Verse Lamentations 3:66. To God in heaven. c. Because His compassions fail not: Even in the severity of correction Gods people endured, there was evidence of His compassions. Through the LORDs mercies we are not consumed, The villages about Jerusalem. We should, we must, turn away from sin and self and turn back to the LORD. 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. This must accompany the former and be the fruit of it; therefore we must search and try our ways, that we may turn from the evil of them to God. Verse 34. Repay them, O LORD, according to the work of their hands: God had repaid Jerusalem and Judah for all their sin and disobedience. Do we succeed in our designs, or are we crossed in them? He has set me as a mark for his arrow, which he aims at, and will be sure to hit, and then the arrows of his quiver enter into my reins, give me a mortal wound, an inward wound, v. 13. 3. 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. again and again, all day long. 2 He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Whatever we are robbed of our portion is safe. 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. that we may each of us mend one, and then we should all be mended. But, if we accommodate ourselves to him, though we be chastened of the Lord we shall not be condemned with the world. 1 Andrew E. Hill and John H. Walton, A Survey of the Old Testament, 334.LaSor, Hubbard, and Bush affirm that Some rabbis also used the name Qinot, meaning 'funeral dirges' or 'lamentations (Old Testament Survey, 617).2 LaSor, Hubbard, and Bush, Old Testament Survey, 617.. 3 Hill and Walton write, The despairing tone of the petition for national renewal in the closing lines of the final poem (5 . And be full of reproach. With this should go the complete submission to God pictured in v. 29 by the Oriental obeisance. He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; Now Jeremiah prayed that Yahweh would repay their enemies, and give them a veiled heart even as Judah was blind. 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. 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. God's compassions fail not; of this we have fresh instances every morning. That grief returned upon every remembrance of his troubles, and his reflections were as melancholy as his prospects, v. 19, 20. He marvels that God should have drawn near to him, for his condition was a very pitiful one. 5. That, when we are cast down, yet we are not cast off; the father's correcting his son is not a disinheriting of him. 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 ewm@enduringword.com, The Whole Bible They were surrounded, hedged, and blocked. If men injure them by force of arms, God does not approve of that. The LORD is my portion, says my soul, The second ( Lamentations 3:32) rests on the fact that compassion underlies chastisement ( Psalm 30:5; Job 5:18; Isaiah 54:8 ); the third ( Lamentations 3:33) on the truth that the primary eternal will of God is on the side of love, and that punishment is, as it were, against that will. When we are in distress we should, for the encouragement of our faith and hope, observe what makes for us as well as what makes against us. c. He has besieged me: Even as Jerusalem was literally besieged, so Jeremiah (and countless others) felt themselves surrounded by bitterness and woe and slowly strangled by God. 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. Your curse be upon them: According to the terms of the covenant Israel made with God (as in Deuteronomy 27-28), Israel would be terribly cursed if they disobeyed and rejected God. 2. And surely they are such as afford a sufficient ground for trusting in God under the severest trials. 1. No; they are new every morning; every morning we have fresh instances of God's compassion towards us; he visits us with them every morning (Job 7 18); every morning does he bring his judgment to light, Zeph 3 5. Mine enemies chased me From this to the end of the chapter the prophet speaks of his own personal sufferings, and especially of those which he endured in the dungeon. I called on Your name, O LORD, Thus restless was the enmity of their persecutors, and yet causeless. IV. Now he prayed to God as his advocate. 15 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. Do not fear: How powerful is this word when spoken by the Spirit of the Lord to a disconsolate heart. Therefore I hope in Him! He has caused the arrows of His quiver Because of all the daughters of my city. That, whatever sorrow we are in, it is what God has allotted us, and his hand is in it. It is very applicable to the yoke of God's commands. (2.) He and many others had seen affliction, and they knew that it came as Gods discipline (the rod of His wrath). Please see Blue Letter Bible's Privacy Policy for cookie usage details. I have forgotten prosperity. He comforts himself with an appeal to God's justice, and (in order to the sentence of that) to his omniscience. 61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, and all their imaginations against me; 62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. Earlier in this chapter, Jeremiah felt God was his adversary (Lamentations 3:1-18). Through the LORDs mercies we are not consumed: This was one of the things Jeremiah remembered. Surely He has turned His hand against me: Jeremiah did not stay in this dark and desperate place, but he would not deny being there. 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. Having sunk low in his soul (Lamentations 3:20), Jeremiah now remembered something that started hope within. range of evangelical traditions, all of the ideas and principles conveyed GenesisExodusLeviticusNumbersDeuteronomyJoshuaJudgesRuth1 Samuel2 Samuel1 Kings2 Kings1 Chronicles2 ChroniclesEzraNehemiahEstherJobPsalmsProverbsEcclesiastesSong of SongsIsaiahJeremiahLamentationsEzekielDanielHoseaJoelAmosObadiahJonahMicahNahumHabakkukZephaniahHaggaiZechariahMalachiMatthewMarkLukeJohnActsRomans1 Corinthians2 CorinthiansGalatiansEphesiansPhilippiansColossians1 Thessalonians2 Thessalonians1 Timothy2 TimothyTitusPhilemonHebrewsJames1 Peter2 Peter1 John2 John3 JohnJudeRevelation, Use semicolons to separate groups: 'Gen;Jdg;Psa-Mal' or 'Rom 3-12;Mat 1:15;Mat 5:12-22', There are options set in 'Advanced Options', The Whole Bible - Blayney. If tribulation work patience, that patience will work experience, and that experience a hope that makes not ashamed. You have heard my voice: Though God was righteous, they were unrighteous. (Lamentations 3:57-63) Thankful and confident of future help. What hope is there of either peace or prosperity? These are good times for reflection (sit alone) and listening rather than speaking. Bad as things are, it is owing to the mercy of God that they are not worse. 4. Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that woe and well-being proceed? It is good that one should hope and wait quietly From under the heavens of the LORD. Observe here, 1. The poet said in effect, that he has had so little of this worlds goods and pleasures because his share has been the Lord. (Ellison). 54 Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off. Their taunting song: Mocking or taunt-songs were also frequently used to express derision or contempt for an enemy. (Harrison). What Every Christian Should Know about the Protestant Reformation. Those whom thou cursest are cursed indeed. Clarke, Adam "Clarke's Commentary: The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments with a Commentary and Critical Notes" Volume 4 (Isaiah-Malachi) (New York: Eaton and Mains, 1827), Ellison, H.L. The sovereign God alone can revive it. 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. He will save believers with everlasting salvation, while his enemies perish with everlasting destruction. The Whole Bible 1. 7 He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy. The daughters of my city. My soul still remembers 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. And sinks within me. 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 walling-up of prisoners within confined spaces so that they died very quickly was a form of torture made popular by the Assyrians., iii. d. He shuts out my prayer: When things are right with our relationship with God, He is our refuge and defense in affliction. Who could be preserved in the night, if the Watchman of Israel ever slumbered or slept? He shuts out my prayer. 2. Waters of affliction flowed over my head. (2.) GenesisExodusLeviticusNumbersDeuteronomyJoshuaJudgesRuth1 Samuel2 Samuel1 Kings2 Kings1 Chronicles2 ChroniclesEzraNehemiahEstherJobPsalmsProverbsEcclesiastesSong of SongsIsaiahJeremiahLamentationsEzekielDanielHoseaJoelAmosObadiahJonahMicahNahumHabakkukZephaniahHaggaiZechariahMalachiMatthewMarkLukeJohnActsRomans1 Corinthians2 CorinthiansGalatiansEphesiansPhilippiansColossians1 Thessalonians2 Thessalonians1 Timothy2 TimothyTitusPhilemonHebrewsJames1 Peter2 Peter1 John2 John3 JohnJudeRevelation, Select a Beginning Point Your partnership makes all we do possible. If there be any way to acquire and secure a good hope under our afflictions, it is this way, and yet we must be very modest in our expectations of it, must look for it with an it may be, as those who own ourselves utterly unworthy of it. It is easier to chide ourselves for complaining than to chide ourselves out of it. Observe how he calls prayer his breathing; for in prayer we breathe towards God, we breathe after him. I do not see that we gain any thing by this. One might conjecture that the following thought in the Toozek i Teemour was borrowed from this: -. We are men; let us herein show ourselves men. And I said, My strength and my hope If they had not made themselves vile, their enemies could not have made them so: but therefore men call them reprobate silver, because the Lord has rejected them for rejecting him. And God's causing our grief ought to be no discouragement at all to those expectations. They cannot but know it is so, and therefore it is in defiance of him that they do it. He has broken my bones. 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. "Lamentations" was derived from a translation of the title as found in the Latin Vulgate (Vg.) In a magnificent expression of faith in the unfailing mercies of God, the writer looks to the distant future with renewed hope. (Harrison), ii. ( 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. 6. They are new every morning Day and night proclaim the mercy and compassion of God. Or, let us put our heart on our hand, and offer it to God; so some have translated this clause. like those long dead. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth He has that love that is not provoked. So arrows that issue from a quiver are here termed the sons of the quiver. 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. Judah has gone into exile, but she does not find any rest there among the nations. Amralkeis, one of the writers of the Moallakat, terms a man grievously afflicted [Arabic] a pounder of wormwood. Their sins were repented of, and yet (v. 42), Thou hast not pardoned. That while they continued weeping they continued waiting, and neither did nor would expect relief and succour from any hand but his; nothing shall comfort them but his gracious returns, nor shall any thing wipe tears from their eyes till he look down. We have work enough to do at home; we must each of us say, "What have I done? They complain of the afflictions they are under, not without some reflections upon God, which we are not to imitate, but, under the sharpest trials, must always think and speak highly and kindly of him. 41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. GenesisExodusLeviticusNumbersDeuteronomyJoshuaJudgesRuth1 Samuel2 Samuel1 Kings2 Kings1 Chronicles2 ChroniclesEzraNehemiahEstherJobPsalmsProverbsEcclesiastesSong of SongsIsaiahJeremiahLamentationsEzekielDanielHoseaJoelAmosObadiahJonahMicahNahumHabakkukZephaniahHaggaiZechariahMalachiMatthewMarkLukeJohnActsRomans1 Corinthians2 CorinthiansGalatiansEphesiansPhilippiansColossians1 Thessalonians2 Thessalonians1 Timothy2 TimothyTitusPhilemonHebrewsJames1 Peter2 Peter1 John2 John3 JohnJudeRevelation, 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), In the Hebrew Bible, the first three verses all start with aleph, the second three verses with beth, and so forth. (Philipp Ryken). b. 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. He has mingled gravel with my bread, so that my teeth are broken with it (v. 16) and what I eat is neither pleasant nor nourishing. The faithful lament their calamities, and hope in God's mercies. 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. They are new every morning; Let conscience be employed both to search and to try, and let it have leave to deal faithfully, to accomplish a diligent search and to make an impartial trial. 1. 8 Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. 20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. From the lowest pit. 3. i. 3. 60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me. If inward impressions be not in some measure answerable to outward expressions, we do but mock God and deceive ourselves. Their destruction is compared not only to the burying of a dead man, but to the sinking of a living man into the water, who cannot long be a living man there, v. 54. "In more ways than one this brings us to the very heart of the book. 1. Verse 57. 2. I am their taunting song. Wisdom Literature hichphishani beepher, "he hath plunged me into the dust." Lamentations 3 Hebrew with Rashi's Commentary; Christian. Each of the first four chapters of Lamentations is an acrostic poem. God can entangle the head that thinks itself clearest, and sink the heart that thinks itself stoutest. They have loaded us with curses; as they loved cursing, so let it come unto them, thy curse which will make them truly miserable. If you turn to the life of Whitfield our great and mighty Whitfield in more modern times, what was his character? 27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Those that blame their lot reproach him that allotted it to them. And, when God's hand is continually turned against us, we are tempted to think that his heart is turned against us too. Our lives are frail and forfeited, and yet we are alive; now the living, the living, they should praise, and not complain (Isa 38 19); while there is life there is hope, and therefore, instead of complaining that things are bad, we should encourage ourselves with the hope that they will be better. 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. IV. Major Prophets 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. It is good for young people to take that yoke upon them in their youth; we cannot begin too soon to be religious. That those who deal with God will find it is not in vain to trust in him; for, 1. Note, We should consider, to our terror and caution, that God knows all the revengeful thoughts we have in our minds against others, and therefore we should not allow of those thoughts nor harbour them, and that he knows all the revengeful thoughts others have causelessly in their minds against us, and therefore we should not be afraid of them, but leave it to him to protect us from them. Darkness is put for great trouble and perplexity, the want both of comfort and of direction; this was the case of the complainant (v. 2): "He has led me by his providence, and an unaccountable chain of events, into darkness and not into light, the darkness I feared and not into the light I hoped for." They look upon the Jewish nation as dead and buried, and imagine that there is not possibility of its resurrection. If he show us kindness, it is because so it seems good unto him; but, if he write bitter things against us, it is because we both deserve them and need them. 2 He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; 3 indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long. But waiting is good because God is worth waiting for. (Ryken). 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. And broken my bones. (Lamentations 3:24-26) Gods goodness to the seeking soul. a. conservative Christian faith, which includes a firm belief in the inerrancy In three things the prophet and his pious friends had found God good to them:1. When they were in the low dungeon, as free among the dead, they called upon God's name (v. 55); their weeping did not hinder praying. That he bear the yoke in his youth. According to the multitude of His mercies. What! Let us observe the particulars of it. (Lamentations 3:40-47) Humbly turning back to God. Pursue and destroy them Things are bad but they might have been worse, and therefore there is hope that they may be better. 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. That God will graciously return to his people with seasonable comforts according to the time that he has afflicted them, v. 31, 32. In His wise judgments God caused grief, but promised to also show compassion, and would do so according to the multitude of His mercies.

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