Bible Strands
Lamentations 3:40
Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The collective "we" of Lamentations (the prophet's voice for Judah) addresses the remnant in the wake of the Babylonian siege, sandwiched between a rhetorical question about sin (v. 39) and a call to lift hands to God (v. 41).
The words — The verse stacks two distinct Hebrew verbs for examining: נַחְפֵּשָׁה (năḥp̄ēšāh, H2664, "let us search") and נַחֲקֹרָה (năḥăqôrāh, H2713, "let us probe/test"), doubling the demand before the single verb of return, נָשׁוּבָה (nāšûwāh, H7725, "let us turn back").
The thread — The self-examination command echoes 2 Corinthians 13:5 and Psalms 139:23; the paired "examine then return" structure parallels Joel 2:12's call to return with the whole heart.
Why it lands — It makes self-examination a precondition, not a consequence, of turning to God: the reader is told to test their own ways before they are permitted to call it repentance.
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
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.
Cross-references
- 2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you—unless you fail the test?
- Psalms 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns.
- Joel 2:12 “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”
- Psalms 4:4 Be angry, yet do not sin; on your bed, search your heart and be still. Selah
- Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.
- Psalms 119:59 I considered my ways and turned my steps to Your testimonies.
- Haggai 1:5 Now this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Consider carefully your ways.
- Hosea 6:1 Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.
- Hosea 14:1 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.
- 1 Corinthians 11:28 Each one must examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.