Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Lamentations 3:64 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 64. 64Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse asks the LORD to repay enemies according to their deeds.
Read It With
- Lamentations 3:64-66
Read Lamentations 3:64 with 3:64-66. This verse asks the LORD to repay enemies according to their deeds. The complete unit establishes this movement: The afflicted speaker closes the triple acrostic by entrusting enemy recompense, inner anguish, curse, pursuit, and destruction to the LORD in language of unresolved anger rather than personal action.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The chapter's formal completeness arrives not at 3:24 or 3:33 but with a demand for justice that remains morally and emotionally difficult. Within that movement, this verse asks the LORD to repay enemies according to their deeds.
Follow the Context
- The LORD is asked to repay enemies according to their deeds.
- A covering or anguish of heart and curse are requested.
- Divine anger is invoked for pursuit.
- Destruction is placed under the heavens of the LORD, not in the reader's hands.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“Render unto them a recompence”
In plain language: This verse asks the LORD to repay enemies according to their deeds.
Accountability is requested in relation to actual conduct.
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 command personal revenge, collective punishment, or persecution of people labeled enemies.
What Remains True
Accountability is requested in relation to actual conduct.
How It Can Shape Life
- Seek proportionate justice and refuse private retaliation.
Teach It Back
Explain how Lamentations 3:64 contributes to Lamentations 3:64-66. 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 3:64-66 — The Triple Acrostic Ends with RecompenseSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The petition entrusts action to God but remains severe and morally difficult.
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 3:64-66, 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.3.64-Lam.3.66
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 3:64-66
Open source ↗