What Does Lamentations 1:22 Mean in the King James?

Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.

Lamentations 1:22 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The prayer holds self-confession and a demand for reciprocal justice in the same breath.

THE MEANING

Your plea for justice stands beside your admission of wrongdoing; each is brought into God’s sight without erasing the other. Your sighs are many and your heart is faint, the verse gives your grief its full weight while asking that others’ wrongdoing be seen.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Owning your own wrongdoing means you must stay silent about harm done to you.

THE ROOT

פְּשָׁעָי

pəšaʿay

GROWS FROM

פ־ש־ע

To break away; to rebel.

English “transgressions” can sound like a list of infractions; ⁨פשע⁩ (p-sh-ʿ; pāshaʿ), meaning “to break away, rebel,” carries the force of rupture. The lament names its own rebellion and still calls the other side’s wickedness into God’s sight, so confession does not silence the demand for justice.

ALSO GROWS

pāshaʿ: To rebel, to break away.

פָּשַׁע

The verb shows the force carried by the speaker’s “transgressions”: a rupture, not merely a vague failing.

pōshēaʿ: One who rebels; a transgressor.

פֹּשֵׁעַ

This branch brings the person who breaks away into view alongside the act of rebellion named in the prayer.

THE PATTERN

God’s sight receives hidden wrongdoing and the unhidden groan alike.

Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.

Psalm 38:9 · KJVThe groan itself is already before God, even when the pain stays unseen by others.

Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.

Psalm 90:8 · KJVSecret wrongdoing is set in the same divine presence the lament asks to see others’ evil.

For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.

Luke 12:2 · KJVWhat is covered comes to light, echoing the request that all wickedness arrive before God.

THE THREAD

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5 · KJV

Both verses use ⁨פֶּשַׁע⁩ (peshaʿ), meaning rebellion or breaking away, for “transgressions.” Isaiah makes the rupture’s bodily cost visible; Lamentations gives its cry and its demand for justice.

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