Lamentations 5:22 (KJV)

What does Lamentations 5:22 mean?

Lamentations 5:22 expresses a deep sense of abandonment and grief, as the people feel that God has completely rejected them and is extremely angry with them. The verse voices the pain of a community that believes it has been cut off from God's favor because of His intense wrath.

The speaker is the community of Jerusalem, addressing God after the destruction of their city and temple. This verse comes at the end of a prayer, capturing the raw emotion and despair of a people who feel forsaken. The words are not a final statement about God's character, but an honest reflection of how devastated and distant from God the survivors feel in that moment.

The Hebrew behind Lamentations 5:22

• "Utterly" and "rejected" both use the same Hebrew word: מָאַס (ma'as), which means to reject, despise, or cast off. The repetition in Hebrew emphasizes the totality of the rejection the people feel, as if God has not just rejected them once, but completely and repeatedly.
• "Very" is מְאֹד (me'od), which means "exceedingly" or "greatly." This word intensifies the sense of God's anger, showing that the people perceive His wrath as overwhelming.
• "Wroth" is קָצַף (qatsaph), meaning to be angry or enraged. This word conveys not just displeasure but a fierce, burning anger, highlighting the depth of the people's fear of God's response to their actions.

Why Lamentations 5:22 matters

• Lamentations 5:22 clears up the misconception that the people of Jerusalem felt hopeful or confident at this point; instead, it shows their honest struggle with feeling abandoned by God.
• The verse emphasizes the intensity of both God's anger and the people's sense of rejection, which helps explain the depth of their lament throughout the book.
• This verse connects to the wider passage by showing that lament and honest expression of pain are part of the biblical response to suffering, even when it feels like God is distant.