Lamentations 3

¹I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

²He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.

³Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.

La 3:1-66. Jeremiah proposes his own experience under afflictions, as an example as to how the Jews should behave under theirs, so as to have hope of a restoration; hence the change from singular to plural (La 3:22, 40-47). The stanzas consist of three lines, each of which begins with the same Hebrew letter. Aleph. 1-3. seen affliction--his own in the dungeon of Malchiah (Jr 38:6); that of his countrymen also in the siege. Both were types of that of Christ.

⁴My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.

⁵He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.

⁶He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.

4-6. (Job 16:8).

⁷He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.

⁸Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

⁹He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.

7-9. hedged--(Job 3:23; Ho 2:6). chain--literally, “chain of brass.”

¹⁰He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.

¹¹He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.

¹²He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

¹³He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

¹⁴I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.

¹⁵He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.

10-13. (Job 10:16; Ho 13:7, 8).

¹⁶He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.

¹⁷And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.

¹⁸And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:

16-18. gravel--referring to the grit that often mixes with bread baked in ashes, as is the custom of baking in the East (Pr 20:17). We fare as hardly as those who eat such bread. The same allusion is in “Covered me with ashes,” namely, as bread.

¹⁹Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

²⁰My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

²¹This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

19-21. This gives the reason why he gave way to the temptation to despair. The Margin, “Remember” does not suit the sense so well. wormwood ... gall--(Jr 9:15).

²²It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

²³They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

²⁴The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

22-24. (Mal 3:6).

²⁵The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

²⁶It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

²⁷It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

25-27. The repetition of “good” at the beginning of each of the three verses heightens the effect. wait--(Is 30:18).

²⁸He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

²⁹He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.

³⁰He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.

28-30. The fruit of true docility and patience. He does not fight against the yoke (Jr 31:18; Ac 9:5), but accommodates himself to it. alone--The heathen applauded magnanimity, but they looked to display and the praise of men. The child of God, in the absence of any witness, “alone,” silently submits to the will of God. borne it upon him--that is, because he is used to bearing it on him. Rather, “because He (the Lord, La 3:26) hath laid it on him” [Vatablus].

³¹For the Lord will not cast off for ever:

³²But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.

³³For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

31-33. True repentance is never without hope (Psa 94:14).

³⁴To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,

³⁵To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,

³⁶To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.

34-36. This triplet has an infinitive in the beginning of each verse, the governing finite verb being in the end of La 3:36, “the Lord approveth not,” which is to be repeated in each verse. Jeremiah here anticipates and answers the objections which the Jews might start, that it was by His connivance they were “crushed under the feet” of those who “turned aside the right of a man.” God approves (literally, “seeth,” Ha 1:13; so “behold,” “look on,” that is, look on with approval) not of such unrighteous acts; and so the Jews may look for deliverance and the punishment of their foes.

³⁷Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?

³⁸Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?

³⁹Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

37-39. Who is it that can (as God, Psa 33:9) effect by a word anything, without the will of God?

⁴⁰Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.

⁴¹Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.

⁴²We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.

40-42. us--Jeremiah and his fellow countrymen in their calamity. search--as opposed to the torpor wherewith men rest only on their outward sufferings, without attending to the cause of them (Psa 139:23, 24).

⁴³Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.

⁴⁴Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.

⁴⁵Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.

43-45. covered--namely, thyself (so La 3:44), so as not to see and pity our calamities, for even the most cruel in seeing a sad spectacle are moved to pity. Compare as to God “hiding His face,” Psa 10:11; 22:25.

⁴⁶All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

⁴⁷Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.

⁴⁸Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

46-48. Pe is put before Ain (La 3:43, 46), as in La 2:16, 17; 4:16, 17. (La 2:16.)

⁴⁹Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,

⁵⁰Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven.

⁵¹Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.

49-51. without ... intermission--or else, “because there is no intermission” [Piscator], namely, of my miseries.

⁵²Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.

⁵³They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.

⁵⁴Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.

52-54. a bird--which is destitute of counsel and strength. The allusion seems to be to Pr 1:17 [Calvin]. without cause--(Psa 69:4; 109:3, 4). Type of Messiah (Joh 15:25).

⁵⁵I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.

⁵⁶Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.

⁵⁷Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.

55-57. I called out of dungeon--Thus the spirit resists the flesh, and faith spurns the temptation [Calvin], (Psa 130:1; Jon 2:2).

⁵⁸O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

⁵⁹O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.

⁶⁰Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.

58-60. Jeremiah cites God’s gracious answers to his prayers as an encouragement to his fellow countrymen, to trust in Him. pleaded--(Psa 35:1; Mi 7:9).

⁶¹Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;

⁶²The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

⁶³Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.

61-63. their reproach--their reproachful language against me.

⁶⁴Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.

⁶⁵Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.

⁶⁶Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.

64-66. (Jr 11:20; 2Ti 4:14).