(17) Thou hast removed my soul far off from peace.—The verb is found in this sense in Psalms 88:14. By some critics it is taken as passive, and in the 3rd person feminine. My soul loathes peace, i.e., has lost even the desire of better things; or, My soul is despised of peace, i.e., is shut out from it. But the Authorised version is preferable. read more
(18) I said, My strength.—The sorrow of the mourner comes to the very verge of despair. There was “no help for him from his God;” even that hope had left him. But, as the sequel shows, this despair was the beginning of a reaction. The very name of Jehovah (no longer Adonai) reminded him of the everlasting mercies. read more
The Shadow of the Cross (For Palm Sunday) Lamentations 3:19 We celebrate Today an event that stands alone in the sacred life of Jesus, the solitary occasion on which He was publicly honoured and escorted into Jerusalem amid popular rejoicings the central Figure in a grand procession of triumph. Palm Sunday is a day of triumph, but still there is something sad even in the triumph, and so we take our text from Lamentations. I. The Shadow of the Cross. The week which opens with a triumph closes... read more
THE MAN THAT HATH SEEN AFFLICTIONLamentations 3:1-21WHETHER we regard it from a literary, a speculative, or a religious point of view, the third and central elegy cannot fail to strike us as by far the best of the five. The workmanship of this poem is most elaborate in conception and most finished in execution, the thought is most fresh and striking, and the spiritual tone most elevated, and, in the best sense of the word, evangelical. Like Tennyson, who is most poetic when he is most artistic,... read more
CHAPTER 3 The Prophet’s Suffering and Distress This chapter is intensely personal. None but Jeremiah could have written these wonderful expressions of sorrow, the sorrows of the people of God into which he entered so fully, in such a way that they become his own. He shared all their afflictions, bore them himself and then was hated by them. It was the Spirit of Christ who created these feelings in the heart of the prophet. In reading these words of deep distress and the words of faith and... read more
3:18 And I said, My strength and my {g} hope hath perished from the LORD:(g) Thus with pain he was driven to and fro between hope and despair, as the godly often are, yet in the end the spirit gets the victory. read more
The touching significance of this book lies in the fact that it is the disclosure of the love and sorrow of Jehovah for the very people He is chastening a sorrow wrought by the Spirit in the heart of Jeremiah. Compare Jeremiah 13:7 ; Matthew 23:36-38 ; and Romans 9:1-5 . Scofield Reference Bible As regards its external structure, the composition of the book, both as a whole and in its several parts, is so artistic, that anything like it can hardly be found in any other book of Holy Scriptures.... read more
Profitable Discipline Lam 3:22-23 Taking the opening of the chapter along with this portion, we seem to find a good deal of inconsistency, and in fact positive contradiction. Spiritual experience must be looked at as a whole. It is not right to fix attention either upon this side or upon that, to the exclusion and the forgetfulness of the other. One side is very dark and full of sadness, sharply inclined towards despair; the other is brighter than the summer morning, tuneful, sunned with all... read more
I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day. My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones. He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail. He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy. Also when I cry and... read more
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John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Lamentations 3:1-66
Zion’s Hope in God’s MercyThis 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 than the others. Three consecutive vv. are built upon each letter of the Heb. alphabet: each triplet is usually closely associated in thought, and consequently grouped together as in the RV.1-18. Zion... read more