Lamentations3
World English Bible · Public Domain
1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
2 He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
3 Surely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long.
4 He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones.
5 He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead.
7 He has walled me about, so that I can’t go out. He has made my chain heavy.
8 Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
9 He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked.
10 He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in hiding.
11 He has turned away my path, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate.
12 He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13 He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
14 I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood.
16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes.
17 You have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity.
18 I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from Yahweh.”
19 Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness.
20 My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
21 This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.
22 It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his mercies don’t fail.
23 They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
24 “Yahweh is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.”
25 Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
26 It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.
27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.
29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope.
30 Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach.
31 For the Lord will not cast off forever.
32 For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
33 For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
34 To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
35 to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
36 to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve.
37 Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it?
38 Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
39 Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
41 Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
42 “We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned.
43 “You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied.
44 You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
45 You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples.
46 “All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
47 Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.”
48 My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 My eye pours down and doesn’t cease, without any intermission,
50 until Yahweh looks down, and sees from heaven.
51 My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
52 They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
54 Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.”
55 I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.
56 You heard my voice: “Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry.”
57 You came near in the day that I called on you. You said, “Don’t be afraid.”
58 Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life.
59 Yahweh, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.
60 You have seen all their vengeance and all their plans against me.
61 You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their plans against me,
62 the lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long.
63 You see their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song.
64 You will pay them back, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.
65 You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
66 You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.
Study
Lamentations 3Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Lamentations 3. The full AI study guide (summary, themes, context) has its own page.
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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