This poem is an interesting acrostic, with each letter of the alphabet at the beginning of three consecutive lines, in an aaabbbccc ... pattern; it has three verses per letter just as Psalm 119 has eight verses per letter.
Commentator Ellison does not see Jeremiah as a possible author of the other chapters of Lamentations but does see Jeremiah as the likely author of this lament.
Lamentations 3:1-6, Facing God's wrath
I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the LORD’s wrath.
He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light;
indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.
He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones.
He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.
The prophet-author, possibly Jeremiah, cries for help, listing the pain he has suffered. The pain is both physical and emotional. He has been "driven" from God, like one drives away an animal (Ellison.) The darkness in the last line is a hint at the nearness of death.
Besides the prophet Jeremiah, there are a number of other interesting individuals suggested as author of this song of lament. Both King Jehoaichin and King Zedekiah have been suggested (House, p. 406.) After he was captured by the Babylonians, Zedekiah was blinded and imprisoned. It is easy to imagine a repentant Zedekiah writing these words.
Lamentations 3:7-9, Blocked prayer
He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains.
Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer.
He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked.
The prophet prays but feels that only the walls hear him, that God has shut out his prayers and refuses to listen.
Lamentations 3:10-15, Mangled
Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding,
he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help.
He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.
He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver.
I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink.
The prophet is mangled, pierced, hurt. God has abandoned him and given him only bitter gall to drink. See Job 16:12-14 for a similar description of Job's pain.
Lamentations 3:16-20, Broken teeth
He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust.
I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD.”
I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
The image is that of someone shoved face down on the ground, with a heavy hand grinding his face into the dirt.
Lamentations is rarely quoted in American churches. Like most of Job, Ecclesiastes and various psalms of lament, there is strong cry of despair in these verses. Indeed, so far, the lamentations have been too pessimistic to even attribute to Jeremiah. But the one passage that people like to quote follows below.
Lamentations 3:21-24, New every morning
Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
The tone of the poem shifts suddenly. After twenty lines of pain and despair, there is suddenly a vision of hope, of a love of God that looks through the darkness and plans longterm good.
The first Hebrew word in verse 22 is hesed, translated here "great love."
Lamentations 3:25-30, Hope, with face in the dust
The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it on him.
Let him bury his face in the dust— there may yet be hope.
Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace.
The acrostic structure demands that the first letter of verses 25 to 27 be teth and so each verse begins with the Hebrew word towb, "good." That word is used seven times in Genesis 1 to describe the beauty of creation. In a strong statement of trust, the prophet declares that it is good to wait for God's eventual salvation and to hope, even if his face is buried in the dust or his check turned to receive a strike.
Lamentations 3:31-33, Unfailing love
For no one is cast off by the Lord forever.
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.
For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.
To crush underfoot all prisoners in the land,
to deny people their rights before the Most High,
to deprive them of justice— would not the Lord see such things?
The author (if Jeremiah) may be remembering his own imprisonment and suffering. It was wrong to abuse people in the way that the Jerusalem ruler abused Jeremiah and others who were faithful to God.
Lamentations 3:37-39, All from God
Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?
Why should the living complain when punished for their sins?
Despite the suffering, both good things and painful calamities come from God.
Lamentations 3:40-45, We lift up our hands
Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD.
Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say:
“We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven.
“You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us; you have slain without pity.
You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through.
You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.
The singer calls on people, even when their face is in the dust, to turn to YHWH and lift up both hearts and hands in repentance and confession. Even the paths of prayer to God are blocked!
The last verses, while describing their pain, agree that God has a right to do these things.
Lamentations 3:46-51, Streams of tears
“All our enemies have opened their mouths wide against us.
We have suffered terror and pitfalls, ruin and destruction.”
Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed.
My eyes will flow unceasingly, without relief,
until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.
What I see brings grief to my soul because of all the women of my city.
The singer's tears are described as an unceasing flow. Among all the ruin and destruction, he is especially pained by the suffering of the women of the city. In any war, women and their children lead the suffering.
The Hebrew words of verse 47 , pa-ḥaḏ wā-p̄a-ḥaṯ hā-yāh ... haš-šêṯ wə-haš-šā-ḇer, have a rippling alliteration not quite caught in the NIV's "terror and pitfalls, ruin and destruction."
Lamentations 3:52-54, Thrown into a pit
Those who were my enemies without cause hunted me like a bird.
They tried to end my life in a pit and threw stones at me;
the waters closed over my head, and I thought I was about to perish.
In Jeremiah 38:6, Jeremiah is thrown into a cistern. This might -- or might not -- be the event described here. If it is, the water closing over the prophet's head in metaphorical.
Lamentations 3:55-60, Take up my case
I called on your name, LORD, from the depths of the pit.
You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.”
You came near when I called you, and you said, “Do not fear.”
You, Lord, took up my case; you redeemed my life.
LORD, you have seen the wrong done to me. Uphold my cause!
You have seen the depth of their vengeance, all their plots against me.
Out of the depths of the pit, the singer called to God, who heard his plea and took uphis case. The singer then continues his pleas -- "You, God," he says, "please keep note of their plots!"
Lamentations 3:61-66, Pay them back
LORD, you have heard their insults, all their plots against me—
what my enemies whisper and mutter against me all day long.
Look at them! Sitting or standing, they mock me in their songs.
Pay them back what they deserve, LORD, for what their hands have done.
Put a veil over their hearts, and may your curse be on them!
Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.
The prophet's enemies insult and mock him. (See Jeremiah 18:18 for one example.) He wants his enemies paid back for their brutality and oppression. Following the spirit of the imprecatory psalms, he calls on God to put a veil over their hearts and to curse them and destroy them!
Some Random Thoughts
I met my wife, Jan, through the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. That ministry simplified the gospel message into a little tract called, The Four Spiritual Laws. Law 1 said,
"God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life."
I question that now. Or, more accurately, I question the implications of those words. I would argue that
"God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life
[BUT THE PLAN IS A LONGTERM ONE
ACROSS DECADES OR EVEN CENTURIES
AND YOUR ROLE IN THAT PLAN
MAY INVOLVE SOME PAIN AND SUFFERING!]
I think Jeremiah -- and Job -- would agree. The plan (and it is indeed wonderful) is to be part of a an eternal kingdom (Hebrews 11:13-16), and an ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:20-21) for that kingdom. There are times when that ambassador role -- or just life itself -- may leave one face down in the dust (verses 25-30, above.)
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