Lamentations 3:20

20 I can't help but remember and am depressed.

Lamentations 3:20 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 3:20

My soul hath [them] still in remembrance
That is, according to our version, affliction and misery, compared to wormwood and gall: but the words, "my soul", are fetched from the next clause, where they ought to stand, and this to be rendered, "in remembering thou wilt remember" ^F20; or, "thou wilt surely remember", and so expresses the confidence of the prophet, and his firm belief, his faith and hope increasing in prayer, that God would in much mercy remember his people, and their afflictions, and save them out of them: and is humbled in me;
both under the afflicting hand of God, and in view and hope of his mercy: though rather it should be rendered, "and" or "for my soul meditateth within me" ^F21; says or suggests such things to me, that God will in wrath remember mercy; see ( Psalms 77:7 ) . So Jarchi makes mention of a Midrash, that interprets it of his soul's waiting till the time that God remembers.

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 (rwkzt rwkz) "recordando recordaberis", Luther, Michaelis.
F21 (yvpn yle xyvtw) "meditatur apud me anima mea", Junius & Tremellius; "et animo meo meditor", Castalio.

Lamentations 3:20 In-Context

18 I thought: My future is gone, as well as my hope from the LORD.

19 The memory of my suffering and homelessness is bitterness and poison.

20 I can't help but remember and am depressed.

21 I call all this to mind—therefore, I will wait.

22 Certainly the faithful love of the LORD hasn't ended; certainly God's compassion isn't through!

Footnotes

• [a]. Or My spirit can’t help but remember and is depressed