The language of the law court continues into verse 59, which Good News Translation opens with “Judge in my favor.” The Hebrew verb here is an imperative, but New English Bible follows the Septuagint in making the wording of this verse parallel to the wording of verse 58: “and gavest judgment in my favour.” However, parallelism with the previous verse is not a strong enough argument for altering the Hebrew text, which leads on appropriately to the remaining verses of the chapter with their appeal to God for justice.

The wrong done to me is passive and may need to be expressed in an active form; for example, “LORD, you have seen the wrongs my enemies have done to me” or “… you have seen how my enemies have wronged me.”

Judge thou my cause: judge is a command, although, for the sake of parallelism with verse 58, New English Bible translates “and gavest judgment in my favour.” It is best, however, to follow the Hebrew text along with Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation “Judge in my favor”; this may also be rendered “Give me justice” or “Do what is right for me.”

In some cases it is necessary to make clear the reason the poet is asking God to be his judge; that is, because God knows how he has been injured unjustly by his enemies. This may be expressed as, for example, “My enemies have done many evil things to me. So now, LORD, decide my case and show that I am right.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .