This is the safe refuge, this is the supreme refuge; taking refuge here, one is freed from all suffering.

Etaṃ kho saraṇaṃ khemaṃ — this is the safe refuge: the same words from verse 189 but with the pronoun changed: na-etaṃ (“not this”) becomes etaṃ (“this”). Refuge in the Three Jewels and the Four Truths is the safe refuge that mountains and forests cannot offer.

Etaṃ saraṇamuttamaṃ — this is the supreme refuge: uttama — supreme, unsurpassed. There is no refuge superior to the Buddha-Dhamma-Sangha experientially understood.

Sabbadukkhā pamuccati — one is freed from all suffering: the promise that material refuges could not fulfill (verse 189) is fulfilled here. Direct comprehension of the Four Truths produces liberation from all (sabba) suffering.

The sequence 188-192 is one of the most architecturally perfect compositions in the Dhammapada: false refuges (188) → their insufficiency (189) → the true refuges and their content (190-191) → their sufficiency (192). The rhetorical structure makes the conclusion irresistible.