Lamentations 3:36

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 36. _TO SUBVERT A MAN IN HIS CAUSE_] To prevent his having justice done him in a lawsuit, c., by undue interference, as by suborning false witnesses, or exerting any kind of influence in opposition to truth and right.-_Blayney_. _THE LORD APPROVED NOT._] Instead of אדני _Adonai_, seventeen MSS., of _Kennicott's_, and one ancient of my own, have יהוה _Yehovah_. _Approveth not_, לא ראה lo raah, doth not see, turns away his face from it, abhors it....

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 SUBVERT A MAN IN HIS CAUSE,.... A poor man, as the Targum, which aggravates it; as by courses and methods taken in an open court, so by secret underhand ways, to get the cause from him, and injure him in his property: THE LORD APPROVETH NOT; or, "seeth not" g; which some understand as spoken by wicked men, who do the above things, and flatter themselves that God sees not, and takes no notice of them, Ezekiel 9:9; and others read it interrogatively, "doth not the Lord see?" h he does; he sees all the actions of men, nothing is hid from him; but he sees not with approbation; he do not look upon such things with delight and pleasure, but with abhorrence, Habakkuk 1:13. The Targum is, "is it possible that it should not be revealed before the Lord?'' g לא ראה "non vi

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

See intr. note....