The Middle Song Constituting The Climax Of The Poem: Israel’s Brighter Day Of Consolation Contrasted With The Gloomy Night Of Sorrow Experienced By The Servant Of God [as Represented By Jeremiah Himself]
This Song, which as the third one of the five holds the middle place, is the culmination point of the whole book, and thus affords a strong argument for the opinion, that the whole book is constructed on one carefully considered plan. It is the culmination point, both as to its matter and as to its form. As to its matter, because we have here the sublimest conceptions of suffering. As to its form, because here the art of the Poet displays itself in full splendor. This appears, first of all, in the alphabetical arrangement. Whilst the other songs have only twenty-two alphabetically arranged verses, this one contains sixty-six verses, arranged in triplets, the three verses of each triplet beginning with the same letter. Each verse is a distich, composed of a rising and falling inflection. The ternary division is observable not merely in reference to the verses beginning with the same initial letter, but with regard to the arrangement of the whole: for the whole Song is naturally divided into three parts. The first part embraces Lam_3:1-18 : the second, Lam_3:19-42 : the third, Lam_3:43-66.
PART I
Lam_3:1-18
à
Lam_3:1. I am the man who saw affliction
By the rod of His wrath.
à
Lam_3:2. He led me and brought me
Into darkness and not light.
à
Lam_3:3. Surely against me He turned His hand
Again and again the whole day long.
á
Lam_3:4. He caused my flesh and my skin to waste away,
He broke my bones.
á
Lam_3:5. He built around and encompassed me
With bitterness and distress.
á
Lam_3:6. He caused me to dwell in dark places,
As the dead of old.
â
Lam_3:7. He hedged me in that I should not go forth,
He made my chain heavy.
â
Lam_3:8. Also, lest I should cry and call for help,
He shut out my prayer.
â
Lam_3:9. He hedged in my ways with hewn stone,
He made my paths crooked.
ã
Lam_3:10. A lurking bear was He to me—
A lion in ambush.
ã
Lam_3:11. He drove me aside—He tore me in pieces—
He left me suffering and alone.
ã
Lam_3:12. He bent His bow, and set me
As the mark for the arrow.
ä
Lam_3:13. He shot into my reins
The sons of His quiver.
ä
Lam_3:14. I became a laughing-stock to all my people,
Their song all the day.
ä
Lam_3:15. He filled me with bitter things.
He made me drunk with wormwood.
å
Lam_3:16. He broke my teeth with pebbles,
He covered me with ashes.
å
Lam_3:17. Thou didst thrust me away from peace:
I forgot good.
å
Lam_3:18. Then I said, My confidence and my hope
Are perished from Jehovah!
ANALYSIS
After the first triad of verses, containing the theme, the Poet, or rather the person whom the Poet represents as speaking (and who will be understood as always intended, where the sense allows it, when for the sake of brevity we say “the Poet,”) describes what he had suffered physically,Lam_3:4-5; and in regard to light and freedom,Lam_3:6-7; how the Lord had rejected his prayer,Lam_3:8; shut up his way,Lam_3:9; attacked and worried him like a bear or lion,Lam_3:10-11; made him a mark for his arrows, like an archer, piercing into his very soul,Lam_3:12-13; how he had thus become an object of scorn to the people,Lam_3:14; and drunk with bitterness,Lam_3:15; and how, as it were, they had given him pebbles to bile and covered him with ashes,Lam_3:16. InLam_3:17-18, he expresses the sense of these images in literal language; God has deprived him of peace and happiness, till he was well nigh compelled to throw away his confidence in God. Thus ends this first part, in which the name of the Lord is not mentioned except as the last word ofLam_3:18, where it appears with peculiar emphasis and, as it were, with a grating dissonance. It is to be observed, however, that in the whole of this first part, only those sorrows which God had sent upon His servant are spoken of; or rather, all sorrows which befall him are made to appear as Divine temptations. Hence the suppression of Jehovah’s name till the very close; where at length it is announced, that it may be more dreadfully apparent whom it was that the Poet was on the point of renouncing.
Preliminary Note
The following general remarks on this section are to be observed. 1. It contains a description of the personal sorrows of one prominent man. This man was distinguished by his position as well as by his sufferings. The former is evident from Lam_3:14, where it is said he had become a derision to all the people; this could only happen to one who stood out conspicuously before the eyes of all the people. The second appears from the fact, that he is described as one burdened with sorrows more than all other persons (Lam_3:1-3). 2. We must recognize in the man thus made conspicuous the prophet Jeremiah. For not only the description beginning at Lam_3:52, undoubtedly refers to what befell this prophet as related in Jeremiah 38, but also, before that passage occurs, Lam_3:14 plainly indicates this prophet (see the exposition). There is then no doubt that this Song is put into the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah 3. As in chapter second, in the first nine verses, the destruction of Jerusalem is described as the act of God, so in this chapter the Poet ascribes all his sorrows to God as their author. He represents them as divine temptations. There is only this difference, that whilst in chap. 2, the name of God is frequently mentioned (
éְäåַֹä
,
àֲãֹðָé
, Lam_3:1-2; Lam_3:5-8), in chap. 3. God is spoken of in Lam_3:1-16, only indefinitely in the third person, in Lam_3:17 He is first addressed in the second person, and in Lam_3:18 He is at last distinctly mentioned by name (
éְäåָֹä
). This is evidently a designed climax. I do not think with Engelhardt (p. 85), that a tender conscience prevented the Poet from indicating the Lord, explicitly by name, as the author of his profound mental agitation; for what he did in chapter second, and repeats in Lam_3:18 of this chapter, he could have done in Lam_3:1-16. But this making the name of God prominent in? the last verse, at the culmination point of the description of his sufferings, is due to the art of the Poet, of which this Song affords striking evidence.
Lam_3:1-3
1, 2I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. He hath led 3me and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Lam_3:1.—
âֶáֶø
not infrequent in Jer_17:5; Jer_17:7; Jer_22:30; Jer_23:9, etc. In Lamentations in this chapter only, and here four times, Lam_3:1; Lam_3:27; Lam_3:35; Lam_3:39.—Jeremiah never uses
àֳðִé
see Jer_1:13. The choice of the word here seems due to similarity of sound with
àֲðִé
, comp. Psa_88:16.—
ùֵׁáֶè
in Jeremiah only in the two critically suspected places, Jer_10:16; Jer_15:19, where
ùֵׁáֶè ðַ
ֽçֲìָúåֹ
is found. This exact phrase
ùֵׁáֶè òֶáְãָúåֹ
is found (as has not been before remarked, that I know of) in Pro_22:8, in that part of the Proverbs, too, which is acknowledged to be the oldest and which extends from Pro_10:1 to Pro_22:16. The expression there is used in the sense of being blamed by men; here, the suffix refers to it God.—
òֶáְøָä
, see Lam_2:2.
Lam_3:2.—
ðָäַâ
not in Jeremiah in any form.—Hiph.
äåֹìִéêְ
Jeremiah often uses, Jer_2:16-17; Jer_31:9; Jer_32:5.—The substantive
çùֶׁêְ
never in Jeremiah. He seldom expresses this general thought, and when he does, he uses other words;
öַìְîָåֶú
,
òֲøָôֶì
,
ðֶùֶׁó
, Jer_13:16-17; Lam_2:6,
àֲôֵìָä
; Jer_23:12,
îַàֲôֵìְéָä
; Jer_2:31. [If he preferred here a word he never used before, euphony alone would suggest it to him. It happens, however, that of the five words in his prophecies above cited, four of them he uses only once, and the fifth,
öַìְîָåֶú
, only twice; and one of the five,
îַàֲôֵìְéָä
, is not found elsewhere in the Bible. Where such variety of terms are used to express the same idea, the introduction of another new one may be deemed; as characteristic of the author. At least this word
çùֶׁêְ
, affords no evidence against Jeremiah’s authorship of Lamentations.—W. H. H.]—
åְìֹà
, see Lam_2:1-2; Lam_2:14; Lam_2:17; Lam_3:7; Lam_3:49; Lam_4:6.—With respect to the Acc. loci, see Lam_2:21.
Lam_3:3.—
éָùֻׁá éַäֲôֹêְ éָãåֹ
. In regard to the peculiar idiom by which an adverbial idea is expressed by a finite verb, see my Gr., § 95 g. n. [Also Green’s Gr., § 269]. In Jer_18:4,
ùָׁá
occurs in a similar construction [see marginal reading in E. V.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Lam_3:1. I am the man.—[The references to the personal experiences of the prophet Jeremiah in this chapter are too evident to be disputed. That these words were the words of Jeremiah himself must be the opinion of all who read this chapter unprejudiced by a theory to the contrary (see Introduction). But we are not to regard him as speaking here as a private person. He speaks as the Prophet of Jehovah raised up at that particular juncture, to stand between the people and their covenant God, to reveal His will to them and to present their interest to God at the throne of grace, for these were the twofold functions of the prophet’s office. The Prophet therefore was a representative man. He stood for the people. He suffered for the people. He spoke for the people. Hence in this Song Jeremiah easily passes from the singular to the plural forms of speech, from I and me, to we and us. [Gerlach: “The supposition that in this chapter the personal sufferings of the Prophet are the subject of his Lamentation (Michaelis, Pareau, Maurer, Kalkar, Bleek in his Introduction), cannot be certainly proved, either from Lam_3:14 (see Comm. on that ver.), nor from the description contained in 53–55, where the possibility of a figurative sense cannot be denied. In opposition to this opinion are the following arguments. 1. From the fact that we imperceptibly takes the place of I in Lam_3:22 and Lam_3:40-47, we may conclude that in the rest of the chapter also, the prophet does not speak only in his own name and of his own person. 2. Unless we would destroy the whole connection of the chapter, we must allow that the calamity, recognized in Lam_3:42-43, as the punishment of the sins of the people (we have sinned), is the same calamity which is described in Lam_3:1-18 with reference to the experience of a single individual—an opinion, which, by manifold agreements between the two sections, is shown to be correct. 3. The lamentation of the Prophet over his own past suffering, in the actual presence of a great national calamity, would be no less improbable, than the position of this chapter, in the middle of four others lamenting the national calamity, would in that case be inappropriate. The Lamentation of this chapter is then correctly understood only, when it is regarded as a lamentation of every one of the individual pious Israelites, as a lamentation which, while proceeding from self-experienced mental sufferings, has its truth, neverthelesss, for all pious Israelites, in whose name the Prophet speaks. This was perceived by Aben Ezra, when he designated the individual Israelites as the subject lamenting, and in this most, modern interpreters (Rosenmueller, Ewald, Thenius, Neumann, Vaihinger) agree.”—W. H. H.]—That hath seen affliction—who saw misery, i.e., experienced it. Raschi is of the opinion that the verb here expresses the idea of living to see the fulfilment of the destruction predicted, which would suit Jeremiah alone. But in that case it would at least have been necessary to say (
çָòֳðִé
) the affliction, or misery. The verb may have the sense, in a general way, of experiencing or living to see, as frequently (see Jer_5:12; Psa_16:10; Psa_49:10; Ecc_8:16; Ecc_9:9). But the distinction between prophecy and fulfilment is too feebly indicated, to admit of Raschi’s interpretation. The Poet has rather in view the distinction between higher and comparatively inferior degrees of suffering. He would simply say that he had suffered more than all other persons. Besides, man (
âֶáֶø
) would be too indefinite. We would expect seer (
øàֵä
), or prophet (
ðָáִéà
); [I am the prophet, or seer, who has lived to see the fulfilment of my own predictions.]—By the rod of his wrath.—The expression can only mean, that the Poet had seen misery in consequence of God’s using the rod of His wrath. Compare Isa_10:5, where the Lord calls the Assyrian the rod of My anger, and Job_9:34; Job_21:9, where the rod of God is spoken of in a general way. [Calvin: “At the very beginning he acknowledges that whatever he suffered had been inflicted by God’s hand … there is included in the word wrath a brief confession, especially when it is added by the rod, or staff.”]
Lam_3:2. He hath led me and brought me—He led and brought me—into darkness but (or, and) not into light.—The metaphor, [of light and darkness for prosperity and adversity] is found in Amo_5:18; Amo_5:20; Job_12:25, expressed in the same Hebrew phrase.
Lam_3:3. Surely against me.—The threefold prominence given to the person speaking, by the repetition of the personal pronoun three times in the beginning of the Song, is not without a reason. These introductory verses thus acquire a thematic character, i.e., it is thus indicated that the speaker intends to make his own person especially a theme of discourse. His justification in this is, that he can with good reason assume to himself the personality punished to the greatest degree by sufferings of every sort. While he was this, he was also at the same time a leader, as it were, of all punished in the same way, therefore the representative of a whole class of sufferers,—of the Israel, hated by men but beloved of God, of the
Ἰóñáçë êáôὰ ðíåῦìá
—the spiritual Israel. This explanation would not stand, if we were to understand the whole people as indicated by the man in Lam_3:1. That the whole people are not so designated by the man, will be seen further on. For the present, the expression itself, the man, furnishes an argument against it: for throughout the book Zion is always spoken of as a female. See his strongholds,Lam_2:5, where only the masculine pronoun is used in reference to Zion, and there only because the words are a quotation. [Probably the pronoun there refers to God, not to Zion. See the Notes.—W. H. H.]—Is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.—turned he his hand always again the whole day. [He turns His hand again and again the whole day long. The Hebrew is very idiomatic. The true construction is explained by the grammatical note of Naegelsbach above, referring to the use of a verb in an adverbial sense. The best grammarians and Versions agree in this construction. Our English Version is obviously wrong, not only because it translates both verbs transitively, but because it translates them in different tenses and is obliged to supply the words against me in the last clause. The verbs are both future and ought to be taken in the sense of the historical imperfect, because the Prophet would express the constant repetition of God’s strokes, or else as a present tense, because the prophet is referring to sufferings not yet at an end.—W. H. H.] All the day.—See Lam_1:13; Lam_3:14; Lam_3:62. [He smote me and continues smiting me again and again, all the day long.—W. H. H.]
Lam_3:4-9
4, 5My flesh and my skin hath he made old: he hath broken my bones. He hath 6builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail. He hath set me in 7dark places, as they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about, that I cann 8get out: he hath made my chain heavy. Also, when I cry and shout, he shutteth 9out my prayer. He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone: he hath made my paths crooked.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Lam_3:4.—Jeremiah uses
áָùָׂø
often, Jer_7:21; Jer_12:12, etc.;
òַåֹø
, once, LamJer 13:23. The two words occur in connection, especially in Lev_13:2-4; Lev_11:38-39. Comp. besides Job_19:20, Pro_5:11; Lam_4:8; Lam_5:10.
Lam_3:5.—
åַéַ÷ַּó
involves, like
éָùׁåּá
, Lam_3:3, an adverbial relation to the principal verb, see Lam_3:3. [There is no necessity for this construction here, nor are the verbs so nearly synonymous as to render this construction likely. It is better to take the two verbs as having the same relation to
òַìָé
, and the same subjective accusative in
áָּðָä òָìַé
—.
øֹàùׁ åּúְìָàָä
. Gesenius: “God hath builded against me, obstructed me, shut up my way on every side so that I cannot get out.”—W. H. H.]—
äֵ÷ּéó
, elsewhere frequently in the sense circuire, circumdare (see Jos_6:3; Psa_17:9; Psa_48:13, etc.), means also circumponere, and that which is placed around in the accusative by itself. So also Job_19:6. The word is not found in Jeremiah.—
øֹàùׁ
(In Jeremiah only in the connection
îֵé øֹàùׁ
, Jer_8:14; Jer_9:14; Jer_23:15) is of uncertain derivation, but indicates undoubtedly poison (see Deu_29:17; Deu_32:32-33; Lam_3:19). The word connected with it,
úְּìָàָä
, does not occur in Jeremiah, although he used the verb
ìָàָä
, comparatively speaking, frequently, Jer_6:11; Jer_9:4; Jer_12:5; Jer_15:6; Jer_20:9. The meaning is difficulty, labor,Exo_18:8; Num_20:14; Neh_9:32; Mal_1:13.
Lam_3:6.—
îַçֲùַׁëִּéí
, not in Jeremiah.—
äåֹùִׁéá
, Jer_32:37. [This word does not imply the posture of sitting, as Henderson imagines, when he says the language may refer “to an ancient custom of placing the dead bodies in a sitting posture in the sepulchres.”—W. H. H.]
Lam_3:7.—
âָּãַø
, Jeremiah never uses. [Observe, this is an initial word. See Intr., Add. Rem. (6), p. 31.—W. H. H.]—
åְìֹà àֵöֵà
is found in Psa_88:9, word for word. For the construction [of
åְ
with the future, that I could not go forth] see my Gr., § 89, 3 b, 2; § 109, 3.—
äִëְáéã
is, to say the least, foreign to Jeremiah’s style. Comp. 1Ki_12:10; 1Ki_12:14.—
ðְçùִׁú
, in the sense of a fetter, only here; elsewhere
ðְçֻùְׁúַéִí
, Jer_39:7; Jer_52:11, etc.
Lam_3:8.—
æָòַ÷
, in the sense of crying to God, frequently with Jeremiah, for example Jer_11:11-12; Jer_20:8; Jer_25:34.—The verb
ùָׁåַò
(see Psa_88:14) used only in Piel, does not occur in Jeremiah; he uses only the substantive derived from it
ùַׁåְòָä
, which also occurs in our chapter, Lam_3:56.—The verb
ùָׂúַí
, thus written, occurs only here. It is merely a scribal variety of
ñָúַí
; see
ùִáּåֹ
Lam_2:6. Jeremiah uses neither. The sense is obstruere (of wells, Gen_26:15; Gen_26:18; 2Ki_3:19; 2Ki_3:25), occludere, recludere (of prophetical mysteries, Dan_8:26; Dan_4:9). [Michaelis, Rosenmueller, Gerlach: Obstruxit precibus meis viam qua pervenire ad suas aures possint.]
Lam_3:9.—
âָּæִéú
, not in Jeremiah. May there not be an allusion to stones with which, the grave is built up ?—
ðְúִּéáåֹú
in Jer_6:16; Jer_18:15.—Piel
òִåָּä
occurs only in Isa_24:1. Jeremiah uses Hiph. twice,
çֶ
ֽòֱååּ ãַøְëָּí
; Jer_3:21,
äַ
ֽòֲåֵä
,
ðִìְàåּ
, Jer_9:4. That
ðְúִéáåֹúַé òִåָּä
indicates the destruction of the via munita, as Thenius would have it, I do not believe. For in Isa_24:1,
òִåָּä
signifies not evertere, but pervertere. [Gerlach: “
ðְúִéáָä
is not a carefully constructed causeway (Thenius), which is rather the meaning of
îְñִìָּä
, but is rather the path worn by the steps of the traveller, then any small by-road (see Jer_18:15, where
ãֶּøֶêְ ìֹà ñְìåּìָä
is added epexegetically to
ðְúִéáåֹú
.”]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
It may be observed here that the speaker, having in the introductory verses 1–3 designated himself, in general terms, as the man most severely punished, now proceeds to prove this in detail.
Lam_3:4. He begins with direct personal sufferings in his flesh, skin and bones. My flesh and my skin hath he made old.—He wasted away my flesh and my skin. The verb rendered he made old, in the Kal, has an intransitive signification, atteri, consumi, to be wasted away by attrition, to be consumed, especially of garments (Deu_8:4; Deu_29:5; comp. Isa_50:9; Isa_51:6) and of the bodily faculties (Gen_18:12): in the Piel, which is used here, it means atterere, to wear out by attrition [the verb means to rub], consumere, to consume, waste away; it is found in this sense, besides here, in Psa_49:15; Job_21:13; Isa_65:22; 1Ch_17:19.—He hath broken my bones.He broke (see Lam_2:9) my bones [Henderson:Broke in pieces]. The same phrase occurs in Isa_38:13. See Psa_51:10; Job_30:17, and the declaration of the contrary in Psa_34:21. [The breaking of the bones indicate, not only the loss of physical strength, but a condition of great suffering. “The bones are often represented in the Scriptures as the seat of acute pain” (Barnes.) Job_20:11; Job_30:17; Psa_6:2; Psa_22:14; Psa_31:10; Psa_38:3; Psa_42:10; Pro_14:30. We can only take the phrase here in the metaphorical sense. He was suffering both physical weakness and physical pain.—W. H. H.]
Lam_3:5. Now follow the hindrances which have been raised against him from without. And first he says, he had been built around with poison and trouble.—He hath builded against me and compassed me with gall and travail.He built up against me and round about me poison and difficulty. [He built around me, and encompassed [me] with bitterness and distress.—W. H. H.] The image of a beleaguered city lies at the foundation of the thought here. But we are not, with the older commentators, to supply wall (
îָöåֹø
), or some similar word after the verb built, but rather are to take gall and travail [poison and difficulty] as the object of that verb. The connection of words and thoughts here is singular, and has not up to the present time been sufficiently elucidated. Perhaps the Poet would say that the Lord had surrounded him, not only with hardships of every sort, but with adversities in themselves ruinous. It is however possible that in the word poison,
øֹàùׁ
, the idea of bitterness (see Psa_69:22) may predominate. Any way a sudden transition, from a figurative to a literal style of speaking, is effected. [There is perhaps no more difficulty here than is created by an attempt to reduce a metaphorical expression to the terms of a literal and actual fact. To enclose and encompass one with bitterness and trouble or distress (using the abstract for the concrete, i.e., with circumstances causing bitterness and distress), as if these were obstructing walls, is undoubtedly the sense of our text, and is adopted by most of the versions and commentators.—W. H. H.]
[The Sept., the Targ. and the Arab. (not the Vulg. as Blayney says), render
øֹàùׁ
, as if it were
øֹàùׁé
, my head. But these and all the ancient versions translate the same word in Lam_3:19, by gall. The Sept. also translates
úִּìָàָä
as a verb,
ἐìü÷èçóåí
. Blayney adopts these readings of the Sept., but instead of elucidating the meaning, confuses it still more by a new translation of the first clause: “He hath built upon me, and encompassed my head, so that it is weary.” Henderson adopts partially the Sept. translation, but discovers a new and doubtful meaning for the second verb,
äִ÷ִּéó
, He hath builded against me and struck me on the head, and it is distressed.Fuerst proposes (See his Lex. under the word
úְּìָàָä
) to carry out the military idea suggested by the verbs, thus; He has surrounded me with fortifications and a trench. But it is hardly necessary to accept the new and unauthorized derivations of these words, when their frequent use gives us a sense, that is, indeed, metaphorical, but none the less clear and expressive, and sustained so generally by the Versions, old and new.—W. H. H.]
Lam_3:6. To the obstructions of the way are added the obstructions of light. This whole verse is reproduced word for word in Psa_143:3.—He hath set me in dark places.He caused me to dwell in darkness.—As they that be dead of old.—As the dead of olden time.Psa_88:5-7; Psa_88:11-13, afford the best commentary on this. There are those dead before the appointed time, whom the Lord remembers no more, and to whom He shows no more the wonders of His grace. The expression is found only here and in Psa_143:3. [We may translate it either the dead of old, or the forever dead.Blayney: “God had involved him in such a depth of distress, that he was as incapable of extricating himself, as those who had laid long in the dark mansions of the dead were of making their escape thence.” Gerlach; “He is thrust into the darkness of the grave (Psa_88:5-6), or of Sheol (Psa_88:7; Job_10:21-22)—as an image of distress, Psa_30:4; Psalms 88—like the dead of eternity, the forever dead (Vulg., mortui sempiterni).—Most commentators (Michaelis, Rosenmueller, Maurer, De Wette, Ewald, Thenius, Neumann, Böttcher) explain, the dead old = those a long time dead; but whether dead a long or a short time makes no difference, and this, as Conz has correctly remarked, ‘would occasion an absurd ambiguity, as if the dead, who have been but a little while dead and buried, might not lie in darkness.’ The Chal.:Mortui qui vadunt in alterum seculum (mundum).”—W. H. H.]
Lam_3:7. A climax! Not only has the Lord surrounded him with obstacles and deprived him of light, but He has also taken away his freedom. He is imprisoned and fettered! He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out.He hedged me in that I could not get out [or, that I should not escape, or go forth.—The very words of Christ in the passion Psa_88:9 (Words-worth)]. He hath made my chain heavy,—He made heavy my chain, or fetter.
Lam_3:8. The Lord accepts none of the sufferer’s prayers. He hears him not. [Henderson: “The prophet places himself in the position of a prisoner, who is securely immured, and to whose supplications for deliverance, how earnestly soever they may be made, no attention is paid.”] Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.Also though I cry and call for help, my prayer has he barred or bolted. [The idea is, hindered or obstructed. He has taken means, by anticipation, to prevent my prayer for help from being heard, either by Himself, or by any other who might possibly come to the rescue. The change from the future tenses, to the preterite tense, seems to indicate this meaning.—W. H. H.] The sense cannot be that the Lord prevented the prayer from going out of the man’s heart, for in fact, he cried (see Rosenmuellerin loc), but that He shut up the way of access to His own ear and heart. Comp. Lam_3:44; Pro_1:28. [Wordsworth: “So the suffering Messiah says, Psa_22:2, “O my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not.” Gerlach: “However loudly he prays, the Lord has closed His ear; Lam_3:44; Job_19:8; Isa_1:15; Jer_7:16; Psa_18:42; Pro_1:28.”]
Lam_3:9. The right way is built up against the Poet, so that he seems compelled to false ways.—He hath inclosed—he hedged in [same word as in Lam_3:7]—my ways with hewn stones. If hewn, then large stones, for we do not build with small ones. Comp. Exo_20:25; 1 Kings 5:31; Isa_9:9; Amo_5:11; Eze_40:42.—He hath made—he made—my paths crooked. The Poet would say that he had been forced to crooked and false paths. See crooked ways,Psa_125:5; crooked things,Isa_42:16. [At the first glance this would seem to be a continuation of the figure contained in verses 7, 8. This impression is due to the repetition of the word
âָּãַø
, hedgedin, and to the climax implied by hewn stone. The idea, in that case, is, that having imprisoned him and loaded him with fetters and shut out his cry for help, God proceeds, as it were, to make his imprisonment permanent and secure, by building up around him a wall of hewn stone. If this is so, then the last clause cannot mean He made my paths crooked, for one in the situation described must remain an inactive, passive sufferer; but it would mean that God had made all paths of escape impassable. The principal avenues of escape (
ãְּøָëִé
) are built up with hewn stones, barriers that cannot be scaled. The smaller paths (
ðִúִéáåֹúַé
) are broken up, turned upside down, and thus rendered impassable. This is Gerlach’s view. It is better, however, to regard this verse as introducing a new metaphor, which is continued in Lam_3:10. “He next conceives of himself as a traveller whose way is blocked up by a solid wall, and who, being compelled to turn aside into the devious pathways of the forest, is exposed to the rapacity of wild beasts” (Henderson). This view is recommended by the following considerations. 1. The figure of an immured and fettered prisoner is already complete, and could receive no additional force from what is here said. 2. The repetition of the verb
ðָּãַø
, hedged in, which in ordinary cases would indicate a continuance of the same subject, is accounted for here by the necessity of a word with the same initial letter. 3. The expressions “my ways” and “my paths,” favor this construction. They are his, because he is expected to pursue them. Were they simply the ways and paths of possible escape from the place of confinement, they would not, strictly speaking, be his at all, for he could not use them. 4. This explanation makes the next verse less abrupt, and produces a regular and beautiful succession of metaphorical pictures. 5. The idea of simply breaking up or turning over the bypaths, as expressed by the Hebrew verb
òָåַä
, does not correspond with the security against escape expressed by building up the main avenues of escape with hewn stone. 6. The common translation, He made my path crooked, best agrees with the force of the Hebrew verb, and is adopted with great unanimity by the Versions and commentators. Owen: “The meaning is turned aside. He had built, as it were, a wall of hewn stones across his way, and thus He turned aside his goings or his paths, so that he was constrained to take some other course.” Wordsworth: “Not only hath He blocked up my way with hewn stones, but He has turned my paths aside from their proper direction.” So E. V., Broughton, Calvin, Blayney, Boothroyd, Henderson, and Noyes.—W. H. H.]
Lam_3:10-18
10, 11He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. He 12hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate. He 13hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused the arrows 14of his quiver to enter into my reins. I was a derision to all my people, and their 15song all the day. He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken 16with wormwood. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel-stones, he hath covered 17me with ashes. And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. 18And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Lam_3:10.—Jeremiah never mentions bears. [The need of an initial
ã
would naturally suggest the bear in connection with the lion. See Intr., Add. Rem. (6), p. 31.—W. H. H.]—Jeremiah uses
àָøַá
only once, in the phrase
äָëִéðåּ äָàֹøְáִéí
, Jer_51:12,—
îִñְúָּøִéí
Jeremiah uses often, Jer_13:17; Jer_23:24; Jer_49:10.
Lam_3:11.—
ôְּùַׁç
,
ἄð
.
ëåãüì
. In the Aramaic it stands for
ðִúַּç
in frustra dissecuit (Lev_1:6; Lev_1:12), for
èָñַó
dilaniavit (Job_16:9), for
ùָׁñַó
dissecuit,
ôָּøַ÷
fregit (1Sa_15:33; Psa_6:3). See Chr. B. Michaelis in Rosenmueller and Ges. Thes., p. 1153.—For relation of
ùׁåֹîֵí
to Jeremiah’s style and use of language, see Lam_1:4
ùׁåּí
Jeremiah uses not infrequently, Jer_12:11; Jer_13:16; Jer_17:5, etc. [
ùׁåֹîֵí
would be suggested here as alliterative with preceding word.—W. H. H.]
Lam_3:12.—
äִöִéá
in Jer_5:26; Jer_31:21—
îַèָøָä
, in the sense of custodia, a place of custody, frequently in Jer_32:2; Jer_32:12, etc. In the sense of a mark, only here, Job_16:12, and 1Sa_20:20. See Gesen. Thes., p. 511 s. v.,
çֵõ
. With regard to its Aramaic termination
Îָà
—(see
éִùְׁðֶà
, Lam_4:1). See Olsh., § 38 f., 108 e [Green’s, Gr., § 196 d]. This is no evidence against Jeremiac authorship, since, not only analogies occur in Jeremiah (see
ãָּùָׁà
, 1, 11;.
ðָùׂà
, Jer_23:39), but scattered examples occur also in older books. See Olsh. as above.—
çֵõ
, Jer_9:7; Jer_1:9; Jer_1:14, etc.
Lam_3:13.—Hiph.
äֵáִéà
often in Jer_3:14; Jer_20:5; Jer_25:9; Jer_25:13, etc.—Jeremiah also uses
àַùְׁôָּä
(Jer_5:15), but
áְּðֵé àַùְׁôָּä
occurs only here. The arrow is called
áֶּïÎ÷ֶùֶׁú
in Job_41:20. See
áְּðֵéÎøֶùֶׁó
, sons of flame, of lightning, by which many interpreters understand arrows, others sparks, and others birds. See also
áְּðֵé éִöäָø
, Zec_4:14;
áֶּïÎùֶׁîֶï
, Isa_5:1.
Lam_3:14.—The words
äָéִéúִé ùְׂçֹ÷
are taken from Jer_20:7, where it is said,
äָéִéúִé ìִùׂçåֹ÷ ëָּìÎäַéּåּí ëֻּìּä ìֹòֵâ ìé ðְâִéðָ
ä
–
Jeremiah never uses. See Lam_3:63; Lam_5:14.
Lam_3:15.—Jeremiah uses Hiph.
äùׂáּéòַ
, Lam_5:7.—
îְøåֹøéí
, besides here only in Exo_12:8; Num_9:11.—Hiph.
äøְåָä
Jer_31:25.—
ìַ
ֽòֲðָä
, wormwood, absinthium, Jeremiah uses in Jer_9:14; Jer_23:15.
Lam_3:16—The verb
âָּøַí
, contundere, comminuere, is found besides here only in Psa_119:20.—The verb
ëָּôַùׁ
occurs only here. It is in Hiph., and means obruit, cooperuit. [All the ancient Versions seem to have considered
ëָּôַùׁ
same as
ëָּáַùׁ
. The Sept.,
ἐøùìéóÝí ìå óðïäüí
, is rendered by Vulg. cibavit me cinere, “as if from
ëָּáַùׁ
came the Latin word cibus” (Blayney); but this meaning cannot be extracted from the fundamental sense of the root (see Fuerst). The Targ. rendered it laid low, which gives good sense, and is adopted by Blayney, Boothroyd, Owen and C. B. Michaelis. The Arabic, rolled me in the ashes, which is adopted by Luther, E. V. marg., J. D. Michaelis and Ewald. The Syr, besprinkled, or covered, which is generally accepted as the correct meaning.—W. H. H.]—
àֵôֶø
in Jeremiah only in the kindred expression
äִúְôַּìְùִׁé
,
áָàֵôֶø
, Jer_6:26; Comp. Eze_27:30.
Lam_3:17.—
æָðַç
Jeremiah never uses: see Lam_2:7.—
ðָùָׁä
, Jer_23:39.—
èåֹáָç
frequently in Jer_14:11; Jer_18:10; Jer_18:20, etc.
Lam_3:18.—
åָ
ֽàֹîַø
. See Lam_3:54; Jer_3:17; Jer_3:19—
ðֵöֶç
. Only
ðֶöַç
occurs in Jeremiah, and that with reference to time, duration.—
úåֹçֶìֶú
, Jeremiah never uses: but see Pro_11:7; Eze_19:5; Eze_37:11.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Lam_3:10. While in what precedes we were told how the sufferer was deprived of all means of escape, what follows describes the positive weapons of offence with which he was assaulted. [By regarding Lam_3:9 as in close connection with what precedes, the introduction of the bear and lion in Lam_3:10 is abrupt and irrelevant. A prisoner, closely immured, has nothing to fear from bears and lions lurking in their coverts. Connect Lam_3:9 with Lam_3:10, however, and the sense is apparent. A traveller, prevented by barricades and stone walls from pursuing the way he would go, is compelled to follow crooked paths environed with danger of encountering lurking wild beasts. See notes on Lam_3:9—W. H. H.]—He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.A lurking bear was he to me,—a lion in, ambush. The image of a bear lying in wait occurs only here. See, however, Hos_13:7-8; Amo_5:19; Pro_28:15. The figure of a lion lying in wait occurs in Jer_49:19; Jer_1:14; comp. Jer_2:30; Jer_4:7; Jer_5:6; Jer_12:8. Elsewhere, see Psa_10:9; Psa_17:12.
Lam_3:11. Bears or lions, when they attack a flock, spring upon them, tear the sheep in pieces and leave those they do not eat weltering alone in their blood. This last has happened to the Poet. He hath turned aside my ways—he drove me aside. He hath made my ways turn aside [lit.], that is to say, He drives me from the right, direct way. And pulled me in pieces, he hath made me desolate.He tore me in pieces and cast me away lonely and miserable. Should we translate, He tore me to pieces, mutilated me, and understand this to mean that the wild beast had eaten his victim, then this would not suit the other figures used in the text. On this account, we must understand this tearing in pieces only in the sense of discerpere, of mangling, lacerating. So Ewald,mich zerrupfend. The Poet would say that the beast of prey had seized one of the scattered flock, had throttled it and left it for dead, lying alone in its misery. For we must carefully observe the two ideas expressed here in the last Hebrew word,
ùׁåֹîֵí
, that of desolation, destruction (see Lam_1:4; Lam_1:13; Lam_1:16), and that of solitariness, loneliness (Isa_54:1; 2Sa_13:20). [This word,
ùׁåֹîֵí
, may express any object of suffering forsaken of God and men, exciting, therefore, either pity or astonishment. See the use of the verb and its derivatives in Lamentations 1; Isa_54:1; Job_16:7; Job_21:5; Psa_143:4. The fundamental signification of the root is to be motionless, filled with dread. This is the idea here. A solitary sheep, torn by the wild beast, lying alone in its suffering, and apparently dead. He made me desolate, or a desolation, may be a literal translation, but does not convey the sense which can only be done by inventing a phrase, as Naegelsbach has done. The idea is best condensed, perhaps, in the words, He left me suffering and alone.—W. H. H.]
ñåֹøֵø
cannot be taken here in the sense it always has elsewhere, refractarius, rebellis. The word in this sense is Part. Kal. of
ñָøַø
, and occurs only in Hos_4:16. Here it can only be, either Pilel of
ñåּø
[so Davidson], or Poel of
ñָøַø
(Olsh. § 254). It is, in either case, a verbal form, occurring no where except here, and meaning He made my ways turn aside, that is to say, he drove me from the right, direct way. Thenius lays too much stress on the word, when he translates, He has dragged me aside. [The idea is, He causes me to diverge from the way, to escape the lurking beast; but in vain, for he springs upon me, rends me, and leaves me weltering in blood. Blayney gives us an original translation of his own. “He hath turned full upon me.
ñָøַø
is applied, Hos_4:16, to a refractory heifer, that turns aside, and will not go forward in the straight track, as she is directed. Here it is to be understood of a bear or lion turning aside toward a traveller, to fall upon him in his way.” Gerlach understands the word here to signify turning back, instead of turning aside, that is, arresting the fugitive and sending him back to prison. But neither the context, nor the signification of the word allow of this sense. Jarchi, according to Gerlach, regarded
ñåֹøֵø
, as a denominative from
ñִéø
, spinis opplevit vias meas. So Hugh Broughton,My ways hath He made thorny.—W. H. H.]
Lam_3:12. In a new figure the Poet describes the Lord as an archer, who has made him his mark. [Henderson: “The idea of a hunter was naturally suggested by the circumstances just referred to. This is beautifully expressed in language borrowed from such employment.”] He hath bent—He bent—his bow.—See. Lam_2:4. And set me as a—the—mark for the arrow. The second half of the verse seems to be an imitation of Job_16:12.
Lam_3:13. Continuation of the figure employed on ver, 12. He hath caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my reins.—He shot into my reins the sons of his quiver. The Lord not only aims at the mark. He hits it, and that right in the centre. The reins are here regarded as the central organs, as frequently with Jeremiah (Jer_11:20; Jer_12:2; Jer_17:10; Jer_20:12), not in a physical sense, however, but in a psychological sense, as appears from Lam_3:14. See Delitzsch Psychologie, § 13, p. 268, 2d Edition.—The expression sons of the quiver, occurs only here. Rosenmueller quotes not inappropriately the pharetra gravida sagittis of Horace (Ode. I. 22, 23).
Lam_3:14. It happens here that the Poet suddenly loses the figure. But it seems as if he would indicate by means of Lam_3:14, that by the arrows of which he spoke in Lam_3:13, he meant the arrows of derision. Jer_9:7 explicitly calls the deceitful tongue (
ìְùׁåֹï îִøְîָä
), a sharpened arrow (
çֵõ ùׁåֹçִè
) See Isa_49:2.—I was a derision to all my people.—I have become a laughing stock to all my people. Altogether unnecessarily many interpreters (even Thenius and Ewald) take
òַîִé
, my people, as a rare plural form for
òַîִéí
, peoples, nations (as, it is asserted, in 2Sa_22:44; Psa_144:2. See Ewald. § 177 a). This rests on the presumption that the subject of the Lamentation is not the Prophet, but the people of Israel. We have already above, at Lam_3:1-3, declared ourselves against, this opinion, and will return to the question again below, at Lam_3:40 sqq. [Henderson; “Instead of
òַîִé
my people, a considerable number of MSS. read
òַîִéí
, and four
äָòַîִéí
in the plural; but this reading, though supported by the Syr., seems less suitable than the former. There is no evidence that the Prophet was treated otherwise than with respect by foreigners. Instead of meeting with any consideration from his countrymen, fidelity in the discharge of his duty to whom had been the occasion of all his personal troubles, he was made the butt of their ridicu e, and the theme of their satirical songs.” See Jer_20:7.] And their song all the day. [The conjunction and is not in the original, and is omitted by Naegelsbach.—W. H. H.] The expression, their song (
ðְâִéðָúָí
), is from Job_30:9; comp. Job_12:4; Psa_69:8-13.
Lam_3:15. After the short interruption of Lam_3:14, the Poet returns to the figurative style of speaking. He exhausts, as it were, his stock of images, in order to depict the adversities which befell him. He must also receive them as meat and drink, and that too in copious measure, and he must be covered with them as with ashes. [Scott: Lam_3:14-16. “In the midst of his other tro
