What Does Lamentations 3:42 Mean in the King James?
We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
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 Hebrew names rebellion through two distinct roots, then states just as plainly that pardon has not come.
THE MEANING
The verse gives the reader a present-tense confession: the breach is named twice, and pardon is named as absent. The admission and the absence of pardon occupy the same line, so the verse does not treat confession as pardon.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that admitting rebellion is itself the same thing as being pardoned.
THE ROOT
פָּשַׁעְנוּ
pāšaʿnû
GROWS FROM
פשע
p-sh-ʿ
to rebel, revolt, or break away
The English “transgressed” can sound like crossing a boundary, while פשע (pāšaʿ, “rebel”) carries the sharper sense of revolt. The next verb comes from a different root for rebellion, so the confession accumulates two expressions of defiance.
ALSO GROWS
pešaʿ: rebellion, transgression, breach
פֶּשַׁע
The noun names the kind of breach the speakers confess.
pōšēaʿ: one who rebels
פֹּשֵׁעַ
This form makes the same root describe the person acting in rebellion.
מָרִינוּ
mārînû
GROWS FROM
מרה
m-r-h
to rebel, resist, or disobey
“rebelled” in this verse is mārînû. This is a second root, related in sense but not a repetition of פשע (pāšaʿ, “rebel”). The two verbs keep the confession cumulative: the speakers name rebellion in two distinct ways.
ALSO GROWS
merî: rebellion
מְרִי
The noun gathers the action of this verb into a named state of defiance.
mōrîm: rebels
מֹרִים
The plural form applies the same root to people characterized by rebellion.
סָלָחְתָּ
sālaḥtā
GROWS FROM
סלח
s-l-ḥ
to forgive or pardon
“pardoned” in this verse is sālaḥtā. The final clause names pardon directly; the text does not leave it implied by the confession. Pardon is the release of the charge, and the verse says that this release has not occurred.
ALSO GROWS
sālaḥ: to forgive or pardon
סָלַח
This is the verb behind the verse’s direct statement that pardon has not been given.
selîḥāh: forgiveness, pardon
סְלִיחָה
The noun names the act the verse says is absent.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names the breach and the act of pardon separately, even when it places them side by side.
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.Psalm 51:1 uses פְּשָׁעָי (pĕšāʿay, “my transgressions”), from the same root פשע (pāšaʿ, “rebel”) as “transgressed” here. Lamentations names that rebellion and says pardon is absent; Psalm 51 turns the same breach into a plea to have it blotted out.
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