The first word of this verse has an impersonal subject: It is good. The verse goes on to describe the kind of attitude that is good, that is, patiently and silently waiting for the LORD to intervene and save. In verse 26 Good News Translation has shifted from the indefinite that one should to the definite “for us” and has expressed the phrase salvation of the LORD as a verb phrase, “wait for him to save us.” Good News Translation switches to “we” and “us” from verse 26 through the rest of this section to verse 39.

In some languages it will be necessary to go even further than Good News Translation and make clear what we are to be saved from. Here the reference is to salvation from the enemies of Israel, not from the sufferings inflicted by God. We may also say, for example, “we wait quietly for God to help us.”

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 .