What Does Lamentations 3:21 Mean in the King James?
This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
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
Hope begins as a return: what the reader recalls is brought back into the heart, where waiting can live.
THE MEANING
When pain presses close, a truth brought back to the heart changes what is present within it. Hope can rise while distress remains, as expectation held through the act of remembering.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hope must wait until pain is gone: hope can begin while grief remains, when a sustaining truth returns to the heart.
THE ROOT
אָשִׁיב
ʾāšîv
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
To return or turn back; in this form, to bring something back.
The word translated “recall” carries the sense of causing something to return. It is brought back to לֵב (lev, heart), the inner center of thought and feeling, so remembering becomes an act of return within the reader.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: To return or turn back.
שׁוּב
The verse’s “recall” is a bringing back, not merely a passing thought.
teshuvah: Return; turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This branch makes the root’s movement visible: what has turned away can come back.
אוֹחִיל
ʾôḥîl
GROWS FROM
יחל
yachal
To wait, hope, or expect.
The Hebrew word for hope carries the sense of waiting with expectation. Here, that expectation follows the return of what sustains the heart, so hope is held even while the distress remains.
ALSO GROWS
yachal: To wait, hope, or expect.
יָחַל
Its sense of waiting shows hope as expectation held across time.
tohelet: Expectation or hope.
תּוֹחֶלֶת
This noun from the same root links hope to what the heart awaits.
THE PATTERN
Hope takes root when what sustains the heart is recalled and held through distress.
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.THE THREAD
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.The Hebrew behind “restoreth” is יְשׁוֹבֵב (yeshovev, brings back or restores), from שׁוּב (shuv, return), the same root as “recall” here; what returns is נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, living soul). Together, the verses reveal hope and restoration as movements of return within the inner life.
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