Lamentations 3:45

Hebrew Bible

44 You shrouded yourself with a cloud so that no prayer could get through. 45 You make us like filthy scum in the estimation of the nations. 46 פ (Pe) All our enemies have gloated over us; 47 panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction.

1 Corinthians 4:13

New Testament

12 We do hard work, toiling with our own hands. When we are verbally abused, we respond with a blessing, when persecuted, we endure, 13 when people lie about us, we answer in a friendly manner. We are the world’s dirt and scum, even now. 14 I am not writing these things to shame you, but to correct you as my dear children.

 Notes and References

"... Significantly, as Yahweh answers him, Job engages in expressions of humility and self-deprecation (Job 40:3–5; 42:1–6). Similar language is used to describe the self-perception of the people amidst their suffering in Lamentations 3:45, the only verse of Lamentations to find quotation (or, at the very least, allusion) in the New Testament, appearing almost verbatim in 1 Corinthians 4:13. Theodical concerns are thus shared across the entire canon ..."

Peters, Christopher William Tears of Anger: The Compositional Function and Theology of Imprecation in the Book of Lamentations (p. 231) John W. Rawlings School of Divinity, 2023

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