What Does Lamentations 1:18 Mean in the King James?
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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Owning the breach does not silence the demand that its devastation be seen.
THE MEANING
The verse gives you a voice that acknowledges rebellion without hiding sorrow. The loss is concrete: young women and young men go into captivity, and the speaker calls all peoples to hear and look. Confession does not make devastation unreal or unspeakable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that admitting rebellion disqualifies your suffering from being heard dissolves here: the speaker confesses and still asks all peoples to see her sorrow.
THE ROOT
צַדִּיק
tsaddiq
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q: alignment, justice, what is right.
The root behind “righteous” carries the sense of alignment and justice, not merely approval or a favorable mood. The speaker names the LORD’s rightness while admitting her own breach, then still asks the world to witness the damage.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: rightness, justice
צֶדֶק
This noun shares the root’s three consonants and names the rightness attributed to the LORD here.
tsedaqah: justice, righteousness, right action
צְדָקָה
The same root carries rightness into action, showing alignment as more than a label.
מַכְאֹבִי
makh'ovi
GROWS FROM
כאב
k-ʾ-b: pain, hurt.
The root behind “sorrow” is the root of pain and hurt, so the verse names grief as something suffered, not as a vague mood. The speaker asks all peoples to look at this pain while naming the captives, keeping lament attached to actual human loss.
ALSO GROWS
ke'ev: pain, ache
כְּאֵב
This noun shares the root’s consonants and makes clear that the sorrow is pain endured.
ka'av: to hurt, to feel pain
כָּאַב
This verb uses the same consonants for the experience of hurting, linking the verse’s sorrow to lived pain.
THE PATTERN
Owning a breach does not silence an appeal to be heard or shown mercy.
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.THE THREAD
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.Both “righteous” here and “justified” in Psalm 51:4 come from צדק (ṣ-d-q, alignment and justice), binding confession to the recognition of the LORD’s rightness. Naming the breach does not erase that alignment or silence the speaker’s sorrow.
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