Read & Study the Bible Online - Bible Portal
Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Lamentations 3:1-20

The title of the Ps. 102:1-28 might very fitly be prefixed to this chapter?The prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and pours out his complaint before the Lord; for it is very feelingly and fluently that the complaint is here poured out. Let us observe the particulars of it. The prophet complains, 1. That God is angry. This gives both birth and bitterness to the affliction (Lam. 3:1): I am the man, the remarkable man, that has seen affliction, and has felt it sensibly, by the rod... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Lamentations 3:1

I am the man that hath seen affliction ,.... Had a much experience of it, especially ever since he had been a prophet; being reproached and ill used by his own people, and suffering with them in their calamities; particularly, as Jarchi observes, his affliction was greater than the other prophets, who indeed prophesied of the destruction of the city and temple, but did not see it; whereas he lived to see it: he was not indeed the only man that endured affliction, but he was remarkable... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Lamentations 3:1

I am the man that hath seen affliction - Either the prophet speaks here of himself, or he is personating his miserable countrymen. This and other passages in this poem have been applied to Jesus Christ's passion; but, in my opinion, without any foundation. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Lamentations 3:1

Verse 1 The word, עברה obere, properly means assault, passing over limits; but what is peculiar to man is often in Scripture ascribed to God. Here also he changes the person, for he spoke before of the people under the person of a woman, as it is often done; but now the Prophet himself comes before us. At the same time there is no doubt but that by his own example he exhorted all others to lamentation, which was to be connected with true repentance. And this chapter, as we shall see, is full of... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Lamentations 3:1

Seen . "To see" in Hebrew often means "to experience;" e.g. Jeremiah 5:12 ; Psalms 16:10 ; Ecclesiastes 8:16 . By the rod of his wrath. The idea is, not that Babylon has humbled Israel as Jehovah's instrument, but that God himself has brought these troubles upon his people. "He had led me, hath hedged me about," etc. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Lamentations 3:1

The man that has seen affliction. In the first and second chapters of Lamentations the desolation of the city of Jerusalem is described and deplored. The third chapter brings the picture to a focus by giving us the plaint of a single individual—either one typical or exceptionally distressed citizen, or the city regarded imaginatively as an afflicted man. Our sympathy is most moved by individual appeals. We are horrified by disasters that affect thousands; but we are more touched by the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Lamentations 3:1

Afflicted by God. Every child of God, nay, every son of man, has endured affliction. Jeremiah and the city which he hero personifies and represents may be said to have experienced affliction in an extraordinary degree. A fact so universal cannot be without special significance in human life. But not all the afflicted discern this underlying and profitable meaning. I. AFFLICTION LEADS SOME TO DOUBT THE EXISTENCE OF GOD . It is not uncommon for people to say in their... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Lamentations 3:1-21

MONOLOGUE SPOKEN BY AN INDIVIDUAL BELIEVER WHOSE FATE IS BOUND UP WITH THAT OF THE NATION ; OR PERHAPS BY THE NATION PERSONIFIED (see Introduction). read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Lamentations 3:1

That hath seen affliction - i. e. hath experienced, suffered it. read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Lamentations 3:1-2

Lamentations 3:1-2. I am the man that hath seen affliction I myself have suffered affliction in this time of public calamity. He speaks, probably, with a particular regard to the ill treatment he had met with in the discharge of his prophetical office. Some indeed suppose that he speaks in this and the subsequent verses, to Lamentations 3:21, in the character of the people, but so many passages manifestly refer to his own personal troubles, that such an interpretation seems very improbable.... read more

Group of Brands