What Does Lamentations 3:50 Mean in the King James?
Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven.
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 waiting in this line has a precise shape: heaven is asked to look directly at what hurts.
THE MEANING
You are waiting for the LORD to look down and see what is happening to you. The line puts your pain plainly before heaven, with being seen as the heart of the plea.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that suffering no one else notices is beyond heaven’s regard.
THE ROOT
יַשְׁקִיף
yashqif
GROWS FROM
שׁקף
shaqaph
To peer down or look out from above.
“look down” in this verse is yashqif. The verb שׁקף (shaqaph, peer down) gives the first movement; רָאָה (ra’ah, see) gives the next. Together, the verbs make the plea more than a distant glance: that what is below be brought into perception.
ALSO GROWS
hashqifah: Look down from heaven.
הַשְׁקִיפָה
In Deuteronomy 26:15, the same root describes a plea for heaven’s gaze to descend toward the people.
vayyashqef: Looked out through a window.
וַיַּשְׁקֵף
In Genesis 26:8, the same root pictures a directed gaze through an opening, bringing focused attention into view.
וְיֵרֶא
veyireh
GROWS FROM
ראה
ra’ah
To see, look at, or perceive.
English can make look down and behold sound like one glance repeated, while the Hebrew distinguishes the gaze from the seeing. The plea is for sorrow not merely to enter heaven’s field of view, but to be perceived.
ALSO GROWS
ro’eh: One who sees.
רֹאֶה
This form turns seeing into a way of describing the one who perceives, making sight more than a passing glance.
mar’eh: Sight or appearance.
מַרְאֶה
This branch names what comes into view, connecting the act of seeing with what is disclosed before the one who sees.
THE PATTERN
In scripture, divine seeing draws human distress into personal regard.
And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.THE THREAD
Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey.The verb הַשְׁקִיפָה (hashqifah, look down) shares the root שׁקף (shaqaph, peer down) with the verb here. Deuteronomy joins that downward gaze to blessing; Lamentations joins it to grief being seen, so the same gaze meets both need and sorrow.
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