Lamentations 3:10
What does Lamentations 3:10 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 3:10 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 3:10 means
He compares God to a lurking bear and a hidden lion—ferocious predators waiting to pounce. The imagery conveys suddenness and terror: just when one hopes for relief, new calamity strikes. This is how discipline can feel when waves of suffering follow each other. The point is not that God is cruel by nature, but that His justice, when provoked, can be fearsome. Such pictures impress upon us the holiness of Jehovah and the costliness of rebellion. The text invites sober fear that drives us not away from God, but to seek His mercy while it may be found.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000He is unto me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.
KJV
King James Version · 1611He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901He is unto me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949He is like a bear waiting for me, like a lion in secret places.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862A bear lying in wait He <FI>is<Fi> to me, A lion in secret hiding-places.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Daleth. He is become to me as a bear lying in wait: as a lion in secret places.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890He is unto me [as] a bear lying in wait, a lion in secret places.
Context
After blocked paths, the poem turns to ambush: God is not only preventing escape but confronting the sufferer as a formidable foe. Verses 11–13 will extend the predator image into tearing apart and then into an archer’s precise strike. This mounting intensity makes the later confession of God’s goodness and compassion (vv. 25–33) all the more remarkable, because it rises from within a vision of God’s just opposition.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Psalms 17:12
He is like a lion that is greedy of his prey, And as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.
- Psalms 10:9
He lurketh in secret as a lion in his covert; He lieth in wait to catch the poor: He doth catch the poor, when he draweth him in his net.
- Amos 5:18
Woe unto you that desire the day of Jehovah! Wherefore would ye have the day of Jehovah? It is darkness, and not light.
- Hosea 6:1
Come, and let us return unto Jehovah; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
- Isaiah 38:13
I quieted myself until morning; as a lion, so he breaketh all my bones: From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
- Hosea 5:14
For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and there shall be none to deliver.
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