Lamentations 3:25: three sentences in a row that begin with good
25TETH. The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him.
The first of three consecutive lines that open with the same word. Our primary English edition also prints the Hebrew letter at the head of the verse, which is how you can see the pattern.
Short answer
Lamentations 3:25 attaches the goodness of the Lord to two things a person can be doing right now: hoping, and searching. It is the brightest point of the book, arriving just after the declaration that his compassion has not run out — chapter 3 is where the direction changes.
- Written by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 3 min read
Lamentations is short: five chapters, and a reputation as the bleakest book in the Bible. Chapter 3 is its geometric middle, and it is there that the direction turns.
What makes this line worth a morning is not only what it says but where it sits. A statement about goodness made in the hardest available place carries differently from the same statement made on an easy day.
Where this verse appears
The book gathers poems written after the fall of Jerusalem, and it does not minimise the scale of what was lost. Chapters 1, 2 and 4 are acrostics: each stanza begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
Chapter 3 pushes the form further. It gives three verses to every letter, which doubles the chapter and places it at the exact centre of the book. It is the most heavily worked section of the five.
A few verses earlier the text makes its turn: it recalls that the mercies of the Lord keep the speaker from being consumed, states that his faithfulness is great, and calls him the portion of the one speaking. This verse follows directly from that turn.
What it says
Look at the form before the content. In our primary English text, the Catholic Public Domain Version, each line carries the Hebrew letter that governs it — TETH here — and this verse shares that letter with the two that follow. All three open the same way. The poet does not call something good once in passing: the structure makes him say it three times over, at the heart of the book.
Goodness here is described in relation to two postures, and neither of them is an achievement. Hoping and seeking are what remain to someone who still has no answer. The verse addresses the goodness precisely to that state.
The seeking is ongoing rather than finished. The line is not about someone who already found; it is about someone still looking. Nothing here requires the search to have concluded well before the sentence applies.
Notice what it declines to promise. It does not say the wait will be short or that the answer arrives today. The very next line, in fact, calls it good to stand ready in silence. This is hope without a deadline, and that is what makes it usable.
What to do with it today
If you are waiting on something outside your control, this verse offers a small and useful repositioning: the wait is not dead time between the request and the reply. It is the place where the text locates the goodness.
An exercise for today, borrowed from the shape of the chapter: write three sentences that all begin with "it is good", about concrete things in front of you. The poet did it under orders from the alphabet; it works when it is a choice too.
A prayer to carry with you
Lord, I am still waiting and I do not know how much is left. In the meantime, let me look for you without rushing, and remind me that this is exactly where you are good. Amen.