Lamentations 1:20 New English Translation

ר (Resh)

²⁰Look, O Lord! I am distressed;^[a]
my stomach is in knots!^[b]
My heart is pounding^[c] inside me.
Yes, I was terribly rebellious!^[d]
Out in the street the sword bereaves a mother of her children;^[e]
Inside the house death is present.^[f]

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Footnotes

Lamentations 1:20 tn Heb “because distress belongs to me” (כִּי־צַר־לִי, ki tsar li).
Lamentations 1:20 tn Heb “my bowels burn,” or “my bowels are in a ferment.” The verb חֳמַרְמָרוּ (khamarmaru) is an unusual form and derived from a debated root: Poalal perfect third person common plural from III חָמַר (khamar, “to be red,” HALOT 330 s.v. III חמר) or Peʿalʿal perfect third person common plural from I חָמַר (khamar, “to ferment, boil up,” BDB 330 s.v. I חָמַר). The Poalal stem of this verb occurs only three times in the OT: with פָּנִים (panim, “face,” Job 16:16) and מֵעִים (meʿim, “bowels,” Lam 1:20; 2:11). The phrase מֵעַי חֳמַרְמָרוּ (meʿay khamarmaru) means “my bowels burned” (HALOT 330 s.v.) or “my bowels are in a ferment,” as a euphemism for lower-intestinal bowel problems (BDB 330 s.v.). This phrase also occurs in later rabbinic literature (m. Sanhedrin 7:2). The present translation, “my stomach is in knots,” is not a literal equivalent to this Hebrew idiom; however, it is an attempt to approximate the equivalent English idiom.
Lamentations 1:20 tn The Niphl participle from הָפַךְ (hafakh, “to turn over”) functions verbally, referring to progressive present-time action (from the speaker’s viewpoint).
Lamentations 1:20 tn Heb “because I was certainly rebellious.” Using the infinitive absolute before the finite verb of the same root emphasizes the verb’s modality, here indicative mode.
Lamentations 1:20 tn Heb “in the street the sword bereaves.” The words “a mother of her children” are supplied in the translation as a clarification.
Lamentations 1:20 tn Heb “in the house it is like death.”

Lamentations 1:20 in all English translations

New English Translation (NET)