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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Lamentations 3 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/lamentations/3.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; 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For that very reason it has been the true inheritance of all mourners, however widely different in time, country, circumstance, whose sorrows have approximated to that intensity.<p><span class= "bld">The rod of his wrath.</span>—The “wrath” is obviously that of Jehovah (comp. <a href="/proverbs/22-8.htm" title="He that sows iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.">Proverbs 22:8</a>; <a href="/isaiah/10-5.htm" title="O Assyrian, the rod of my anger, and the staff in their hand is my indignation.">Isaiah 10:5</a>), but there is something significant in the fact that He is not named.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-2.htm">Lamentations 3:2</a></div><div class="verse">He hath led me, and brought <i>me into</i> darkness, but not <i>into</i> light.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Into darkness.</span>—The moral darkness of perplexity as well as misery. The cry of the mourner was like that of Ajax (Hom. <span class= "ital">Il. </span>xvii. 647), “Slay me if thou wilt, but slay me in the light.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-3.htm">Lamentations 3:3</a></div><div class="verse">Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand <i>against me</i> all the day.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Against me is he turned.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">against me He turneth His hand again and again, </span>the first verb being one of frequentative action, and giving that significance to the second.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-4.htm">Lamentations 3:4</a></div><div class="verse">My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Hath he made old.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">He hath wasted, </span>the verb describing the wear and tear of life rather than the effects of age. “Flesh,” “skin,” “bones,” are grouped together as representing the whole being of the mourner.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-5.htm">Lamentations 3:5</a></div><div class="verse">He hath builded against me, and compassed <i>me</i> with gall and travail.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">He hath builded.</span>—The attack of sorrow is presented under the figure of a siege. In the next clause the figure is dropped. “Gall” stands, as in <a href="/jeremiah/8-14.htm" title="Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defended cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.">Jeremiah 8:14</a>, for bitterest sorrow. “Travel” is the old English form of “travail,” the two forms, originally identical, being now used with different meanings.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-6.htm">Lamentations 3:6</a></div><div class="verse">He hath set me in dark places, as <i>they that be</i> dead of old.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">He hath set me in dark places.</span>—A verbal reproduction of <a href="/psalms/143-3.htm" title="For the enemy has persecuted my soul; he has smitten my life down to the ground; he has made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.">Psalm 143:3</a>. The “dark places” are those of hell or Hades. For <span class= "ital">dead of old </span>read <span class= "ital">dead eternally </span>or <span class= "ital">dead for ever, </span>the adverb looking forward rather than back.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-7.htm">Lamentations 3:7</a></div><div class="verse">He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">He hath hedged.</span>—From the darkness of Hades we pass to that of the prison-house, in which the mourner is “hedged” or confined, bound with a heavy chain (literally, <span class= "ital">brass</span>)<span class= "ital">.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-8.htm">Lamentations 3:8</a></div><div class="verse">Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">He shutteth out my prayer</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> stops it so that it does not reach the ear of Jehovah; and it is Jehovah himself who does this.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-9.htm">Lamentations 3:9</a></div><div class="verse">He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">He hath inclosed.</span>—Yet another figure of resourceless misery follows. A massive wall of stone runs across the mourner’s way. When he turns aside into by-paths, they are turned and twisted in labyrinthine confusion, and lead nowhither.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-10.htm">Lamentations 3:10</a></div><div class="verse">He <i>was</i> unto me <i>as</i> a bear lying in wait, <i>and as</i> a lion in secret places.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">As a bear . . . as a lion.</span>—The figure found in <a href="/hosea/13-8.htm" title="I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the lobe of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.">Hosea 13:8</a>; <a href="/amos/5-19.htm" title="As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.">Amos 5:19</a>, is specially characteristic of Jeremiah (<a href="/jeremiah/4-7.htm" title="The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make your land desolate; and your cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.">Jeremiah 4:7</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/5-6.htm" title="Why a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goes out there shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.">Jeremiah 5:6</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/49-19.htm" title="Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?">Jeremiah 49:19</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/50-44.htm" title="Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan to the habitation of the strong: but I will make them suddenly run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?">Jeremiah 50:44</a>). We are reminded of Dante (<span class= "ital">Inferno, </span>i. 31-51).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-11.htm">Lamentations 3:11</a></div><div class="verse">He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">He hath turned aside.</span>—The terror caused by the lion turns the traveller from his path, and there is no other; and then comes the attack by which he is torn in pieces.<p><span class= "bld">He hath made me desolate.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">made me astonied, </span>as in <a href="/ezra/9-3.htm" title="And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down astonished.">Ezra 9:3</a>. The verb (which occurs forty times in Jeremiah’s prophecies and three times in Lam.), paints the stupefaction of terror.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-12.htm">Lamentations 3:12</a></div><div class="verse">He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">He hath bent his bow.</span>—(Comp. <a href="/job/16-12.htm" title="I was at ease, but he has broken me asunder: he has also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.">Job 16:12</a>.) The figure is changed, but there is a natural sequence of thought. The lion suggests the huntsman. but he appears on the scene not to save the victim, but to complete the work of destruction.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-13.htm">Lamentations 3:13</a></div><div class="verse">He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">The arrows of his quiver.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">children. </span>The other side of the analogy appears in <a href="/psalms/127-5.htm" title="Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.">Psalm 127:5</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-14.htm">Lamentations 3:14</a></div><div class="verse">I was a derision to all my people; <i>and</i> their song all the day.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">I was a derision.</span>—The personal experience of the prophet breaks through the succession of imagery. The arrows that pierced to the quick were the taunts of the mockers who derided him (<a href="/jeremiah/20-7.htm" title="O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocks me.">Jeremiah 20:7</a>). “Their song.” (Comp. <a href="/job/30-9.htm" title="And now am I their song, yes, I am their byword.">Job 30:9</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-15.htm">Lamentations 3:15</a></div><div class="verse">He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">Bitterness.</span>—The Hebrew gives the plural, <span class= "ital">bitternesses. </span>With these, the sorrows which are as the bitter herbs of life (the same word meets us in <a href="/exodus/12-8.htm" title="And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.">Exodus 12:8</a>, and <a href="/numbers/9-11.htm" title="The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.">Numbers 9:11</a>), the mourner had been filled even to satiety, even as he had been made drunk with wormwood.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-16.htm">Lamentations 3:16</a></div><div class="verse">He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">He hath also broken my teeth.</span>—The metaphor of food is continued. The mourner eats bread that is gritty, as if made of sand instead of flour. (Comp. <a href="/proverbs/20-17.htm" title="Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.">Proverbs 20:17</a>.) Here, again, we are reminded of Dante (<span class= "ital">Parad. </span>xvii. 58), when he speaks of the bitterness of the bread which comes as the grudging gift of strangers.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-17.htm">Lamentations 3:17</a></div><div class="verse">And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">Thou hast removed my soul far off from peace.</span>—The verb is found in this sense in <a href="/psalms/88-14.htm" title="LORD, why cast you off my soul? why hide you your face from me?">Psalm 88:14</a>. By some critics it is taken as passive, and in the 3rd person feminine. <span class= "ital">My soul loathes peace, i.e., </span>has lost even the desire of better things; or, <span class= "ital">My soul is despised of peace, i.e., </span>is shut out from it. But the Authorised version is preferable.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-18.htm">Lamentations 3:18</a></div><div class="verse">And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:</div>(18) <span class= "bld">I said, My strength.</span>—The sorrow of the mourner comes to the very verge of despair. There was “no help for him from his God;” even that hope had left him. But, as the sequel shows, this despair was the beginning of a reaction. The very name of Jehovah (no longer Adonai) reminded him of the everlasting mercies.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-19.htm">Lamentations 3:19</a></div><div class="verse">Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">Remembering.</span>—The verb, which is rendered by the Authorised version as a gerundial infinitive, is better taken as an imperative, <span class= "ital">Remember mine affliction; </span>the prayer being addressed to Jehovah. The two terms of the first clause are taken from <a href="/lamentations/1-7.htm" title="Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.">Lamentations 1:7</a>. The mourner begins his prayer, as it were, by a recapitulation of his sufferings. (Comp. <a href="/psalms/69-21.htm" title="They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.">Psalm 69:21</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-20.htm">Lamentations 3:20</a></div><div class="verse">My soul hath <i>them</i> still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">My soul hath . . .</span>—The verb, as in <a href="/lamentations/3-17.htm" title="And you have removed my soul far off from peace: I forgot prosperity.">Lamentations 3:17</a>, may be either in the second person or the third; the former gives, <span class= "ital">Thou wilt surely remember that my soul is humbled. </span><a href="/psalms/42-4.htm" title="When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day.">Psalm 42:4</a> supports the Authorised version.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-21.htm">Lamentations 3:21</a></div><div class="verse">This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">This I recall to my mind.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">This will I recall. </span>The first gleam of hope breaks through the darkness. The sorrow has not been in vain; it has brought humility, and out of humility springs hope.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-22.htm">Lamentations 3:22</a></div><div class="verse"><i>It is of</i> the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">It is of the Lord’s mercies.</span>—It is, perhaps, part of the elaborate art of this poem that <a href="/context/lamentations/3-22.htm" title="It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.">Lamentations 3:22-42</a>, which form its centre, and that of the whole book, represent the highest point of trust to which the mourner attains, being both preceded and followed by words of lamentation.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-23.htm">Lamentations 3:23</a></div><div class="verse"><i>They are</i> new every morning: great <i>is</i> thy faithfulness.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">They are new.</span>—The subject of the sentence is found in the “compassions” of the preceding verse. With the dawn of every day there dawn also the mercies of Jehovah.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-24.htm">Lamentations 3:24</a></div><div class="verse">The LORD <i>is</i> my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">The Lord.</span>—An inversion of the sentence gives a closer and more emphatic rendering: <span class= "ital">My portion is Jehovah. </span>The phrase is a reminiscence from <a href="/psalms/16-5.htm" title="The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup: you maintain my lot.">Psalm 16:5</a>; <a href="/psalms/73-26.htm" title="My flesh and my heart fails: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.">Psalm 73:26</a>; <a href="/psalms/142-5.htm" title="I cried to you, O LORD: I said, You are my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.">Psalm 142:5</a>; <a href="/psalms/119-57.htm" title="You are my portion, O LORD: I have said that I would keep your words.">Psalm 119:57</a>, the thought resting primarily on <a href="/numbers/18-20.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to Aaron, You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any part among them: I am your part and your inheritance among the children of Israel.">Numbers 18:20</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-25.htm">Lamentations 3:25</a></div><div class="verse">The LORD <i>is</i> good unto them that wait for him, to the soul <i>that</i> seeketh him.</div>(25) <span class= "bld">The Lord is good.</span>—The alliterative form of the Hebrew makes “good” the first word of this and the two following verses, the adjective being predicated, first of the essential character of Jehovah, and then of the conditions in man on which the manifestation of that character depends.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-26.htm">Lamentations 3:26</a></div><div class="verse"><i>It is</i> good that <i>a man</i> should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.</div>(26) <span class= "bld">Quietly wait.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">wait in silence: i.e. </span>abstain from murmurs and complaints.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-27.htm">Lamentations 3:27</a></div><div class="verse"><i>It is</i> good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.</div>(27) <span class= "bld">Bear the yoke in his youth.</span>—The words have been pressed <span class= "ital">“</span>with a strange literalism” in favour of the view that the Lamentations were written in the youth of Jeremiah and on the death of Josiah. It may fairly be contended, on the other hand, that the tone of the maxim is that of one who looks back from the experience of age on the passionate complaints of his earlier years (<a href="/jeremiah/15-10.htm" title="Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them does curse me.">Jeremiah 15:10</a>; <a href="/context/jeremiah/20-7.htm" title="O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocks me.">Jeremiah 20:7-18</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-28.htm">Lamentations 3:28</a></div><div class="verse">He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne <i>it</i> upon him.</div>(28) <span class= "bld">He sitteth alone . . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">Let him sit alone, and keep silence when He </span>(Jehovah) <span class= "ital">hath laid it </span>(the yoke) <span class= "ital">upon him; </span>and so in the next verses, <span class= "ital">Let him put his mouth . . .</span> <span class= "ital">Let him give his cheek.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-29.htm">Lamentations 3:29</a></div><div class="verse">He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.</div>(29) <span class= "bld">He putteth his mouth in the dust . . .</span>—The outward image is that of the prostration of an Eastern subject before a king: his very face laid in the dust, so that he cannot speak.<span class= "bld"><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-30.htm">Lamentations 3:30</a></div><div class="verse">He giveth <i>his</i> cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.</div>(30) <span class= "bld">He giveth his cheek . . .</span>—The submission enjoined reaches its highest point—a patience like that of <a href="/job/16-10.htm" title="They have gaped on me with their mouth; they have smitten me on the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.">Job 16:10</a>; we may add, like that of the Sermon on the Mount (<a href="/matthew/5-39.htm" title="But I say to you, That you resist not evil: but whoever shall smite you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.">Matthew 5:39</a>.) It was harder to accept the Divine chastisement when it came through human agents. Not so had Jeremiah once taught and acted (<a href="/context/jeremiah/20-1.htm" title="Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.">Jeremiah 20:1-6</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/28-15.htm" title="Then said the prophet Jeremiah to Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD has not sent you; but you make this people to trust in a lie.">Jeremiah 28:15</a>). (Comp. <a href="/isaiah/1-6.htm" title="From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.">Isaiah 1:6</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-31.htm">Lamentations 3:31</a></div><div class="verse">For the Lord will not cast off for ever:</div>(31) <span class= "bld">For the Lord . . .</span>—The counsels of submission are followed by the grounds of hope. The first, a quotation from <a href="/psalms/77-7.htm" title="Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favorable no more?">Psalm 77:7</a>, had been of old a favourite thought of the writer’s (<a href="/jeremiah/3-5.htm" title="Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken and done evil things as you could.">Jeremiah 3:5</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/3-12.htm" title="Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, you backsliding Israel, said the LORD; and I will not cause my anger to fall on you: for I am merciful, said the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.">Jeremiah 3:12</a>). The second (<a href="/lamentations/3-32.htm" title="But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.">Lamentations 3:32</a>) rests on the fact that compassion underlies chastisement (<a href="/psalms/30-5.htm" title="For his anger endures but a moment; in his favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.">Psalm 30:5</a>; <a href="/job/5-18.htm" title="For he makes sore, and binds up: he wounds, and his hands make whole.">Job 5:18</a>; <a href="/isaiah/54-8.htm" title="In a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you, said the LORD your Redeemer.">Isaiah 54:8</a>); the third (<a href="/lamentations/3-33.htm" title="For he does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.">Lamentations 3:33</a>) 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.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-33.htm">Lamentations 3:33</a></div><div class="verse">For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.</div>(33) <span class= "bld">Not . . .</span> <span class= "bld">willingly.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">not from the heart, </span>as being the centre of volition as well as emotion<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-34.htm">Lamentations 3:34</a></div><div class="verse">To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,</div>(34-36) <span class= "bld">To crush . . .</span>—The triplet of verses forms one sentence dependent upon the final clause, “The Lord approveth not,” literally, <span class= "ital">doth not look on. </span>By some critics the literal meaning is kept in the form of a question: <span class= "ital">Doth not the Lord look on this? </span>The fact that the righteous judgment of God is against those who, unlike Him, cause wilful and needless suffering is another ground of hope to the sufferer. The three forms of evil specified are (1) the cruel treatment of prisoners of war, such as Jeremiah had witnessed daily at the hands of the Chaldeans; (2) the perversion of justice in a public tribunal acting in the name of God (<a href="/exodus/23-6.htm" title="You shall not wrest the judgment of your poor in his cause.">Exodus 23:6</a>); (3) every form even of private injustice.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-37.htm">Lamentations 3:37</a></div><div class="verse">Who <i>is</i> he <i>that</i> saith, and it cometh to pass, <i>when</i> the Lord commandeth <i>it</i> not?</div>(37-39) New grounds of patient faith are given: (1) In an echo from <a href="/psalms/33-9.htm" title="For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.">Psalm 33:9</a>, affirming the sovereignty of God. The evil which He permits is under the control of this loving purpose; and (2) as far as it is not absolute evil, may be said to come from Him.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-39.htm">Lamentations 3:39</a></div><div class="verse">Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?</div>(39) <span class= "bld">Wherefore doth a living man . . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">Why doth a man who lives? i.e., </span>whose life is spared him (comp. <a href="/jeremiah/45-5.htm" title="And seek you great things for yourself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil on all flesh, said the LORD: but your life will I give to you for a prey in all places where you go.">Jeremiah 45:5</a>), with all its possibilities of good, complain of sufferings which, however unjust as far as those who cause them are concerned, are, in relation to the sufferer, the just punishment of his own sins?<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-40.htm">Lamentations 3:40</a></div><div class="verse">Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.</div>(40) <span class= "bld">Let us search . . .</span>—Warnings against murmurs are followed by counsels which point to a more excellent way. Suffering calls a man to self-scrutiny. We should seek to know the sins which it is meant to punish and correct.<span class= "bld"><p>To the Lord.</span>—The preposition is an emphatic one: <span class= "ital">even to the Lord. </span>There is to be no halting half-way in the work of conversion.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-41.htm">Lamentations 3:41</a></div><div class="verse">Let us lift up our heart with <i>our</i> hands unto God in the heavens.</div>(41) <span class= "bld">With our hands.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">to our hands. </span>There is, as it were, a psychological analysis of prayer. Men can by an act of will, lift up the heart as the centre of affection: this, in its turn, prompts the outward act of the uplifted hands of supplication; God is the final object to whom the prayer is addressed.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-42.htm">Lamentations 3:42</a></div><div class="verse">We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.</div>(42) <span class= "bld">We have transgressed . . .</span>—The verses that follow (Lam 3;42-47) give the prayer which answers to the call of <a href="/lamentations/3-41.htm" title="Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.">Lamentations 3:41</a>. Both pronouns are emphatic: The suppliant has sinned and God has not yet pardoned, in the sense of ceasing to punish.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-43.htm">Lamentations 3:43</a></div><div class="verse">Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.</div>(43) <span class= "bld">Thou hast covered with anger.</span>—Better, as in the next verse, <span class= "ital">Thou hast covered thyself. </span>Wrath is as the garment in which God wraps Himself to execute His righteous judgments. In <a href="/lamentations/3-44.htm" title="You have covered yourself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.">Lamentations 3:44</a> the wrath is represented more definitely as a cloud through which the prayers of the afflicted cannot pass.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-45.htm">Lamentations 3:45</a></div><div class="verse">Thou hast made us <i>as</i> the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.</div>(45) <span class= "bld">In the midst of the people.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">peoples: i.e., </span>the heathen nations of the world. A like phrase meets us in <a href="/1_corinthians/4-13.htm" title="Being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things to this day.">1Corinthians 4:13</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-47.htm">Lamentations 3:47</a></div><div class="verse">Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.</div>(47) <span class= "bld">Fear and a snare.</span>—A quotation from <a href="/jeremiah/48-43.htm" title="Fear, and the pit, and the snare, shall be on you, O inhabitant of Moab, said the LORD.">Jeremiah 48:43</a>, and <a href="/isaiah/24-17.htm" title="Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are on you, O inhabitant of the earth.">Isaiah 24:17</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Desolation.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">devastation. </span>The Hebrew noun is not found elsewhere, but the cognate verb in <a href="/isaiah/37-26.htm" title="Have you not heard long ago, how I have done it; and of ancient times, that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that you should be to lay waste defended cities into ruinous heaps.">Isaiah 37:26</a> is rendered “to lay waste.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-48.htm">Lamentations 3:48</a></div><div class="verse">Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.</div>(48) <span class= "bld">Mine eye . . .</span>—A stronger utterance of the thought of <a href="/lamentations/1-16.htm" title="For these things I weep; my eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.">Lamentations 1:16</a>; <a href="/lamentations/2-18.htm" title="Their heart cried to the LORD, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give yourself no rest; let not the apple of your eye cease.">Lamentations 2:18</a>; <a href="/psalms/119-136.htm" title="Rivers of waters run down my eyes, because they keep not your law.">Psalm 119:136</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-49.htm">Lamentations 3:49</a></div><div class="verse">Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,</div>(49) <span class= "bld">Trickleth down.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">poureth down.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-51.htm">Lamentations 3:51</a></div><div class="verse">Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.</div>(51) <span class= "bld">Affecteth.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">harmeth, </span>or <span class= "ital">causeth grief to.</span><p><span class= "bld">The daughters of my city.</span>—The words have been understood (1) of the maidens of Jerusalem (comp. <a href="/lamentations/1-4.htm" title="The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.">Lamentations 1:4</a>; <a href="/lamentations/1-18.htm" title="The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.">Lamentations 1:18</a>; <a href="/context/lamentations/2-20.htm" title="Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom you have done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?">Lamentations 2:20-21</a>); and (2) of the daughter-towns which looked to it as their metropolis. Of these (1) is preferable.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-52.htm">Lamentations 3:52</a></div><div class="verse">Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.</div>(52) <span class= "bld">Without cause . . .</span>—The words connect themselves in the Hebrew with “mine enemies” (comp. <a href="/psalms/35-7.htm" title="For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have dig for my soul.">Psalm 35:7</a>; <a href="/psalms/35-19.htm" title="Let not them that are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.">Psalm 35:19</a>; <a href="/psalms/69-4.htm" title="They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head: they that would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.">Psalm 69:4</a>), and it has been inferred from this that Jeremiah speaks not of the Chaldeans as enemies of his nation, but of those who were individually his persecutors. The hypothesis receives some confirmation from the apparent reference in the “dungeon” and the “waters” to the narrative of Jeremiah 38. It has been urged, on the other hand, that those expressions may be figurative here, as they are in <a href="/psalms/42-7.htm" title="Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterspouts: all your waves and your billows are gone over me.">Psalm 42:7</a>; <a href="/psalms/88-7.htm" title="Your wrath lies hard on me, and you have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah.">Psalm 88:7</a>; <a href="/psalms/124-4.htm" title="Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:">Psalm 124:4</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-53.htm">Lamentations 3:53</a></div><div class="verse">They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.</div>(53) <span class= "bld">Cast a stone upon me.</span>—The words admit of two meanings: (1) that they cast stones at him; (2) that they placed a stone over the opening of his dungeon so as to prevent escape.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-55.htm">Lamentations 3:55</a></div><div class="verse">I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.</div>(55) <span class= "bld">Out of the low dungeon.</span>—Here, again, we have to choose between a literal reference to Jeremiah’s sufferings or a figurative interpretation. The phrase is the same as that of <a href="/psalms/88-6.htm" title="You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.">Psalm 88:6</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-56.htm">Lamentations 3:56</a></div><div class="verse">Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.</div>(56) <span class= "bld">Thou hast heard . . . hide not thine . . .</span>—There is something eminently suggestive in the sequence of the two clauses. The recollection that prayer was answered in the past, prompts its utterance in the present. Historically, the words may point to the intervention of Ebed-melech in <a href="/jeremiah/38-7.htm" title="Now when Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon; the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin;">Jeremiah 38:7</a>.<p><span class= "bld">At my breathing</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> the “sighs” or “sobs” of the mourner.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-58.htm">Lamentations 3:58</a></div><div class="verse">O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.</div>(58) <span class= "bld">Thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul—</span><span class= "ital">i.e., </span>Jehovah had appeared as the advocate, or next-of-kin protector, of the prophet in the persecutions which were aimed against his life. Another personal reference to the prophet’s sufferings. (Comp. <a href="/context/jeremiah/26-8.htm" title="Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, You shall surely die.">Jeremiah 26:8-17</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/37-14.htm" title="Then said Jeremiah, It is false; I fall not away to the Chaldeans. But he listened not to him: so Irijah took Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes.">Jeremiah 37:14</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/38-4.htm" title="Therefore the princes said to the king, We beseech you, let this man be put to death: for thus he weakens the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words to them: for this man seeks not the welfare of this people, but the hurt.">Jeremiah 38:4</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-60.htm">Lamentations 3:60</a></div><div class="verse">Thou hast seen all their vengeance <i>and</i> all their imaginations against me.</div>(60) <span class= "bld">All their imaginations . . .</span>—Same word as the “devices” of <a href="/jeremiah/11-19.htm" title="But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.">Jeremiah 11:19</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/18-18.htm" title="Then said they, Come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.">Jeremiah 18:18</a>, to which the writer obviously refers.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-61.htm">Lamentations 3:61</a></div><div class="verse">Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, <i>and</i> all their imaginations against me;</div>(61) <span class= "bld">Thou hast heard.</span>—The verb governs the “lips<span class= "ital">” </span>of the next verse as well as the “reproaches” of this. In the last clause we note the emphasis of iteration, the natural dwelling on what was prominent in the prophet’s thoughts.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-62.htm">Lamentations 3:62</a></div><div class="verse">The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.</div>(62) <span class= "bld">The lips . . . </span>The organs of speech are used boldly for the words which they uttered, and so stand parallel with “reproaches” in <a href="/lamentations/3-61.htm" title="You have heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;">Lamentations 3:61</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-63.htm">Lamentations 3:63</a></div><div class="verse">Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I <i>am</i> their musick.</div>(63) <span class= "bld">Their sitting down, and their rising up . . .</span>—The two words, as in <a href="/deuteronomy/6-7.htm" title="And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.">Deuteronomy 6:7</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/11-19.htm" title="And you shall teach them your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.">Deuteronomy 11:19</a>; <a href="/psalms/139-2.htm" title="You know my sitting down and my rising up, you understand my thought afar off.">Psalm 139:2</a>; include the whole daily and hourly conduct of those spoken of.<p><span class= "bld">I am their musick.</span>—The noun, though not identical, is cognate with that of <a href="/psalms/69-12.htm" title="They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.">Psalm 69:12</a>, of which the complaint is, as it were, an echo.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-64.htm">Lamentations 3:64</a></div><div class="verse">Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.</div>(64) <span class= "bld">Render unto them . . .</span>—The words are noticeable as being taken from <a href="/psalms/28-4.htm" title="Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavors: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert.">Psalm 28:4</a>, and reproduced by St. Paul in <a href="/2_timothy/4-14.htm" title="Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:">2Timothy 4:14</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-65.htm">Lamentations 3:65</a></div><div class="verse">Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.</div>(65) <span class= "bld">Sorrow of heart</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">covering, </span>with a sense like that of the “veil upon the heart” of <a href="/2_corinthians/3-15.htm" title="But even to this day, when Moses is read, the veil is on their heart.">2Corinthians 3:15</a>, and so signifying the blindness of obstinacy. The imperatives in both <a href="/context/lamentations/3-65.htm" title="Give them sorrow of heart, your curse to them.">Lamentations 3:65-66</a> are better rendered as futures—<span class= "ital">Thou shalt give; Thou shalt persecute.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/lamentations/3-66.htm">Lamentations 3:66</a></div><div class="verse">Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.</div>(66) <span class= "bld">From under the heavens of the Lord.</span>—The phrase is exceptional, but it is obviously equivalent to the whole world, considered as God’s kingdom.<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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