Bible Strands
Lamentations 3:17
My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses God in the immediate aftermath of physical devastation, positioned between the description of being trampled in dust (Lamentations 3:16) and the declaration that strength and hope have perished (Lamentations 3:18). The moment captures a crisis of faith following national and personal ruin.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַתּזְנַח (vatznach) literally means "it has cast down" or "excluded," paired with מִשָּׁלוֹם (mishalom, "from peace") to describe the soul's deprivation. The speaker uses נָשִׁיתִי (nashti, "I have forgotten") with טוֹבָה (tova, "good") to state the loss of prosperity.
The thread — This theme of lost peace and forgotten good aligns with the despair in Job 7:7, where life is a breath and eyes will not see happiness, and Isaiah 59:11, which records hoping for salvation that remains distant. The motif of abundance being forgotten echoes the famine warning in Genesis 41:30.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment of how prolonged suffering can sever a person from perceived safety and past blessings. It requires the reader to confront the reality that spiritual or emotional desolation operates before the restoration of hope.
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
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 59:11 We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but find none, for salvation, but it is far from us.
- Genesis 41:30 but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in the land of Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will devastate the land.
- Job 7:7 Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness.
- Psalms 119:155 Salvation is far from the wicked because they do not seek Your statutes.
- Isaiah 38:17 Surely for my own welfare I had such great anguish; but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
- Isaiah 54:10 Though the mountains may be removed and the hills may be shaken, My loving devotion will not depart from you, and My covenant of peace will not be broken,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.
- Jeremiah 8:15 We hoped for peace, but no good has come, for a time of healing, but there was only terror.
- Jeremiah 14:19 Have You rejected Judah completely? Do You despise Zion? Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We hoped for peace, but no good has come, and for the time of healing, but there was only terror.
- Jeremiah 16:5 Indeed, this is what the LORD says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal. Do not go to mourn or show sympathy, for I have removed from this people My peace, My loving devotion, and My compassion,” declares the LORD.
- Jeremiah 20:14 Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me never be blessed.