Bible Strands
Lamentations 3:42
“We have sinned and rebelled; You have not forgiven.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker, representing the afflicted community, addresses God directly after a call to lift hearts and hands toward heaven. This declaration occurs at the midpoint of a lament detailing national collapse and divine judgment.
The words — The Hebrew פָּשַׁע (pasha, transgressed) and מָרָה (marah, rebelled) denote active violation and defiant opposition. Placed in the negative with סָלַח (salach, forgiven), they state a plain fact of withheld pardon rather than a petition.
The thread — This pattern of rebellion meeting withheld forgiveness appears in Nehemiah 9:26, where Israel flung God’s law behind their backs, and Jeremiah 5:7, which questions why God would forgive such idolatry. The prodigal’s admission in Luke 15:18 later mirrors the same structure of confessed sin awaiting restoration.
Why it lands — The verse demands acknowledgment of unaddressed guilt before any appeal for mercy can be made. It forces the reader to confront the reality that divine patience does not automatically erase deliberate rebellion.
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
We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
Cross-references
- Nehemiah 9:26 But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies.
- Jeremiah 5:7 “Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by gods that are not gods. I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery and assembled at the houses of prostitutes.
- Luke 15:18 I will get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
- 2 Kings 24:4 and also for the innocent blood he had shed. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD was unwilling to forgive.
- Job 33:27 Then he sings before men with these words: ‘I have sinned and perverted what was right; yet I did not get what I deserved.
- Jeremiah 3:13 Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the LORD your God. You have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every green tree and have not obeyed My voice,’” declares the LORD.
- Lamentations 1:18 The LORD is righteous, yet I rebelled against His command. Listen, all you people; look upon my suffering. My young men and maidens have gone into captivity.
- Lamentations 5:16 The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!
- Ezekiel 24:13 Because of the indecency of your uncleanness I tried to cleanse you, but you would not be purified from your filthiness. You will not be pure again until My wrath against you has subsided.
- Daniel 9:5 we have sinned and done wrong. We have acted wickedly and rebelled. We have turned away from Your commandments and ordinances.