What Does Lamentations 3:41 Mean in the King James?

Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.

Lamentations 3:41 · 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.

THE KEY

The heart is not merely raised in thought; the root of “lift up” also means to carry, so the whole inner self is borne toward God.

THE MEANING

Your heart is lifted toward God in the heavens together with your hands; inward attention and bodily gesture belong to the same movement. The verse presents prayer as a whole-person act, with the inner self carried toward God.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Prayer is only an inward feeling; this verse joins the heart’s movement to the raised hands.

THE ROOT

נִשָּׂא

nissāʾ

GROWS FROM

נשא

To lift, carry, or bear.

English can make “lift up” sound like a change in height alone. The root also means to carry or bear, so the heart is borne toward God along with the hands.

ALSO GROWS

massa: Burden, load; that which is carried.

מַשָּׂא

This branch shows that the root includes carrying as well as raising, widening the sense of the heart being borne toward God.

nasi: Prince, chief, leader; a title associated with elevation.

נָשִׂיא

This branch preserves the root’s sense of being lifted or elevated, while the verse applies the movement to the heart itself.

THE PATTERN

Turning toward God gathers the inner life and the raised hands into one act of prayer.

Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

Psalm 63:4 · KJVThe hands rise toward God as part of the speaker’s living devotion.

Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

Psalm 141:2 · KJVThe raised hands give prayer a visible form before God.

I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

1 Timothy 2:8 · KJVPrayer joins the raised hands with the person’s inward posture.

THE THREAD

A Psalm of David. Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.

Psalm 25:1 · KJV

Psalm 25 uses the same Hebrew root ⁨נשא⁩ (nasa, to lift, carry, or bear) for the soul that Lamentations uses for the heart. Together, the verses show the inner self itself being carried toward God.

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