What Does Lamentations 3:34 Mean in the King James?
To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
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
The word “prisoners” means “the bound,” so the verse shows crushing added to people already held captive.
THE MEANING
The image stays severe: people already bound are crushed beneath someone’s feet. This speaks wherever captivity is met with domination that presses the captive further down. In the continuing sentence, this violence stands among the acts the Lord does not approve (Lamentations 3:34–36).
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being captive does not make a person fit ground for someone else’s power; the surrounding sentence names this crushing among what the Lord does not approve (3:34–36).
THE ROOT
אֲסִירֵי
asirei
GROWS FROM
אסר
ʾ-s-r
To bind or tie up.
“prisoners” in this verse is asirei. The root names captivity as a condition of being bound, not as the captive’s nature. Paired with “crush,” it shows force being laid on people who are already restrained.
ALSO GROWS
asar: To bind or tie up.
אָסַר
This is the action beneath “prisoners”: someone is held by a binding.
asurim: Bound ones, prisoners.
אֲסוּרִים
Psalm 146:7 uses this form for the prisoners whom the LORD loosens, showing that captivity is a condition that can change.
לְדַכֵּא
ledakke
GROWS FROM
דכא
d-k-ʾ
To crush, press down, or abase.
“crush” in this verse is ledakke. This root carries both physical pressure and abasement. Joined to the word for “bound,” it reveals the violence of pressing down on people already held fast.
ALSO GROWS
dakka: Crushed, contrite (Isaiah 57:15).
דַּכָּא
The root can describe a person brought low inwardly as well as one under physical force.
medukka: Bruised, crushed (Isaiah 53:5).
מְדֻכָּא
The same root keeps the force of crushing visible as injury and suffering.
THE PATTERN
Power is exposed by whether it crushes people who are bound or releases them.
Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners:Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,THE THREAD
Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners:Lamentations’ אֲסִירֵי (asirei, “prisoners”) and the Psalm’s אֲסוּרִים (asurim, “bound ones”) come from אָסַר (asar, “to bind”). The shared root sharpens the contrast: here the bound are crushed underfoot; there, the LORD loosens those who are bound.
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