Lamentations 3:65 is a prayer in which the speaker asks God to bring a curse on his enemies, asking that they be left with a hardened heart as a judgment. It appears in a long poem of grief over the fall of Jerusalem, and the speaker, traditionally identified with the prophet Jeremiah, speaks to God on behalf of a suffering people. Read in its setting, the verse is less a call for personal revenge than an appeal to God as the one who judges rightly.
You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
Lamentations 3:65 (WEB)
What Lamentations 3:65 Means
The verse is short, but each phrase carries weight. “You will give them hardness of heart” is an appeal for God to let the enemies harden in their course, so that their stubbornness leads to their own undoing. “Your curse to them” makes clear that the speaker is asking God, not himself, to carry out the judgment. The sentence is written as a statement of confidence that God will do this, which shows how fully the speaker trusts God’s justice.
What the verse does not do is give the reader permission to wish harm on anyone. It is part of an honest lament, where pain is brought directly to God rather than held in silence. The speaker is handing the question of justice to the one who sees everything, which is a very different posture from taking matters into his own hands.
The Context of Lamentations 3:65
Lamentations is a collection of five poems mourning the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon in 586 BC. The book is traditionally attributed to Jeremiah, and its audience is the grieving remnant of Judah, who had watched their city, temple and king fall. Chapter 3 stands at the center of the book and moves from the deepest despair toward a renewed confidence in God’s steadfast love.
The verses just before Lamentations 3:65 describe enemies who plot and mock, and the speaker says he has become their song. Verse 64 asks God to repay them according to what their hands have done. Verse 65 continues that request, and verse 66 ends with a plea for God to pursue them in anger. Seen this way, the verse is part of a plea for God to act as a just judge, which changes the sense of a prayer that might otherwise sound harsh on its own.
Key Phrases in Lamentations 3:65
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 gives a similar instruction, telling believers not to take revenge but to leave room for God’s wrath. It echoes the same trust that Lamentations 3:65 expresses, placing justice in God’s hands instead of our own.
Psalm 37:5
Commit your way to the LORD. Trust also in him, and he will do this…
(WEB)
This verse invites the reader to commit their way to the Lord and trust him to act. It shows the same confidence that God will bring about what is right, which runs through the prayer in Lamentations 3.
A Short Prayer From Lamentations 3:65
Lord, I bring you the hurt I carry and the anger that rises when I see others mocking what is good. I do not want to take the place of the judge, so I give you the justice I cannot give myself. Show me where my own heart has grown hard, and soften it where it needs to change. Hold the people who have wronged me in your sight, and let your righteousness be the final word. Keep me from seeking revenge, and fill me with trust in your faithful love. Amen.
