Read & explore together
God’s Justice
This poem faces painful questions about God’s rule, human sin, deep grief and justice. It moves through confession, tears, remembered rescue and a final appeal for God to deal with those who do wrong.
Understanding the passage
Read these words in context
These verses are a lament spoken to Yahweh in poetic prayer. The speaker reflects on punishment for sins, calls for self-examination and turning back to God, describes severe suffering, remembers being heard from a very low place, and asks God to judge ongoing wrong.
Lamentations 3:37–66Main takeaway
This poem shows that sufferers may confess sin honestly, cry to God from grief, and place justice in his hands.
Explore the poem and its images
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01God’s rule and our responseThe opening asks who can make something happen if the Lord has not commanded it. It also says both evil and good come from the mouth of the Most High.
Explanation
The opening asks who can make something happen if the Lord has not commanded it. It also says both evil and good come from the mouth of the Most High. Because people are living under punishment for sins, the poem calls them to examine their ways and turn again to Yahweh.
02Confession and grief are spoken plainlyThe speaker calls people to lift heart and hands to God, then confesses, “We have transgressed and have rebelled.”
Explanation
The speaker calls people to lift heart and hands to God, then confesses, “We have transgressed and have rebelled.” The poem describes anger, blocked prayer, disgrace, enemies, terror and destruction. Tears flow without stopping until Yahweh looks down and sees. This is honest sorrow, not hidden pain.
03From the lowest place, the speaker calls on YahwehThe suffering is pictured as being chased, cut off in a dungeon, and covered by waters. Yet the speaker still calls on Yahweh’s name from the lowest dungeon.
Explanation
The suffering is pictured as being chased, cut off in a dungeon, and covered by waters. Yet the speaker still calls on Yahweh’s name from the lowest dungeon. The poem says God heard, came near, said, “Don’t be afraid,” and redeemed the speaker’s life. Remembered help shapes the prayer.
04Justice is asked from GodThe closing appeal rests on what Yahweh has seen and heard: wrong, vengeance, reproach and constant plotting.
Explanation
The closing appeal rests on what Yahweh has seen and heard: wrong, vengeance, reproach and constant plotting. Even daily mockery is visible to him. The poem asks God to judge the cause and repay according to their deeds. Justice is sought from Yahweh rather than taken by the sufferer.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What do the opening questions teach about who is in control of what comes to pass?
Look at how the poem connects events, evil and good with the Lord and the Most High.
02After mentioning punishment for sins, what response does the poem call for?
Notice the actions named in order: searching ways, turning again, lifting heart and hands, and confessing rebellion.
03How does the poem describe grief that keeps praying?
Trace the lines about continual tears, waiting for Yahweh to look down, and calling on him from the lowest dungeon.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Lamentations 3:37–66
37Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it?
38Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
39Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
41Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
42“We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned.
43“You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied.
44You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
45You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples.
46“All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
47Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.”
48My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49My eye pours down and doesn’t cease, without any intermission,
50until Yahweh looks down, and sees from heaven.
51My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
52They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
53They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
54Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.”
55I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.
56You heard my voice: “Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry.”
57You came near in the day that I called on you. You said, “Don’t be afraid.”
58Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life.
59Yahweh, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.
60You have seen all their vengeance and all their plans against me.
61You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their plans against me,
62the lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long.
63You see their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song.
64You will pay them back, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.
65You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
66You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.