Bible Strands
Lamentations 3:14
I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses God while describing his current state of extreme humiliation, situated between a report of divine punishment and a declaration of being filled with bitterness. He speaks from a moment of acute distress where his community actively turns against him.
The words — The Hebrew term שְׂחֹק (sechok) literally means "a laughingstock," paired with נְגִינָתָם (neginatam), meaning "their taunt song," to specify the method of ridicule. The phrase כָּל־הַיּוֹם (kol-hayom) emphasizes that this public mockery occurs continuously throughout the day.
The thread — The motif of daily public ridicule recurs in Jeremiah 20:7 and Lamentations 3:63, where mockery continues whether one sits or rises. A parallel experience of being scorned by the people appears in Psalms 22:6.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment of how sustained social rejection compounds personal suffering without offering immediate relief. It requires the reader to confront the reality of isolation when divine judgment and human contempt intersect.
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
King James Version
I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 20:7 You have deceived me, O LORD, and I was deceived. You have overcome me and prevailed. I am a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me.
- Lamentations 3:63 When they sit and when they rise, see how they mock me in song.
- Psalms 22:6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.
- Nehemiah 4:2 before his associates and the army of Samaria, saying, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Can they restore the wall by themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble?”
- Job 30:1 “But now they mock me, men younger than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to put with my sheep dogs.
- Psalms 35:15 But when I stumbled, they assembled in glee; they gathered together against me. Assailants I did not know slandered me without ceasing.
- Psalms 44:13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us.
- Psalms 69:11 I made sackcloth my clothing, and I was sport to them.
- Psalms 79:4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those around us.
- Psalms 123:3 Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy, for we have endured much contempt.