What Does Lamentations 3:59 Mean?
O LORD, you see my crookedness; judge my cause.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.THE KEY
The Hebrew moves from distortion to dispute: the wrong is seen as crookedness, and its cause is brought before judgment.
THE MEANING
The LORD sees what has been twisted against you, and your cause can stand before him as a real case. The plea holds injury and judgment together: what hurts is neither hidden nor left without an appeal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that an injury has no standing when no one recognizes it; here the wrong is seen and the cause is submitted for judgment.
THE ROOT
עַוָּתָתִי
ʿawwatati
GROWS FROM
עות
ʿ-w-t
To twist, bend, or make crooked.
The word for “my wrong” carries the image of distortion: something bent out of shape. The verse names that crookedness as something the LORD sees, rather than something the injured person has to blur or deny.
ALSO GROWS
ʿivvet: To distort or make crooked.
עִוֵּת
This verb makes the root’s image active: the wrong is something twisted.
meʿuwwat: Crooked or distorted.
מְעֻוָּת
This related form shows that the root can describe a state of crookedness, echoing the distortion named in “my wrong.”
רִיבִי
ribi
GROWS FROM
ריב
r-y-b
To contend, plead, or bring a dispute.
The “cause” is not merely a reason or complaint; it is a dispute brought forward for hearing. The speaker does not erase the contention but places it before the one asked to judge.
ALSO GROWS
riv: A dispute, contention, or case.
רִיב
This noun names the contested matter that the speaker asks the LORD to judge.
merivah: Strife or contention.
מְרִיבָה
This related word preserves the root’s sense of an active dispute, showing the force carried by “my cause.”
שָׁפְטָה
shoftah
GROWS FROM
שפט
sh-p-t
To judge, decide a case, or administer justice.
The speaker asks for a decision about a concrete dispute, not simply for the pain to be noticed. This root also forms words for a judge and for judgment, joining the act requested to the work of justice.
ALSO GROWS
shofet: A judge, one who adjudicates.
שֹׁפֵט
This is the person named by the action “judge”: one who hears and decides a case.
mishpat: Judgment, justice, or a legal decision.
מִשְׁפָּט
This related word shows the justice contained in the request to judge the speaker’s dispute.
THE PATTERN
An injured cause is brought into God’s sight and entrusted to a just decision.
For you make my judgment and my case; you sit upon the seat, judging in alignment.I know that the LORD takes up the case of the bowed ones, and the judgment of those in want.Who, when he was insulted, hurled no insult back; when he suffered, he threatened not; but handed himself over to the one who judges by alignment.THE THREAD
He who aligns me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.“Cause” is רִיב (rîb), a dispute or plea; Isaiah’s “contend” grows from that same root. The shared word opens the plea beyond private pain: the case is brought forward, with the speaker ready to stand in the open.
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