Lamentations 1:21

Bible in Basic English (1941)

Give ear to the voice of my grief; I have no comforter; all my haters have news of my troubles, they are glad because you have done it: let the day of fate come when they will be like me.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

שָׁמְע֞וּ כִּ֧י נֶאֱנָחָ֣ה אָ֗נִי אֵ֤ין מְנַחֵם֙ לִ֔י כָּל־אֹ֨יְבַ֜י שָׁמְע֤וּ רָֽעָתִי֙ שָׂ֔שׂוּ כִּ֥י אַתָּ֖ה עָשִׂ֑יתָ הֵבֵ֥אתָ יוֹם־קָרָ֖אתָ וְיִֽהְי֥וּ כָמֽוֹנִי׃ ס

Transliteration

They šāməʿû kî neʾĕnāḥāh ʾānî, ʾên mənaḥēm to me; all-my ʾōyəḇay šāməʿû my rāʿāṯî they śāśû kî ʾattāh ʿāśîṯā; hēḇēʾṯā yôm-you qārāʾṯā wə-yihyû like me.

Grammar Details

• *šāməʿû*: qal perfect, 3rd plural - they heard
• *kî*: conjunction - that
• *neʾĕnāḥāh*: nifal participle, feminine singular - groaning
• *ʾānî*: 1st singular personal pronoun - I
• *ʾên*: particle of negation - there is no
• *mənaḥēm*: piel participle, masculine singular - comforter
• *lî*: preposition with 1st singular suffix - to me
• *kāl*: noun, construct - all of
• *ʾōyəḇay*: qal participle, masculine plural with 1st singular suffix - my enemies
• *rāʿāṯî*: noun, feminine singular with 1st singular suffix - my calamity
• *śāśû*: qal perfect, 3rd plural - they rejoiced
• *ʾattāh*: 2nd masculine singular personal pronoun - you
• *ʿāśîṯā*: qal perfect, 2nd masculine singular - you did
• *hēḇēʾṯā*: hifil perfect, 2nd masculine singular - you brought
• *yôm*: noun, masculine singular - day
• *qārāʾṯā*: qal perfect, 2nd masculine singular - you called
• *wə*: conjunction - and
• *yihyû*: qal imperfect, 3rd plural - they will be
• *ḵāmônî*: preposition + 1st singular suffix - like me

Word Meanings

• *šāməʿû*: they heard/they listened
• *neʾĕnāḥāh*: groaning/sighing/moaning
• *mənaḥēm*: comforter/consoler
• *ʾōyəḇay*: my enemies/my foes/my adversaries
• *rāʿāṯî*: my calamity/my evil/my trouble
• *śāśû*: they rejoiced/they were glad/they exulted
• *ʿāśîṯā*: you did/you have done
• *hēḇēʾṯā yôm-qārāʾṯā*: you have brought the day you proclaimed/you have brought the day you called for
• *yihyû ḵāmônî*: they will be like me/they shall become as I am

Referenced Verses

• Lam 1:8 : 8 Great is the sin of Jerusalem; for this cause she has become an unclean thing: all those who gave her honour are looking down on her, because they have seen her shame: now truly, breathing out grief, she is turned back.
• Jer 50:11 : 11 Because you are glad, because you are lifted up with pride, you wasters of my heritage, because you are playing like a young cow put out to grass, and you make a noise like strong horses;
• Lam 1:16 : 16 For these things I am weeping; my eye is streaming with water; because the comforter who might give me new life is far from me: my children are made waste, because the hater is strong.
• Lam 1:22 : 22 Let all their evil-doing come before you; do to them as you have done to me for all my sins: for loud is the sound of my grief, and the strength of my heart is gone.
• Lam 2:15 : 15 All who go by make a noise with their hands at you; they make hisses, shaking their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem, and saying, Is this the town which was the crown of everything beautiful, the joy of all the earth?
• Lam 4:21-22 : 21 Have joy and be glad, O daughter of Edom, living in the land of Uz: the cup will be given to you in your turn, and you will be overcome with wine and your shame will be seen. 22 The punishment of your evil-doing is complete, O daughter of Zion; never again will he take you away as a prisoner: he will give you the reward of your evil-doing, O daughter of Edom; he will let your sin be uncovered.
• Lam 1:2 : 2 She is sorrowing bitterly in the night, and her face is wet with weeping; among all her lovers she has no comforter: all her friends have been false to her, they have become her haters.
• Lam 1:4 : 4 The ways of Zion are sad, because no one comes to the holy meeting; all her doorways are made waste, her priests are breathing out sorrow: her virgins are troubled, and it is bitter for her.
• Ps 35:15 : 15 But they took pleasure in my trouble, and came together, yes, low persons came together against me without my knowledge; they never came to an end of wounding me.
• Ps 37:13 : 13 He will be laughed at by the Lord, who sees that his day is coming.
• Ps 38:16 : 16 I said, Let them not be glad over me; when my foot is moved, let them not be lifted up with pride against me.
• Ps 137:7-9 : 7 O Lord, keep in mind against the children of Edom the day of Jerusalem; how they said, Let it be uncovered, uncovered even to its base. 8 O daughter of Babylon, whose fate is destruction; happy is the man who does to you what you have done to us. 9 Happy is the man who takes your little ones, crushing them against the rocks.
• Isa 13:1-9 : 1 The word of the Lord about Babylon which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw. 2 Put up a flag on a clear mountain-top, make a loud outcry to them, give directions with the hand, so that they may go into the doors of the great ones. 3 I have given orders to my holy ones, I have sent out my men of war, those of mine who take pride in their power, to give effect to my wrath. 4 The noise of great numbers in the mountains, like the noise of a strong people! The noise of the kingdoms of the nations meeting together! The Lord of armies is numbering his forces for war. 5 They come from a far country, from the farthest part of heaven, even the Lord and the instruments of his wrath, with destruction for all the land. 6 Send out a cry of grief; for the day of the Lord is near; it comes as destruction from the Most High. 7 For this cause all hands will be feeble, and every heart of man be turned to water; 8 Their hearts will be full of fear; pains and sorrows will overcome them; they will be in pain like a woman in childbirth; they will be shocked at one another; their faces will be like flames. 9 See, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel, with wrath and burning passion: to make the land a waste, driving the sinners in it to destruction. 10 For the stars of heaven and its bright armies will not give their light: the sun will be made dark in his journey through the heaven, and the moon will keep back her light. 11 And I will send punishment on the world for its evil, and on the sinners for their wrongdoing; and I will put an end to all pride, and will make low the power of the cruel. 12 I will make men so small in number, that a man will be harder to get than gold, even the best gold of Ophir. 13 For this cause the heavens will be shaking, and the earth will be moved out of its place, in the wrath of the Lord of armies, and in the day of his burning passion. 14 And it will be that, like a roe in flight, and like wandering sheep, they will go every man to his people and to his land.
• Isa 47:1-9 : 1 Come and take your seat in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; come down from your seat of power, and take your place on the earth, O daughter of the Chaldaeans: for you will never again seem soft and delicate. 2 Take the crushing-stones and get the meal crushed: take off your veil, put away your robe, let your legs be uncovered, go through the rivers. 3 The shame of your unclothed condition will be seen by all: I will give punishment without mercy, 4 Says the Lord who takes up our cause; the Lord of armies is his name, the Holy One of Israel. 5 Be seated in the dark without a word, O daughter of the Chaldaeans: for you will no longer be named, The Queen of Kingdoms. 6 I was angry with my people, I put shame on my heritage, and gave them into your hands: you had no mercy on them; you put a cruel yoke on those who were old; 7 And you said, I will be a queen for ever: you did not give attention to these things, and did not keep in mind what would come after. 8 So now take note of this, you who are given up to pleasure, living without fear of evil, saying in your heart, I am, and there is no one like me; I will never be a widow, or have my children taken from me. 9 But these two things will come on you suddenly in one day, the loss of children and of husband: in full measure they will come on you, for all your secret arts, and all your wonders. 10 For you had faith in your evil-doing; you said, No one sees me; by your wisdom and knowledge you have been turned out of the way: and you have said in your heart, I am, and there is no other. 11 Because of this evil will come on you, which may not be turned away for any price: and trouble will overtake you, from which no money will give salvation: destruction will come on you suddenly, without your knowledge. 12 Go on now with your secret arts, and all your wonder-working, to which you have given yourself up from your earliest days; it may be that they will be of profit to you, or by them you may put fear into your attackers. 13 But your mind is troubled by the number of your guides: let them now come forward for your salvation: the measurers of the heavens, the watchers of the stars, and those who are able to say from month to month what things are coming on you. 14 Truly, they have become like dry stems, they have been burned in the fire; they are not able to keep themselves safe from the power of the flame: it is not a coal for warming them, or a fire by which a man may be seated. 15 Small profit have you had from those who, from your earliest days, got great profit out of you; they have gone in flight, every one straight before him, and you have no saviour.
• Isa 51:22-23 : 22 This is the word of the Lord your master, even your God who takes up the cause of his people: See, I have taken out of your hand the cup which overcomes, even the cup of my wrath; it will not again be given to you: 23 And I will put it into the hand of your cruel masters, and of those whose yoke has been hard on you; who have said to your soul, Down on your face! so that we may go over you: and you have given your backs like the earth, even like the street, for them to go over.
• Jer 25:17-29 : 17 Then I took the cup from the Lord's hand, and gave a drink from it to all the nations to whom the Lord sent me; 18 Jerusalem and the towns of Judah and their kings and their princes, to make them a waste place, a cause of fear and surprise and a curse, as it is this day; 19 Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his servants and his princes and all his people; 20 And all the mixed people and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon and Gaza and Ekron and the rest of Ashdod; 21 Edom and Moab and the children of Ammon, 22 And all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the lands across the sea; 23 Dedan and Tema and Buz, and all who have the ends of their hair cut; 24 And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mixed people living in the waste land; 25 And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes; 26 And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. 27 And you are to say to them, This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Take of this cup and be overcome, and let it come out again from your lips, and from your fall you will never be lifted up again, because of the sword which I will send among you. 28 And it will be, if they will not take of the cup in your hand, then you are to say to them, This is what the Lord of armies has said: You will certainly take of it. 29 For see, I am starting to send evil on the town which is named by my name, and are you to be without any punishment? You will not be without punishment: for I will send a sword on all people living on the earth, says the Lord of armies.
• Jer 30:16 : 16 For this cause, all those who take you for their food will themselves become your food; and all your attackers, every one of them, will be taken prisoners; and those who send destruction on you will come to destruction; and all those who take away your goods by force will undergo the same themselves.
• Jer 46:1-9 : 1 The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet about the nations. 2 Of Egypt: about the army of Pharaoh-neco, king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, overcame in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah. 3 Get out the breastplate and body-cover, and come together to the fight. 4 Make the horses ready, and get up, you horsemen, and take your places with your head-dresses; make the spears sharp and put on the breastplates. 5 What have I seen? they are overcome with fear and turned back; their men of war are broken and have gone in flight, not looking back: fear is on every side, says the Lord. 6 Let not the quick-footed go in flight, or the man of war get away; on the north, by the river Euphrates, they are slipping and falling. 7 Who is this coming up like the Nile, whose waters are lifting their heads like the rivers? 8 Egypt is coming up like the Nile, and his waters are lifting their heads like the rivers, and he says, I will go up, covering the earth; I will send destruction on the town and its people. 9 Go up, you horses; go rushing on, you carriages of war; go out, you men of war: Cush and Put, gripping the body-cover, and the Ludim, with bent bows. 10 But that day is the day of the Lord, the Lord of armies, a day of punishment when he will take payment from his haters: and the sword will have all its desire, drinking their blood in full measure: for there is an offering to the Lord, the Lord of armies, in the north country by the river Euphrates. 11 Go up to Gilead and take sweet oil, O virgin daughter of Egypt: there is no help in all your medical arts; nothing will make you well. 12 Your shame has come to the ears of the nations, and the earth is full of your cry: for the strong man is falling against the strong, they have come down together. 13 The word which the Lord said to Jeremiah the prophet, of how Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, would come and make war on the land of Egypt. 14 Give the news in Migdol, make it public in Noph: say, Take up your positions and make yourselves ready; for on every side of you the sword has made destruction. 15 Why has Apis, your strong one, gone in flight? he was not able to keep his place, because the Lord was forcing him down with strength. 16 ... are stopped in their going, they are falling; and they say one to another, Let us get up and go back to our people, to the land of our birth, away from the cruel sword. 17 Give a name to Pharaoh, king of Egypt: A noise who has let the time go by. 18 By my life, says the King, whose name is the Lord of armies, truly, like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea, so will he come. 19 O daughter living in Egypt, make ready the vessels of a prisoner: for Noph will become a waste, it will be burned up and become unpeopled. 20 Egypt is a fair young cow; but a biting insect has come on her out of the north. 21 And those who were her fighters for payment are like fat oxen; for they are turned back, they have gone in flight together, they do not keep their place: for the day of their fate has come on them, the time of their punishment. 22 She makes a sound like the hiss of a snake when they come on with strength; they go against her with axes, like wood-cutters. 23 They will be cutting down her woods, for they may not be searched out; because they are like locusts, more than may be numbered. 24 The daughter of Egypt will be put to shame; she will be given up into the hands of the people of the north. 25 The Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: See, I will send punishment on Amon of No and on Pharaoh and on those who put their faith in him; 26 And I will give them up into the hands of those who will take their lives, and into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hands of his servants: and later, it will be peopled as in the past, says the Lord. 27 But have no fear, O Jacob, my servant, and do not be troubled, O Israel: for see, I will make you come back from far away, and your seed from the land where they are prisoners; and Jacob will come back, and will be quiet and in peace, and no one will give him cause for fear. 28 Have no fear, O Jacob, my servant, says the Lord; for I am with you: for I will put an end to all the nations where I have sent you, but I will not put an end to you completely: though with wise purpose I will put right your errors, and will not let you go quite without punishment.
• Jer 48:27 : 27 For did you not make sport of Israel? was he taken among thieves? for whenever you were talking about him, you were shaking your head over him.
• Lam 1:11-12 : 11 Breathing out grief all her people are looking for bread; they have given their desired things for food to give them life: see, O Lord, and take note; for she has become a thing of shame. 12 Come to me, all you who go by! Keep your eyes on me, and see if there is any pain like the pain of my wound, which the Lord has sent on me in the day of his burning wrath.
• Jer 50:15 : 15 Give a loud cry against her on every side; she has given herself up, her supports are overturned, her walls are broken down: for it is the payment taken by the Lord; give her payment; as she has done, so do to her.
• Jer 50:29 : 29 Send for the archers to come together against Babylon, all the bowmen; put up your tents against her on every side; let no one get away: give her the reward of her work; as she has done, so do to her: for she has been uplifted in pride against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel.
• Jer 50:31 : 31 See, I am against you, O pride, says the Lord, the Lord of armies, for your day has come, the time when I will send punishment on you.
• Jer 51:24 : 24 And I will give to Babylon, and to all the people of Chaldaea, their reward for all the evil they have done in Zion before your eyes, says the Lord.
• Jer 51:49 : 49 As Babylon had the dead of Israel put to the sword, so in Babylon the dead of all the land will be stretched out.
• Ezek 25:1-9 : 1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 Son of man, let your face be turned to the children of Ammon, and be a prophet against them: 3 And say to the children of Ammon, Give ear to the word of the Lord; this is what the Lord has said: Because you said, Aha! against my holy place when it was made unclean, and against the land of Israel when it was made waste, and against the people of Judah when they were taken away as prisoners; 4 For this cause I will give you up to the children of the east for their heritage, and they will put their tent-circles in you and make their houses in you; they will take your fruit for their food and your milk for their drink. 5 And I will make Rabbah a place for housing camels, and the children of Ammon a resting-place for flocks: and you will be certain that I am the Lord. 6 For the Lord has said, Because you have made sounds of joy with your hands, stamping your feet, and have been glad, putting shame with all your soul on the land of Israel; 7 For this cause my hand has been stretched out against you, and I will give up your goods to be taken by the nations; I will have you cut off from the peoples and will put an end to you among the countries: I will give you up to destruction; and you will be certain that I am the Lord. 8 This is what the Lord has said: Because Moab and Seir are saying, See, the people of Judah are like all the nations; 9 For this cause, I will let the side of Moab be uncovered, and his towns on every side, the glory of the land, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon and as far as Kiriathaim. 10 To the children of the east I have given her for a heritage, as well as the children of Ammon, so that there may be no memory of her among the nations: 11 And I will be the judge of Moab; and they will see that I am the Lord. 12 This is what the Lord has said: Because Edom has taken his payment from the people of Judah, and has done great wrong in taking payment from them; 13 The Lord has said, My hand will be stretched out against Edom, cutting off from it man and beast: and I will make it waste, from Teman even as far as Dedan they will be put to the sword. 14 I will take payment from Edom because of my people Israel; and I will take Edom in hand in my wrath and in my passion: and they will have experience of my reward, says the Lord. 15 This is what the Lord has said: Because the Philistines have taken payment, with the purpose of causing shame and destruction with unending hate; 16 The Lord has said, See, my hand will be stretched out against the Philistines, cutting off the Cherethites and sending destruction on the rest of the sea-land. 17 And I will take great payment from them with acts of wrath; and they will be certain that I am the Lord when I send my punishment on them.
• Ezek 26:2 : 2 Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, Aha, she who was the doorway of the peoples is broken; she is turned over to them; she who was full is made waste;
• Joel 3:14 : 14 Give this out among the nations; make ready for war: get the strong men awake; let all the men of war come near, let them come up.
• Amos 1:1-9 : 1 The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa; what he saw about Israel in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earth-shock. 2 And he said, The Lord will give a lion's cry from Zion, his voice will be sounding from Jerusalem; and the fields of the keepers of sheep will become dry, and the top of Carmel will be wasted away. 3 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Damascus, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they have been crushing Gilead with iron grain-crushing instruments. 4 And I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, burning up the great houses of Ben-hadad. 5 And I will have the locks of the door of Damascus broken, and him who is seated in power cut off from the valley of Aven, and him in whose hand is the rod from the house of Eden; and the people of Aram will go away as prisoners into Kir, says the Lord. 6 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Gaza, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they took all the people away prisoners, to give them up to Edom. 7 And I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, burning up its great houses: 8 Him who is seated in power I will have cut off from Ashdod, and him in whose hand is the rod from Ashkelon; and my hand will be turned against Ekron, and the rest of the Philistines will come to destruction, says the Lord God. 9 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Tyre, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they gave up all the people prisoners to Edom, without giving a thought to the brothers' agreement between them. 10 And I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, burning up its great houses. 11 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Edom, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because his sword was turned against his brother, without pity, and his wrath was burning at all times, and he was angry for ever. 12 And I will send a fire on Teman, burning up the great houses of Bozrah. 13 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because in Gilead they had women with child cut open, so that they might make wider the limits of their land. 14 And I will make a fire in the wall of Rabbah, burning up its great houses, with loud cries in the days of war, with a storm in the day of the great wind: 15 And their king will be made prisoner, he and his captains together, says the Lord.
• Obad 1:12-13 : 12 Do not see with pleasure your brother's evil day, the day of his fate, and do not be glad over the children of Judah on the day of their destruction, or make wide your mouth on the day of trouble. 13 Do not go into the doors of my people on the day of their downfall; do not be looking on their trouble with pleasure on the day of their downfall, or put your hands on their goods on the day of their downfall.
• Mic 7:9-9 : 9 I will undergo the wrath of the Lord, because of my sin against him; till he takes up my cause and does what is right for me: when he makes me come out into the light, I will see his righteousness; 10 And my hater will see it and be covered with shame; she who said to me, Where is the Lord your God? my eyes will see their desire effected on her, now she will be crushed under foot like the dust of the streets.
• Hab 2:15-17 : 15 A curse on him who gives his neighbour the wine of his wrath, making him overcome with strong drink from the cup of his passion, so that you may be a witness of their shame! 16 You are full of shame in place of glory: take your part in the drinking, and let your shame be uncovered: the cup of the Lord's right hand will come round to you and your glory will be covered with shame. 17 For the violent acts against Lebanon will come on you, and the destruction of the cattle will be a cause of fear to you, because of men's blood and the violent acts against the land and the town and all who are living in it.
• Rev 18:6 : 6 Give to her as she gave, even an increased reward for her works; in the cup which was mixed by her, let there be mixed as much again for herself.
• Deut 32:41-43 : 41 If I make sharp my shining sword, and my hand is outstretched for judging, I will give punishment to those who are against me, and their right reward to my haters. 42 I will make my arrows red with blood, my sword will be feasting on flesh, with the blood of the dead and the prisoners, of the long-haired heads of my haters. 43 Be glad, O you his people, over the nations; for he will take payment for the blood of his servants, and will give punishment to his haters, and take away the sin of his land, for his people.