Passage
My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten goodness.
Lamentations 3:17 (LSB)
Nearby Context
Lamentations 3:15 He has saturated me with bitterness; He has sated me with wormwood.
Lamentations 3:16 He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust.
Lamentations 3:17 My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten goodness.
Lamentations 3:18 So I say, “My strength has perished, As well as my hopeful waiting which comes from Yahweh.”
Lamentations 3:19 Remember my affliction and my homelessness, the wormwood and gall.
Study Lenses
The verse centers on "soul", "been", "rejected", "peace", "forgotten", and "goodness". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "soul" and "been", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 16's "He has broken my teeth with gravel..." into verse 18's "So I say My strength has perished...", so "soul" and "been" 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 "soul" and "been" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.