Lamentations 3:1-3
I _am_ THE MAN] The author is a representative sufferer, an eye-witness, and typical of Christ.... [ Continue Reading ]
I _am_ THE MAN] The author is a representative sufferer, an eye-witness, and typical of Christ.... [ Continue Reading ]
ZION'S HOPE IN GOD'S MERCY This third poem is the most elaborate in structure and the most sublime in thought of all. The poet speaks not only for himself, but for the nation. The order of thought is sorrow, confession, repentance, prayer. Though consisting of 66 vv. the poem is but a little longer... [ Continue Reading ]
GALL] bitterest sorrow (Jeremiah 8:14). TRAVEL] RV 'travail,' which is the more modern spelling, in the sense here intended, of painful labour (Numbers 20:14). HE HATH SET ME] RV 'He hath made me to dwell' (Psalms 143:3). _Be_ DEAD OF OLD] RV 'have been long dead.'... [ Continue Reading ]
HE HATH MADE MY PATHS CROOKED] in the sense that every avenue of advance is blocked.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE _was_] RV 'He is.' _As_ A BEAR.. _as_ A LION] God is even lying in wait to oppose him (Jeremiah 4:7; Jeremiah 5:6). Danger follows distress.... [ Continue Reading ]
ARROWS OF HIS QUIVER] RM 'sons of his quiver,' a poetical expression for the enemies' taunts (Jeremiah 20:8). MY REINS] The English equivalent is heart, denoting the seat of the affections (Jeremiah 12:2). TO ALL MY PEOPLE] better, 'to all peoples,' as in many Heb. MSS and the Peshitto.... [ Continue Reading ]
BROKEN MY TEETH WITH GRAVEL STONES] i.e. God has forced him to eat bread full of grit. (Proverbs 20:17). HE HATH COVERED ME WITH ASHES] or, 'He made me cower in the ashes.' Such dreadful thoughts about God are almost without a parallel in the OT. 19-39. Hope of relief through God's mercy. In this... [ Continue Reading ]
REMEMBERING] RV 'remember,' in the imperative sense (Lamentations 1:7). THIS I RECALL] viz. what just precedes, his affliction.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD _is_ GOOD] 'good' is the initial word of each v. in this group. Goodness to the poet is an essential attribute of Jehovah and the basis of his hope. He is too good to keep them always in despair. SHOULD BOTH HOPE AND QUIETLY WAIT] lit. 'should wait and in silence'; quiet waiting being the p... [ Continue Reading ]
OUR HEART WITH _our_ HANDS] strictly, our heart to our palms, in the sense that the heart should actually follow in the direction in which our hands point (Jeremiah 4:31). 43-45 Zion's condition is dire because Jehovah will not hear the prayers of His miserable victims. PEOPLE] RV 'peoples,' i.e. t... [ Continue Reading ]
I CALLED UPON THY NAME] i.e. upon the attributes of God; referring possibly to Psalms 69, supposed by some to have been composed by Jeremiah while in the dungeon. FEAR NOT] God's answer was brief, consisting of but two words, but enough since they came from him.... [ Continue Reading ]
PLEADED] as an advocate (Jeremiah 50:34). ALL THEIR IMAGINATIONS] RV 'all their devices' (Jeremiah 11:19; Jeremiah 18:18).... [ Continue Reading ]
MUSICK] RV 'song.' 64-66. AV by translating the imperfect tenses of the verbs in this triplet as imperatives, makes the language appear harsher than it really is; still it must be allowed that the poet prays for retribution upon the enemy (Jeremiah 18:23; 2 Timothy 4:14). SORROW OF HEART] RV 'hardn... [ Continue Reading ]