Contemplative Bible Reading

Lamentations 3:64-65 (New Living Translation)

64 Pay them back, Lord,
for all the evil they have done.
65 Give them hard and stubborn hearts,
and then let your curse fall on them!

Lamenting the present world of woe, the writer asks God to “pay back” evil for the evil that the evil have done. Please God, hurt these others. (Should we ever ask that? Hmmm, well, it was the Old Testament and…)

One of the things the writer wants God to do is give the evil doers a hard heart. Other translations use the phrase “dullness of heart.” My paraphrase, “Please God, make it so that these people become apathetic. Nothing excites them for good or ill. Let everything in their lives be meh, blah, whatever, it is as it is, etc.”

God created us with the ability to be excited. Watch children. They feel the fullness of this gift of God. Imagine a child that sulks from moment to moment. That would be a horrible curse from God—removing one of God’s great gifts.

Please God, never let me curse myself with apathy and a hard or dull heart.