What Does Lamentations 3:65 Mean in the King James?
Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.
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 can picture this “sorrow” as a covering over the heart, so the curse is asked to reach inside and dull its center.
THE MEANING
This line gives voice to an unsoftened plea: let the curse reach its targets as anguish within the heart. The rare Hebrew word behind “sorrow” can also suggest a covering or dulling, so the requested pain obscures the inner person as well as hurting it.
THE ROOT
מְגִנַּת
mĕginnat
GROWS FROM
מגן
m-g-n
To shield or cover; a protective enclosure.
The rare noun behind “sorrow” is associated with covering or dullness, and its consonants echo מָגֵן (māgēn), “shield.” The phrase can hold both pain in the heart and a covering that dims it: the curse is asked to reach the inner center.
ALSO GROWS
māgēn: Shield
מָגֵן
The same consonants name a protective covering in Genesis 15:1, giving the root a sheltering side.
mĕginnāh: Covering; dullness of heart
מְגִנָּה
This rare form gives “sorrow of heart” an inward texture: the pain can cover and obscure the heart as well as afflict it.
תַּאֲלָתֶךָ
taʾălāteḵā
GROWS FROM
אלה
ʾ-l-h
A curse or oath that invokes a binding consequence.
The word carries the force of an invoked curse, more than an angry phrase. Its appearance alongside “heart” makes the requested consequence inward, settling where a person might otherwise tell themselves they are safe.
ALSO GROWS
ʾālāh: Curse; oath
אָלָה
This is the noun behind “thy curse,” with the sense of an invoked, binding consequence.
hāʾālāh: The curse
הָאָלָה
The same noun appears in Deuteronomy 29:19, where a person hears the curse yet blesses himself in his heart.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures what covers a person as inwardly consequential: a shield can shelter, while curse and blindness can penetrate or obscure.
After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:THE THREAD
And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:The same Hebrew noun for “curse” appears beside a person blessing himself in his heart while walking in stubbornness. It sharpens the inward force of Lamentations’ plea: the curse reaches the very place where someone might tell themselves they are safe.
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