Lamentations 3:35

To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, TO CRUSH ... TO TURN ASIDE ... TO SUBVERT. This triplet has an infinitive in the beginning of each verse, the governing finite verb being in the end of , "the Lord approveth not," which is to be repeated in each verse. Jeremiah here anticipates and answers the objection 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 with approbation, ; so, "behold," "look on" - i:e., look on with approval) not of such unrighteous acts; and so the Jews may look for deliverance, and the punishment of their foes. Verse 35. TO TURN ASIDE THE RIGHT OF A MAN BEFORE THE FACE OF THE MOST HIGH. Any "turning aside...

21-36 Having stated his distress and temptation, the prophet shows how he was raised above it. Bad as things are, it is owing to the mercy of God that they are not worse. We should observe what makes for us, as well as what is against us. God's compassions fail not; of this we have fresh instances every morning. Portions on earth are perishing things, but God is a portion for ever. It is our duty, and will be our comfort and satisfaction, to hope and quietly to wait for the salvation of the Lord. Afflictions do and will work very much for good: many have found it good to bear this yoke in their youth; it has made many humble and serious, and has weaned them from the world, who otherwise would have been proud and unruly. If tribulation work patience, that patience will work experience, and that experience a hope that makes not ashamed. Due thoughts of the evil of sin, and of our own sinf...

Verse 35. _TO TURN ASIDE THE RIGHT OF A MAN_] To make a man lose his right, because one of the higher orders opposes him. Dr. _Blayney_ thinks that עליון _elyon_, instead of being referred to _God_, should be considered as pointing out one of the _chief_ of the people. I do not see that we gain any thing by this. The evil fact is, _turning aside the right of a man_; and the aggravation of it is, doing it _before the face of the Most High_; that is, in a court of justice, where God is ever considered to be present....

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....

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._...

TO TURN ASIDE THE RIGHT OF A MAN,.... The Targum is, of a poor man; not to do him justice in a court of judicature; to cause judgment to incline to the wrong side; to give the cause against a man, to give a wrong sentence; this is disapproved of by the Lord, and forbidden by him: BEFORE THE FACE OF THE MOST HIGH; either before the most high God, he being present and among the gods, the judges, when they pass sentence; and yet, to pass a wrong one in his presence, without any regard to him, or fear of him, must be provoking to him: or, "before a superior" f, as some render it; before a judge that sits upon the bench; endeavouring by unjust charges, wrong pleas, and false witnesses, to deprive a man of his right; see Ecclesiastes 5:8. f נגד פני עליון "coram facie superioris", Junius Tremellius....

The first part of this chapter is one of the saddest in the whole Book of God; yet I expect it has ministered as much consolation as some of the brightest pages of Holy Writ, because there are children of God who are the subjects of great suffering and sorrow, and when they turn to such a passage as this, they see that one of the Lord's own prophet has gone that way before them; and when they see the footprints of another of God's people in the dark and gloomy valley that they are themselves traversing they are encouraged. Besides, the chapter does not end as it begins. There is daylight for the poor sufferer after all, so we shall read the sad utterances of the prophet in the hope that, if we have ever known experiences similar to his, we may learn where to find comfort even as he did. Lamentations 3:1. I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath

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

TURN ASIDE, &C. Reference to Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 16:19; Deuteronomy 24:17; Deuteronomy 27:19, same word). THE MOST HIGH. Hebrew. _'Elyon._ App-4....