Bible Strands
Lamentations 3:36
to subvert a man in his lawsuit—of these the Lord does not approve.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker pronounces God’s verdict against judicial corruption during a period of national mourning, immediately following a declaration about denying justice before the Most High.
The words — עַוֵּת ('avvet) means to subvert or pervert, and רָאָה (ra'ah) literally means to see, functioning here to denote divine observation and approval.
The thread — The text’s assertion that God opposes perverted justice runs through Isaiah 59:15, where He looks and is displeased by the absence of justice, and Habakkuk 1:13, which states His eyes cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
Why it lands — The verse explicitly records God’s disapproval of manipulated lawsuits and requires readers to acknowledge that divine justice cannot be overridden by human corruption.
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
To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 59:15 Truth is missing, and whoever turns from evil becomes prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice.
- Habakkuk 1:13 Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do You tolerate the faithless? Why are You silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
- 2 Samuel 11:27 And when the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.
- Jeremiah 22:3 This is what the LORD says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place.