Let us test and examine our ways: Let us translates a command in the first person plural, which may also be expressed, for example, “We should test….” Us refers to the speaker and those he addresses his words to, and so some languages will require the inclusive pronoun. Test and examine are words of very similar meaning which Good News Translation and others reduce to a single verb, “Let us examine….” Our ways refers to “our way of life,” “the way we live,” “our conduct.” The thought is that by looking closely at our wrong manner of living, that is, our sinful lives, we will see that we should return to the LORD. This expression is used many times by the prophets in the sense of repenting of sins. For examples see Hosea 6.1; 7.10; 14.1; Amos 4.6, 8-11.

Verse 40 may sometimes be translated “We should examine carefully the way we are living, and we should then repent of our sins to the LORD” or, more idiomatically, “Let us look carefully at the wrong path we have taken, and let us say to the LORD, ‘Forgive us the wrong way we have walked.’ ”

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 .