Lamentations 3

The Prophet’s Afflictions

א ALEPH

¹I am the man who has seen affliction

under the rod of God’s wrath.

• LAM 3:1[NOTE]I AM THE MAN. Now one man speaks, like someone who stands for the whole people. Many think it is Jeremiah, who was beaten, jailed and thrown into a pit, Jeremiah 20:2, 37:15 and 38:6. See Did Jeremiah Write It?

²He has driven me away and made me walk

in darkness instead of light.

³Indeed, He keeps turning His hand

against me all day long.

ב BETH

⁴He has worn away my flesh and skin;

He has shattered my bones.

⁵He has besieged me and surrounded me

with bitterness and hardship.

⁶He has made me dwell in darkness

like those dead for ages.

ג GIMEL

⁷He has walled me in so I cannot escape;

He has weighed me down with chains.

⁸Even when I cry out and plead for help,

He shuts out my prayer.

⁹He has barred my ways with cut stones;

He has made my paths crooked.

ד DALETH

¹⁰He is a bear lying in wait,

a lion hiding in ambush.

¹¹He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces;

He left me without help.

¹²He bent His bow

and set me as the target for His arrow.

ה HE

¹³He pierced my kidneys

with His arrows.

¹⁴I am a laughingstock to all my people;

they mock me in song all day long.

¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness;

He has intoxicated me with wormwood.

• LAM 3:15[NOTE]WORMWOOD. A very bitter plant. Wormwood and gall, 3:19, mean the bitterest taste of life. At the cross they offered Jesus wine mixed with gall, Matthew 27:34.

ו WAW

¹⁶He has ground my teeth with gravel

and trampled me in the dust.

¹⁷My soul has been deprived of peace;

I have forgotten what prosperity is.

¹⁸So I say, “My strength has perished,

along with my hope from Yahweh.”

The Prophet’s Hope

ז ZAYIN

¹⁹Remember my affliction and wandering,

the wormwood and the gall.

²⁰Surely my soul remembers

and is humbled within me.

²¹Yet I bring this back to my heart,

and therefore I have hope:

• LAM 3:21[NOTABLE]Hope in the middle of the ruins. God's mercy does not run out, and every morning brings a fresh supply. The source of the hymn Great Is Thy Faithfulness.
• LAM 3:21[TEXT]MY HEART. The Hebrew says I bring this back to my heart. Many Bibles say I call this to mind. The meaning is the same: he chooses what to think about.

ח HETH

²²Because of the loving devotion of Yahweh we are not consumed,

for His mercies never fail.

• LAM 3:22[NOTE]THE TURN. Right in the middle of the book, hope shows up. Loving devotion is chesed, God's loyal love. See Great Is Thy Faithfulness.

²³They are new every morning;

great is Your faithfulness!

²⁴“Yahweh is my portion,” says my soul,

“therefore I will hope in Him.”

• LAM 3:24[NOTE]MY PORTION. The priests got no land; Yahweh was their portion, Numbers 18:20. With everything lost, he still has God.

ט TETH

²⁵Yahweh is good to those who wait for Him,

to the soul who seeks Him.

²⁶It is good to wait quietly

for the salvation of Yahweh.

• LAM 3:26[NOTE]WAIT QUIETLY. Hope is not pretending it does not hurt. It is waiting for God to act, even when you cannot see Him yet.

²⁷It is good for a man to bear the yoke

while he is still young.

י YODH

²⁸Let him sit alone in silence,

for Yahweh has laid it upon him.

²⁹Let him bury his face in the dust—

perhaps there is still hope.

³⁰Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him;

let him be filled with reproach.

• LAM 3:30[NOTE]OFFER HIS CHEEK. Jesus taught the same, Matthew 5:39, and lived it when He was struck and did not strike back, Matthew 26:67 and 1 Peter 2:23.

כ KAPH

³¹For the Lord will not

cast us off forever.

• LAM 3:31[NOTE]NOT FOREVER. Hard seasons have an end. God may let grief come, but His compassion is bigger, 3:32.

³²Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion

according to His abundant loving devotion.

³³For He does not afflict from His heart

or grieve the sons of men.

• LAM 3:33[HEART]God does not hurt people from His heart. Even when He disciplines, it is not what He wants most.
• LAM 3:33[TEXT]FROM HIS HEART. The Hebrew says millibbo, from His heart. The KJV says willingly. God disciplines, but hurting people is not what He wants.

ל LAMEDH

³⁴To crush underfoot

all the prisoners of the land,

³⁵to deny a man justice

before the Most High,

³⁶to subvert a man in his lawsuit—

of these the Lord does not approve.

God’s Justice

מ MEM

³⁷Who has spoken and it came to pass,

unless the Lord has ordained it?

³⁸Do not both adversity and good

come from the mouth of the Most High?

• LAM 3:38[NOTE]ADVERSITY AND GOOD. Nothing happens outside God's rule, Job 2:10 and Isaiah 45:7. That is hard to hear, but it also means no pain is out of His reach.

³⁹Why should any mortal man complain,

in view of his sins?

נ NUN

⁴⁰Let us examine and test our ways,

and turn back to Yahweh.

• LAM 3:40[NOTE]TEST OUR WAYS. The way back to God starts with an honest look in the mirror, 2 Corinthians 13:5.

⁴¹Let us lift up our hearts and hands

to God in heaven:

• LAM 3:41[HEART]Lift up your hearts and your hands to God. Real prayer comes from the inside out.

⁴²“We have sinned and rebelled;

You have not forgiven.”

ס SAMEKH

⁴³You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us;

You have killed without pity.

⁴⁴You have covered Yourself with a cloud

that no prayer can pass through.

⁴⁵You have made us scum and refuse

among the nations.

פ PE

⁴⁶All our enemies

open their mouths against us.

⁴⁷Panic and pitfall have come upon us—

devastation and destruction.

⁴⁸Streams of tears flow from my eyes

over the destruction of the daughter of my people.

ע AYIN

⁴⁹My eyes overflow unceasingly,

without relief,

⁵⁰until Yahweh

looks down from heaven and sees.

⁵¹My eyes bring grief to my soul

because of all the daughters of my city.

צ TZADE

⁵²Without cause my enemies

hunted me like a bird.

⁵³They dropped me alive into a pit

and cast stones upon me.

• LAM 3:53[NOTE]INTO A PIT. Jeremiah was let down into a muddy cistern, Jeremiah 38:6. Many read this as Jeremiah's own story. Others hear a picture of the whole people sinking.

⁵⁴The waters flowed over my head,

and I thought I was going to die.

ק KOPH

⁵⁵I called on Your name, O Yahweh,

out of the depths of the Pit.

• LAM 3:55[NOTE]OUT OF THE DEPTHS. The poet looks back on a time God answered him in the pit, 3:55 to 58, the same God he is praying to now.

⁵⁶You heard my plea:

“Do not ignore my cry for relief.”

⁵⁷You drew near when I called on You;

You said, “Do not be afraid.”

• LAM 3:57[NOTE]DO NOT BE AFRAID. The poet quotes what God said to him, so those words are red. It is one of the most repeated things God says in the Bible, Isaiah 41:10.

ר RESH

⁵⁸You defend my cause, O Lord;

You redeem my life.

⁵⁹You have seen, O Yahweh, the wrong done to me;

vindicate my cause!

⁶⁰You have seen all their malice,

all their plots against me.

ש SIN

⁶¹O Yahweh, You have heard their insults,

all their plots against me—

⁶²the slander and murmuring of my assailants

against me all day long.

⁶³When they sit and when they rise,

see how they mock me in song.

ת TAW

⁶⁴You will pay them back what they deserve, O Yahweh,

according to the work of their hands.

• LAM 3:64[NOTE]PAY THEM BACK. The poet asks God to judge, instead of taking revenge himself, Romans 12:19.

⁶⁵Put a veil of anguish over their hearts;

may Your curse be upon them!

⁶⁶You will pursue them in anger and exterminate them

from under Your heavens, O Yahweh.