none could do it but himself:

the wormwood and the gall; figurative expressions of bitter and grievous afflictions, Lamentations 3:5.

s זכר "recordare", Munster, Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Cocceius, Michealis.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Remembering - Or, as in the margin. It is a prayer to Yahweh.

My misery - Or, “my” homelessness (Lamentations 1:7 note).


 
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