Bible Strands
Lamentations 3:66
You will pursue them in anger and exterminate them from under Your heavens, O LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet speaking in Lamentations 3 addresses Yahweh directly, continuing the curse pronounced against Israel's oppressors in verse 65. This occurs during a period of national mourning and acknowledged divine wrath.
The words — The Hebrew תִּרְדֹּף (tirDof) translates literally as "you will pursue," while תַּשְׁמִידֵם (tashmidem) means "you will destroy them." These verbs establish the sequence of God's active judgment.
The thread — The phrase "from under Your heavens" mirrors the cosmic sovereignty declared in Psalms 8:3 and Psalms 115:16, and the command to remove enemies parallels the rest and judgment motif in Deuteronomy 25:19. The text places this specific plea within the broader covenant framework of God's territorial and atmospheric rule.
Why it lands — The verse states that God will relentlessly pursue and eradicate His enemies from the visible sky, demanding the reader accept divine retribution as a factual reality. It requires the reader to align with the text's assertion of God's absolute judicial authority rather than seeking to soften its outcome.
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
Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord.
Cross-references
- Psalms 8:3 When I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place—
- Deuteronomy 25:19 When the LORD your God gives you rest from the enemies around you in the land that He is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you are to blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!
- Psalms 115:16 The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth He has given to mankind.
- Jeremiah 10:11 Thus you are to tell them: “These gods, who have made neither the heavens nor the earth, will perish from this earth and from under these heavens.”
- Lamentations 3:43 You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have killed without pity.
- Deuteronomy 7:24 He will hand their kings over to you, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand against you; you will annihilate them.
- Deuteronomy 29:20 The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven
- 2 Kings 14:27 and since the LORD had said that He would not blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash.
- Psalms 35:6 May their path be dark and slick, as the angel of the LORD pursues.
- Psalms 73:15 If I had said, “I will speak this way,” then I would have betrayed Your children.