Lamentations 3:2

He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light. I AM THE MAN THAT HATH SEEN AFFLICTION - Jeremiah's own affliction in the dungeon of Malchiah (): that of his countrymen also in the siege. Both were types of that of Christ. Verse 2. HE HATH LED ME ... INTO DARKNESS - calamity. LIGHT - prosperity. Verse 3. HE TURNETH HIS HAND - to inflict again and again new strokes upon me. "His hand," which once used to protect me, now continually strikes me. "Against me is He turned ... He turneth against me" implies repeated inflictions. [Beth (b)]...

The letters of the alphabet are tripled in this chapter, which I had omitted to mention. In the first two chapters each verse begins with the successive letters of the alphabet, except that in the last chapter there is one instance of inversion, for Jeremiah has put פ, _phi_, before ע, _oin; _or it may be that the order has been changed by the scribes; but this is uncertain. Here then, as I have said, each letter is thrice repeated. Then the first, the second, and the third verse begins with א _aleph; _and the fourth begins with ב, _beth_, and so he goes on to the end. (174) He confirms here the last verse, for lie shews the cause or the manner of his afflictions, for he had been led into darkness and not into light. This kind of contrast has not the same force in other languages as it

1-20 The prophet relates the more gloomy and discouraging part of his experience, and how he found support and relief. In the time of his trial the Lord had become terrible to him. It was an affliction that was misery itself; for sin makes the cup of affliction a bitter cup. The struggle between unbelief and faith is often very severe. But the weakest believer is wrong, if he thinks that his strength and hope are perished from the Lord....

Verse Lamentations 3:2. _HE HATH - BROUGHT ME INTO DARKNESS_] In the sacred writings, _darkness_ is often taken for _calamity; light_, for _prosperity_....

EXPOSITION LAMENTATIONS 3:1 MONOLOGUE SPOKEN BY AN INDIVIDUAL BELIEVER WHOSE FATE IS BOUND UP WITH THAT OF THE NATION; OR PERHAPS BY THE NATION PERSONIFIED (see Introduction). LAMENTATIONS 3:1 SEEN. "To see" in Hebrew often means "to experience;" _e.g._...

HE HATH LED ME, AND BROUGHT [ME INTO] DARKNESS,.... Which oftentimes signifies distress, calamity, and affliction, of one sort or another: thus the Jews were brought into the darkness of captivity; Jeremiah to the darkness of a dungeon, to which there may be an allusion; and Christ his antitype was under the hidings of God's face; and at the same time there was darkness all around him, and all over the land; and all this is attributed to God; it being by his appointment, and by his direction and permission: BUT NOT [INTO] LIGHT; prosperity and joy; the affliction still continuing; though God does in his due time bring his people to the light of comfort, and of his gracious presence, as he did the above persons; see Psalms 97:11....

I am about to read a portion of Holy Scripture which may seem very strange to some of you, but it belongs to a part of the congregation, and I hope it may be the means of giving them comfort. I read it as a picture of the suffering of a soul under a sense of sin. I think it is a most graphic portrait of a heart that is aroused and made to feel its lost estate. If there are any such here, they will be sure to see themselves in the picture. Lamentations 3:1. _I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath._ It is a mistake that most souls make when in trouble, to suppose that no others ever felt as they do. John Bunyan describes Christian as being very much comforted by hearing someone quoting Scripture as he went through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, for then he perceived that there were others in like case with his own. Do not think, poor tr

CHAPTER 3 THE PROPHET'S SUFFERING AND DISTRESS This chapter is intensely personal. None but Jeremiah could have written these wonderful expressions of sorrow, the sorrows of the people of God into which he entered so fully, in such a way that they become his own. He shared all their afflictions, bore them himself and then was hated by them. It was the Spirit of Christ who created these feelings in the heart of the prophet. In reading these words of deep distress and the words of faith and waiting for Him, we must look beyond Jeremiah and see a picture of our Lord, “the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” His sorrow and His afflictions, the emotions of His holy soul, as well as the experiences and soul exercise of the believing remnant of Israel in days to come. The prophet speaks of himself as one who is smitten by the rod of God's wrath, the man that hath seen affliction. He had...

LAMENTATIONS 3. THE THIRD LAMENT. Here it is the singer that comes chiefly to the front; whereas in Lamentations 3:1 it had been Zion, and in Lamentations 3:2 it was Yahweh. EV hardly puts Lamentations 3:1 forcibly enough: it should read, It is I, even I the strong man, who know now, alas, what abasement means. The chant is artistically more clever than Lamentations 3:1 and Lamentations 3:2, but its heart is not so great. In form it has a cunning device all its own; for the first stanza has three initial Alephs, the second h

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR A SUFFERING PROPHET Lamentations 3:1-66 Again in chapter three the poet has adopted the acrostic style but in a slightly different form from that of the previous Chapter s. In Chapter s 1 and 2 only the first line of each stanza of three lines began with consecutive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In chapter 3 all three lines of each stanza begin with the same Hebrew letter. Chapter 3 is actually the same length as Chapter s 1 and 2 though the verse numeration makes it appear longer. In the first two Chapter s three lines of Hebrew verse comprise one verse of English text; in chapter 3 each line of Hebrew text has been counted as one verse of English text. Thus the verses of chapter 3 are only one third as long as those of Chapter s 1 and 2 and there are three times as many of them. The major exegetical problem arising in chapter 3 i