Almost in all countries, and in all languages, bitterness is a metaphor to express trouble and affliction. From under the heavens of the Lord. i. Yet this is mercy in comparison with those who put them in prison, and keep them there, when they know that it is impossible, from the state of the laws, to lessen the debt by their confinement. GenesisExodusLeviticusNumbersDeuteronomyJoshuaJudgesRuth1 Samuel2 Samuel1 Kings2 Kings1 Chronicles2 ChroniclesEzraNehemiahEstherJobPsalmsProverbsEcclesiastesSong of SongsIsaiahJeremiahLamentationsEzekielDanielHoseaJoelAmosObadiahJonahMicahNahumHabakkukZephaniahHaggaiZechariahMalachiMatthewMarkLukeJohnActsRomans1 Corinthians2 CorinthiansGalatiansEphesiansPhilippiansColossians1 Thessalonians2 Thessalonians1 Timothy2 TimothyTitusPhilemonHebrewsJames1 Peter2 Peter1 John2 John3 JohnJudeRevelation, Select a Beginning Point This is unfortunate, since his works contain priceless gems of information that are found nowhere except in the ancient writings of the Jews. I am chastened every morning," Ps 73 14. Verse 33. 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. They were under Gods severe discipline, and that because of their deep and persistent sin. Note, The Israel of God, though children of light, sometimes walk in darkness. Yet these flashes of light are welcome and necessary. You drew near on the day I called on You, Lamentations Chapter 3 Kjv - King James Bible Online Every morning brings new provision for the day. 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. Lamentations 3:1-66 . Verse 24. 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. They complain of the contempt of their neighbours and the reproach and ignominy they were under (v. 45): "Thou hast made us as the off-scouring, or scrapings, of the first floor, which are thrown to the dunghill." The next figure is not less expressive. 3. By this rod we must expect to see affliction, and, if we be made to see more than ordinary affliction by that rod, we must not quarrel, for we are sure that the anger is just and affliction mild and mixed with mercy. Poetical Books But when do we bear the yoke so that it is really good for us to bear it in our youth? With gravel: It could be argued that it refers to the type of bread made from the sweepings of the granary floor that Jeremiah must have received toward the end of the siege. (Ellison), iv. 2. 4 He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. 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. He delights not in the death of sinners, or the disquiet of saints, but punishes with a kind of reluctance. Lamentations 3 NLT - Hope in the LORD's Faithfulness - BibleGateway b. He does indeed afflict, and grieve the children of men; all their grievances and afflictions are from him. This was a pathway to hope for him. He has filled me with bitterness, a bitter sense of his calamities." Each of the first four chapters of Lamentations is an acrostic poem. 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. Do not be in a hurry; do not expect to be delivered out of your trouble the first time you begin to cry unto God. What is said of the idols is here said of their worshippers (who in this also shall be like unto them), They shall perish from under these heavens, Jer 10 11. The captives in Babylon had all the miseries of the siege in their mind continually and the flames and ruins of Jerusalem still before their eyes, and wept when they remembered Zion; nay, they could never forget Jerusalem, Ps 137 1, 5. ( Lamentations 3:1-21) "I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. Wisdom Literature Lamentations 3 - Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible - Bible This intimates, (1.) The yoke in his youth. Get Your Bible Minute in Your Inbox Every Morning. Why Does God Compare Our Relationship with Him to That of a Bride and Groom? Recognizing the value of consistent reflection upon the Word of God in order to refocus one's mind and heart upon Christ and His Gospel of peace, we provide several reading plans designed to cover the entire Bible in a year. Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that woe and well-being proceed? Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. 5. Read full chapter Lamentations 2 Lamentations 4 New International Version (NIV) Fear not. He gets good by the yoke who puts his mouth in the dust, not only lays his hand upon his mouth, in token of submission to the will of God in the affliction, but puts it in the dust, in token of sorrow, and shame, and self-loathing, at the remembrance of sin, and as one perfectly reduced and reclaimed, and brought as those that are vanquished to lick the dust, Ps 72 9. Historical Books This St. Paul refers to in his account of the sufferings of the apostles. 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. Having stated his distress and temptation, the prophet shows how he was raised above it. To save the heart from being quite broken, here is something called to mind, which gives ground for hope (v. 21), which refers to what comes after, not to what goes before. Blue Letter Bible study tools make reading, searching and studying the Bible easy and rewarding. i. That, when God does cause grief, it is for wise and holy ends, and he takes not delight in our calamities, v. 33. Let them be dealt with as they have dealt with us; let thy hand be against them as their hand has been against us. Wherefore doth a living man complain He who has his life still lent to him has small cause of complaint. According to the multitude of His mercies. If tribulation work patience, that patience will work experience, and that experience a hope that makes not ashamed. ii. He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; The deluge prevailed and quite overwhelmed them. 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. 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 was an affliction that was misery itself; for sin makes the cup of affliction a bitter cup. The issue or effect; the subject, adjunct, or accident, or produce of a thing, is frequently denominated its son or child. i. 11 He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate. Silence implies both an acceptance of Gods will and a refusal to complain to men. 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! He appeals to God's knowledge of the matter of fact, how very spiteful and malicious his enemies were (v. 59): "O Lord! Or, My eye melts my soul; I have quite wept away my spirits; not only my eye is consumed with grief, but my soul and my life are spent with it, Ps 31 9, 10. Does God Really Work All Things Together for Good? 4. 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. 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. Faith comes off conqueror, for in these verses the prophet concludes with some comfort. We have work enough to do at home; we must each of us say, "What have I done? b. From my sighing, my cry for help: He dared not even to complain, nor to cry, nor to pray aloud: he was obliged to whisper his prayer to God. He comes out of his place to punish, for his place is the mercy-seat. Did ever man paint sorrow like this man? Observe how he calls prayer his breathing; for in prayer we breathe towards God, we breathe after him. In their depths of affliction, this was not the experience of Jeremiah and the people of Judah. They shall be not only excluded from the happiness of the invisible heavens, but cut off from the comfort even of these visible ones, which are the heavens of the Lord (Ps 115 16) and which those therefore are unworthy to be taken under the protection of who rebel against him. He has made me desolate. And set me up as a target for the arrow. Let the curse be executed, v. 66. They have done it without cause, without any provocation given them. He has bent his bow, the bow that was ordained against the church's prosecutors, that is bent against her sons, v. 12. Their eyes, which now run down with water, shall still wait upon the Lord their God until he have mercy upon them, Ps 123 2. Without interruption, I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. Lamentations 3 Hebrew with Rashi's Commentary; Christian. 65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. That, when we are cast down, yet we are not cast off; the father's correcting his son is not a disinheriting of him. 1 I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. But these and similar expressions in the following verses may be merely metaphorical, to point out their straitened, oppressed, and distressed state. 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. For the salvation of the LORD. God feels breath; and happy is he that can say, In thee I hope, Lord, and after thee I breathe or pant. (Trapp), iii. "Judah" is the population not merely of Jerusalem, but of the whole kingdom . "While I have an interest in God, therein I have enough; I have that which is sufficient to counterbalance all my troubles and make up all my losses." You have moved my soul far from peace; 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. Those curses came upon Jerusalem in Jeremiahs day; now he prayed that those curses come upon their enemies. And pursued us; Yet most people today have never heard of John Gill. The Old Testament here are mercies in the plural number, denoting the abundance and variety of those mercies. 2 10. They silenced my life in the pit We should observe what makes for us, as well as what is against us. The arrows of his quiver beney ashpatho, "The sons of his quiver." It is good because obedience to God is best learned when young. Verse 47. He has been to me a bear lying in wait, Luke-Acts Lamentations 4 Commentary - Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible Verses Lamentations 3:46, Lamentations 3:47, Lamentations 3:48, Lamentations 3:46-48, beginning with phe, should, as to the order of the alphabet, follow 49, 50, 51, Lamentations 3:49-51, which begin with ain, which in its grammatical position precedes the former. "This is that which I depend upon and rest satisfied with: Therefore will I hope in him. My soul has them still in remembrance. 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. They confess the righteousness of God in afflicting them (v. 42): We have transgressed and have rebelled. So unworthy we are that nothing but an abundant mercy will relieve us; and from that what may we not expect? (Lamentations 3:24-26) Gods goodness to the seeking soul. A man's heart devises his way; he projects and purposes; he says that he will do so and so (Jam 4 13); but the Lord directs his steps far otherwise than he designed them, and what he contrived and expected does not come to pass, unless it be what God's hand and his counsel had determined before to be done, Prov 16 9; Jer 10 23. 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. Or, "Thou hast covered us up as men that are buried are covered up and forgotten." Portions on earth are perishing things, but God is portion for ever. They did it by despising him (their reproach), with schemes, with whispering lies, and their taunting song against him. The sufferers in the captivity must submit to the will of God in all their sufferings. He has made my paths crooked. The sum is, If tribulation work patience, that patience will work experience, and that experience a hope that makes not ashamed. Whatever we are robbed of our portion is safe. i. It is very applicable to the yoke of God's commands. Portions on earth are perishing things, but God is a portion for ever. Here he began to write as the voice of an individual sufferer. i. He has turned His hand against me: A metaphor from buffeters, who double their blows, beating their adversaries on both sides, as the smith doth his red hot iron upon the anvil till he hath shaped it. (Trapp). Pursue and destroy them Without doubt it was his infirmity to say this (Ps 77 10), for with God there is everlasting strength, and he is his people's never-failing hope, whatever they may think. Luke-Acts Time and time again throughout the day. 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? In Your anger, Note, Those that are cast down are commonly tempted to think themselves cast off, Ps 31 22; Jon 2 4. Some read it, at my gasping. And said, Do not fear! In His wise judgments God caused grief, but promised to also show compassion, and would do so according to the multitude of His mercies. Distressed soul! Thus Ezekiel saw it, in vision, a valley full of dead and dry bones. 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. We are living men. Note, The distresses of God's people sometimes prevail to such a degree that they cannot find any footing for their faith, nor keep their head above water, with any comfortable expectation. 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. Lamentations 3 - Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible - Bible In chapter 3, every third of the 66 verses begins with successive Greek letters. Lamentations 1:3 Commentaries: Judah has gone into exile under 57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. Surely He has turned His hand against me 10 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. They rejected and rebelled for generations, then looked to others for rescue. Words of comfort to God's people when they are in trouble and distress, ver 21-36. That though he makes use of men as his hand, or rather instruments in his hand, for the correcting of his people, yet he is far from being pleased with the injustice of their proceedings and the wrong they do them, v. 34-36. By their conduct they will bring on themselves the curse denounced against their enemies. David Guzik :: Study Guide for Lamentations 3 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. i. He has aged my flesh and my skin, And broken my bones. 39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? From my sighing, from my cry for help.. You have slain and not pitied. 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. 2. 64 Render unto them a recompence, O Lord, according to the work of their hands. Look at their sitting down and their rising up; Because God has laid it on him; 49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, 50 Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven. Are we suffering for our sins? VI. 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. Amralkeis, one of the writers of the Moallakat, terms a man grievously afflicted [Arabic] a pounder of wormwood. 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. 1. Verse 29. e. Great is Your faithfulness: All this made Jeremiah consider the great faithfulness of God; that He never fails in sending His mercies and compassions. "Lamentations" was derived from a translation of the title as found in the Latin Vulgate (Vg.) 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. To the soul who seeks Him. As for Wesley I have heard that on one occasion he said that he had been charged with every crime in the calendar, except drunkenness; and when a woman stood up in the crowd and accused him of that, he then said, Blessed God, I have now had all manner of evil spoken against me falsely, for Christs name sake. (Spurgeon). Bad as things are, it is owing to the mercy of God that they are not worse. Our Lord Jesus has left us an example of this, for he gave his back to the smiter, Isa 50 6. My strength and my hope have perished from the LORD: No wonder Jeremiah and Jerusalem could say this. 40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Individual instructors or editors may still require the use of URLs. Let them be dealt with," (1.) The Whole Bible If inward impressions do not answer to outward expressions, we mock God, and deceive ourselves. We are men, and not devils, are not in that deplorable, helpless, hopeless, state that they are in, but have something to comfort ourselves with which they have not. I am the man that hath seen affliction Either the prophet speaks here of himself, or he is personating his miserable countrymen. 51 Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city. I have forgotten prosperity. Verse 18. (3.) 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 actually felt it useful to remember it, to understand it for what it was, and to not pretend it wasnt there. You have heard their reproach, O LORD, Even if he could only manage a sigh, it would be his cry for help that he longed for God to hear. A mother listens for the breathing of her babe in the dark. Give them a veiled heart; We are sinful men, and what we complain of, is far less than our sins deserve. The contempt and calumny wherewith they loaded him, all that they spoke slightly of him, and all that they spoke reproachfully: "Thou hast heard their reproach (v. 61), all the bad characters they give me, laying to my charge things that I know not, all the methods they use to make me odious and contemptible, even the lips of those that rose up against me (v. 62), the contumelious language they use whenever they speak of me, and that at their sitting down and rising up, when they lie down at night and get up in the morning, when they sit down to their meat and with their company, and when they rise from both, still I am their music; they make themselves and one another merry with my miseries, as the Philistines made sport with Samson." He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; Prophets What Every Christian Should Know about the Protestant Reformation. 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. There have been various translations of the original: but they all amount to this. And God's causing our grief ought to be no discouragement at all to those expectations. 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! Verse 17. Before the face of the Most High, The more I look upon the desolation of the city and country the more I am grieved. that come from the rod of the Lord's anger. O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul; 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. 3. We must see and acknowledge the hand of God in all the calamities that befal us at any time, whether personal or public, v. 37, 38. 4. Note, It becomes us, when we are in trouble, to justify God, by owning our sins, and laying the load upon ourselves for them. It leads too to the willingness to be treated like a slave (v. 30), for the yoke was a symbol of servitude (but cf. What Does Lamentations 3:32 Mean? That, whatever men's actions are, it is God that overrules them: Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass (that designs a thing and bring his designs to effect), if the Lord commandeth it not? In a season of great suffering or calamity, it may be difficult to remember that God rules over all things if not directly, then in what He allows. "As they deserve (v. 64): Render to them a recompence according to the work of their hands. God therefore disapproves heartily of any attempt to deprive an individual of his rights in the law (36), or to condemn him unjustly. (Harrison). Bible Introductions - Lamentations by John MacArthur 38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? Whatever measure he was to receive, whatever inheritance, whatever future, it would all be found in Yahweh. See Jeremiah 38:6, &c. Verse 56. Every morning brings new forgiveness for new sins. Verse 28. b. Till the LORD from heaven looks down and sees: The intense weeping of Jeremiah and those like him must continue until God looks and sees, taking notice of and mercy to their misery. (Lamentations 3:57-63) Thankful and confident of future help. Peculiarities You have heard my voice: Verse 51. He who has not got under wholesome restraint in youth will never make a useful man, a good man, nor a happy man. (Clarke), ii. Verse 13. Because there is room for hope. Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. Mine eye affecteth mine heart What I see I feel. Commentary on Lamentations 3:22-33 - Working Preacher 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. My eyes overflow with rivers of water again and again, all day long. Here we find a different feeling; he humbles himself under the mighty hand of God, and then his hope revives, Lamentations 3:21. hichphishani beepher, "he hath plunged me into the dust." Matthew Henrys Bible Commentary (concise), Matthew Henry Bible Commentary (complete), California - Do Not Sell My Personal Information. The sufferings of the people of Judah are described as though one man had experienced them. (2.) That he is not able to discern any way of escape or deliverance (v. 5): "He has built against me, as forts and batteries are built against a besieged city. We dont live constantly focused on our sins and failings, but there are appropriate times to carefully, deliberately search out and examine our ways. That, whatever men's lot is, it is God that orders it: Out of the mouth of the Most High do not evil and good proceed? The Chaldean forces broke in upon them as the breaking forth of waters, which rose so high as to flow over their heads; they could not wade, they could not swim, and therefore must unavoidably sink. 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. Verse 34. If therefore you cannot speak, weep - tears also have a voice; [Psalms 39:12] if you cannot weep, sigh - a storm of sighs may do as much as a shower of tears; if you cannot sigh, yet breathe, as here.
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