What Does Lamentations 3:49 Mean in the King James?
Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
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 tears are a current, not isolated drops: the verse names grief that keeps flowing without relief.
THE MEANING
When grief keeps coming, your eye becomes its stream: the tears continue without a pause or relief. The verse gives language to sorrow still moving through you now, before any quiet arrives.
THE ROOT
נִגְּרָה
nigrāh
GROWS FROM
נגר
nagar
to flow, pour out
“trickleth down” in this verse is nigrāh. The eye is described with a verb of flowing, so tears become a current rather than separate drops. Psalm 77:2 uses the same verb for an outpouring through the night: this root carries lament as sustained movement.
ALSO GROWS
nigrāh: Flows or pours out; the form used here.
נִגְּרָה
The eye does not release a single tear and stop; its grief keeps moving like a stream.
nigrāh: The same verb used in Psalm 77:2, which the KJV renders “my sore ran.”
נִגְּרָה
The root also gives lament the shape of an outpouring that continues through the night.
הֲפֻגוֹת
hafugot
GROWS FROM
פוג
pug
to slacken, grow numb, or ease; the noun form can mean respite
“intermission” in this verse is hafugot. This root joins relief with slackening or numbness. With no פוג (pug, easing or respite), the verse describes sorrow that has not slackened and found an interval of relief.
ALSO GROWS
tafug: Slackens or grows numb; used in Psalm 77:2 in the phrase the KJV renders “and ceased not.”
תָפוּג
It describes an outpouring that does not ease through the night, echoing the unbroken flow here.
fugat: Relief or respite, as in Lamentations 2:18.
פוּגַת
The same root names the pause that the lament says is absent.
vayyāfag: Grew faint or numb, as in Genesis 45:26.
וַיָּפָג
This form shows how the root’s sense of easing or slackening can shade into numbness.
THE PATTERN
Grief without respite is pictured as an ongoing flow, with tears giving visible form to what keeps moving within.
Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them; Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow.In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,THE THREAD
In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.Psalm 77:2 uses נִגְּרָה (nigrāh, flows or pours out), the same verb used for the eye’s flow here, and תָפוּג (tafug, slacken), from the same root as “intermission.” The shared roots reveal lament as a sustained outpouring that does not ease through the night.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us