Prophets Almost in all countries, and in all languages, bitterness is a metaphor to express trouble and affliction. 2. 4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; 5 he has besieged . 3. Even if he could only manage a sigh, it would be his cry for help that he longed for God to hear. 3 Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day. 2. 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. Jeremiahs personal lament is a reminder that suffering is always personal. He has also (v. 9) enclosed my ways with hewn stone, not only hedged up my way with thorns (Hos 2 6), but stopped it up with a stone wall, which cannot be broken through, so that my paths are made crooked; I traverse to and fro, to the right hand, to the left, to try to get forward, but am still turned back." That God turns a deaf ear to his prayers (v. 8): "When I cry and shout, as one in earnest, as one that would make him hear, yet he shuts out my prayer and will not suffer it to have access to him." 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. My eyes overflow with rivers of water You have heard my voice: He comforts himself with an appeal to God's justice, and (in order to the sentence of that) to his omniscience. Here the clouds begin to disperse and the sky to clear up; the complaint was very melancholy in the former part of the chapter, and yet here the tune is altered and the mourners in Zion begin to look a little pleasant. Because of all the daughters of my city. iii. 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. The Hebrew exclamation ekah2 ("How," which expresses "dismay"), used in 1:1; 2:1, and 4:1, gives the book its Hebrew title. 6. Desolation and destruction. Lamentations 3 Bible Commentary - Matthew Henry (concise) - Christianity 4. a. God will take his part, and bring him safely through all hardships. Lamentations 3:44 Commentaries: You have covered Yourself with a cloud This St. Paul refers to in his account of the sufferings of the apostles. He doth not ascribe his deliverance in any measure to any man, much less to his own merit; but it is thou. (Spurgeon). It is possible to interpret this chapter as a record of the feelings of Jeremiah himself, or as a personification in an otherwise unknown individual or the nations tragic sufferings. (Harrison), ii. O LORD, You have seen how I am wronged; in the resource materials are not necessarily affirmed, in total, by this ministry. You have seen all their vengeance, 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. This I recall to my mind, Verse 27. 2. Or subvert a man in his cause I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. Lamentations 3:32 (HCSB) Verse Thoughts Jeremiah is often called 'the weeping prophet' for he was to prophecy to deaf ears and witness to blinded, callused hearts. The reason is, there is nothing more disagreeable to the taste than the one; and nothing more distressing to the mind than the other. From under the heavens of the Lord. 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. We must pray to him, with a believing expectation to receive mercy from him; for that is implied in our lifting up our hands to him (a gesture commonly used in prayer and sometimes put for it, as Ps 141 2, Let the lifting up of my hands be as the evening sacrifice); it signifies our requesting mercy from him and our readiness to receive that mercy. V. Encouragement taken to hope in God, and continue waiting for his salvation, with an appeal to his justice against the persecutors of the church, ver 55-66. It was only a breathing. (Clarke), ii. He silenced their fears, and quieted their spirits. To give emphasis, Jeremiah asked the same question in different words. 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. The poets mention of the LORD broke the spell of misery that had bound him. (Ellison). This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. 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." Some read it, at my gasping. Thus restless was the enmity of their persecutors, and yet causeless. Judge thou my cause, v. 59. Yet He will show compassion 1. Early discipline is equally so. They are new every morning Day and night proclaim the mercy and compassion of God. 2 10. Who could exist throughout the day, if there were not a continual superintending Providence? c. For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men: When God does allow or send His judgments, He does not do it with a happy heart. We should complain to God, and not of him. My soul still remembers They rejected and rebelled for generations, then looked to others for rescue. 4 He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. We must offer up ourselves to God, and our best affections and services, in the flames of devotion, v. 41. (2.) If God disciplines us when we are young, it is to train us for a fruitful future. It will tell her so much. That he bear the yoke in his youth. 22 It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. Did he endeavour as Job did (Job 9 27), to forget his complaint? It is good for young people to take that yoke upon them in their youth; we cannot begin too soon to be religious. Note, God has many arrows in his quiver, and they fly swiftly and pierce deeply. When we are in affliction it is seasonable to consider our ways (Hag 1 5), that what is amiss may be repented of and amended for the future, and so we may answer the intention of the affliction. Lamentations 3 - Clarke's Commentary - StudyLight.org The nations recognition of itself as offscouring (so most evv) employs a descriptive term sehi, occurring here only in the Hebrew Bible, and in the context denotes anything rejected as unfit for use. That, bad as things are, it is owing to the mercy of God that they are not worse. No; he has more reason to be thankful for life than to complain of any of the burdens and calamities of life. Their taunting song all the day. You have covered Yourself with anger Great and long grief exhausts the spirits, and brings not only many a gray head, but many a green head too, to the grave. An Introduction to the Book of Lamentations | Bible.org We read it as a petition for further audience: Hide not thy ear. General Epistles Does God Really Work All Things Together for Good? 43 Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. And threw stones at me. 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. 2. Note, While trouble is prolonged, and deliverance is deferred, we must patiently wait for God and his gracious returns to us. O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul; 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. That those who deal with God will find it is not in vain to trust in him; for, 1. (Lamentations 3:19-20) The sinking soul. Yet. (2.) That, when God returns to deal graciously with us, it will not be according to our merits, but according to his mercies, according to the multitude, the abundance, of his mercies. We must set ourselves to answer God's intention in afflicting us, which is to bring sin to our remembrance, and to bring us home to himself, v. 40. Spurgeon suggested many reasons why it is good to bear the yoke when young: b. Let us search out and examine our ways, Hunted me down like a bird. 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. Lamentations 3:1-66 . Instead of Adonai, seventeen MSS., of Kennicott's, and one ancient of my own, have Yehovah. No matter how bad the past day was, Gods people can look to the new morning with faith and hope. b. It was only a breathing. Verse 16. They complain that there was a wall of partition between them and God, and, (1.) Verse 17. III. Note, The Israel of God, though children of light, sometimes walk in darkness. Having sunk low in his soul (Lamentations 3:20), Jeremiah now remembered something that started hope within. 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. (Read Lamentations 3:21-36) Having stated his distress and temptation, the prophet shows how he was raised above it. The malice they had against him: "Thou hast seen all their vengeance, how they desire to do me a mischief, as if it were by way of reprisal for some great injury I had done them." "As they deserve (v. 64): Render to them a recompence according to the work of their hands. Note, Though we are cast into ever so low a dungeon, we may thence find a way of access to God in the highest heavens. Do not fear: How powerful is this word when spoken by the Spirit of the Lord to a disconsolate heart. so Job argues, ch. i. Does the Bible Condemn Using Tarot Cards? 57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. ii. These are the words of a satisfied soul. He delights not in the death of sinners, or the disquiet of saints, but punishes with a kind of reluctance. He has hedged me in: This also may refer to the lines drawn round the city during the siege. We must keep silence under the yoke as those that have borne it upon us, not wilfully pulled it upon our own necks, but patiently submitted to it when God laid it upon us. Pauline Epistles He has made me desolate. GenesisExodusLeviticusNumbersDeuteronomyJoshuaJudgesRuth1 Samuel2 Samuel1 Kings2 Kings1 Chronicles2 ChroniclesEzraNehemiahEstherJobPsalmsProverbsEcclesiastesSong of SongsIsaiahJeremiahLamentationsEzekielDanielHoseaJoelAmosObadiahJonahMicahNahumHabakkukZephaniahHaggaiZechariahMalachiMatthewMarkLukeJohnActsRomans1 Corinthians2 CorinthiansGalatiansEphesiansPhilippiansColossians1 Thessalonians2 Thessalonians1 Timothy2 TimothyTitusPhilemonHebrewsJames1 Peter2 Peter1 John2 John3 JohnJudeRevelation, Select a Beginning Point
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