Lamentations 3)
1 (א) I am the man (the prophet is representative of the nation, and speaks in the name of the whole. He is also typical and prophetical of Another, Who, in after years, took on Himself and bore the nation's sin. The chapter must be read in connection with the Passion Psalms [Ps. 22,69,88]) that that seen affliction (or humiliation) by the rod of His wrath.
2 (א) He has led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
3 (א) Surely against me is He turned; He turns His hand against me all the day.
4 (ב) My flesh and my skin has He made old; He has broken my bones.
5 (ב) He has built up against me, and compassed me with gall (cp. v.19, and Ps. 69;21, with Matt. 27:34) and travail. (Or labor. This line probably is put for the fortifications and trench.)
6 (ב) He has made me to dwell in dark places, like the age-long dead.
7 (ג) He has hedged me about, that I cannot get out: He has made my iron heavy. (Put for the fetters made of it. Cp. Judg. 16:21 and 2 Kings 25:7. 2 Chron. 33:11; 36:6. Jer. 39:7; all of distinguished men.)
8 (ג) Also when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.
9 (ג) He has enclosed my ways with hewn stone, He has made my paths to turn (or wind back.).
10 (ד) He was to me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. (See Ps. 22:16.)
11 (ד) He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: He has made me desolate.
12 (ד) He has bent His bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13 (ה) He has caused the arrows (= sons, as 'sparks" are called "sons of flame") of his quiver to enter into my reins.
14 (ה) I was a derision (Cp. Jer. 20:8) to all my People; and their mocking-song all the day.
15 (ה) He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drunken with wormwood.
16 (ו) He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones, He has covered me with ashes.
17 (ו) And You have removed my soul far off from peace: I forgot prosperity.
18 (ו) And I said, "My strength [for endurance] and my hope is perished from the LORD:"
19 (ז) Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
20 (ז) My soul has them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
21 (ז) This I recall to my mind, therefore have I expectation.
22 (ח) It is of the LORD'S loving-kindness that we are not consumed, verily His compassions fail not.
23 (ח) They are fresh every morning (put for always and continually): great is Your faithfulness.
24 (ח) "The LORD is my portion," says my soul; "therefore will I hope in Him."
25 (ט) The LORD is good to them that wait for Him (cp. Gen. 49:18), to the soul that seeks Him.
26 (ט) It is good that a man should both hope and wait, and be silent for the salvation of the LORD.
27 (ט) It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28 (י) He sits alone and keeps silence, because he has borne it upon him.
29 (י) He puts his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
30 (י) He gives his cheek to him that smites him (cp. Isa. 50:6): he is filled full with reproach.
31 (כ) For the LORD will not cast off for ever:
32 (כ) But though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His grace.
33 (כ) For He does not afflict from His heart nor grieve the sons of men.
34 (ל) To crush under His feet all the prisoners of the earth.
35 (ל) To turn aside the right of a man before the face (cp. Deut. 16:19; 24:17; 27:19) of the most High (Elyon),
36 (ל) To subvert a man in his cause, the LORD approves not.
37 (מ) Who is he that says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord commands it not?
38 (מ) Out of the mouth of the Most High proceeds not evil and good?
39 (מ) Wherefore does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40 (נ) Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
41 (נ) Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God (El) in the heavens [saying],
42 (נ) We have revolted and have rebelled: You have not pardoned.
43 (נ) You have covered with anger, and pursued us: You have slain, You have not pitied.
44 (נ) You have covered Yourself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
45 (נ) You have made us as the off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.
46 (פ) All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. (Here again, as in 2:16 and 17, the letter Pe and Ayin are transposed; not from any "mistake" or "forgetfulness", but to call our attention to the truth which might otherwise have been overlooked: viz. the sorrow, on account of the destructive work of the enemies [vv.46-49], which would have been averted by true sorrow for the sins which caused it [vv.49-51].)
47 (פ) Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction. (Cp. Isa. 24:17. Jer. 48:43.)
48 (פ) My eye runs down with rivers of water (cp. Luke 19:41) for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 (ע) My eye trickles down, and ceases not, without any intermission.
50 (ע) Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven.
51 (ע) My eye affects my soul because of all the daughters of my city.
52 (צ) My enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.
53 (צ) They have cut off my life in the pit (cp. Jer. 38:6; and Ps. 88:6), and cast a stone upon me.
54 (צ) Waters flowed over my head (cp. Ps. 69:2); then I said, "I am cut off." (Cp. Ps. 88:6.)
55 (ק) I called upon You (or, Your attributes. See Ps. 20:1), O LORD, out of the low pit.
56 (ק) You have heard my voice: hide not Your ear at my breathing (see Mal. 3:16), at my cry.
57 (ק) You drew near in the day that I called upon You: You said, "Fear not."
58 (ר) O LORD, You have pleaded the causes of my soul; You have redeemed my life.
59 (ר) O LORD, You have seen my wrong: judge You my cause.
60 (ר) You have seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
61 (ש) You have heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;
62 (ש) The lips of those that rose up against me (cp. Ps. 22:7), and their meditation against me all the day.
63 (ש) Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their mocking song (as in v.14).
64 (ת) Render to them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. (Cp. Ps. 69:22.)
65 (ת) You will suffer them a veiling (or obstinacy]) of heart (see Isa. 6:9,10), Your curse to them.
66 (ת) Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.