Lamentations 3:4
What does Lamentations 3:4 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 3:4 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 3:4 means
The affliction has consumed his vitality. He feels prematurely aged, his flesh and skin worn and wasted, and his bones shattered. This is language of severe suffering—both outward ruin and inward collapse. It reflects the ruin of Jerusalem and the people, where famine, fear, and violence sapped life and destroyed strength. To say Jehovah has done this is not accusation but sober acknowledgment that covenant-breaking brought covenant curses. The verse faces bodily and emotional decay honestly, refusing to pretend that sin’s consequences are mild or that God is indifferent to the rebellion of His people.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.
KJV
King James Version · 1611My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949My flesh and my skin have been used up by him and my bones broken.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862He hath worn out my flesh and my skin. He hath broken my bones.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Beth. My skin and my flesh he hath made old, he hath broken my bones.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890My flesh and my skin hath he wasted away, he hath broken my bones.
Context
Having described relentless blows, the poem now paints the cost in the sufferer’s body and spirit. Verses 5–6 will move from bodily breakdown to siege and burial images, intensifying the sense of total enclosure and hopelessness. The structure is cumulative: each picture adds weight to the reader’s sense of despair. This prepares the heart to appreciate the later revelation that God’s compassions are not exhausted, precisely because the prior depiction has shown how extreme the distress truly is.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Psalms 22:14
I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint: My heart is like wax; It is melted within me.
- Jeremiah 50:17
Israel is a hunted sheep; the lions have driven him away: first, the king of Assyria devoured him; and now at last Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones.
- Psalms 102:3
For my days consume away like smoke, And my bones are burned as a firebrand.
- Psalms 38:2
For thine arrows stick fast in me, And thy hand presseth me sore.
- Psalms 32:3
When I kept silence, my bones wasted away Through my groaning all the day long.
- Psalms 31:9
Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah, for I am in distress: Mine eye wasteth away with grief, yea, my soul and my body.
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