So I say: this verse is introduced by the Hebrew word meaning “I said,” which often has the sense of “I thought” or “I said to myself.” In a long Hebrew text this word often marks a transition in the outlook of the speaker, as in Jonah 2.4. It indicates that the situation is not really as bad as it seems. So here, when his despair is at its deepest, the sufferer is about to find grounds for hope.

What he says is literally “Gone is my enduring and my hope from the LORD.” “Enduring” and “hope” are two connected nouns which have essentially one meaning. Glory is one meaning of the first noun, but in this context the sense is the capacity to endure, survive, go on living. The poet is thinking here of the possibility of a long life. His hope for the future, which is based on the LORD, appears to be lost. Good News Translation expresses the thought well: “I do not have much longer to live.” Expectation is “hope,” as used also in Psalm 39.7: “My hope is in thee.” See also Proverbs 10.28; 11.7; 13.12.

The expression Gone is … my expectation from the LORD suggests that there is no longer anything to look forward to; it may be rendered, for example, “I have decided that the LORD will not let me see another day” or “I feel that God will soon make me die.”

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 .