Devine Scripture

Lamentations 1:14

What does Lamentations 1:14 mean?

A plain-English look at Lamentations 1:14 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.

What Lamentations 1:14 means

Here is the theology of suffering sharpened: the “yoke of my transgressions” is tied by God’s own hand and fastened on the neck, draining strength. Sin, woven together like a heavy harness, has become a burden no one can throw off. The Lord has delivered the city into the hands of those she cannot withstand. This is not victimhood without cause; it is consequence under divine rule. The verse refuses to separate personal responsibility from God’s sovereignty. The path to any hope must pass through this confession: our sins weigh us down; God in justice has made that yoke effective. Only then can petition have integrity.

Parallel translations

WEB

World English Bible · 2000

The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand; They are knit together, they are come up upon my neck; he hath made my strength to fail: The Lord hath delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand.

KJV

King James Version · 1611

The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up.

ASV

American Standard Version · 1901

The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand; They are knit together, they are come up upon my neck; he hath made my strength to fail: The Lord hath delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand.

BBE

Bible in Basic English · 1949

A watch is kept on my sins; they are joined together by his hand, they have come on to my neck; he has made my strength give way: the Lord has given me up into the hands of those against whom I have no power.

YLT

Young's Literal Translation · 1862

Bound hath been the yoke of my transgressions by His hand, They are wrapped together, They have gone up on my neck, He hath caused my power to stumble, The Lord hath given me into hands, I am not able to rise.

DRA

Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752

Nun. The yoke of my iniquities hath watched: they are folded together in his hand, and put upon my neck: my strength is weakened: the Lord hath delivered me into a hand, out of which I am not able to rise.

DBY

Darby Bible · 1890

The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, they are come up upon my neck; he hath made my strength to fail; the Lord hath delivered me into hands out of which I am not able to rise up.

Context

Continuing the inner portrayal of judgment (verse 13), verse 14 explains it morally: transgressions themselves have become a God-tied yoke. This prepares for verse 15’s corporate judgment—mighty men crushed, young men trodden as grapes—extending personal burden to communal devastation. The chapter’s flow keeps moving between the individual and the collective, between image and explanation, ensuring readers grasp the full scope of sin’s wages. Soon the lament will break into tears again (verse 16), mourning the absence of a comforter and the desolation of children.

v.13From on high hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them; He hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: He hath made me desolate and faint all the day.

v.14This passage

v.15The Lord hath set at nought all my mighty men in the midst of me; He hath called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men: The Lord hath trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah.

Cross references

Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

  • Jeremiah 37:17

    then Zedekiah the king sent, and fetched him: and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from Jehovah? And Jeremiah said, There is. He said also, Thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.

  • Ezekiel 23:28

    For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy soul is alienated;

  • Jeremiah 25:9

    behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith Jehovah, and I will send unto Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.

  • Deuteronomy 28:48

    therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies that Jehovah shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.

  • Jeremiah 32:5

    and he shall bring Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith Jehovah: though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper?

  • Jeremiah 39:1

    (in the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and besieged it;

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