Lamentations 1:20
New International Version
“See, LORD, how distressed I am! I am in torment within, and in my heart I am disturbed, for I have been most rebellious. Outside, the sword bereaves; inside, there is only death.

New Living Translation
“LORD, see my anguish! My heart is broken and my soul despairs, for I have rebelled against you. In the streets the sword kills, and at home there is only death.

English Standard Version
“Look, O LORD, for I am in distress; my stomach churns; my heart is wrung within me, because I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword bereaves; in the house it is like death.

Berean Standard Bible
See, O LORD, how distressed I am! I am churning within; my heart is pounding within me, for I have been most rebellious. Outside, the sword bereaves; inside, there is death.

King James Bible
Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.

New King James Version
“See, O LORD, that I am in distress; My soul is troubled; My heart is overturned within me, For I have been very rebellious. Outside the sword bereaves, At home it is like death.

New American Standard Bible
“See, LORD, for I am in distress; My spirit is greatly troubled; My heart is overturned within me, For I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword has made women childless; In the house it is like death.

NASB 1995
“See, O LORD, for I am in distress; My spirit is greatly troubled; My heart is overturned within me, For I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword slays; In the house it is like death.

NASB 1977
“See, O LORD, for I am in distress; My spirit is greatly troubled; My heart is overturned within me, For I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword slays; In the house it is like death.

Legacy Standard Bible
See, O Yahweh, for I am in distress; My inmost being is greatly disturbed; My heart is overturned within me, For I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword bereaves; In the house it is like death.

Amplified Bible
“See, O LORD, how distressed I am! My spirit is deeply disturbed; My heart is overturned within me and cannot rest, For I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword kills and bereaves; In the house there is [famine, disease and] death!

Christian Standard Bible
LORD, see how I am in distress. I am churning within; my heart is broken, for I have been very rebellious. Outside, the sword takes the children; inside, there is death.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
LORD, see how I am in distress. I am churning within; my heart is broken, for I have been very rebellious. Outside, the sword takes the children; inside, there is death.

American Standard Version
Behold, O Jehovah; for I am in distress; my heart is troubled; My heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: Abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Resh See, LORD JEHOVAH, that I have lost heart myself and my bowels are troubled! My heart is cast down within me, for I have rebelled to rebel. The sword from outside has destroyed and death killed those in the house

Brenton Septuagint Translation
RHECHS. Behold, O Lord; for I am afflicted: my belly is troubled, and my heart is turned within me; for I have been grievously rebellious: abroad the sword has bereaved me, even as death at home.

Contemporary English Version
Won't you look and see how upset I am, our LORD? My stomach is in knots, and my heart is broken because I betrayed you. In the streets and at home, my people are slaughtered.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Res. Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress, my bowels are troubled: my heart is turned within me, for I am full of bitterness: abroad the sword destroyeth, and at home there is death alike.

English Revised Version
Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress; my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
"O LORD, see the distress I'm in! My stomach is churning. My heart is pounding because I've been very bitter. In the streets swords kill my children. Inside the houses it's like death.

Good News Translation
"Look, O LORD, at my agony, at the anguish of my soul! My heart is broken in sorrow for my sins. There is murder in the streets; even indoors there is death.

International Standard Version
Look, LORD, how distressed I am; all my insides are churning. My heart is troubled within me, because I vigorously rebelled. Outside the sword brings loss of life, while at home death rules.

JPS Tanakh 1917
Behold, O LORD, for I am in distress, Mine inwards burn; My heart is turned within me, For I have grievously rebelled. Abroad the sword bereaveth, At home there is the like of death.

Literal Standard Version
See, O YHWH, for distress [is] to me, | My bowels have been troubled, | My heart has been turned in my midst, | For I have greatly provoked, | From outside the sword has bereaved, | In the house [it is] as death.

Majority Standard Bible
See, O LORD, how distressed I am! I am churning within; my heart is pounding within me, for I have been most rebellious. Outside, the sword bereaves; inside, there is death.

New American Bible
Look, O LORD, at the anguish I suffer! My stomach churns, And my heart recoils within me: How bitter I am! Outside the sword bereaves— indoors, there is death.

NET Bible
Look, O LORD! I am distressed; my stomach is in knots! My heart is pounding inside me. Yes, I was terribly rebellious! Out in the street the sword bereaves a mother of her children; Inside the house death is present.

New Revised Standard Version
See, O LORD, how distressed I am; my stomach churns, my heart is wrung within me, because I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword bereaves; in the house it is like death.

New Heart English Bible
See, LORD, for I am in distress; my stomach churns; my heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled. Outside the sword bereaves, in the house it is like death.

Webster's Bible Translation
Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; my heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.

World English Bible
“Look, Yahweh; for I am in distress. My heart is troubled. My heart turns over within me, for I have grievously rebelled. Abroad, the sword bereaves. At home, it is like death.

Young's Literal Translation
See, O Jehovah, for distress is to me, My bowels have been troubled, Turned hath been my heart in my midst, For I have greatly provoked, From without bereaved hath the sword, In the house it is as death.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
How Lonely Lies the City
19I called out to my lovers, but they have betrayed me. My priests and elders perished in the city while they searched for food to keep themselves alive. 20See, O LORD, how distressed I am! I am churning within; my heart is pounding within me, for I have been most rebellious. Outside, the sword bereaves; inside, there is death. 21People have heard my groaning, but there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that You have caused it. May You bring the day You have announced, so that they may become like me.…

Cross References
Deuteronomy 32:25
Outside, the sword will take their children, and inside, terror will strike the young man and the young woman, the infant and the gray-haired man.

Psalm 38:8
I am numb and badly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart.

Isaiah 16:11
Therefore my heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir-heres.

Jeremiah 14:18
If I go out to the country, I see those slain by the sword; if I enter the city, I see those ravaged by famine! For both prophet and priest travel to a land they do not know.'"

Jeremiah 14:20
We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD, the guilt of our fathers; indeed, we have sinned against You.

Lamentations 1:8
Jerusalem has sinned greatly; therefore she has become an object of scorn. All who honored her now despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns away.

Lamentations 2:11
My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.


Treasury of Scripture

Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; my heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaves, at home there is as death.

behold

Lamentations 1:9,11
Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself

Isaiah 38:14
Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.

my bowels

Lamentations 2:11
Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.

Job 30:27
My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.

Psalm 22:14
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

for

Lamentations 1:18
The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.

Leviticus 26:40-42
If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; …

1 Kings 8:47-50
Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness; …

abroad

Lamentations 4:9,10
They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field…

Deuteronomy 32:25
The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.

Jeremiah 9:21,22
For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets…

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Abroad Body Bowels Burn Children Death Deeply Distress Distressed Disturbed Greatly Grievously Heart Home House Inmost Inside Inwards Moved Outside Overturned Parts Rebelled Rebellious Slays Soul Spirit Street Sword Torment Trouble Troubled Tumult Turned Uncontrolled Within Wrung
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Abroad Body Bowels Burn Children Death Deeply Distress Distressed Disturbed Greatly Grievously Heart Home House Inmost Inside Inwards Moved Outside Overturned Parts Rebelled Rebellious Slays Soul Spirit Street Sword Torment Trouble Troubled Tumult Turned Uncontrolled Within Wrung
Lamentations 1
1. The miseries of Jerusalem and of the Jews lamented
12. The attention of beholders demanded to this unprecedented case
18. The justice of God acknowledged, and his mercy supplicated.














(20) Behold, O Lord . . .--Deserted by men, the mourner appeals to Jehovah. "Bowels" and "heart" are used almost as synonymous for the deepest emotions of the soul. The word for "troubled," elsewhere (Psalm 75:8) used of colour, might, perhaps, be better rendered inflamed.

At home there is as death.--The "as" seems inserted to give the emphasis of the undefined. It is not death pure and simple that makes each home tremble, but the "plurima mortis imago" (Virg. Aen. ii. 369), the starvation, disease, exhaustion, which all were deadly, i.e. deathlike, in their working.

Verse 20. - My bowels. The vital parts, especially the heart, as the seat of the affections, like σπλάγχνα. Are troubled; literally, are made to boil. So Job 30:27, "My bowels boil" (a different word, however). Is turned; or, turns itself; i.e. palpitates violently. At home there is as death. So Jeremiah 9:21, "For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces." By "death," when distinguished, as here, from "the sword," pestilence is meant; so e.g. in Jeremiah 15:2; Jeremiah 43:11. But the poet says here, not that "there is death," but merely "as death," i.e. a mild form of pestilence, not the famine typhus itself. Or, perhaps, he means "every form of death" (Virgil's "plurima mortis imago").

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Behold,
רְאֵ֨ה (rə·’êh)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine singular
Strong's 7200: To see

O LORD,
יְהוָ֤ה (Yah·weh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel

how
כִּֽי־ (kî-)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

distressed I am.
צַר־ (ṣar-)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 6862: Narrow, a tight place, a pebble, an opponent

I am churning
חֳמַרְמָ֔רוּ (ḥo·mar·mā·rū)
Verb - Piel - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 2560: To boil up, to ferment, to glow, to smear with pitch

within;
מֵעַ֣י (mê·‘ay)
Noun - masculine plural construct | first person common singular
Strong's 4578: The intestines, the abdomen, sympathy, a vest, the stomach, the uterus, the heart

my heart
לִבִּי֙ (lib·bî)
Noun - masculine singular construct | first person common singular
Strong's 3820: The heart, the feelings, the will, the intellect, centre

is overturned,
נֶהְפַּ֤ךְ (neh·paḵ)
Verb - Nifal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 2015: To turn about, over, to change, overturn, return, pervert

for
כִּ֥י (kî)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

I have been most rebellious.
מָר֖וֹ (mā·rōw)
Verb - Qal - Infinitive absolute
Strong's 4784: To be contentious or rebellious

Outside,
מִח֥וּץ (mi·ḥūṣ)
Preposition-m | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 2351: Separate by a, wall, outside, outdoors

the sword
חֶ֖רֶב (ḥe·reḇ)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 2719: Drought, a cutting instrument, as a, knife, sword

bereaves;
שִׁכְּלָה־ (šik·kə·lāh-)
Verb - Piel - Perfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 7921: To miscarry, suffer abortion, to bereave

inside,
בַּבַּ֥יִת (bab·ba·yiṯ)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1004: A house

there is death.
כַּמָּֽוֶת׃ (kam·mā·weṯ)
Preposition-k, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4194: Death, the dead, their place, state, pestilence, ruin


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OT Prophets: Lamentations 1:20 See Yahweh (Lam. La Lm)
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