Tanak Foundations-Concepts in Lamentations-Chapter 3

Lam 3.1-66 is arranged in an acrostic form in Hebrew, with each Hebrew letter containing three verses. For example, Lam 3.1-3 begins with the letter “aleph” in Hebrew. Lam 3.4-6 begins with “beit” and so on. That is why there are 66 verses. This chapter continues with lamentations, only Jeremiah discusses his own distress and sufferings. Keep in mind that this has allusions to the Messiah and his sufferings. In this Jeremiah identifies with his nation. Even the righteous experience the “rod of his wrath.”

v 1…I am the man who has seen affliction because of the rod of his wrath (in this he is like the nation).

v 2…He has driven me (led) and made me walk in darkness (calamity) and not in light (Yehovah’s mercy seemed to be absent).

v 3…Surely against me he has turned his hand repeatedly all day (because of their idolatrous sins).

v 4…He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away (emaciated, withered), he has broken my bones (he was weak).

v 5…He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship (it closes in around him).

v 6…In dark places (as if in a grave-Psa 143.3) he has made me dwell, like those who have long been dead (no return to this life).

v 7…He has walled me in so that I cannot go out (a prisoner); he has made my chain heavy (in a confined space, in seclusion).

v 8…Even when I cry out and call for help, he shuts out my prayer (from reaching his ear-Prov 1.28).

v 9…He has blocked my ways with hewn stone (huge obstacles in his life), he has made my path crooked (can’t proceed).

v 10…He is to me like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in secret places.

v 11…He has turned aside my ways (to deviate) and torn me to pieces (to pluck or pull to pieces-Yehovah is using Babylon to accomplish this). He has made me desolate.

v 12…He bent his bow and set me as a target for the arrow (Job 16.12).

v 13…He made the arrows (sons) of his quiver to enter into my inward parts (kidneys, the land, the city, Temple and people).

v 14…I have become a laughingstock to all my people (the wicked around him), the mocking song all the day long (Jer 20.7).

v 15…He has filled me with bitterness (bitter afflictions instead of food), he has made me drink with wormwood (same as bitterness).

v 16…And he has broken my teeth with gravel (gritty bread); he has made me cower in the dust (humiliation).

v 17…And my soul (nefesh) has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten prosperity (Hebrew “tovah” or good; prosperity in the Tanak does not necessarily mean monetary or material only. Prosperity and every word for it means spiritual prosperity, dealing with our relationship with the Lord).

v 18…So I say, “My strength has perished, and my hope from the Lord.”

v 19…Remember (zekar) my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness (his sufferings just discussed).

v 20…Surely my soul (nafesh) remembers and is bowed down within me (a heavy heart-from 3.20-31 it gives us the core message of hope in the chiastic structure which is found in this book).

v 21…This I (Jeremiah) recall to my mind (Hebrew “lev” or heart) therefore I have hope (God does remember his people in what he has done and will do; biblical hope is not wishing but is based on what God has said and will be fulfilled as a sure thing).

v 22…It is by the Lord’s lovingkindness that we are not destroyed, for his mercies (how a mother feels for her children) never fail.

v 23…They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness (emunataycha and related to the word for faith).

v 24…”The Lord is my portion (inheritance),” says my soul (Psa 16.5, 73.26, 142.6), “therefore I have hope in him.”

v 25…The Lord is good to those who wait (serve) for him (trusting in what he has said and promised), to the person who seeks him (looking to him alone for deliverance).

v 26…It is good that he waits silently (when in affliction; be tranquil and rest in his will) for the salvation of the Lord (will come in due time).

v 27…It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his youth (of sufferings and chastisement when he has the vigor and strength).

v 28…Let him sit alone and be silent (bear it knowing it is for his own good) since he (Yehovah) has laid it on him.

v 29…Let him put his mouth in the dust (in humble submission), perhaps there is hope (that God will terminate his chastening).

v 30…Let him give his cheek to the smiter (submit to endure injustice); let him be filled with reproach (bear the insults of men).

v 31…For the Lord will not reject forever (Psa 77.8).

v 32…For if he causes grief, then he will have compassion according to his abundant lovingkindness (it outweighs affliction; Exo 20.5-6 says that God will visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the “third and fourth generations of those who hate me.” But his mercy extends to “the thousands (at least 2000) to those who love me.” This alludes to the fact that God’s mercy is 500 times greater than his judgment =the fourth divided into at least 2000 equals 500).

v 33…For he does not afflict willingly (from the heart, but only when they refuse to yield to his direction so he can bless them), or grieve the sons of men.

v 34…To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth (those who don’t repent),

v 35…to deprive a man of justice in the presence of the most high (he does not like injustice),

v 36…to defraud a man in his lawsuit-of these things the Lord does not approve.

v 37…Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded (nothing happens without his permission)?

v 38…Is it not from the mouth of the most high (as supreme ruler-its the Lord not your confession-Amos 3.6-7; Eccl 7.14) that both good and evil go forth (Deut 32.39; Gen 38.7; Job 12.23-35; Isa 53.10; Jer 43.11, 44.27; Isa 45.7. Man cannot confess something into existence)?

v 39…Why should any living mortal or any man, offer complaint in view of his sins (like saying, “It’s not fair.” We should not complain about the suffering that comes upon us, but we should mourn over our sins).

v 40…Let us examine and probe our ways, and let us return to the Lord (instead of complaining-Hos 6.1; Hag 1.7).

v 41…We lift up our heart (motives, desires) and hands (deeds) toward God in heaven (with no hypocrisy).

v 42…We have transgressed and rebelled, thou has not pardoned (because they were afflicted).

v 43…Thou hast covered thyself with anger and pursued us (with fresh anger); thou hast slain and has not spared (no pity or compassion).

v 44…Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through (he has hidden his face and will not hear).

v 45…Mere offscouring and refuse thou hast made us in the midst of the people (his desire was that they would be first among the peoples).

v 46…All our enemies have opened their mouths against us (like lions to devour them).

v 47…Panic and pitfall have befallen us, devastation and destruction (being hunted they fall into a prepared pit).

v 48…My eyes run down with streams of water (a steady flow) because of the destruction of the daughter of my people (Jer 9.1).

v 49…My eyes pour down unceasingly, without stopping (because of grief).

v 50…Until the Lord looks down and sees from heaven (with pity and ends their misery).

v 51…My eyes bring pain to my soul because of all the daughters of my city (their condition being deplorable).

v 52…My enemies (Jeremiah’s) without cause hunted me down like a bird (that is helpless);

v 53…They have silenced me in the pit (Jer 38) and have placed a stone on me.

v 54…Waters flowed over my head; I said, “I am cut off (abandoned, removed from God’s comfort)!”

v 55…I called on thy name, O Lord, out of the lowest pit (that could become his grave).

v 56…Thou hast heard my voice, “Do not hide thine ear from my prayer for relief, from my cry for help.”

v 57…Thou didst draw near when I called on thee; thou didst say, “Do not fear (assured of rescue)!”

v 58…O Lord, thou didst plead my soul’s cause; thou hast redeemed my life (out of the pit).

v 59…O Lord, thou hast seen my oppression (what was done to him); judge my case (right the wrongs, let his enemies see that his case is just, and they are wrong).

v 60…Thou hast seen all their vengeance (in them); all their schemes against me (their plots).

v 61…Thou hast heard their reproach (their spiteful words and hate), O lord, all their schemes against me.

v 62…The lips of my assailants and their whispering are against me all day long.

v 63…Look at their sitting and their rising; I am their mocking song (the object of their music and gossip).

v 64…Thou wilt recompense them, O Lord, according to the work of their hands (that they deserve).

v 65…Thou wilt give them hardness (dullness) of heart, the curse will be on them (it will be their portion).

v 66…Thou wilt pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord (the whole universe is under Yehovah’s authority).

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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