_I am the man that hath seen affliction_ I myself have suffered affliction in this time of public calamity. He speaks, probably, with a particular regard to the ill treatment he had met with in the discharge of his prophetical office. Some indeed suppose that he speaks in this and the subsequent ver... [ Continue Reading ]
_Surely against me is he turned_ The course of his providence toward me is quite altered. He was formerly kind and gracious, but now exercises an afflicting hand against me, and that not occasionally, or for a short time, but continually, _all the day._ The phrase, _He turneth his hand against me_,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Also when I cry and shout_ When, under a conviction that, in my present distressed condition, I cannot deliver myself, and that no creature can deliver me, I make application to God in prayer for deliverance, and am serious, fervent, and importunate in my addresses to him; _he shutteth out my praye... [ Continue Reading ]
_He hath enclosed my way with hewn stone_ He hath not only hedged it up _with thorns, Hosea 2:6_, but stopped it up with a stone wall which cannot be broken through; so that _my paths_ are _made crooked_ That is, I traverse to and fro, to the right hand and to the left, to try to get forward, but I... [ Continue Reading ]
_I was a derision to all my people_ To all the wicked among them, who made themselves merry with the prophet's griefs and the public judgments; _and their song all the day_ Hebrew, נגינתם, their instrument of music. The word, says Blaney, “is commonly rendered _their song;_ but I rather think it mea... [ Continue Reading ]
_This I recall to my mind_, &c. Here the prophet begins to suggest motives of patience and consolation: as if he had said, I call to mind the following considerations, and thereupon I conceive hope and comfort. And surely they are such as afford a sufficient ground for trusting in God under the seve... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord is my portion, saith my soul_ An interest in the favour and love of God, and his presence with me, my heart tells me, is the best inheritance. And, possessing these, I have that which is sufficient to balance all my troubles, and make up all my losses. For, while portions on earth are empt... [ Continue Reading ]
_It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth_ That he be inured betimes to bear those useful restraints which may give him a right sense of the duty which he owes to God, and the obedience he ought to pay to his laws. For the prophet's expression is very applicable to the yoke of God's c... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord will not cast off for ever_ The truly penitent that put their trust in him, and sincerely desire and seek reconciliation with him: though he may for a time appear to estrange himself from them, yet he will certainly return to them. _Though he cause grief_ Though, as a prudent parent, he ma... [ Continue Reading ]
_To crush under his feet_, &c. In these verses certain acts of tyranny, malice, and injustice are specified, in the practice of which men are prone to indulge themselves one toward another, but which the divine goodness is far from countenancing or approving by any similar conduct. By _the prisoners... [ Continue Reading ]
_Who is he that saith_ That commands an event to take place, or predicts that it shall take place, _and it cometh to pass_ accordingly, _when the Lord commandeth not?_ Or who designs a thing, and brings his designs to effect, when the Lord is against him? “Haughty tyrants may boast of their power as... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore_, &c. The prophet here seems to check and blame himself for the complaints he had made in the former part of the chapter, wherein he appeared to reflect upon God as unkind and severe. And from the doctrine of God's sovereign and universal providence, which he had asserted in the last two... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let us search and try our ways_ This will be a more reasonable and profitable employment than that of complaining and murmuring against the providence of God. Let us search what our ways have been, and try whether they have been right and good or not. Let us examine our tempers, words, and works, a... [ Continue Reading ]
_We have transgressed_, &c. Here the prophet shows what will be the effect of a proper searching and trying of our ways; we shall be convinced of our sinfulness and guilt: and he here teaches us that confession of sin must accompany petition for the pardon of it. For he that would find mercy must co... [ Continue Reading ]
_Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water_ In this and the three following verses the prophet shows that the misfortunes of his country constituted no small part of his personal affliction. _Mine eye affecteth my heart_ Hebrew, עוללה לנפשׁי, _preys upon my soul_, as the Vulgate renders the express... [ Continue Reading ]
_Mine enemies chased me sore_ “The prophet in this, and the following verses, describes his own sufferings, when his enemies seized him and put him into the dungeon, Jeremiah 37:16; Jeremiah 38:6. He compares them to a fowler in pursuit of a bird; so, saith he, they sought all opportunities to take... [ Continue Reading ]
_O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong_ Here the prophet adverts to his present sufferings, and the ill usage he met with, concerning which he appeals to God; as if he had said, Thou hast seen that I have done no wrong at all, but that I suffer a great deal. He that knows all things knew, 1st, The malice... [ Continue Reading ]
_Render to them a recompense_, &c. See note on Jeremiah 11:20. The verbs in these verses are not in the imperative mood, but all in the future tense, and certainly should have been so rendered, as indeed they are by the LXX., Αποδωσεις αυτοις ανταποδομα Κυριε Αποδωσεις αυτοις και διας μου μοχθον. Συ... [ Continue Reading ]