_I am the man that hath seen affliction_ I myself have suffered
affliction in this time of public calamity. He speaks, probably, with
a particular regard to the ill treatment he had met with in the
discharge of his prophetical office. Some indeed suppose that he
speaks in this and the subsequent ver... [ Continue Reading ]
_Surely against me is he turned_ The course of his providence toward
me is quite altered. He was formerly kind and gracious, but now
exercises an afflicting hand against me, and that not occasionally, or
for a short time, but continually, _all the day._ The phrase, _He
turneth his hand against me_,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Also when I cry and shout_ When, under a conviction that, in my
present distressed condition, I cannot deliver myself, and that no
creature can deliver me, I make application to God in prayer for
deliverance, and am serious, fervent, and importunate in my addresses
to him; _he shutteth out my praye... [ Continue Reading ]
_He hath enclosed my way with hewn stone_ He hath not only hedged it
up _with thorns, Hosea 2:6_, but stopped it up with a stone wall which
cannot be broken through; so that _my paths_ are _made crooked_ That
is, I traverse to and fro, to the right hand and to the left, to try
to get forward, but I... [ Continue Reading ]
_I was a derision to all my people_ To all the wicked among them, who
made themselves merry with the prophet's griefs and the public
judgments; _and their song all the day_ Hebrew, נגינתם, their
instrument of music. The word, says Blaney, “is commonly rendered
_their song;_ but I rather think it mea... [ Continue Reading ]
_This I recall to my mind_, &c. Here the prophet begins to suggest
motives of patience and consolation: as if he had said, I call to mind
the following considerations, and thereupon I conceive hope and
comfort. And surely they are such as afford a sufficient ground for
trusting in God under the seve... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord is my portion, saith my soul_ An interest in the favour and
love of God, and his presence with me, my heart tells me, is the best
inheritance. And, possessing these, I have that which is sufficient to
balance all my troubles, and make up all my losses. For, while
portions on earth are empt... [ Continue Reading ]
_It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth_ That he be
inured betimes to bear those useful restraints which may give him a
right sense of the duty which he owes to God, and the obedience he
ought to pay to his laws. For the prophet's expression is very
applicable to the yoke of God's c... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord will not cast off for ever_ The truly penitent that put
their trust in him, and sincerely desire and seek reconciliation with
him: though he may for a time appear to estrange himself from them,
yet he will certainly return to them. _Though he cause grief_ Though,
as a prudent parent, he ma... [ Continue Reading ]
_To crush under his feet_, &c. In these verses certain acts of
tyranny, malice, and injustice are specified, in the practice of which
men are prone to indulge themselves one toward another, but which the
divine goodness is far from countenancing or approving by any similar
conduct. By _the prisoners... [ Continue Reading ]
_Who is he that saith_ That commands an event to take place, or
predicts that it shall take place, _and it cometh to pass_
accordingly, _when the Lord commandeth not?_ Or who designs a thing,
and brings his designs to effect, when the Lord is against him?
“Haughty tyrants may boast of their power as... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore_, &c. The prophet here seems to check and blame himself for
the complaints he had made in the former part of the chapter, wherein
he appeared to reflect upon God as unkind and severe. And from the
doctrine of God's sovereign and universal providence, which he had
asserted in the last two... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let us search and try our ways_ This will be a more reasonable and
profitable employment than that of complaining and murmuring against
the providence of God. Let us search what our ways have been, and try
whether they have been right and good or not. Let us examine our
tempers, words, and works, a... [ Continue Reading ]
_We have transgressed_, &c. Here the prophet shows what will be the
effect of a proper searching and trying of our ways; we shall be
convinced of our sinfulness and guilt: and he here teaches us that
confession of sin must accompany petition for the pardon of it. For he
that would find mercy must co... [ Continue Reading ]
_Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water_ In this and the three
following verses the prophet shows that the misfortunes of his country
constituted no small part of his personal affliction. _Mine eye
affecteth my heart_ Hebrew, עוללה לנפשׁי, _preys upon my
soul_, as the Vulgate renders the express... [ Continue Reading ]
_Mine enemies chased me sore_ “The prophet in this, and the
following verses, describes his own sufferings, when his enemies
seized him and put him into the dungeon, Jeremiah 37:16; Jeremiah
38:6. He compares them to a fowler in pursuit of a bird; so, saith he,
they sought all opportunities to take... [ Continue Reading ]
_O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong_ Here the prophet adverts to his
present sufferings, and the ill usage he met with, concerning which he
appeals to God; as if he had said, Thou hast seen that I have done no
wrong at all, but that I suffer a great deal. He that knows all things
knew, 1st, The malice... [ Continue Reading ]
_Render to them a recompense_, &c. See note on Jeremiah 11:20. The
verbs in these verses are not in the imperative mood, but all in the
future tense, and certainly should have been so rendered, as indeed
they are by the LXX., Αποδωσεις αυτοις
ανταποδομα Κυριε Αποδωσεις αυτοις και
διας μου μοχθον. Συ... [ Continue Reading ]