Lamentations 3:52
What does Lamentations 3:52 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 3:52 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 3:52 means
He recounts being hunted like a bird by enemies without cause. This personal injustice intensifies the lament: it is not only national calamity but also wrongful persecution of the righteous. The image of a small, harmless creature pursued captures helplessness. By noting the lack of cause, he calls on God’s justice, for Jehovah sees baseless hatred. The verse illustrates how the faithful can suffer unjustly even within broader judgment, yet their appeal to God remains valid and heard.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000They have chased me sore like a bird, they that are mine enemies without cause.
KJV
King James Version · 1611Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901They have chased me sore like a bird, they that are mine enemies without cause.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949They who are against me without cause have gone hard after me as if I was a bird;
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Hunted me sore as a bird have my enemies without cause.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Sade. My enemies have chased me and caught me like a bird, without cause.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890They that are mine enemies without cause have chased me sore like a bird.
Context
The focus shifts from communal devastation to the sufferer’s personal experience of persecution. Verses 53–54 will describe being cast into a dungeon and covered with a stone, and feeling overwhelmed by waters. This sequence builds to the cry to Jehovah from the lowest place (vv. 55–57), where God’s nearness will be remembered.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Psalms 35:19
Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; Neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.
- Psalms 109:3
They have compassed me about also with words of hatred, And fought against me without a cause.
- Psalms 119:161
Princes have persecuted me without a cause; But my heart standeth in awe of thy words.
- 1 Samuel 25:28
Forgive, I pray thee, the trespass of thy handmaid: for Jehovah will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fighteth the battles of Jehovah; and evil shall not be found in thee all thy days.
- Psalms 69:4
They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head: They that would cut me off, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: That which I took not away I have to restore.
- Jeremiah 37:18
Moreover Jeremiah said unto king Zedekiah, Wherein have I sinned against thee, or against thy servants, or against this people, that ye have put me in prison?
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