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Lamentations 3:13-18, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Lamentations 3:13-18
Piercing Pain, Mockery, Bitterness, and Lost Hope
Arrows reach the inner body, then the public song
He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. Reins means kidneys or inner parts: the wound is pictured at the hidden center. I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes. Mockery and forced bitterness belong to this lowest stretch of the complaint.
Hope from the LORD is declared perished before any later turn
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD.
The famous mercies of 3:22-24 must not be read backward to silence verse 18. The poem records hope as extinguished before recollection changes the speaker's stance. Despair is not made shameful, and a sufferer is not required to quote later hope immediately.
How this should shape us
Listen, assess safety, and support someone who says hope is gone. Do not answer with a later verse before understanding the suffering that produced this sentence. Public mockery is not harmless because the book will speak of mercy a few lines later.
Teach it back
Explain Lamentations 3:13-18 in your own words. Include its poetic movement, one material uncertainty, one vulnerable person or group centered by the text, and one misuse the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: The exact nuance of the rare noun in 3:18 is disputed, and mockers may be fellow people or a broader group. The loss of peace, good, and hope is unmistakable.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed Scripture, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and canonical verse coverage.
Lamentations 3:13-18, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, alphabet sequence, person and number, repeated vocabulary, and translation questions.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Lam.xml, OSIS Lam.3.13-Lam.3.18
Supports: Verse-level Hebrew, syntax, textual, acrostic, literary, historical, and translation notes.
NET Bible Lamentations PDF, printed pp. 1565-1571, translation and notes on 3:13-18
Supports: Five-poem form, historical horizon, voice, judgment, Daughter Zion, chapter 3, famine, hope alternatives, and the unresolved ending.
Joyce, 'Lamentations,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 531-532, discussion of poem 3 and 3:13-18
Supports: Trauma-informed analysis of voice, embodiment, humiliation, divine and human agency, children, famine, resistance, memory, and fragile hope.
Yansen, Daughter Zion's Trauma, printed pp. 111-151 and 203-245 on acrostic structure, shifting voices, affliction, judgment, protest, and communal survival; applied to 3:13-18
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
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 3:13-18, 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.3.13-Lam.3.18
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. 1565-1571, translation and notes on 3:13-18
Open source ↗modern critical commentary
Lamentations
Paul M. Joyce
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001
Supports: Five-poem form, historical horizon, voice, judgment, Daughter Zion, chapter 3, famine, hope alternatives, and the unresolved ending.
Exact location: Joyce, 'Lamentations,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 531-532, discussion of poem 3 and 3:13-18
Open source ↗doctoral dissertation and trauma reading
Daughter Zion's Trauma: Reading Lamentations with Insights from Trauma Studies
James Washington Sydgrave Yansen, Jr.
Boston University School of Theology / OpenBU, 2016
Supports: Trauma-informed analysis of voice, embodiment, humiliation, divine and human agency, children, famine, resistance, memory, and fragile hope.
Exact location: Yansen, Daughter Zion's Trauma, printed pp. 111-151 and 203-245 on acrostic structure, shifting voices, affliction, judgment, protest, and communal survival; applied to 3:13-18
Open source ↗