English Standard Version
Lamentations 3:40
40Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord!
Lamentations 3:40 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.
- New International Version (NIV)Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the Lord;
- New Living Translation (NLT)Instead, let us test and examine our ways. Let us turn back to the Lord.
Context of Lamentations 3:40
38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? 39Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord! 41Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven: 42"We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
Read all of Lamentations 3Lamentations 3:40 word by word
נַחְפְּשָׂ֤ה דְרָכֵ֙ינוּ֙ וְֽנַחְקֹ֔רָה וְנָשׁ֖וּבָה עַד־יְהוָֽה׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Lamentations 3:40
- 1 Chronicles 15:12and said to them, "You are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites. Consecrate yourselves, you and your brothers, so that you may bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place that I have prepared for it.
- Job 11:13"If you prepare your heart, you will stretch out your hands toward him.
- Job 34:31"For has anyone said to God, 'I have borne punishment; I will not offend any more;
- Psalms 4:4Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
- Psalms 119:59When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies;
- Psalms 139:23Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
- Ezekiel 18:28Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die.
- Haggai 1:5Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.
- 1 Corinthians 11:28Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
- 2 Corinthians 13:5Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
- Deuteronomy 4:30When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice.
- 2 Chronicles 30:6So couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes, as the king had commanded, saying, "O people of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria.
- Isaiah 55:7let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
- Hosea 6:1"Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
- Hosea 12:6"So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God."
- Hosea 14:1Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
Commentaries on Lamentations 3:40
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 40Let us search - How are we to get the pardon of our sins? The prophet tells us: Let us examine ourselves. "Let us turn again to the Lord." "Let us lift up our heart;" let us make fervent prayer and supplication for mercy. "Let us lift up our hand;" let us solemnly promise to be his, and bind ourselves in a covenant to be the Lord's only: so much lifting up the hand to God implies. Or, let us put our heart on our hand, and offer it to God; so some have…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 40-42Verses 40-42 The prophet urges men to search out their faults and amend them. Lamentations 3:40 And turn again to the Lord - Or, “and return to Yahweh.” The prep. (to) in the Hebrew implies not half way, but the whole. Lamentations 3:41 Literally, “Let us lift up our heart unto our hands unto God in heaven;” as if the heart first lifted up the hands, and then with them mounted up in prayer to God. In real prayer the outward expression is caused by the…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 37-41Verses 37-41 While there is life there is hope; and instead of complaining that things are bad, we should encourage ourselves with the hope they will be better. We are sinful men, and what we complain of, is far less than our sins deserve. We should complain to God, and not of him. We are apt, in times of calamity, to reflect on other people's ways, and blame them; but our duty is to search and try our own ways, that we may turn from evil to God. Our…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 40-42Repentance is essential for receiving salvation (Isaiah 1:27; Jeremiah 3:22; Ezekiel 3:21).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 40-4240-42. us--Jeremiah and his fellow countrymen in their calamity. search--as opposed to the torpor wherewith men rest only on their outward sufferings, without attending to the cause of them (Psa 139:23, 24).Read the comment
Topics related to Lamentations 3:40
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Lamentations 3
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
English Standard Version — © 2001 Crossway Bibles
Commentaries