lamentations 3 explained

That his neighbours make a laughing matter of his troubles (v. 14): I was a derision to all my people, to all the wicked among them, who made themselves an one another merry with the public judgments, and particularly the prophet Jeremiah's griefs. Read full chapter Lamentations 2 Lamentations 4 New International Version (NIV) 1. 34 To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, 35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, 36 To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not. Or, let us put our heart on our hand, and offer it to God; so some have translated this clause. Do not fear: How powerful is this word when spoken by the Spirit of the Lord to a disconsolate heart. Why Does God Compare Our Relationship with Him to That of a Bride and Groom? The prophet had owned that a living man should not complain, as if he checked himself for his complaints in the former part of the chapter; and yet here the clouds return after the rain and the wound bleeds afresh; for great pains must be taken with a troubled spirit to bring it into temper. This hindered God's favours from coming down upon them. 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. It hindered their prayers from coming up unto God (v. 44): "Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud," not like that bright cloud in which he took possession of the temple, which enabled the worshippers to draw near to him, but like that in which he came down upon Mount Sinai, which obliged the people to stand at a distance. 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. 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. 31 For the Lord will not cast off for ever: 32 But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. At first, the language sounds like the stock vocabulary of the lament psalms: darkness, pains, broken bones, desolation, arrows, etc. Verse 40. 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. His experience of God's goodness even in his affliction. Thus emphatically does he speak of his affliction, for thus did he think of it, thus heavily did it lie when he reviewed it! 2. My affliction and my transgression (so some read it), my trouble and my sin that brought it upon me; this was the wormwood and the gall in the affliction and the misery. Let us search and try our ways, search what they have been, and then try whether they have been right and good or no; search as for a malefactor in disguise, that flees and hides himself, and then try whether guilty or not guilty. He has broken my bones. Though God serves his own purposes by the violence of wicked and unreasonable men, yet it does no therefore follow that he countenances that violence, as his oppressed people are sometimes tempted to think. He comforts himself with an appeal to God's justice, and (in order to the sentence of that) to his omniscience. These rivers of mercy run fully and constantly, but never run dry. 56 Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. Johannine Writings From which it most assuredly follows, that God never afflicts us but for our good, nor chastises but that we may be partakers of his holiness. The Lord approved not. This was the language of God's prophets preaching to them not to fear (Isa 41 10, 13, 14), of his providence preventing those things which they were afraid of, and of his grace quieting their minds, and making them easy, by the witness of his Spirit with their spirits that they were his people still, though in distress, and therefore ought not to fear. We need a constant supply and God has promised to send them without fail. Now he prayed to God as his advocate. It is added (v. 51), "My eye affects my heart. "Let us lift up our heart;" let us make fervent prayer and supplication for mercy. He had already begun to appear for them (v. 58): "O Lord! He was overwhelmed like a man drowning in a pit (the waters flowed over my head). Verse 33. b. (2.) An Arabic poet. We are sinful men, and that which we complain of is the just punishment of our sins; nay, it is far less than our iniquities have deserved. These are all declaratory, not imprecatory. d. It is good that he should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD: Everything previous in Lamentations was deep in despair, and the misery was by no means over. Do men shoot at those thy are enemies to? Fear and a snare have come upon us, We are men; let us herein show ourselves men. That he bear the yoke in his youth. In offering the cheek to the smiter the captive was conveying the idea of absolute surrender. (Harrison). We continue thus weeping till the Lord look down and behold from heaven. And (v. 6), He has set me in dark places, dark as the grave, like those that are dead of old, that are quite forgotten, nobody knows who or what they were. 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. Early discipline is equally so. But this was not all: Thou saidst, Fear not. According to the multitude of His mercies. 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. Of this, death would deprive him; therefore let not a living man complain. God is an inexhaustible fountain of mercy, the Father of mercies. The caliph replied, 'The children of Adam must flee unto the Lord.'" d. They are new every morning: Each dawning day gives mankind hope in fresh mercies and compassions from God. Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him: Jeremiah said this in the context of patiently enduring suffering (Lamentations 3:27-29). 58 O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. God's compassions fail not; of this we have fresh instances every morning. 1 Cor 4 13, We are made as the filth of the world and are the off-scouring of all things. Yet the consideration of Gods sovereignty would also become the source of their hope. He hath - brought me into darkness In the sacred writings, darkness is often taken for calamity; light, for prosperity. Shall a man complain? And pursued us; This verse seems to allude to the Chaldaic prediction, in Jeremiah 10:11. If God disciplines us when we are young, it is to train us for a fruitful future. A sincere conversion to God: "Let us turn again to the Lord, to him who is turned against us and whom we have turned from; to him let us turn by repentance and reformation, as to our owner and ruler. This gives both birth and bitterness to the affliction (v. 1): I am the man, the remarkable man, that has seen affliction, and has felt it sensibly, by the rod of his wrath. Alas! 4 He has made my skin and my flesh grow old. So unworthy we are that nothing but an abundant mercy will relieve us; and from that what may we not expect? 26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. The sum is, If tribulation work patience, that patience will work experience, and that experience a hope that makes not ashamed. 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." The sovereign God alone can revive it. Or, it may be rendered, "let him give his cheek.". 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. He has led me and made me walk In darkness and not in light. Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, when the Lord has not commanded it? It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. i. 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. All rights reserved. 2. He marvels that God should have drawn near to him, for his condition was a very pitiful one. He gets good by the yoke who gives his cheek to him that smites him, and rather turns the other cheek (Matt 5 39) than returns the second blow. GenesisExodusLeviticusNumbersDeuteronomyJoshuaJudgesRuth1 Samuel2 Samuel1 Kings2 Kings1 Chronicles2 ChroniclesEzraNehemiahEstherJobPsalmsProverbsEcclesiastesSong of SongsIsaiahJeremiahLamentationsEzekielDanielHoseaJoelAmosObadiahJonahMicahNahumHabakkukZephaniahHaggaiZechariahMalachiMatthewMarkLukeJohnActsRomans1 Corinthians2 CorinthiansGalatiansEphesiansPhilippiansColossians1 Thessalonians2 Thessalonians1 Timothy2 TimothyTitusPhilemonHebrewsJames1 Peter2 Peter1 John2 John3 JohnJudeRevelation, Select a Beginning Point Over this terrible calamity, rivers of tears must be shed, until the Lord looks down from heaven on it, Lamentations 3:48-51. He has made my chain heavy: As the convict sometimes drags about his chain, and has a ball at his foot, so the prophet felt as if God had clogged him with a heavy chain, so that he could not move because of its terrible weight. (Spurgeon). 53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. We have no reason to quarrel with God, for he is righteous in it; he is the governor of the world, and it is necessary that he should maintain the honour of his government by chastising the disobedient. II. 27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Lamentations 3 Hebrew with Rashi's Commentary; Christian. 1. GenesisExodusLeviticusNumbersDeuteronomyJoshuaJudgesRuth1 Samuel2 Samuel1 Kings2 Kings1 Chronicles2 ChroniclesEzraNehemiahEstherJobPsalmsProverbsEcclesiastesSong of SongsIsaiahJeremiahLamentationsEzekielDanielHoseaJoelAmosObadiahJonahMicahNahumHabakkukZephaniahHaggaiZechariahMalachiMatthewMarkLukeJohnActsRomans1 Corinthians2 CorinthiansGalatiansEphesiansPhilippiansColossians1 Thessalonians2 Thessalonians1 Timothy2 TimothyTitusPhilemonHebrewsJames1 Peter2 Peter1 John2 John3 JohnJudeRevelation, Select an Ending Point It is our duty, and will be our comfort and satisfaction, to hope and quietly to wait for the salvation of the Lord. And, when God's hand is continually turned against us, we are tempted to think that his heart is turned against us too. The yoke in his youth: Early habits, when good, are invaluable. Proud member Like a lawyer pleading for his client, God pleaded the case for his life. 20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. These past deliverances created his assurance that Jehovah would yet act on behalf of His people and destroy their enemies from under the heavens. (Morgan), 2021 The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik [email protected], The Whole Bible Oh, Book of books, the map of the way to glory; that man invokes a terrible curse upon his own head who refuses to study thee! Verse 34. That they had hopes that he would at length look graciously upon them and relieve them; nay, they take it for granted that he will: "Though he contend long, he will not contend for ever, thou we deserve that he should." It is good because it saves from a thousand snares. Because His compassions fail not. Almost in all countries, and in all languages, bitterness is a metaphor to express trouble and affliction. So arrows that issue from a quiver are here termed the sons of the quiver. Salem Media Group. With this should go the complete submission to God pictured in v. 29 by the Oriental obeisance. i. Verse 17. Now Jeremiah prayed that Yahweh would repay their enemies, and give them a veiled heart even as Judah was blind. Search out and examine our ways: Sins must not be casually and superficially confessed and dealt with. The Lord Adonai; but one of my ancient MSS. Persecute and destroy them in anger, as they persecute and destroy us in their anger. GenesisExodusLeviticusNumbersDeuteronomyJoshuaJudgesRuth1 Samuel2 Samuel1 Kings2 Kings1 Chronicles2 ChroniclesEzraNehemiahEstherJobPsalmsProverbsEcclesiastesSong of SongsIsaiahJeremiahLamentationsEzekielDanielHoseaJoelAmosObadiahJonahMicahNahumHabakkukZephaniahHaggaiZechariahMalachiMatthewMarkLukeJohnActsRomans1 Corinthians2 CorinthiansGalatiansEphesiansPhilippiansColossians1 Thessalonians2 Thessalonians1 Timothy2 TimothyTitusPhilemonHebrewsJames1 Peter2 Peter1 John2 John3 JohnJudeRevelation, Select a Beginning Point The more the prophet looked on the desolations, the more he was grieved. He has hedged me in: Harrison saw this as a picture of cruel imprisonment. 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. (Clarke), ii. 6 He has made me dwell in darkness. it was to no purpose; he remembers, upon all occasions, the affliction and the misery, the wormwood and the gall. The New Testament with bitterness and hardship. Historical Books Wisdom Literature 3 He has turned his hand against me. Quietness is necessary to waiting, for all turbulency and impatience of spirit under sad providences is opposed to waiting. (Poole). Your curse be upon them! He had silenced their fears and quieted their spirits (v. 57): "Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou didst graciously assure me of thy presence with me, and give me to see thee nigh unto me, whereas I had thought thee to be at a distance from me." He had heard their prayers; though they had been ready to fear that the cloud of wrath was such as their prayers could not pass through (v. 44), yet upon second thoughts, or at least upon further trial, they find it otherwise, and that God had not said unto them, Seek you me in vain. No; he has more reason to be thankful for life than to complain of any of the burdens and calamities of life. 1 I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; 2 he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; 3 surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. Johannine Writings Things are bad but they might have been worse, and therefore there is hope that they may be better. It is good that a man should both hope Hope is essentially necessary to faith; he that hopes not, cannot believe; if there be no expectation, there can be no confidence. Lamentations 3:3 "Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand [against me] all the day." The course of God's providence toward me is quite altered, his hand, that is, his power, which was accustomed to being with me, and for me, against my enemies, is now turned against me. Lamentations 3 1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the LORD's wrath. has Jehovah. Those whom thou cursest are cursed indeed. 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. He has been to me like a bear lying in wait: Using the eloquence that misery sometimes brings, Jeremiah described all the ways that they felt God opposed and even attacked them. But through all of his long and faithful ministry, he was (like the Lord Jesus) despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with much grief. Jeremiahs personal lament is a reminder that suffering is always personal. (Lamentations 3:19-20) The sinking soul. 6. And here are two things with which he comforts himself:, I. The Hebrew exclamation ekah2 ("How," which expresses "dismay"), used in 1:1; 2:1, and 4:1, gives the book its Hebrew title. They are new every morning; 9. We are men, and not angels, and therefore cannot expect to be free from troubles as they are; we are not inhabitants of that world where there is no sorrow, but this where there is nothing but sorrow. Formerly he inflicted punishments with reluctance, while there was any hope of amendment: but, in the instance before us, the case was so hopeless, that God acts according to the simple principle of vindictive justice. 4. Those who in their haste have chidden with God must, in the reflection, chide themselves for it. (2.) "In more ways than one this brings us to the very heart of the book. 46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. Let him sit alone and keep silent, To turn aside the right of a man To make a man lose his right, because one of the higher orders opposes him. Who could exist throughout the day, if there were not a continual superintending Providence? He answers in the following verses, 1. 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. 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." 2 15, 16. ( Lamentations 3:1-21) "I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. ( Lamentations 3:21-23 KJV) Verse 23 tells us, "They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness," like we sing in the old hymn. Against all the despair, Jeremiah proclaimed to himself and all others the goodness of hope and patient seeking of God. hichphishani beepher, "he hath plunged me into the dust." These complaints we had before, ch. The perverting of justice, and the subverting of the just, are a great affront to God; and, though he may make use of them for the correction of his people, yet he will sooner or later severely reckon with those that do thus. His sense is that they should patiently receive the suffering and reproach God had appointed for them. a. Here is, I. 1. 1. The LORD is my portion: As in Psalm 119:57, Jeremiah found the key to satisfactionfinding ones portion in the LORD. From under the heavens of the LORD. i. (Read Lamentations 3:21-36) Having stated his distress and temptation, the prophet shows how he was raised above it. Pentateuch O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul; Because of all the daughters of my city. The deluge prevailed and quite overwhelmed them. He laments the direful effects of the famine to which they were reduced by the siege, ver 3-10. All the prisoners of the earth By the prisoners of the earth, or land, Dr. Blayney understands those insolvent debtors who were put in prison, and there obliged to work out the debt. That they were satisfied that God's gracious regard to them in their miseries would be an effectual redress of all their grievances. 2023 Christianity.com. Ps 119 59, I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. The soft, measured breath, or the laboring, gasping breath. He who has his life still lent to him has small cause of complaint. I have eaten ashes like bread," Ps 102 9. He has led me and made me walk To be thrown into a mass or bed of perfect dust, where the eyes are blinded by it, the ears stopped, and the mouth and lungs filled at the very first attempt to respire after having been thrown into it-what a horrible idea of suffocation and drowning! You have heard my voice: 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. This is unfortunate, since his works contain priceless gems of information that are found nowhere except in the ancient writings of the Jews. 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. Does God Really Work All Things Together for Good? Verse 7. 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. General Epistles 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. This was the state of poor Jerusalem. 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. Without interruption, Lamentations 3 - God's Mercy in the Midst of Disaster "The third poem is significantly different in structure from the others, being made up of single lines grouped in threes, and commencing with the same consonant of the Hebrew alphabet." (R.K. Harrison) He has aged my flesh and my skin, And broken my bones. Let them be dealt with as they have dealt with us; let thy hand be against them as their hand has been against us. If he be tempted to murmur, let him remember that he is yet alive, and that is more than his part cometh to, since it is the Lords mercy that he is not consumed, and sent packing hence to hell. Its New Testament counterpart (1 Corinthians 4:13) is equally rare, depicting the suffering of the apostles. (Harrison), ii. It is our wisdom then to submit, and to kiss the rod; for, if we still walk contrary to God, he will punish us yet seven times more; for when he judges he will overcome. Every morning brings new strength for new temptations, duties, and trials. Note, All the events of divine Providence are the products of a divine counsel; whatever is done God has the directing of it, and the works of his hands agree with the words of his mouth; he speaks, and it is done, so easily, so effectually are all his purposes fulfilled. Yes, certainly it is; and for the reconciling of us to our own afflictions, whatever they be, this general truth must thus be particularly applied. You have redeemed my life. This intimates, (1.) translation of the Greek OT, the Septuagint (LXX) 1, and conveys the idea of "loud cries.". There was still a remnant, and remnant with a promise of restoration. These are the two things which our afflictions should put us upon. Or, My weeping eye affects my heart; the venting of the grief, instead of easing it, did but increase and exasperate it. We must keep silence under the yoke as those that have borne it upon us, not wilfully pulled it upon our own necks, but patiently submitted to it when God laid it upon us.

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