Verse Lens · Concise explanation

Lamentations 3:51 Explained in Context

Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.

Selected verse

Verse 51. Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

This verse links what the eye sees among the city's daughters to the speaker's wounded heart.

Read It With

  • Lamentations 3:49-54

Read Lamentations 3:51 with 3:49-54. This verse links what the eye sees among the city's daughters to the speaker's wounded heart. The complete unit establishes this movement: The speaker's tears continue without relief as he waits for God to see; grief over the city's daughters gives way to being hunted without cause, thrown into a sealed pit, overwhelmed by waters, and convinced life is cut off.

Why This Verse Appears Here

Tears become a transition from communal catastrophe into a personal persecution-and-rescue prayer. Within that movement, this verse links what the eye sees among the city's daughters to the speaker's wounded heart.

Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation

“Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all”

In plain language: This verse links what the eye sees among the city's daughters to the speaker's wounded heart.

Seeing others' suffering can deepen communal grief.

Why it matters: The wording marks this verse's distinct contribution to the poem.

How certain? strong

What Remains True

Seeing others' suffering can deepen communal grief.

How It Can Shape Life

  • Respond with care without appropriating another person's pain.

Continue in Context

The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.

Read Lamentations 3:49-54 — Unceasing Tears and a Hunted Speaker
Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? strong

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 3:49-54, 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.3.49-Lam.3.54

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 3:49-54

Open source ↗
Open the complete thought-unit research record
Open a verse without taking it out of context.

Try Lamentations 3:22-23, Lam 3:22-23, or Lament of Jeremiah 3:22-23.

Choose book, chapter, and verse