Lamentations 5:15 (KJV)

Passage

The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

Nearby Context

Lamentations 5:13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

Lamentations 5:14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.

Lamentations 5:15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

Lamentations 5:16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!

Lamentations 5:17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "heart", "ceased", "dance", "turned", and "mourning". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "heart" and "ceased", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 14's "The elders have ceased from the gate..." into verse 16's "The crown is fallen from our head...", so "heart" and "ceased" belong inside that flow. In Lamentations context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "heart" and "ceased" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.