Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Lamentations 1:22 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 22. 22Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse closes the poem by asking God to see enemy wickedness and deal with it while sighs and faintness remain.
Read It With
- Lamentations 1:18-22
Read Lamentations 1:22 with 1:18-22. This verse closes the poem by asking God to see enemy wickedness and deal with it while sighs and faintness remain. The complete unit establishes this movement: Zion confesses rebellion without hiding captive youth, failed allies, famine, bodily distress, pervasive death, or enemy delight; she asks God—not the wounded community—to judge enemy wickedness as her sighs continue.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The poem ends without comfort: confession names responsibility, failed relationships and hunger expose other agents, and lament becomes entrusted protest while faintness remains. Within that movement, this verse closes the poem by asking God to see enemy wickedness and deal with it while sighs and faintness remain.
Follow the Context
- Zion confesses rebellion and summons peoples to witness captive young people.
- Failed allies deceive her while priests and elders die seeking food.
- She asks the LORD to see visceral distress as sword outside and death inside leave no safe space.
- Enemies rejoice, so Zion asks God to reckon their wickedness and closes faint, not restored.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“Let all their wickedness come before thee”
In plain language: This verse closes the poem by asking God to see enemy wickedness and deal with it while sighs and faintness remain.
Unresolved anger can be entrusted to God while harm remains visible.
Why it matters: The wording carries textual, theological, ethical, or pastoral risk requiring its complete unit and stated limits.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
This verse does not authorize revenge, collective punishment, or violence against people labeled enemies.
What Remains True
Unresolved anger can be entrusted to God while harm remains visible.
How It Can Shape Life
- Pursue proportionate accountability without demanding quick emotional closure.
Teach It Back
Explain how Lamentations 1:22 contributes to Lamentations 1:18-22. Include the surrounding alphabet stanza, the stated uncertainty, and what this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Lamentations 1:18-22 — Confession, Failed Allies, and an Enemy PetitionSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The petition's severity is preserved as lament, not converted into an ethical command.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed Scripture, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and canonical verse coverage.
Exact location: Lamentations 1:18-22, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Lamentations
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, alphabet sequence, person and number, repeated vocabulary, and translation questions.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Lam.xml, OSIS Lam.1.18-Lam.1.22
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Lamentations with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level Hebrew, syntax, textual, acrostic, literary, historical, and translation notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Lamentations PDF, printed pp. 1551-1558, translation and notes on 1:18-22
Open source ↗