Lamentations3:22

Translation

It is through the mercies

of YHVH (read Adonai) that we are not destroyed,

for His compassions

never end.

Paraphrase

It is on account of the loving mercy of THE ETERNAL AND PERSONAL GOD that we are not judged with eternal punishment; for His compassion toward us never ends.

Footnotes

1

This Hebrew word is difficult to render in English because it has so many aspects and connotations. It often means “kindness,” but it is much more than kindness as we know it. This type of kindness also includes “mercy, goodness, love, piety, faithfulness, affection, favor and pity.” The phrase “lovingkindness” has become the most common way to express the word in English. I have rendered it as “mercies” in my translation because relenting from punishment is more closely tied to mercy than anything else, and as “loving mercy” in my paraphrase to show that there are multiple layers of meaning in this word.

2

This verb has root the meaning of “finished” and from it grow other meanings such as “completed, destroyed, consumed, exhausted, filled.”

3

This is first of all the word “womb;” it came to mean “compassion” as the affection one had toward a sibling because he had come from the same womb.