What Does Lamentations 3:40 Mean in the King James?
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
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 way back to the LORD begins by looking straight at the path your own feet have made.
THE MEANING
The verse presents return as a shared movement: the paths being walked come into view through searching and probing, then turn toward the LORD. The way back is not abstract; it begins where the actual steps have gone.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that returning to the LORD can be separated from honestly facing the path one is walking.
THE ROOT
וְנָשׁוּבָה
venashuvah
GROWS FROM
שׁוב
shuv
to turn back, return
“turn again” in this verse is venashuvah. This is a return with a destination: “unto the LORD.” The related word teshuvah also names a turning or return, so the searching is not an end in itself; it leads into a real change of direction.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: turn back, return
שׁוּב
It carries the same movement named in the verse: turning toward the LORD.
teshuvah: return, turning
תְּשׁוּבָה
It makes clear that return is a movement, not merely a feeling or conclusion.
דְּרָכֵינוּ
derakheinu
GROWS FROM
דרך
d-r-k
to tread, take steps
English “ways” can sound abstract, but derek is a path one walks and is related to darak, “to tread.” The verse’s examination reaches the actual tracks left by one’s steps.
ALSO GROWS
derek: way, path
דֶּרֶךְ
It names the walked path that the verse calls us to search and examine.
darak: tread, step
דָּרַךְ
It links a “way” to the steps that make and reveal it.
THE PATTERN
A return begins when the path being walked is brought into view.
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.THE THREAD
O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.“Return” in both verses comes from the Hebrew root שוב (shuv). Hosea names the same return toward the LORD, while Lamentations shows the searching of one’s ways as the movement that precedes it.
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