Lamentations 3:25

ט (Tet)

3:25 The Lord is good to those who trust ¹  in him,

to the one ²  who seeks him.

Lamentations 2:16

פ (Pe)

2:16 All your enemies

gloated over you. ³ 

They sneered and gnashed their teeth;

they said, “We have destroyed ⁴  her!

Ha! We have waited a long time for this day.

We have lived to see it!” ⁵ 

[3:25]  ¹ tn Heb “wait for him”

[3:25]  ² tn Heb “to the soul…” The term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul”) is a synecdoche of part (= “the soul who seeks him”) for the whole person (= “the person who seeks him”).

[2:16]  ³ tn Heb “they have opened wide their mouth against you.”

[2:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “We have swallowed!”

[2:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “We have attained, we have seen!” The verbs מָצָאנוּ רָאִינוּ (matsa’nu ra’inu) form a verbal hendiadys in which the first retains its full verbal sense and the second functions as an object complement. It forms a Hebrew idiom that means something like, “We have lived to see it!” The three asyndetic 1st person common plural statements in 2:16 (“We waited, we destroyed, we saw!”) are spoken in an impassioned, staccato style reflecting the delight of the conquerors.