like those long dead. it is perished! We must be far from thinking that, though God cause grief, the world will relieve and help us. ii. Note, The Israel of God, though children of light, sometimes walk in darkness. a. I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath: In chapters 1 and 2, Jeremiah wrote mainly as Jerusalem personified. Commentary for Lamentations 3 . He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; In 1, 2, and 4, each of the 22 verses begins with a successive letter of the Greek alphabet. Note, It becomes us, when we are in trouble, to justify God, by owning our sins, and laying the load upon ourselves for them. 1. Or, it may be rendered, "let him give his cheek.". Bad as the case is, one favourable look from heaven will set all to rights. The prophet here laments the injuries and indignities done to those to whom respect used to be shown, ver 1, 2. 3. For the destruction of the daughter of my people. 1. Therefore the sufferer is thus penitent, thus patient, because he believes that God is gracious and merciful, which is the great inducement both to evangelical repentance and to Christian patience. a. 41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. We have transgressed and rebelled; The reflected beams of God's kindness to them used to be the beauty of Israel; but now "thou hast covered us with anger, so that our glory is concealed and gone; now God is angry with us, and we do not appear that illustrious people that we have formerly been thought to be." It is evident that in the preceding verses there is a bitterness of complaint against the bitterness of adversity, that is not becoming to man when under the chastising hand of God; and, while indulging this feeling, all hope fled. 3. 2. God will take his part, and bring him safely through all hardships. The faithful lament their calamities, and hope in God's mercies. Waters of affliction flowed over my head. A sad complaint of God's displeasure and the fruits of it, ver 1-20. That, whatever sorrow we are in, it is what God has allotted us, and his hand is in it. Destroy them in such a manner that all who see it may say, It is a destruction from the Almighty, who sits in the heavens and laughs at them (Ps 2 4), and may own that the heavens do rule," Dan 4 26. And to those who thus wait and seek God will be gracious; he will show them his marvellous lovingkindness. If God disciplines us when we are young, it is to train us for a fruitful future. According to the work of their hands. Bad as things are, it is owing to the mercy of God that they are not worse. 2. b. Lamentations 3 1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the LORD's wrath. 33 For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. And broken my bones. VII. thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul" (that is, as it follows), "thou hast redeemed my life, hast rescued that out of the hands of those who would have taken it away, hast saved that when it was ready to be swallowed up, hast given me that for a prey." Do not fear: How powerful is this word when spoken by the Spirit of the Lord to a disconsolate heart. By soul - is humbled in me. General Epistles Your partnership makes all we do possible. Dr. Blayney thinks that elyon, instead of being referred to God, should be considered as pointing out one of the chief of the people. When we are sedate and quiet under our afflictions, when we sit alone and keep silence, do not run to and fro into all companies with our complaints, aggravating our calamities, and quarrelling with the disposals of Providence concerning us, but retire into privacy, that we may in a day of adversity consider, sit alone, that we may converse with God and commune with our own hearts, silencing all discontented distrustful thoughts, and laying our hand upon our mouth, as Aaron, who, under a very severe trial, held his peace. b. 2. General Epistles The wormwood and the gall. Fear not. Like the book of Job, Lamentations pictures a man of God puzzling over the results of evil and suffering in the world. That, when God returns to deal graciously with us, it will not be according to our merits, but according to his mercies, according to the multitude, the abundance, of his mercies. He must expect, and yet be dumb, as the words imply; ever feeling his utter unworthiness; and, without murmuring, struggle into life. Note, The most secret contrivances of the church's enemies are perfectly known to the church's God, from whom they can hide nothing. III. In Lamentations 3:34-36, certain acts of tyranny, malice, and injustice are specified, which men often indulge themselves in the practice of towards one another, but which the Divine goodness is far from countenancing or approving by any similar conduct. That grief returned upon every remembrance of his troubles, and his reflections were as melancholy as his prospects, v. 19, 20. Because of all the daughters of my city. God had said once (Hos 5 14), I will be as a lion to the house of Judah, and now he has made his word good (v. 10): "He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, surprising me with his judgments, and as a lion in secret places; so that which way soever I went I was in continual fear of being set upon and could never think myself safe." By proceeding, you consent to our cookie usage. The deluge prevailed and quite overwhelmed them. "Our Daily Homily: Isaiah-Malachi" Volume 4 (Westwood, New Jersey: Revell, 1966), Morgan, G. Campbell "Searchlights from the Word" (New York: Revell, 1926), Morgan, G. Campbell "An Exposition of the Whole Bible" (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Revell, 1959), Poole, Matthew "A Commentary on the Holy Bible" Volume 2 (Psalms-Malachi) (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1968), Ryken, Philip Graham "Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope" (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2001), Spurgeon, Charles Haddon "The New Park Street Pulpit" Volumes 1-6 and "The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit" Volumes 7-63 (Pasadena, Texas: Pilgrim Publications, 1990), Trapp, John "A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments" Volume 3 (Proverbs to Daniel) (Eureka, California: Tanski Publications, 1997). Search out and examine our ways: Sins must not be casually and superficially confessed and dealt with. Surely He has turned His hand against me Time and time again throughout the day. They rejected and rebelled for generations, then looked to others for rescue. But, if we accommodate ourselves to him, though we be chastened of the Lord we shall not be condemned with the world. Una eademque manus vulnus opemque tulitThe same hand inflicted the wound and healed it. In addition, emotional attributes of joy (Proverbs 23:16) and sorrow (Job 19:27; Psalm 73:21) were credited to them. (Harrison). Verse 7. Some think Jeremiah makes these complaints, not only as an intercessor for Israel, but as a type of Christ, who was thought by some to be Jeremiah the weeping prophet, because he was much in tears (Matt 16 14) and to him many of the passages here may be applied. It is he that causes grief, and therefore we may be assured it is ordered wisely and graciously; and it is but for a season, and when need is, that we are in heaviness, 1 Pt. A verification email has been sent to the address you provided. The passage is full of beauty, as it deals with that tender compassion of God which had never been absent even in the work of punishment. (Morgan). Please see Blue Letter Bible's Privacy Policy for cookie usage details. My soul still remembers and sinks within me: It was good for Jeremiahs soul to sink, to find its bottom point so that he could build on the right foundation. "If God, who now covers himself with a cloud, as if he took no notice of our troubles (Job 22 13), would but shine forth, all would be well; if he look upon us, we shall be saved," Ps 80 19; Dan 9 17. You have slain and not pitied. Many have found it good to bear this in youth; it has made those humble and serious, and has weaned them from the world, who otherwise would have been proud and unruly, and as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. a. 6. Have perished from the LORD.. At the south of Africa the sea was generally so stormy, when the frail barks of the Portuguese went sailing south, that they named it the Cape of Storms; but after that cape had been well rounded by bolder navigators, they named it the Cape of Good Hope. His experience of God's goodness even in his affliction. "Let us lift up our heart;" let us make fervent prayer and supplication for mercy. 2. though thou knowest not what thy enemies meditate against thee; yet he who loves thee does, and will infallibly defeat all their plots, and save thee. Lamentations 3 English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate This page was last edited on 17 April 2023, at 10:57 (UTC). The Bibles Tab is found in the Tools feature on Bible pages: Note: MLA no longer requires the URL as part of their citation standard. But, as there, so here, faith gets the last word and comes off a conqueror; for in these verses he concludes with some comfort. That God appears against him as an enemy, as a professed enemy. 4 My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones. He delights not in the death of sinners, or the disquiet of saints, but punishes with a kind of reluctance. Here the clouds begin to disperse and the sky to clear up; the complaint was very melancholy in the former part of the chapter, and yet here the tune is altered and the mourners in Zion begin to look a little pleasant. The title of the 102nd Psalm might very fitly be prefixed to this chapterThe prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and pours out his complaint before the Lord; for it is very feelingly and fluently that the complaint is here poured out. Through the LORDs mercies we are not consumed: This was one of the things Jeremiah remembered. He had already begun to appear for them (v. 58): "O Lord! Jesus gave his cheek to the one who strikes him as He patiently received the suffering His Father had appointed (Matthew 26:67-68, Luke 22:64). Through the good hand of our God upon us we are alive yet, though dying daily; and shall a living man complain? Prayer is the breath of the new man, drawing in the air of mercy in petitions, and returning it in praises; it proves and maintains the spiritual life. When we are meek and mild towards those who are the instruments of our trouble, and are of a forgiving spirit, v. 30. 15 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. Do we succeed in our designs, or are we crossed in them? But he does not do it willingly, not from the heart; so the word is. Where there was a way open it is now quite made up: He has compassed me on ever side with gall and travel; I vex, and fret, and tire myself, to find a way of escape, but can find none, v. 7. Verse 33. d. They are new every morning: Each dawning day gives mankind hope in fresh mercies and compassions from God. That God is angry. That prayer should not pass through. And, when God's hand is continually turned against us, we are tempted to think that his heart is turned against us too. Or it may include the remnant of good people that were among the Jews, who had found that it was not in vain to wait upon God. The vital word in this verse is ?ese? Do not hide Your ear ii. Praying is lifting up the soul to God (Ps 25 1) as to our Father in heaven; and the soul that hopes to be with God in heaven for ever will thus, by frequent acts of devotion, be still learning the way thither and pressing forward in that way. See Jeremiah 38:6, &c. Verse 56. c. LORD, You have seen how I am wronged: Jeremiah rested in the confidence that God was a righteous judge, who would see how he was wronged and who would rightly judge his case. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth: There are seasons of adversity, and sometimes it is better to have those seasons when one is young. VI. (1.) It is the heart that God looks at in that and every other service; for what will a sacrifice without a heart avail? We must set ourselves to answer God's intention in afflicting us, which is to bring sin to our remembrance, and to bring us home to himself, v. 40. You have made us an offscouring and refuse Note, The prolonging of troubles is sometimes a temptation, even to praying people, to question whether God be what they have always believed him to be, a prayer-hearing God. To pierce my loins: Literally, kidneys. It is good because it saves from a thousand snares. 66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord. Verse 29. Each of the first four chapters of Lamentations is an acrostic poem. There have been various translations of the original: but they all amount to this. His discipline is not happy nor is it unfair (to turn aside the justice due a man). Note, Though we may pour out our complaints before God, we must never exhibit any complaints against God. Note, Whatever hard things we suffer, we must never entertain any hard thoughts of God, but must still be ready to own that he is both kind and faithful. Verse Lamentations 3:2. Verse 23. He has hedged me about, that I cannot get out." 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. And it is no diminution to any to be much in tears for the sins of sinners and the sufferings of saints; our Lord Jesus was so; for, when he came near, he beheld this same city and wept over it, which the daughters of Jerusalem did not. He is the Most High, whose authority over them they contemn by abusing their authority over their subjects, not considering that he that is higher than the highest regardeth, Eccl 5 8. Note, Though we are cast into ever so low a dungeon, we may thence find a way of access to God in the highest heavens. I. - Blayney. 2. Mine eye affecteth mine heart What I see I feel. a. Verse 51. Yet He will show compassion A mother listens for the breathing of her babe in the dark. These are all declaratory, not imprecatory. 11 He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate. God never hides His ear from our breathing; or from those in- articulate cries, which express, as words could not do, the deep anguish and yearning of the heart. Faith comes off conqueror, for in these verses the prophet concludes with some comfort. i. 2. Note, It is our duty to make God the portion of our souls, and then to make use of him as our portion and to take the comfort of it in the midst of our lamentations. This may refer to the prophet's personal experience, with which he encourages himself in reference to the public troubles. He takes no delight in our pain and misery: yet, like a tender and intelligent parent, he uses the rod; not to gratify himself, but to profit and save us. The walling-up of prisoners within confined spaces so that they died very quickly was a form of torture made popular by the Assyrians., iii. By their conduct they will bring on themselves the curse denounced against their enemies. That which is most impressive in this song is the identification of the prophet with the people and with God. Note, When we draw nigh to God in a way of duty we may by faith see him drawing nigh to us in a way of mercy. Every morning brings new strength for new temptations, duties, and trials. But this was not all: Thou saidst, Fear not. 6. They had several times complained that God had not pitied (ch. 49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, 50 Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven. While they continued weeping, they continued waiting; and neither did nor would expect relief and succour from any but the Lord. Jeremiah proposes his own experience under afflictions, as an example as to how the Jews should behave under theirs, so as to have hope of a restoration; hence the change from singular to plural ( Lamentations 3:22 Lamentations 3:40-47 ). c. In Your anger, pursue and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD: Jerusalem and Judah had faced the anger of God and the destruction that came from it. "Let them be dealt with according to the threatenings: Thy curse unto them; that is, let thy curse come upon them, all the evils that are pronounced in thy word against the enemies of thy people, v. 65. Those that blame their lot reproach him that allotted it to them. To crush under his feet He can neither gain credit nor pleasure in trampling upon those who are already bound, and in suffering; such he knows to be the state of man here below. And what are all our sorrows, compared with those of the Redeemer? If so be there may be hope. The people of this once great city experienced the judgment of the holy God, and the results were devastating. 3 indeed, he has turned his hand against me. 40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. When our comforts fail, yet God's compassions do not. He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; 37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? Get Your Bible Minute in Your Inbox Every Morning. 4 He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. Our hearts must go along with our prayers. Let us try our ways, that by them we may try ourselves, for we are to judge of our state not by our faint wishes, but by our steps, not by one particular step, but by our ways, the ends we aim at, the rules we go by, and the agreeableness of the temper of our minds and the tenour of our lives to those ends and those rules. III. Yes, certainly they do; and it is more emphatically expressed in the original: Do not this evil, and this good, proceed out of the mouth of the Most High? a. We dont live constantly focused on our sins and failings, but there are appropriate times to carefully, deliberately search out and examine our ways. I weep, ways the prophet, more than all the daughters of my city (so the margin reads it); he outdid even those of the tender sex in the expressions of grief. It is barbarous to trample on those that are down, and to crush those that are bound and cannot help themselves. My eyes overflow with rivers of water He has also broken my teeth with gravel: What a figure to express disgust, pain, and the consequent incapacity of taking food for the support of life; a man, instead of bread, being obliged to eat small pebbles till all his teeth are broken to pieces by endeavouring to grind them. Let us search How are we to get the pardon of our sins? "Lamentations: The Expositor's Bible Commentary" Volume 6 (Isaiah-Ezekiel) (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1985), Harrison, R.K. "Jeremiah and Lamentations: An Introduction and Commentary" Volume 20 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries) (Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press, 1973), Meyer, F.B. We have been with him, and it has never been well with us since we forsook him; let us therefore now turn again to him." You have redeemed my life. These mercies are always new because they come from God. Our Lord Jesus has left us an example of this, for he gave his back to the smiter, Isa 50 6. Let him sit alone and keep silent, Great and long grief exhausts the spirits, and brings not only many a gray head, but many a green head too, to the grave. He delights not in the misery of any of his creatures, but, as it respects his own people, he is so far from it that in all their afflictions he is afflicted and his soul is grieved for the misery of Israel. If, indeed, any sinner be kept out of hell, it is because God's compassion faileth not. We should observe what makes for us, as well as what is against us. 2023 Christianity.com. 2 He has led me into darkness, shutting out all light. II. For the salvation of the LORD. My seeing eye affects my heart. Mine eye runneth down I weep incessantly. But the complaints here are somewhat more general than those in the foregoing chapter, being accommodated to the case as well of particular persons as of the public, and intended for the use of the closet rather than of the solemn assembly. 2. (Lamentations 3:57-63) Thankful and confident of future help. The prophet tells us: 3. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed Being thus humbled, and seeing himself and his sinfulness in a proper point of view, he finds that God, instead of dealing with him in judgment, has dealt with him in mercy; and that though the affliction was excessive, yet it was less than his iniquity deserved. Its New Testament counterpart (1 Corinthians 4:13) is equally rare, depicting the suffering of the apostles. (Harrison), ii. I have even given up all for gone, concluding, My strength and my hope have perished from the Lord (v. 18); I can no longer stay myself upon God as my support, for I do not find that he gives me encouragement to do so; nor can I look for his appearing in my behalf, so as to put an end to my troubles, for the case seems remediless, and even my God inexorable." He retains his kindness for his people even when he afflicts them. Wherefore doth a living man complain He who has his life still lent to him has small cause of complaint. Repay them, O LORD, 9 He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked. (2.) To the soul who seeks Him. This chapter is another single alphabet of Lamentations for the destruction of Jerusalem, like those in the first two chapters. Those that do so will find it good for them (v. 26): It is good (it is our duty, and will be our unspeakable comfort and satisfaction) to hope and quietly to wait for the salvation of the Lord, to hope that it will come, thought the difficulties that lie in the way of it seem insupportable, to wait till it does come, though it be long delayed, and while we wait to be quiet and silent, not quarrelling with God nor making ourselves uneasy, but acquiescing in the divine disposals. 4. 2. The lips of my enemies This was a pathway to hope for him. Jerusalem was the tabret they played upon. Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that woe and well-being proceed? Let us observe the particulars of it. It is just with God to make those who walk in the crooked paths of sin, crossing God's laws, walk in the crooked paths of affliction, crossing their designs and breaking their measures. I see nothing but misery; and I feel, in consequence, nothing but pain. The Lord approved not. He who can bear contempt and reproach, and not render railing for railing, and bitterness for bitterness, who, when he is filled full with reproach, keeps it to himself, and does not retort it and empty it again upon those who filled him with it, but pours it out before the Lord (as those did, Ps 123 4, whose souls were exceedingly filled with the contempt of the proud), he shall find that it is good to bear the yoke, that it shall turn to his spiritual advantage. At first, the language sounds like the stock vocabulary of the lament psalms: darkness, pains, broken bones, desolation, arrows, etc. Judge my case. Almost in all countries, and in all languages, bitterness is a metaphor to express trouble and affliction. Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the LORD: Even under the great sense that God was their opponent and adversary (Lamentations 3:1-18), Jeremiah recommended the proper and humble approach. "I recall it to mind; therefore have I hope, and am kept from downright despair." GenesisExodusLeviticusNumbersDeuteronomyJoshuaJudgesRuth1 Samuel2 Samuel1 Kings2 Kings1 Chronicles2 ChroniclesEzraNehemiahEstherJobPsalmsProverbsEcclesiastesSong of SongsIsaiahJeremiahLamentationsEzekielDanielHoseaJoelAmosObadiahJonahMicahNahumHabakkukZephaniahHaggaiZechariahMalachiMatthewMarkLukeJohnActsRomans1 Corinthians2 CorinthiansGalatiansEphesiansPhilippiansColossians1 Thessalonians2 Thessalonians1 Timothy2 TimothyTitusPhilemonHebrewsJames1 Peter2 Peter1 John2 John3 JohnJudeRevelation, Select an Ending Point ( Lamentations 3:1-9) The man afflicted by the LORD. The afflicted church is drowned in tears, and the prophet for her (v. 48, 49): My eye runs down with rivers of water, so abundant was their weeping; it trickles down and ceases not, so constant was their weeping, without any intermission, there being no relaxation of their miseries. (2.) Let him sit alone and keep silent: Under adversity, it is best to not try and figure everything out right away. John 3:16, Jesus faith love), Select a Beginning Point When those who are afflicted in their youth accommodate themselves to their afflictions, fit their necks to the yoke and study to answer God's end in afflicting them, then they will find it good for them to bear it, for it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are thus exercised thereby. Our own wickedness corrects us, Prov 19 3. In their depths of affliction, this was not the experience of Jeremiah and the people of Judah. range of evangelical traditions, all of the ideas and principles conveyed III. In offering the cheek to the smiter the captive was conveying the idea of absolute surrender. (Harrison). Lamentations 3:32 (HCSB) Verse Thoughts Jeremiah is often called 'the weeping prophet' for he was to prophecy to deaf ears and witness to blinded, callused hearts.
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