Lamentations 3:50

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Until Yahweh look down, and see from heaven.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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יַשְׁקִ֣יף

shâqaph

H8259

“to look down”

Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 22× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 18:16

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 2457

to overlook, look down or out, overhang, look out and down - (Niphal) to lean over (and look), look down - (Hiphil) to look down, look down upon

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

5: words
5: distinct lemmas
Prophets: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is יַשְׁקִ֣יף to look down H8259 — appearing just 22 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

יַשְׁקִ֣יף to look down H8259 occurs in 22 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
2 nouns
1 preposition

Verb forms

יַשְׁקִ֣יף Hiphil · Imperfect
וְיֵ֔רֶא Qal · Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 8 words from the Hebrew and 9 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 5 Hebrew tokens and 8 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Lamentations 3:50 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Isaiah 63:15 Look down from heaven, and see from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory: where are your zeal and your mighty acts? the yearning of your heart and your compassion is restrained toward me.
Psalms 80:14–16 Turn again, we beg you, God of hosts. Look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine,
Psalms 102:19–20 For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary. From heaven, Yahweh saw the earth;
Lamentations 5:1 Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us: Look, and see our reproach.
Isaiah 62:6–7 I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day nor night: you who call on Yahweh, take no rest,
Isaiah 64:1 Oh that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence,
Lamentations 2:20 Look, Yahweh, and see to whom you have done thus! Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
Daniel 9:16–19 Lord, according to all your righteousness, let your anger and please let your wrath be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people are become a reproach to all who are round about us.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Lamentations 3:50 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

עַד יַשְׁקִ֣יף וְיֵ֔רֶא יְהוָ֖ה מִשָּׁמָֽיִם

Until Yahweh look down, and see from heaven.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Lamentations 3:50 Septuagint · lemma form

ἕως ὅς διακύπτω καί ὁράω κύριος ἐκ οὐρανός

until the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Lamentations 3:50 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Lam 3:50 Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven.

Ver. 50. Till the Lord look down.] Let God but see the rainbow of sound repentance in our hearts, and he will soon shine forth, and cause it to clear up.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

Till--His prayer is not without hope, wherein it differs from the blind grief of unbelievers.

look down, &c.-- (Isa 63:15).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

John Calvin's Commentaries

The Prophet here makes a distinction between his weeping and that blind sorrow by which the unbelieving are affected and violently agitated: they have no regard to God. Then the Prophet says here that he not only wept, but that he also prayed and waited for God to put an end to evils. As I have already said, the unbelieving grieve abundantly in adversities, nay, they abandon themselves to sorrow; but they turn away wholly from God, and are like wild beasts. Then the Prophet points out the right way to mourn: our eyes must flow down to weariness and without rest, but at the same time we must wait until God be propitious to us. Therefore this verse connects well with the former, until Jehovah look down and see from heaven; for otherwise tears would draw us to despair, and despair would become the cause of fury; for we see that the ungodly murmur against God.

Thus, then, ought we to weep, in order that we may at the same time cherish hope while we wait for God to look down on us and to see our miseries from heaven. The word heaven, is not added uselessly, because men in their evils, when they seek God, are filled with terror, for they do not think that they can ascend to him: hence, then, it is, that they despond, for they imagine that God is too remote from them. The Prophet therefore anticipates here this false notion, and says that we ought nevertheless to wait until God looks down from heaven; which corresponds with what is said in the Psalms: that God is high and yet has respect to low things. (Psalm 113:4-6.) Though, then, the majesty of God is elevated above all the heavens, yet this does not prevent him familiarly to regard what is low and despised in the world. At length it follows, —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

50. Till the Lord look down etc.] Cp. Isa_63:15.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

I called upon thy name, O Lord,.... As in times past, so in the present distress; when all hope was gone, and all help failed, still there was a God to go to, and call upon:

out of the low dungeon; or "dungeon of lownesses" (r); the lowest dungeon, the deepest distress, a man or people could be in; yet then and there it is not too late to call upon the Lord; and there may be hope of deliverance out of such an estate by him.

(r) "e cisterna infimitatum", Piscator.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

That is, until the Lord show me some favour. See the notes on Lam 1:9.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Lamentations, in the Prophets, opens this verse with 5 words (5 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is shâqaph (“to look down”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “to look down” (shâqaph) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Genesis 18:16, which shares the word «to look down», read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«יַשְׁקִ֣יף» is a Hiphil Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 5 Hebrew ↔ 8 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 11 words in this verse.
5 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 5 words in this verse.