Lamentations 3:8

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Even when I cry out and plead for help,he blocks out my prayer.

Hebrew Names Version
Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.

King James Version
Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

English Standard Version
though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;

New American Standard Bible
Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer.

New Century Version
I cry out and beg for help, but he ignores my prayer.

Amplified Bible
Even when I cry out and shout for help, He shuts out my prayer.

World English Bible
Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Also when I cry and showte, hee shutteth out my prayer.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer.

Legacy Standard Bible
Even when I cry out and call for help,He shuts out my prayer.

Berean Standard Bible
Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer.

Contemporary English Version
Even when I shouted and prayed for help, he refused to listen.

Complete Jewish Bible
Even when I cry out, pleading for help, he shuts out my prayer.

Darby Translation
Even when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

Easy-to-Read Version
Even when I cry out and ask for help, he does not listen to my prayer.

George Lamsa Translation
Though I beseech and pray, he does not hearken to my prayer.

Good News Translation
I cry aloud for help, but God refuses to listen;

Lexham English Bible
Though I cry out for help, he shuts out my prayers.

Literal Translation
Also, when I cry out and shout for help, He shuts out my prayer.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Though I crie & call piteously, yet heareth he not my prayer.

American Standard Version
Yea, when I cry, and call for help, he shutteth out my prayer.

Bible in Basic English
Even when I send up a cry for help, he keeps my prayer shut out.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Yea, when I cry and call for help, He shutteth out my prayer.

King James Version (1611)
Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Though I crye and call pitiously, yet heareth he not my prayer.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
GIMEL. Yea, though I cry and shout, he shuts out my prayer.

English Revised Version
Yea, when I cry and call for help, he shutteth out my prayer.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Gymel. But and whanne Y crie and preye, he hath excludid my preier.

Update Bible Version
Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.

Webster's Bible Translation
Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

New English Translation
Also, when I cry out desperately for help, he has shut out my prayer.

New King James Version
Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.

New Living Translation
And though I cry and shout, he has shut out my prayers.

New Life Bible
Even when I cry and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.

New Revised Standard
though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Yea, when I make outcry and implore, he hath shut out my prayer;

Douay-Rheims Bible
Ghimel. Yea, and when I cry, and entreat, he hath shut out my prayer.

Revised Standard Version
though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;

Young's Literal Translation
Also when I call and cry out, He hath shut out my prayer.

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

Lamentations 3:44, Job 19:7, Job 30:20, Psalms 22:2, Psalms 80:4, Habakkuk 1:2, Matthew 27:46

Reciprocal: Exodus 11:6 - General Nehemiah 9:4 - cried Job 3:24 - my roarings Psalms 32:3 - roaring Psalms 55:1 - hide Psalms 55:17 - cry Psalms 88:2 - General Psalms 102:1 - let my Song of Solomon 5:6 - I sought Matthew 15:23 - General Mark 4:38 - carest Luke 11:10 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 3:1
The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: "Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?"

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

Genesis 3:10
He said, "I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid."

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 3:21
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!"

Deuteronomy 5:25
Moses Teaches Israel on the Plains of Moab Moses called all Israel together. He said to them, Attention, Israel. Listen obediently to the rules and regulations I am delivering to your listening ears today. Learn them. Live them. God , our God, made a covenant with us at Horeb. God didn't just make this covenant with our parents; he made it also with us, with all of us who are alive right now. God spoke to you personally out of the fire on the mountain. At the time I stood between God and you, to tell you what God said. You were afraid, remember, of the fire and wouldn't climb the mountain. He said: I am God , your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of a house of slaves. No other gods, only me. No carved gods of any size, shape, or form of anything whatever, whether of things that fly or walk or swim. Don't bow down to them and don't serve them because I am God, your God, and I'm a most jealous God. I hold parents responsible for any sins they pass on to their children to the third, and yes, even to the fourth generation. But I'm lovingly loyal to the thousands who love me and keep my commandments. No using the name of God , your God, in curses or silly banter; God won't put up with the irreverent use of his name. No working on the Sabbath; keep it holy just as God , your God, commanded you. Work six days, doing everything you have to do, but the seventh day is a Sabbath, a Rest Day—no work: not you, your son, your daughter, your servant, your maid, your ox, your donkey (or any of your animals), and not even the foreigner visiting your town. That way your servants and maids will get the same rest as you. Don't ever forget that you were slaves in Egypt and God , your God, got you out of there in a powerful show of strength. That's why God , your God, commands you to observe the day of Sabbath rest. Respect your father and mother— God , your God, commands it! You'll have a long life; the land that God is giving you will treat you well. No murder. No adultery. No stealing. No lies about your neighbor. No coveting your neighbor's wife. And no lusting for his house, field, servant, maid, ox, or donkey either—nothing that belongs to your neighbor! These are the words that God spoke to the whole congregation at the mountain. He spoke in a tremendous voice from the fire and cloud and dark mist. And that was it. No more words. Then he wrote them on two slabs of stone and gave them to me. As it turned out, when you heard the Voice out of that dark cloud and saw the mountain on fire, you approached me, all the heads of your tribes and your leaders, and said, "Our God has revealed to us his glory and greatness. We've heard him speak from the fire today! We've seen that God can speak to humans and they can still live. But why risk it further? This huge fire will devour us if we stay around any longer. If we hear God 's voice anymore, we'll die for sure. Has anyone ever known of anyone who has heard the Voice of God the way we have and lived to tell the story? "From now on, you go and listen to what God , our God, says and then tell us what God tells you. We'll listen and we'll do it." God heard what you said to me and told me, "I've heard what the people said to you. They're right—good and true words. What I wouldn't give if they'd always feel this way, continuing to revere me and always keep all my commands; they'd have a good life forever, they and their children! "Go ahead and tell them to go home to their tents. But you, you stay here with me so I can tell you every commandment and all the rules and regulations that you must teach them so they'll know how to live in the land that I'm giving them as their own." So be very careful to act exactly as God commands you. Don't veer off to the right or the left. Walk straight down the road God commands so that you'll have a good life and live a long time in the land that you're about to possess.

Job 38:1
And now, finally, God answered Job from the eye of a violent storm. He said:

Proverbs 15:3
God doesn't miss a thing— he's alert to good and evil alike.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Also when I cry and shout,.... Cry, because of the distress of the enemy within; "shout", or cry aloud for help from others without; as persons in a prison do, to make them hear and pity their case: thus the prophet in his affliction cried aloud to God; was fervent, earnest, and importunate in prayer; and yet not heard:

he shutteth out my prayer; shuts the door, that it may not enter; as the door is sometimes shut upon beggars, that their cry may not be heard. The Targum is,

"the house of my prayer is shut.''

Jarchi interprets it of the windows of the firmament being shut, so that his prayer could not pass through, or be heard; see Lamentations 3:44. The phrase designs God's disregard, or seeming disregard, of the prayer of the prophet, or of the people; and his shutting his ears against it. Of this, as the Messiah's case, see Psalms 22:2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Shout - i. e. call for help.

Shutteth out - Or, “shutteth in.” God has so closed up the avenues to the place in which he is immured, that his voice can find no egress.