What Does Lamentations 4:16 Mean in the King James?
The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.
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The Hebrew repeats the word for “face” in the LORD’s presence and the priests’ “persons,” making withdrawn divine regard mirror the regard the people withheld.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s presence divides the community, and the gaze that once regarded it is withdrawn. Those who withhold regard from priests and elders meet the fracture their refusal brings into the community.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that contempt toward a community’s elders is only a private slight: withheld regard can become communal fracture, and office does not exempt anyone from judgment.
THE ROOT
פְּנֵי
pənê
GROWS FROM
פנה
To turn or face toward; to orient oneself toward someone.
The Hebrew repeats פְּנֵי (pənê, “faces of”) for the LORD and for the priests; the KJV renders those phrases as “anger” and “persons.” That shared face-language links the LORD’s withdrawn regard with the people’s refusal to lift their faces toward the priests.
ALSO GROWS
panim: Face; presence or person
פָּנִים
The same face-word underlies the LORD’s presence and the priests’ persons, joining divine and human regard.
panah: Turn; turn toward or away
פָּנָה
The root’s sense of orientation illuminates the verse’s movement from the LORD’s presence to the people’s refusal of regard.
חִלְּקָם
ḥilleqām
GROWS FROM
חלק
To divide, apportion, or share out.
“divided” in this verse is ḥilleqām. The verb can carry the sense of dividing into shares, so the community’s fracture is also an apportioning under judgment. The same root can name a portion or share, connecting this division to what is allotted.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēleq: Portion; share
חֵלֶק
The shared root shows how division and an allotted share belong to the same word-family.
maḥălōqet: Division; dispute
מַחֲלֹקֶת
This branch names the division that emerges when separation becomes conflict among people.
חָנָנוּ
ḥānanū
GROWS FROM
חנן
To show favor or act graciously.
“favoured” in this verse is ḥānanū. The elders are not merely overlooked; the verse says favor is withheld from them. That refusal belongs to the wider pattern of faces turned away and regard withdrawn.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: Favor; acceptance
חֵן
This noun names the favor the people do not extend to the elders.
ḥannūn: Gracious; favor-giving
חַנּוּן
The word describes one who shows favor, sharpening the contrast with the people’s refusal to do so.
THE PATTERN
The divine regard sees past rank, and human partiality is incompatible with that unbent gaze.
The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.THE THREAD
The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.The verb translated “divided” comes from חָלַק, whose noun חֵלֶק means “portion” or “share.” Psalm 16:5 uses that same root to name the LORD as the speaker’s portion, revealing the root’s range from an allotted share to a division that fractures a people.
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