Lamentations3
New International Version
1I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord’s wrath.
2He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light;
3indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.
4He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones.
5He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.
7He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains.
8Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer.
9He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked.
10Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding,
11he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help.
12He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.
13He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver.
14I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
15He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink.
16He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust.
17I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”
19I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
20I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
21Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
22Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
23They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
25The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
26it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
27It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
28Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him.
29Let him bury his face in the dust— there may yet be hope.
30Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace.
31For no one is cast off by the Lord forever.
32Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.
33For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.
34To crush underfoot all prisoners in the land,
35to deny people their rights before the Most High,
36to deprive them of justice— would not the Lord see such things?
37Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?
38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?
39Why should the living complain when punished for their sins?
40Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.
41Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say:
42“We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven.
43“You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us; you have slain without pity.
44You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through.
45You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.
46“All our enemies have opened their mouths wide against us.
47We have suffered terror and pitfalls, ruin and destruction.”
48Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed.
49My eyes will flow unceasingly, without relief,
50until the Lord looks down from heaven and sees.
51What I see brings grief to my soul because of all the women of my city.
52Those who were my enemies without cause hunted me like a bird.
53They tried to end my life in a pit and threw stones at me;
54the waters closed over my head, and I thought I was about to perish.
55I called on your name, Lord, from the depths of the pit.
56You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.”
57You came near when I called you, and you said, “Do not fear.”
58You, Lord, took up my case; you redeemed my life.
59Lord, you have seen the wrong done to me. Uphold my cause!
60You have seen the depth of their vengeance, all their plots against me.
61Lord, you have heard their insults, all their plots against me—
62what my enemies whisper and mutter against me all day long.
63Look at them! Sitting or standing, they mock me in their songs.
64Pay them back what they deserve, Lord, for what their hands have done.
65Put a veil over their hearts, and may your curse be on them!
66Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Lamentations 3.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The faithful lament their calamities, and hope in God's mercies. (1-41).
vv1-20
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.
vv21-36
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 sinfulness, will convince us that it is of the Lord's mercies we are not consumed. If we cannot say with unwavering voice, The Lord is my portion; may we not say, I desire to have Him for my portion and salvation, and in his word do I hope? Happy shall we be, if we learn to receive affliction as laid upon us by the hand of God.
vv37-41
While there is life there is hope; and instead of complaining that things are bad, we should encourage ourselves with the hope they will be better. We are sinful men, and what we complain of, is far less than our sins deserve. We should complain to God, and not of him. We are apt, in times of calamity, to reflect on other people's ways, and blame them; but our duty is to search and try our own ways, that we may turn from evil to God. Our hearts must go with our prayers. If inward impressions do not answer to outward expressions, we mock God, and deceive ourselves.
Key Words
אֲנִי: I
גֶּבֶר: properly, a valiant man or warrior; generally, a person simply
רָאָה: to see, literally or figuratively (in numerous applications, direct and implied, transitive, intransitive and causative)
עֳנִי: depression, i.e. misery
שֵׁבֶט: a scion, i.e. (literally) a stick (for punishing, writing, fighting, ruling, walking, etc.) or (figuratively) a clan
עֶבְרָה: an outburst of passion
נָהַג: to drive forth (a person, an animal or chariot), i.e. lead, carry away; reflexively, to proceed (i.e. impel or guide oneself); also (from the panting induced by effort), to sigh
יָלַךְ: to walk (literally or figuratively); causatively, to carry (in various senses)
חֹשֶׁךְ: the dark; hence (literally) darkness; figuratively, misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness
לֹא: not (the simple or abs. negation); by implication, no; often used with other particles
Cross References
Lamentations 3Jeremiah's prophesied doom of feeding this people wormwood and gall is here realized in experience.
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Messiah, the ultimate antitype, literally gave His cheek to be smitten in fulfillment of this pattern.
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Jeremiah's literal imprisonment in the miry dungeon of Malchiah prefigures his and Israel's affliction.
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Direct verbal parallel: 'set me in dark places, as those that have been long dead.'
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God hedges up the way with thorns or stone so that the path cannot be found.
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The agony of crying out to God and being met with silence and shut-out prayers.
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Reflects the levitical promise that the Lord Himself is the believer's portion and inheritance.
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Echoes the confession that though flesh and heart fail, God is the portion of the soul forever.
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Christ's invitation to take His easy yoke is the spiritual antidote to bearing disciplinary grief.
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Verbal echo within the chapter on God shutting out prayers and covering Himself from supplication.
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Job's parallel complaint of crying out to God but being shut out or ignored.
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Enemies opening their mouths in derision; a typological link connecting Jeremiah's suffering to Christ.
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Job describes himself as their song, matching 'I am their musick' in Lam 3:63.
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Direct internal echo within the chapter; the speaker laments being a derisive song to the people.
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Parallel description of extreme physical wasting and skin made old as divine chastisement.
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The sufferer is set as a mark or target for God's arrows.
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Jeremiah's personal lament of becoming a laughingstock and derision all the day long.
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The righteous sufferer and ultimate Messiah becoming the song of the drunkards and mockers.
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The sudden cry of despair: 'I said in my haste, I am cut off.'
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God's unchanging character and mercies are the sole reason the children of Jacob are not consumed.
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The Lord waits to be gracious; blessed are all those who wait quietly for Him.
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Exhortation to rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him in silent submission.
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Putting one's mouth in the dust matches Job's ultimate posture of self-abhorrence and deep repentance.
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Stresses that calamity does not occur in a city unless the Lord has sovereignly permitted it.
God forms light, creates darkness, makes peace, and creates calamity; He is sovereign over both.
Paul's use of 'offscouring' (peripsēma) directly echoes the Greek translation of Lamentations 3:45.
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Jeremiah's famous desire for his eyes to be a fountain of tears for his people's ruin.
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Being hated and chased 'without cause,' matching the Hebrew phrasing used by the Psalmist.
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The classic cry to God out of the depths (low dungeon) of despair and distress.
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God's intimate knowledge of the believer's 'downsitting and uprising' contrasted with the enemies' mocking observation.
Identical prayer language of rendering a recompense according to the work of their hands.
Jeremiah's personal appeal for God's righteous vengeance upon his malicious, conspiring persecutors.
New Testament parallel of committing judgment to God: 'render to him according to his works.'
Being counted among those who lie in the grave, remembered no more.
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God acting as a hidden leopard, lion, or bear lying in wait to rend.
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The arrows of the Almighty's quiver drinking up the spirit within.
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