This elegy Lamentations 3 is both the most elaborate in form and the most sublime in its ideas of the five poems which compose the Book of Lamentations. It presents the image of the deepest suffering, passing on to the confession of sin, the acknowledgment of God’s justice, and the prayer of faith f... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT HATH SEEN AFFLICTION - i. e. hath experienced, suffered it.... [ Continue Reading ]
IS HE TURNED; HE TURNETH - Or, “surely against me” hath he turned “his hand” again and again “all the day long.”... [ Continue Reading ]
MADE OLD - Or, wasted: his strength slowly wasted as he pined away in sorrow. HE HATH BROKEN MY BONES - This clause completes the representation of the sufferer’s physical agonies. Here the idea is that of acute pain.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE HATH BUILDED ... - The metaphor is taken from the operations in a siege. GALL AND TRAVAIL - Or “travail;” i. e. bitterness and weariness (through toil).... [ Continue Reading ]
Or, “He hath” made me to dwell “in darkness,” i. e. in Sheol or Hades, “as those” forever “dead.”... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet feels as if enclosed within walls, and fettered.... [ Continue Reading ]
SHOUT - i. e. call for help. SHUTTETH OUT - Or, “shutteth in.” God has so closed up the avenues to the place in which he is immured, that his voice can find no egress.... [ Continue Reading ]
INCLOSED - Or, hedged Lamentations 3:7. HATH, MADE CROOKED - Or, “hath” turned aside. A solid wall being built across the main road, Jeremiah turns aside into by-ways, but finds them turned aside, so that they lead him back after long wandering to the place from where he started.... [ Continue Reading ]
Having dwelt upon the difficulties which hemmed in his path, he now shows that there are dangers attending upon escape. Lamentations 3:11 The meaning is, “God, as a lion, lying in wait, has made me turn aside from my path, but my flight was in vain, for springing upon me from His ambush lie has to... [ Continue Reading ]
REMEMBERING - Or, as in the margin. It is a prayer to Yahweh. MY MISERY - Or, “my” homelessness (Lamentations 1:7 note).... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS I RECALL - Rather, “This will I bring back to my heart, therefore will I hope.” Knowing that God hears the prayer of the contrite, he begins again to hope.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verses 22-42 are the center of the present poem, as it also holds the central place in the whole series of the Lamentations. In them the riches of God’s grace and mercy are set forth in the brightest colors, but no sooner are they ended than the prophet resumes the language of woe. THAT WE - He is... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD IS MY PORTION - “My portion is Yahweh,” see Numbers 18:20; Psalms 16:5 ff. THEREFORE WILL I HOPE IN HIM - A more full expression of the confidence present in the prophet’s mind in Lamentations 3:21, but based now upon God’s faithfulness in showing mercy.... [ Continue Reading ]
In these three verses, each beginning in the Hebrew with the word good, we have first the fundamental idea that Yahweh Himself is good, and if good to all, then especially is He so to those who being in adversity can yet wait in confidence upon His mercy. Lamentations 3:26 AND QUIETLY WAIT - liter... [ Continue Reading ]
Translate: Let him sit alone and keep silence; For He (God) hath laid the yoke upon him. Let him place his mouth in the dust; Perchance there is hope. Let him offer his cheek to him that smiteth him; Let him be filled to the full with reproach. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his yout... [ Continue Reading ]
Reasons for the resignation urged in the previous triplet.... [ Continue Reading ]
Neither does God approve of wanton cruelty inflicted by one man on another. Three examples are given: the treatment of prisoners of war; the procuring an unjust sentence before a legal tribunal acting in the name of God (see Exodus 21:6); and the perversion of justice generally.... [ Continue Reading ]
Why then does a loving God, who disapproves of suffering when inflicted by man upon man, Himself send sorrow and misery? “Because of sins.” Lamentations 3:37 Literally, “Who is this that spake and it was done, though אדני _'ădonāy_ commanded it not?” Lamentations 3:39 So long as God spares a m... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet urges men to search out their faults and amend them. Lamentations 3:40 AND TURN AGAIN TO THE LORD - Or, “and return to Yahweh.” The prep. (to) in the Hebrew implies not half way, but the whole. Lamentations 3:41 Literally, “Let us lift up our heart unto our hands unto God in heaven;”... [ Continue Reading ]
In verses 43-66, far from pardoning, God is still actively punishing His people. Rather, “Thou hast covered” Thyself “with wrath and pursued (Lamentations 1:3 note) us.” The covering (here and in Lamentations 3:44) is that of clothing and enwrapping.... [ Continue Reading ]
Omit “as.”... [ Continue Reading ]
DESOLATION - Or, devastation.... [ Continue Reading ]
The deep sympathy of the prophet, which pours itself forth in abundant tears over the distress of his people. Lamentations 3:51 Or, “Mine eye” causeth pain to my soul, i. e. maketh my soul ache, because of the sad fate of the maidens (Lamentations 1:4, Lamentations 1:18, ...).... [ Continue Reading ]
Or, “They who without cause are mine enemies have hunted me sore like a bird.” Probably the prophet is speaking of his personal sorrows.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY HAVE CUT OFF MY LIFE IN THE DUNGEON - Or, “They destroyed my life in the pit,” i. e. tried to destroy it by casting me into the cistern, and covering the month with a stone. See the margin reference.... [ Continue Reading ]
WATERS FLOWED OVER MINE HEAD - A figurative expression for great mental trouble.... [ Continue Reading ]
A prayer for deliverance and for vengeance upon his enemies. Lamentations 3:55 OUT OF THE LOW DUNGEON - “The lowest pit” of Psalms 88:6. Some consider that Psalms 69 was composed by Jeremiah, and is the prayer referred to here (Jeremiah 38:6 note). Lamentations 3:56 THOU HAST HEARD - In sending... [ Continue Reading ]