Lamentations 1:22

Let all their wickedness come before You, and deal with them as You have dealt with me because of all my transgressions. For my groans are many, and my heart is faint.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The speaker addresses God directly following the destruction of Jerusalem, immediately after praying for the nations to experience the same calamity in the preceding verse. The moment captures a plea for retribution amid isolation and enemy rejoicing over the city's fall.

The words — The verb תָּבֹא (ta.Vo') literally means "may it come," initiating the request for wickedness to be presented before God. The root עוֹלֵל (o.Lel) appears twice to describe divine action, carrying the literal sense "to deal severely."

The thread — The pattern of bringing sin before God for judgment runs through the imprecation in Psalms 109:14 and the martyrs' cry for justice in Revelation 6:10. The physical and emotional collapse described here parallels the faint heart and unhealed sorrow recorded in Jeremiah 8:18.

Why it lands — The text requires a reader to see personal suffering and corporate judgment presented together before God's throne. It demands acceptance that divine justice operates while the petitioner remains in a state of exhausted despair, without offering immediate relief.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

תָּבֹ֨אta.Vo'may it come כָל־khol-all רָעָתָ֤םra.'a.Ta/mwickedness/ their לְפָנֶ֙יךָ֙le./fa.Nei./kha<to>/ before/ you וְעוֹלֵ֣לve./'o.Leland/ deal severelyלָ֔מוֹla./moto/ themכַּאֲשֶׁ֥רka./'a.Sherjust/ as עוֹלַ֛לְתָּo.Lal.tayou have dealt severelyלִ֖יl/ito/ meעַ֣ל'alon כָּל־kol-all פְּשָׁעָ֑יpe.sha.'A/itransgressions/ my כִּֽי־ki-for רַבּ֥וֹתra.Bot[are] many אַנְחֹתַ֖י'an.cho.Ta/igroaning<s>/ my וְלִבִּ֥יve./li.B/iand/ heart/ my דַוָּֽי׃ פda.Vai[is] faint

King James Version

Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.

Cross-references

Jeremiah 8:18 My sorrow is beyond healing; my heart is faint within me.
Revelation 6:10 And they cried out in a loud voice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge those who dwell upon the earth and avenge our blood?”
Psalms 109:14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
Nehemiah 4:4 Hear us, O God, for we are despised. Turn their scorn back upon their own heads, and let them be taken as plunder to a land of captivity.
Psalms 137:7 Remember, O LORD, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!”
Isaiah 13:7 Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt.
Jeremiah 10:25 Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge You, and on the families that do not call on Your name. For they have devoured Jacob; they have consumed him and finished him off; they have devastated his homeland.
Jeremiah 18:23 But You, O LORD, know all their deadly plots against me. Do not wipe out their guilt or blot out their sin from Your sight. Let them be overthrown before You; deal with them in the time of Your anger.
Jeremiah 51:35 May the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,” says the dweller of Zion. “May my blood be on the dwellers of Chaldea,” says Jerusalem.
Lamentations 1:13 He sent fire from on high, and it overpowered my bones. He spread a net for my feet and turned me back. He made me desolate, faint all the day long.