Lamentations chapter 3
Jeremiah laments his afflictions. The sparkling brilliance of God’s love. With great hope, Jeremiah prays.
JEREMIAH LAMENTS HIS AFFLICTIONS
VERSE 1. I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
I am the man. Jeremiah is speaking.
VERSE 2. He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
walk in darkness. In the past, Jeremiah walked in the light of guidance from the LORD God.
But now Jeremiah must stumble in the darkness.
VERSE 3. Surely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long.
he turns his hand against me. The hand of God’s favor became a fist of adversity.
VERSE 4. He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones.
VERSE 5. He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
VERSE 6. He has made me dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead.
VERSE 7. He has walled me about, so that I can’t go out. He has made my chain heavy.
VERSE 8. Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
VERSE 9. He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked.
VERSE 10. He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.
VERSE 11. He has turned away my ways, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate.
VERSE 12. He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
VERSE 13. He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
VERSE 14. I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long.
VERSE 15. He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood.
wormwood. In the Bible, the word “wormwood” refers to water made bitter. Or to a corrupt political leader. Or to corrupt officials perverting justice. Read more »
VERSE 16. He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes.
VERSE 17. You have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity.
HCSB translation. My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is.
deprived of peace. Sin takes away our peace. It gives us nothing in exchange for it.
forgotten what happiness is. Sin takes away our happiness. Happiness is so far away from us that we forget what it was like.
VERSE 18. I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from the LORD.”
THE SPARKLING BRILLIANCE OF GOD’S LOVE
VERSE 19. Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness.
wormwood. In the Bible, the word “wormwood” refers to water made bitter. Or to a corrupt political leader. Or to corrupt officials perverting justice. Read more »
VERSE 20. My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
VERSE 21. This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.
DRA translation. These things I shall think over in my heart, therefore will I hope.
think over in my heart. Our mind has a huge impact on our faith and hope. It is where we stir our faith into hope.
By deliberately thinking on the good promises of the LORD God, we stir up our hope. We strengthen our faith in them.
As lovers and disciples of the LORD God, we are called to develop wholesome thinking patterns. We are to renew our mind. Read more »
VERSE 22. It is because of the LORD’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail.
KJV translation. It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
This verse is fantastic! Would you consider memorizing it? More great verses to memorize from the Book of Lamentations and from the entire Bible.
Job 8:9. (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)
the LORD’s loving kindnesses. Even in the midst of the gloomy message of Lamentations, this glint of hope shines forth.
The LORD God is merciful. His mercy is one of the few things the sinner can grasp.
As you read the Scriptures, we hope you find inspiring things and cherish them. The Bible is filled with treasures such as this verse!
2 Corinthians 4:16. Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.
we are not consumed:
Sirach 43:4. A man blowing a furnace is in works of heat, But the sun three times more, burning up the mountains: Breathing out fiery vapours, And sending forth bright beams, he dims the eyes.
VERSE 23. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
KJV translation. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
This verse is fantastic! Would you consider memorizing it? More great verses to memorize from the Book of Lamentations and from the entire Bible.
2 Corinthians 4:16. Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.
VERSE 24. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.”
VERSE 25. The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
VERSE 26. It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
NAB translation. It is good to hope in silence for the saving help of the LORD.
hope in silence. This notion of waiting in silence suggests the practice of Contemplative Prayer.
Contemplative prayer is resting in God. We quiet ourselves and absorb what he has for us.
VERSE 27. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
VERSE 28. Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.
VERSE 29. Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope.
VERSE 30. Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach.
VERSE 31. For the Lord will not cast off forever.
VERSE 32. For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
VERSE 33. For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
VERSE 34. To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
VERSE 35. to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
VERSE 36. to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve.
VERSE 37. Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it?
VERSE 38. Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
VERSE 39. Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
VERSE 40. Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
WITH GREAT HOPE, JEREMIAH PRAYS
VERSE 41. Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
VERSE 42. “We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned.
VERSE 43. “You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied.
VERSE 44. You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
VERSE 45. You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples.
VERSE 46. “All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
VERSE 47. Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.”
VERSE 48. My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
VERSE 49. My eye pours down and doesn’t cease, without any intermission,
VERSE 50. until the LORD looks down, and sees from heaven.
VERSE 51. My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
VERSE 52. They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
VERSE 53. They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
VERSE 54. Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.”
VERSE 55. I called on your name, LORD, out of the lowest dungeon.
VERSE 56. You heard my voice: “Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry.”
VERSE 57. You came near in the day that I called on you. You said, “Don’t be afraid.”
VERSE 58. Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life.
VERSE 59. LORD, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.
VERSE 60. You have seen all their vengeance and all their plans against me.
VERSE 61. You have heard their reproach, LORD, and all their plans against me,
VERSE 62. the lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long.
VERSE 63. You see their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song.
VERSE 64. You will pay them back, LORD, according to the work of their hands.
VERSE 65. You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
VERSE 66. You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.
LAMENTATIONS
RESOURCES: Summary, Outline, Memorize
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