Lamentations 3:64 is a prayer for justice. The writer asks the LORD to repay the people who have been wronging him, trusting that God will deal with them according to what they have done. It is spoken by the poet of Lamentations, who speaks in the voice of a suffering Judahite, and it is addressed directly to God as the one who hears and answers.
You will pay them back, the LORD, according to the work of their hands.
Lamentations 3:64 (WEB)
What Lamentations 3:64 Means
The verse opens with “You will pay them back,” which is a confident appeal to God as the one who settles accounts. The writer is not taking revenge into his own hands. He hands the matter to the LORD, asking that the wrong done to him be answered by a righteous judge rather than by himself or by mere luck.
The phrase “according to the work of their hands” carries the idea of fair measure. The enemies will receive what their actions have earned. It is a plea for justice that matches the offense, not for cruelty beyond it. The verse does not spell out the form that repayment will take, and it does not promise that the writer will personally see or enjoy it.
What the verse does not do is give permission for private vengeance or hatred. It shows an honest believer bringing raw grief and anger before God, trusting the outcome to him. Read on its own, it is a cry for God to act; read in its book, it is a cry that expects God to be faithful to his own character as judge.
The Context of Lamentations 3:64
Lamentations is a collection of five poems mourning the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 BC and the devastation that followed. The book is traditionally attributed to Jeremiah, and its poems speak from within the ruined city, to readers who had lost their homes, their temple, and many of their people. The third chapter is unusual because its poet describes his personal suffering in vivid detail before turning to hope.
The verses just before it in 3:61 to 3:63 describe the enemies’ mockery and plots, and the writer’s sense that he has become the object of their scorn. Verse 64 answers that complaint by appealing to God to act. The verses after it, 3:65 and 3:66, press the same request more sharply, which means 3:64 reads as the center of a sustained plea rather than a stray threat. Seen this way, the verse is an appeal to God’s justice within a larger lament.
Key Phrases in Lamentations 3:64
Romans 12:19
Don’t seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God’s wrath. For it is written, “Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.”
(WEB)
Paul echoes the same theme of leaving vengeance to God. Where Lamentations asks God to repay, Romans reminds believers not to seek revenge themselves, trusting that the Lord will act. Together they show a consistent biblical pattern of entrusting justice to the one who judges rightly.
Psalm 37:5
Commit your way to the LORD. Trust also in him, and he will do this…
(WEB)
This psalm encourages the faithful to commit their way to the LORD and trust him to act. It pairs well with Lamentations 3:64 by moving from the cry for justice to a calm confidence that God will bring it about in his own time and way.
A Short Prayer From Lamentations 3:64
Lord, you have heard the things said against me and the plans made to harm me. I bring my anger and my hurt to you honestly, because I cannot carry them rightly on my own. You see what has been done, and you know what is fair. I ask you to act with justice, to repay according to what has been done, and to deal with what I cannot fix. Help me to release my need for revenge into your hands, and give me peace while I wait for you to judge rightly. Amen.
