Bible Strands
Lamentations 5:21
Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, so we may return; renew our days as of old,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses the LORD in a moment of national despair, immediately following a question about divine abandonment in Lamentations 5:20 and preceding a warning of total rejection in Lamentations 5:22.
The words — The Hebrew verb הֲשִׁיבֵ֨֯נוּ (ha.shiVenu) means "cause to return us," paired with the imperative חַדֵּ֥שׁ (cha.Desh) meaning "renew."
The thread — This plea for restoration runs through Psalms 80:3, Psalms 80:7, and Psalms 85:4, where the identical Hebrew root is used to request God's turning back and the removal of His anger.
Why it lands — The text demands a conscious return to God before it promises the restoration of former stability, framing renewal as a conditional response to divine action rather than a guaranteed 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
Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
Cross-references
- Psalms 80:3 Restore us, O God, and cause Your face to shine upon us, that we may be saved.
- Psalms 80:7 Restore us, O God of Hosts, and cause Your face to shine upon us, that we may be saved.
- Psalms 85:4 Restore us, O God of our salvation, and put away Your displeasure toward us.
- Psalms 80:19 Restore us, O LORD God of Hosts; cause Your face to shine upon us, that we may be saved.
- Jeremiah 31:18 I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning: ‘You disciplined me severely, like an untrained calf. Restore me, that I may return, for You are the LORD my God.
- Zechariah 8:3 This is what the LORD says: “I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of Hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.”
- Ezekiel 36:37 This is what the Lord GOD says: Once again I will hear the plea of the house of Israel and do for them this: I will multiply their people like a flock.
- Jeremiah 32:39 I will give them one heart and one way, so that they will always fear Me for their own good and for the good of their children after them.
- Jeremiah 33:10 This is what the LORD says: In this place you say is a wasteland without man or beast, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted—inhabited by neither man nor beast—there will be heard again
- Ezekiel 11:19 And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh,