Bible Strands

Lamentations 3:20

Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The speaker is the afflicted prophet addressing God during a time of severe distress, positioned between recounting personal suffering in Lamentations 3:19 and turning to hope in Lamentations 3:21.

The words — The text highlights זָכ֣וֹר (za.Khor), meaning continually remember, and תָּשׁוֹחַ (ta.shoach), meaning it bows down or is humbled, describing the soul's internal response to remembered affliction.

The thread — This pattern of the soul remembering distress and bowing down appears in Job 21:6, where remembrance brings terror, and is structurally echoed in Psalms 42:5 and Psalms 42:11, where the soul is addressed regarding its downcast state and commanded to hope.

Why it lands — The verse demands a reader acknowledge that genuine remembrance of suffering produces humility, requiring an honest confrontation with one's own brokenness before any shift toward 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

זָכ֣וֹרza.Khorcontinually <remember>תִּזְכּ֔וֹרtiz.Korit remembersוְתָשׁ֥וֹחַve./ta.shi.achso/ it may bow downעָלַ֖י'a.La/ion/ meנַפְשִֽׁי׃naf.Sh/iself/ my

King James Version

My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

Cross-references