Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Lamentations 3:55 - 3:55

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Lamentations 3:55 - 3:55


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Prayer for deliverance, and confident trust in its realization. Lam 3:55. "Out of the lowest pit I call, O Lord, on Thy name;" cf. Psa 88:7, Psa 88:14; Psa 130:1. The perfect קָרָאתִי is not a preterite,

(Note: The perfects are so viewed by Nägelsbach, who also thinks that the speaker, in Lam 3:55-58, thanks the Lord for deliverance from the pit, and in Lam 3:55 reminds the Lord of the prayer he has addressed to Him out of the pit. But could he possibly think that the Lord had forgotten this? What, we should like to know, would be the use of this reminder, even if 'תַּעְלֵם וגו, Lam 3:56, could be taken as the words of address to the Lord? For we can discover no thanksgiving in Lam 3:55-58. This whole mode of viewing the passage breaks down before Lam 3:59 : "Thou hast seen mine oppression; judge me!" For, if the perfects in Lam 3:55-58 are preterites, then also רָאִיתָה, Lam 3:59, can only be a preterite; and the prophet can only be speaking of injustice that has been done him previously: hence he cannot add thereto the request, "Judge me," inasmuch as the Lord (according to Nägelsbach) has already judged him by delivering him from the pit. Moreover, it is quite arbitrary to understand the perfects in Lam 3:59 and Lam 3:62 as referring to what has been done and is still being done to the speaker by his enemies, if it be agreed that the perfects in Lam 3:55-58 refer only to past events.)

but expresses what has already happened, and still happens. This is evident from the fact that the corresponding perfect, שָׁמַעְתָּ, Lam 3:56, is continued by the optative אַל־תַּעְלֵם. בֹּור תַּחִתִּיֹּות is taken from Psa 88:7 : "pit of the lower regions of the earth,"-the תַּחִתִּיֹּות אֶרֶץ, Psa 63:10; Eze 32:18, Eze 32:24, i.e., Sheol, essentially the same with מַהֲשַׁכִּים, Lam 3:6, which is thereby connected with Psa 88:7, - the dark regions of the depth, whose open mouth is the grave for every one (see Delitzsch on Psalms, l.c.), hence the symbol of mortal danger.

Lam 3:56-66

"Thou hast heard my voice" expresses the full assurance of faith from which the request comes: "Cover not Thine ear from my sighing." רְוָחָה, "breathing out again;" in Eze 8:11, mitigation of oppression, yet not here respiratio, relaxatio (C. B. Michaelis, Rosenmüller, etc.), - since the asyndetic לְשַׁוְעָתִי does not accord with such an interpretation, - but a relieving of oneself by means of deeply-drawn sighs, as in Job 32:20; hence "sighing," as Luther has already rendered it, following the Vulgate: ne avertas aurem tuum a singultu meo (Thenius, Gerlach, etc.). - In Lam 3:57 and Lam 3:58, the writer still more fully expresses his confidence that the Lord will accept him. "Thou art near on the day when I call on Thee" is a sentence found in Psa 145:18, and uttered as the experience of all believers. "Thou sayest, Fear not," i.e., Thou assurest me of Thine assistance; cf. Jer 1:8, Jer 1:17, etc. "Thou dost conduct the causes (Ger. Streitsachen) of my soul" (רִיבֵי נַפְשִׁי), i.e., not merely "my lawsuits," but causas quae vitam et salutem meam concernunt (C. B. Michaelis). This is shown by the parallel member, "Thou redeemest my life," sc. from the destruction which threatens it; cf. Lam 3:53., Psa 103:4. With this is connected the request in Lam 3:59, "Thou dost certainly see my oppression" (עַוָּתָה from עִוֵּת, to bend, oppress), the oppression which I suffer; "judge my cause," i.e., help me in my cause, cf. Jer 5:28. The suppliant bases this request, Lam 3:60-62, on the recollection that God, as the Omniscient One, knows the plans and intentions of his opponents. "Thou seest all their plans for revenge." נְקָמָה is not here the outcome of revenge, but the thought of revenge cherished in the heart; it does not, however, mean desire of revenge, or revengeful disposition, but simply the thinking and meditating on revenge, which certainly has the spirit of revenge for its basis, but is not identical with this. Their thoughts are the plans of vengeance. ,לִיdat. incomm., "to my hurt;" the reading עָלַי of some codices is simply a correction after Lam 3:61. This revenge they express in reproaches and invectives. שִׂפְתֵי, "lips," for utterances of the lips; and קָמַי as in Psa 18:40, Psa 18:49 = קָמִים עָלַי, Psa 4:3, etc. שִׂפְתֵי קָמַי corresponds to חֶרְפָּתָם, and חֶגְיֹונָם to מַחְשְׁבֹתָם, Lam 3:61; and the whole of Lam 3:62 still depends on "Thou hearest," without any need for supplying הָיוּ, as Rosenmüller does. Thenius and Nägelsbach would combine Lam 3:62 with 63, and make the former dependent on הַבִּיטָה; but this is unsuitable, nor do they consider that utterances or words are not seen (הִבִּיט), but heard (שָׁמַע). With this proposed combination there falls to the ground the further remark of Thenius, that "by lips, devising, sitting, rising up, are meant the conversation and consultation of the enemies one with another." Sitting and rising up have nothing in common with speaking about any subject, but merely form a circumlocution for action generally: cf. Psa 139:2; Deu 6:7; Deu 11:19; Isa 37:28. The form מַנְגִּינָה for נְגִינָה occurs nowhere else: Ewald considers it a form that has been lengthened for the purpose of designating a mocking song - "Sing-song." This supposition has at least more to recommend it than the ingenious but worthless idea of Böttcher, that מַנְגִּינָה is contracted from מַה־נְגִינָה, "what a stringed instrument am I to them;" but it also is improbable. מַנְגִּינָה is the subject of the נְגִינָה, as words formed with מ often express merely the subject of the idea contained in a noun or verb; cf. Ewald, §160, b, 3. After this statement of the hostile treatment which the speaker has to suffer, there follows the renewed and further extended request that God may reward the foes according to their deeds. תָּשִׁיב, "Thou shalt return," is a confident expression of the request that God would do this; hence the optative תִּתֵּן follows in Lam 3:65. In Lam 3:64 is condensed the substance of what is contained in Psa 28:4. מְגִנַּת לֵב, covering (veil) of the heart, - an expression analogous to the κάλυμμα ἐπὶ τὴν καρδίαν, 2Co 3:15, - is not obduration, or hardening, but blinding of the heart, which casts into destruction; but it can scarcely signify "madness" (Delitzsch, Bibl. Psychology, Clark's translation), since the Arabic majannat, insania, furor, has probably received this meaning from jinn, genius, daemon; cf. Gesenius, Thes. s. v., and Rosenmüller, ad h. l. "Thy curse to them!" is not to be viewed as dependent on "give," but to be explained in accordance with Ps. 3:9, "Thy blessing [be] upon Thy people!" - thus, "May Thy curse be their portion!" The curse of God is followed by destruction. "Destroy them from under Jahveh's heaven!" i.e., not merely ut non sint amplius sub caelis (C. B. Michaelis), because יהוה is not considered in this latter rendering. The heaven of Jahveh is the whole world, over which Jahveh's authority extends; the meaning therefore is, "Exterminate them wholly from the sphere of Thy dominion in the world," or, Thy kingdom.