What Does Lamentations 3:36 Mean in the King James?
To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.
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 for “subvert” means “make crooked”: injustice bends a person’s case away from what is straight.
THE MEANING
When someone’s case is bent against them, the Lord does not recognize that distortion as an acceptable judgment. The verse speaks now wherever a person’s claim is twisted in the very place meant to hear it: the wrong is in the bending itself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a process is just simply because it has the shape of a hearing dissolves here: a case can be heard and still be made crooked.
THE ROOT
לְעַוֵּת
ləʿawwēt
GROWS FROM
עות
To twist, distort, or make crooked.
“subvert” in this verse is ləʿawwēt. The verb is built around twisting or making crooked: subversion turns a person’s cause away from straightness. A related form describes what is crooked, showing that the wrong lies in distorting the case itself.
ALSO GROWS
məʿuwwāt: Crooked, distorted.
מְעֻוָּת
This related form describes what cannot be made straight, making visible the crookedness inside “subvert.”
yəʿawwēt: He distorts or perverts.
יְעַוֵּת
Job uses this same verb for perverting judgment and justice, making the legal image explicit.
בְּרִיבוֹ
bərîbô
GROWS FROM
ריב
To contend or dispute; a contention or legal case.
The word rendered “cause” names a dispute or legal case, not merely an abstract concern. The verse describes a concrete wrong: bending someone’s claim while it is being contested.
ALSO GROWS
rîb: Dispute, contention, or legal case.
רִיב
This noun form shows that the person’s “cause” is a claim in a live dispute, something that can be twisted as it is heard.
mərîbāh: Quarrel or contention.
מְרִיבָה
This related word carries the same root of contention, placing the legal case within a wider field of dispute.
רָאָה
rāʾāh
GROWS FROM
ראה
To see, look, or perceive.
The KJV’s “approveth” conveys rejection, while the Hebrew verb is “see” or “perceive.” The wording pictures the Lord’s regard withholding recognition from the distortion as a legitimate judgment.
ALSO GROWS
rōʾeh: One who sees; a seer.
רֹאֶה
This form makes the root’s connection to seeing plain, underscoring the verse’s language of divine regard.
marʾeh: Appearance or vision.
מַרְאֶה
This related form carries seeing into what is seen, echoing the verse’s image of a case before the Lord’s regard.
THE PATTERN
Bending a person’s case is not neutral procedure; it is injustice that God refuses to validate.
Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.THE THREAD
Doth God pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert justice?Job 8:3 uses the same root עות (ʿ-w-t), “to bend or distort,” for judgment and justice. It makes explicit what Lamentations compresses: the person’s case is being made crooked, and the distortion itself is the wrong.
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