1.
I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
That hath seen affliction - i. e. hath experienced, suffered it.
2.
He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
3.
Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.
Is he turned; he turneth - Or, “surely against me” hath he turned “his hand” again and again “all the day long.”
4.
My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.
Made old - Or, wasted: his strength slowly wasted as he pined away in sorrow.
He hath broken my bones - This clause completes the representation of the sufferer’s physical agonies. Here the idea is that of acute pain.
5.
He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
He hath builded ... - The metaphor is taken from the operations in a siege.
Gall and travail - Or “travail;” i. e. bitterness and weariness (through toil).
6.
He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.
Or, “He hath” made me to dwell “in darkness,” i. e. in Sheol or Hades, “as those” forever “dead.”
7.
He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.
The prophet feels as if enclosed within walls, and fettered.
8.
Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.
Shout - i. e. call for help.
Shutteth out - Or, “shutteth in.” God has so closed up the avenues to the place in which he is immured, that his voice can find no egress.
9.
He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.
Inclosed - Or, hedged Lamentations 3:7.
Hath, made crooked - Or, “hath” turned aside. A solid wall being built across the main road, Jeremiah turns aside into by-ways, but finds them turned aside, so that they lead him back after long wandering to the place from where he started.
10.
He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.
11.
He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.
12.
He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13.
He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
14.
I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
15.
He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
16.
He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.
17.
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
18.
And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:
19.
Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
Remembering - Or, as in the margin. It is a prayer to Yahweh.
My misery - Or, “my” homelessness (Lamentations 1:7 note).
20.
My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
21.
This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
This I recall - Rather, “This will I bring back to my heart, therefore will I hope.” Knowing that God hears the prayer of the contrite, he begins again to hope.
22.
It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
Verses 22-42 are the center of the present poem, as it also holds the central place in the whole series of the Lamentations. In them the riches of God’s grace and mercy are set forth in the brightest colors, but no sooner are they ended than the prophet resumes the language of woe.
That we - He is speaking as the representative of all sufferers.
23.
They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
24.
The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
The Lord is my portion - “My portion is Yahweh,” see Numbers 18:20; Psalms 16:5 ff.
Therefore will I hope in him - A more full expression of the confidence present in the prophet’s mind in Lamentations 3:21, but based now upon God’s faithfulness in showing mercy.
25.
The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
26.
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
27.
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28.
He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.
29.
He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
30.
He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.
31.
For the Lord will not cast off for ever:
32.
But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
33.
For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
34.
To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
35.
To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,
36.
To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.
37.
Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
38.
Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?
39.
Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40.
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
41.
Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
42.
We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
43.
Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.
In verses 43-66, far from pardoning, God is still actively punishing His people.
Rather, “Thou hast covered” Thyself “with wrath and pursued (Lamentations 1:3 note) us.” The covering (here and in Lamentations 3:44) is that of clothing and enwrapping.
44.
Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
45.
Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
Omit “as.”
46.
All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
47.
Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
Desolation - Or, devastation.
48.
Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49.
Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
50.
Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven.
51.
Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.
52.
Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.
Or, “They who without cause are mine enemies have hunted me sore like a bird.” Probably the prophet is speaking of his personal sorrows.
53.
They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
They have cut off my life in the dungeon - Or, “They destroyed my life in the pit,” i. e. tried to destroy it by casting me into the cistern, and covering the month with a stone. See the margin reference.
54.
Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.
Waters flowed over mine head - A figurative expression for great mental trouble.
55.
I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.
56.
Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.
57.
Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.
58.
O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.
59.
O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.
60.
Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
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.
63.
Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.
64.
Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
65.
Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.
66.
Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.