New International Version
Lamentations 3:40
40Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us 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.
- English Standard Version (ESV)Let us test and examine our ways, and 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 both calamities and good things come? 39Why should the living complain when punished for their sins? Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. 41Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say: 42“We have sinned 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 15:12He said to them, “You are the heads of the Levitical families; you and your fellow Levites are to consecrate yourselves and bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it.
- Job 11:13“Yet if you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to him,
- Job 34:31“Suppose someone says to God, ‘I am guilty but will offend no more.
- Psalms 4:4Tremble and do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.
- Psalms 119:59I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes.
- Psalms 139:23Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
- Ezekiel 18:28Because they consider all the offenses they have committed and turn away from them, that person will surely live; they will not die.
- Haggai 1:5Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.
- 1 Corinthians 11:28Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.
- 2 Corinthians 13:5Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?
- Deuteronomy 4:30When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him.
- 2 Chronicles 30:6At the king’s command, couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and from his officials, which read: “People of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that he may return to you who are left, who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria.
- Isaiah 55:7Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
- Hosea 6:1“Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.
- Hosea 12:6But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.
- Hosea 14:1Return, Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall!
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
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