Bible Commentaries

Why complain should man,

Any man alive, for his sin?

Lamentations 3:40-42

40Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift 41 up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. We have transgressed 42 and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Lamentations 3:40.—חָפַשׂ, perfodere, pervestigare, is not found in Jeremiah. See Psalm 64:7; Proverbs 2:4; Proverbs 20:27.—חָקַר, fodere, eruere, perscrutari, occurs in Jeremiah 17:10; Jeremiah 31:37.—[Gerlach: “The LXX have taken the forms נַחְפְּשָּׂה and נַתְקֹרֳה for fem. part. niph.”]—עַד is emphatic, Ewald, § 217, e. let us go back, not half way, but the whole. [Rosenmueller and Thenius deny that it is emphatic, and represent it as equivalent to אַל. Gerlach agrees with Naegelsbach, and refers to Hosea 14:2-3, where both prepositions stand side by side with a difference of meaning not to be mistaken.]

[Also Ezekiel 7:26. The unusual use of this preposition led the Rabbins to fanciful interpretations of the text. Some have put upon it the mystical sense, lift up our heart to our hands, in order to second prayer with practice, (Gataker).—W. H. H.]—נָשָׂא לֵבָב occurs only here. אֵל בַּשָּׁמַיִם occurs not in Jer. See Deuteronomy 3:24; 1 Kings 8:23.

Lamentations 3:42.—נַחְנוּ, only occurs six times in the Old Testament, viz, besides here, Genesis 42:11; Exodus 16:7-8; Numbers 32:33; 2 Samuel 17:12, seems to be chosen here only for the sake of the acrostic. [Very likely; yet, as a master of art, the Poet has made the necessity of the choice subserve the force and beauty of thought and expression. נָחְנוּ and אַתָּה, both expressed, are emphatic and antithetical.—W. H. H.]—פָשַׁע in Jeremiah 2:8; Jeremiah 2:29; Jeremiah 3:13, etc.—מָרָה, See Lamentations 1:13; Lamentations 1:20; Jeremiah 4:17; Jeremiah 5:23.—סָלַח, frequently in Jeremiah 5:1; Jeremiah 5:7; Jeremiah 31:34, etc.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Lamentations 3:39 constitutes the transition to something new. If there must be sighing, let it be sighing over sin says Lamentations 3:39. This exhortation is responded to in Lamentations 3:40-42, for these contain a penitential lamentation of the people for their sins. This shows that our explanation of the last member of Lamentations 3:39 is right. For, unless חֵטְא, sin, be taken in the entirely unadmissible sense of punishment (Meier, Ewald), [E. V. See notes on Lamentations 3:39], that second member of Lamentations 3:39 cannot be taken as a continuation of the question, but only in the sense of an affirmatory restriction, as we have done. It is to be observed, moreover, that the Poet here again speaks in the first person plural. We have shown above, at Lamentations 3:22 (תַּמְנזּ), that the consoling hope, declared in the passage beginning with Lamentations 3:22, rests directly upon the fact that the people is not extinct, that there is yet a kernel remaining which can serve as a point of connection for the restoration. After the Poet, on the ground of this matter of fact, which he regarded as a pledge for the continuance of Divine grace, had made known his hope, and declared likewise his convictions that sufferings were no real misfortune, and that not on their account, but for sin, should men sigh, it is entirely natural that he utters the penitential lamentation, enjoined in Lamentations 3:39, not in his own name alone, but in that of the whole people. For the sufferings, of which he had before spoken, were not in fact punishments for his sins; but they were the righteous chastisement of the sin of the whole people. The whole people then has to join in the penitential lamentation, which the Poet begins to sing in Lamentations 3:40.

Lamentations 3:40. All true penitence must begin with acknowledgment of sin. But the knowledge of sin with men is the result of candid self-examination. Therefore, the penitential lamentation of the people begins with an exhortation to self-examination. Let us search and try our ways.Let us examine our ways and search. [Instead of murmuring against God, let us examine and search our conduct for the causes of God’s displeasure and our misfortunes, in order to correct them.—W. H. H.].—And turn again to the lord.—And return to Jehovah. The preposition in the Hebrew is forcible. [See Gram, note above]. Let us go, not half way back, but all the way back to Jehovah. Such a half-way return was, for example, the Reformation under Josiah; see Jeremiah 4:1-4, and the remarks at that place. This idea of returning to Jehovah, as is well known, plays a very conspicuous role in Jeremiah; see Jeremiah 3:1; Jeremiah 3:4; Jeremiah 3:12; Jeremiah 8:4-5; Jeremiah 31:16-22, and the comments on those passages. [Henderson: “From the assumption of the plural in this and the immediately following verses, it is obvious that, in those which just precede, Jeremiah has in view the punishment to which the Jews, as a people, were subjected.”]

Lamentations 3:41. Let us lift up our heart with—together with—our hands unto God in the Heavens.—Without the lifting up of heart and hands to God there is naturally no right return to God imaginable. [Calvin: “He bids us banish all hypocrisy from our prayers. * * When affliction comes, it is a common thing with all to raise up their hands to heaven, though no one should bid them to do so; but still their hearts remain fixed on the earth, and they come not to God. * * As prayers, when they are earnest, move the hands, our Prophet refers to that practice as useful. At the same time he teaches us that the chief thing ought not to be omitted, even to raise up the hearts to God; Let us, then, he says, raise up our hearts together with our hands to God; and, he adds, to God who is in Heaven: for it is necessary that men should rise up above the world and go out of themselves, so to speak, in order to come to God.” It should not be overlooked that the Prophet connects the outward forms of expression with the heart’s sincerity as constituting the prayer of true penitence. There is nothing here to encourage those to think that they pray, who discard the attitude and gestures and even words of prayer, and fancy that they pray in their hearts. That prayer is an unuttered desire, a trembling emotion of the soul, a sigh, a tear, the glancing of an eye,—are only poetical truths, and, in plain prose, are only half-truths, and, as sometimes understood, half-falsehoods. The Bible never separates the prayer of the heart from its formal expression in words and acts.—W. H. H.]

Lamentations 3:42. The first half of the verse attains the summit of the succession of thoughts begun in Lamentations 3:40, and to which the path was broken in Lamentations 3:39.—We have transgressed and rebelled.—We have sinned and have been disobedient. [Rebelled is a better rendering. The pronoun we, doubly expressed in the original, as the first word in the sentence and in the forms of the verb, “is here emphatical, as though the faithful had taken on themselves the blame of all the evils, which the greater part ever sought to disown” (Calvin). Owen: “To give the proper; emphasis to the pronoun, the version ought to be as follows, We, transgressed have we, and rebelled.”—W. H. H.]—By these words the exhortation contained in last clause of Lamentations 3:39 is complied with, for they are the expression of a deep and sincere grief for sin. The second half of the verse constitutes, in a way similar to that of the last clause of Lamentations 3:39, the transition to what follows. For the words—Thou hast not pardoned—constitute an intermediate member between the two statements, which have respectively for their subjects, guilt and punishment. Guilt is followed with punishment, if not pardoned. That it is not pardoned in the present instance, this last clause of the verse declares.—Observe the pronouns answering to each other. We—Thou. [Both doubly expressed in the Hebrew. Both, therefore, emphatic.—W. H. H]—Hence it is evident that the Poet does not wish to reproach the Lord, but, on the contrary, to make His proceedings conspicuous. [Henderson: “The confession is supposed to be made while the exile still continued. There is implied a fervent hope, that now it was made, the captivity would be reversed.”—The breaking up of this verse into two distinct separate propositions is not such an injury to the versification as was deprecated in Lamentations 3:39. Because we have now passed the section where the symmetrical uniformity of the verses was to be preserved: because, again, this verse is a real transition to what follows, with which it is so intimately connected that Gerlach begins the new section with Lamentations 3:40 : because, again, the We,נַחְנוּ, and Thou,אַתָּה, preserve a perfect antithesis, and give us a parallelism in sentiment as well as in rhythm and because, finally, the poetical effect of this abrupt appeal to God, like the sudden outburst at the end of Lamentations 1:11, See, O Jehovah, and consider, justifies the departure from the stricter forms of construction.—W. H. H.]

PART III

Lamentations 3:43-66

ם Lamentations 3:43. Thou didst cover Thyself with wrath and pursue us,

Thou didst slay,—Thou didst not pity.

ם Lamentations 3:44. Thou didst cover Thyself with clouds

So that no prayer could pass through.

ם Lamentations 3:45. Thou madest us offscourings and

refuse

In the midst of the nations.

פ Lamentations 3:46. All our enemies

Gaped at us with their mouth.

פ Lamentations 3:47. Terror and the pit came upon us—

Desolation and destruction.

פ Lamentations 3:48. Mine eye runneth down with streams of water

For the ruin of the daughter of my people.

ע Lamentations 3:49. Mine eye overfloweth unceasingly,

Without intermission,

ע Lamentations 3:50. Until Jehovah from Heaven

Look down and behold.

ע Lamentations 3:51. Mine eye paineth my soul

Because of all the daughters of my city.

צ Lamentations 3:52. They that were without cause my enemies

Hunted me down like a bird.

צ Lamentations 3:53. They destroyed in the pit my life

And cast a stone over me.

צּ Lamentations 3:54. Waters flowed upon my head.

I said,—I am lost!

ק Lamentations 3:55. I called upon thy name, O Jehovah,

Out of the depths of the pit.

ק Lamentations 3:56. Thou heardest my cry—hide not Thine ear

From my prayer for relief!

ק Lamentations 3:57. Thou drewest near on the day when I called to Thee:

Thou saidst,—Fear not!

ר Lamentations 3:58. Thou didst espouse the causes of my soul,

Thou didst rescue my life.

ר Lamentations 3:59. Thou, O Jehovah, hast seen the wrong done to me.

Judge Thou my cause.

ר Lamentations 3:60. Thou hast seen all their vengeance,

All their devices against me.

ש Lamentations 3:61. Thou hast heard their revilings, O Jehovah,

All their devices against me.

ש Lamentations 3:62. The lips of my enemies and their thoughts

Against me, all the day long,

ש Lamentations 3:63. Their sitting down and rising up, observe Thou;

I am their song!

ת Lamentations 3:64. Render to them a recompence, O Jehovah,

According to the work of their hands.

ת Lamentations 3:65. Give them blindness of heart.

Thy curse on them!

ת Lamentations 3:66. Pursue them in wrath and exterminate them

From under the Heaven of Jehovah.

ANALYSIS

The third part, Lamentations 3:43-66, is to be compared to the night returning again after the day. From Lamentations 3:43 to Lamentations 3:48, the Poet speaks in the first person plural. The whole people unite in describing the severe calamity suffered on account of God’s wrath. From Lamentations 3:48 to the end, the Poet again speaks in the first person singular. But in the first part of this passage, in Lamentations 3:48-51, the common misfortune is still the subject of his lamentation. He begins again to speak of himself in Lamentations 3:52. He first describes, Lamentations 3:52-54, the terrible ill-treatment suffered at the hands of men, according to Jeremiah 38:6 Lamentations 3:55-66 contain a prayer, so that this Song of Solomon, as well as the first and second, closes with a prayer. This prayer is in three parts. Lamentations 3:55-58, thanks for deliverance from the grave. Lamentations 3:59-63, a statement of all the injury which his enemies had done, and were constantly doing to the Prophet. Lamentations 3:64-66, a prayer for righteous vengeance. The symmetry of the external form, which we have observed in the middle section of the Song of Solomon, is wanting here, as it is also in the first part of the Song. For according to the sense, first, five verses are connected together, Lamentations 3:43-47; then, four, Lamentations 3:48-51; then, three, Lamentations 3:52-54; finally, twelve, which are again separated into subdivisions of four, five and three verses. The articulations of the discourse no longer correspond with the triplets of verses: neither is the symmetry of the initial words carried out.

As the evening twilight gradually deepens into night, so the discourse of our Poet passes over from the bright day-light of consolation, which irradiates the noble central section of our book, back again into the gloomy description of those sufferings with which Israel and the Prophet of the Lord were punished. We stand at the threshold of the last of the three sections of the third Song. If not exactly, yet almost exactly has the Poet distributed the lights and shadows, so that the first and the last of the three parts contain the shadows, and the second one affords the light. For of the 66 verses of the chapter, 22 constitute a third part. But the middle section, after the transition verses, 19–21, extends from Lamentations 3:22 to Lamentations 3:40, after which Lamentations 3:40-42 follow as another transition, corresponding to the first one as the evening twilight does to the dawning of the morning. If we add both of these transition passages to the middle section, then the first of the three sections consists of 18, the second of 24, and the last again of 24 verses.

Lamentations 3:43-47

43Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not 44 pitied. Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass 45 through. Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people46, 47All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolations and destruction.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

[Gerlach: “Gesenius Thes, and Otto take סָכַןְ as a reflective verb.” Otto, quoted by Rosenmueller, says At reciprose verbum סָכַןְ usurpari posse, non dubium; but he prefers here to supply nos as the object of the verb. To make the pron. suf. in תִּרְדְּפֵנוּ the object of סָכַןְ, however, is impossible, since the latter, when it has the meaning of covering, is always construed with עַל, or לְ affixed to its object.—W. H. H.]—בָאַף, see Jeremiah 21:5.—[לֹא. Henderson: “Upwards of eighty MSS, twelve printed editions, the Alex. copy of the LXX, the Arab, Syr, Vulg. and Targ, read וְלֹא.”]

Lamentations 3:44.—Jeremiah uses only the plural of עָנָן, and that only once, Lamentations 4:13.—מֵֽעֲבוֹר תְּפִלָה. for the construction, see my Gr, § 106, 6. [The preposition מִן is very peculiarly used as a negative. When the idea of motion from a place is involved, then that which is denied is connected with the verb simply by מִן. Naeglelsbach’s Gr, § 106, 6.]

Lamentations 3:45.—סְחִי from סָחָה, detergere, everrere, Esr26:4, is sweepings, dirt. It occurs only here. [In Isaiah 5:25 we have סוּחָה, sweeping, refuse, fifth (J. A. Alexander).—W. H. H.]—מָאוֹם, as a substantive, only here. See Ewald, § 240, a—Jeremiah expresses the thought contained in this verse in another fashion, see Jeremiah 15:4; Jeremiah 24:9; Jeremiah 29:18; Jeremiah 34:17; Jeremiah 42:18.—בְּקֶרֶב הָעַמִּים seems to imply the dispersion of Israel among the nations. בְּקֶרֶב is nowhere found in Jeremiah, he always uses instead בְּתוֹךְ, Jeremiah 12:16; Jeremiah 29:32; Jeremiah 40:1; LamJer41:8, etc.; once only he uses מִקֶּרֶב, Jeremiah 6:1, and besides בְּקֶרֶב with suffixes frequently Jeremiah 4:14; Jeremiah 14:9; Jeremiah 23:9. etc. [Certainly then בְּקֶרֶב is not foreign to his style.—W. H. H.]

Lamentations 3:47.—פַּחַד וָפַחַת is a quotation from Jeremiah 48:43; Isaiah 24:17.—הַשֵּׁאת וְהַשָׁבֶר. The paronomasia, an imitation of פַּהַד וָפַחַת, is an invention of our Poet, for it is found only here.—שֵׁאת, apparently from שָׁאָה, tumultuari, strepere, is contracted from שֶׁאֶת. In Numbers 24:17, is found שֶׁת. The meaning seems to be the same as that of שָׁאוֹן, strepitus, tumultus. See בְּנֵי שָׁאוֹן, Jeremiah 48:45, and the remarks at that place. Also שׁד וַשֵׁבֶר, Isaiah 59:7; Isaiah 60:18.—שֶׁבֶר, see Lamentations 3:48; Lamentations 2:11; Lamentations 2:13; Lamentations 4:10, is very frequent with Jeremiah 4:20; Jeremiah 6:14; Jeremiah 8:11; Jeremiah 8:21, etc.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Lamentations 3:43. Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us.—Thou madest out of Thy wrath a veil [or covering] and didst pursue us. As Thou hast not pardoned, Lamentations 3:42, constitutes a negative term of connection, so does Thou madest a covering of Thy wrath a positive one. For the veil of wrath with which the Lord covers Himself, conceals in its bosom the lightnings of wrath of which the Poet proceeds to speak. [The causative meaning given to the verb by Dr. Naegelsbach, and implied, though not affirmed by Gerlach, is certainly possible (see Psalm 91:4, בְּאֶבְרָתוֹ יָסֶךְ לָךְ, lit, With his wing He will make, or provide, J. A. Alexander,a covering for thee), and is strongly recommended here by the absence of an object expressed. He made a covering of the wrath and pursued us, is the same as saying. He enveloped Himself in His wrath and pursued us. The definite article before wrath, the wrath, points to Jehovah’s wrath, and makes the reflective force of the verb more apparent. In the next verse, where the cloud does not specify any particular cloud, but only clouds generically, the expression of לָךְ, for Thyself, is more elegant. These slight grammatical distinctions can hardly be expressed in English, in which it is best to give the same form in both verses.—The purpose of the covering not that of concealment, but of preparation for the pursuit of His enemies. He dismisses His pity and gathers His wrath around Him as a veil that covers the whole person, that He may slay and not pity. Or His wrath itself may be regarded as furnishing His weapons of offence, the armory out of which flash the lightnings of His wrath. Therefore the objection of J. D. Michaelis, Boettcher and Thenius, that he who conceals himself, does not pursue others (although a concealed enemy may, nevertheless, be a pursuer), is not valid. We must, either take the verb in a causative or reflective sense, or supply לָךְ, Thyself, from the next verse. This last is exceedingly awkward. If the order of the verses was reversed, this might be tolerated, though even then it is inconsistent with the usual independent completeness of each separate verse in the Lamentations. But to say “Thou didst cover with wrath”—and then hold the mind in suspense, as to the object covered, till it is announced in the next verse, is awkward to say the least, and certainly has the effect, as Thenius asserts, of throwing all that follows the word wrath into a parenthesis.—Our English Version and others which make us, at the end of the verse, the object of the covering cannot be correct if the verb is here used in the sense of covering (see Gram, note above). Some old expositors, alluded to by Gataker, take the verb in the sense of being hedged in.Blayney and Owen take it in this sense, and suppose an allusion to the practice of hunters, who surrounded their game with toils, and then attacked them. Thou hast fenced in with anger and chased us (Blayney). Thou hast in wrath enclosed us and chased us (Owen). But how can there be an allusion to this practice of hunters in the next verse, where they give the verb the same meaning,—Thou hast enclosed Thyself in a cloud (Owen)? Henderson also, without allusion to hunting however, gives the verb in both verses a similar meaning, Thou hast shut us up in anger,—Thou hast shut Thyself up in a cloud. But the Hebrew verb when followed by the preposition לְ, to, prefixed to the pronoun, as it is in the next verse, certainly means covering one’s self with something, as with a garment or a veil. See Lamentations 3:44, note. Hence it is best to take it in the same sense in this verse.—W. H. H.]—Thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.—Thou didst kill without mercy. [The E. V. is more literal. Many versions have spared, instead of pitied. The latter meaning is better here, and the more usual signification of the verb when not joined to a preposition. See Lamentations 2:2; Lamentations 2:17.—W. H. H.] See Lamentations 2:21. Here begins the enumeration of the aggressive acts of the Divine punishment, through which the wrath, as it were, spent itself. See Lamentations 3:66; Lamentations 1:6; Jeremiah 29:18, etc.

Lamentations 3:44. Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.—Thou madest of the cloud a covering for Thyself that no prayer could pass through. See at Lamentations 3:8. The twice recurring verb סַכּוֹתָה, thou coveredst, has been differently interpreted. Ewald would take what follows the word wrath, in Lamentations 3:43, as a parenthesis. But these words closely connected with what precedes by ו consecutive, contain no mere secondary thought. Others (Luther, Thenius) translate, Thou hast covered (overwhelmed) us with wrath. But the verb has always and only the meaning of friendly sheltering, veiling or covering: and further, in that case we would expect at least בְּאַף [instead of בָאַק, with wrath, instead of with the wrath]. But, aside from the constraint put upon the Poet by the alphabetical arrangement [inducing him to repeat the same word for the sake of the initial letter], I think that two grades or kinds of covering are indicated. The first was that, in consequence of which persecution and war came upon Israel,—the second was that, in consequence of which, God heard not the prayers addressed to Him amidst the calamity of war. In favor of this view is the twofold nature of the veils or coverings indicated. The first time it is the wrath with which the Lord envelops Himself. Out of this veil of wrath shoot forth the lightnings, as out of a thunder-cloud, which kindle the fire of war in Israel. The second time the veil or covering is only a gloomy, dense cloud, which, like a bulwark, prevents prayer from passing through. Whether the Poet here thought of the historical pillar of cloud ( Psalm 99:7), or of an ideal one ( Psalm 97:2), must remain undecided. See, besides Lamentations 3:8; Psalm 55:2, and especially Sirach 32:16-17.

Lamentations 3:45. Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.—Thou didst make us offscourings and refuse in the midst of the nations. Since the Lord permitted no prayer to pass through to Him, the work of destruction, spoken of in Lamentations 3:43, made unimpeded progress; the consequence of which was, that Israel, ground down to the dust, is now an object of contempt among heathen nations. [Offscouring, sweepings, what is swept away.—Refuse, what is rejected as worthless, what is thrown away.—Calvin: “Paul says, that he and his associates were the offscouring (περιψήματα) of the world, 1 Corinthians 4:13. He means that they were despised as offscourings or scrapings. * * What the Prophet had in view is not obscure; for he means that the degradation of the people was not hidden, but open to all nations, as though God had erected a theatre in Judea, and there exhibited a remarkable and an unusual example of His vengeance,”—among the nations.Wordsworth: “The nations, among which we Israelites are scattered. Such the Jewish nation has been for1800 years; and such it will remain till it turn to God in Christ.”—W. H. H.] See Isaiah 24:13.

Lamentations 3:46. Here again, in the order of the initial letters, ם is followed by פ, and not ע. That this was the original order of the verses and not the result of later changes, the context undeniably proves. It is, therefore, certainly incomprehensible how any one could have thought of placing the triad of Lamentations 3:46-48, after that of Lamentations 3:49-51 (Meier) [Boothroyd, likewise].—All our enemies have opened their mouths against us,—gaped at us with their mouth. This verse, which contains only a more particular definition of what is meant by מָאוֹם [refuse, or as Dr. Naegelsbach translates it Schande, shame, disgrace] in Lamentations 3:45, has already occurred almost word for word, in Lamentations 2:16, which see.

[Calvin, Broughton, Blayney, Noyes, Naegelsbach and Gerlach, all translate the second word pit, as it is rendered in Jeremiah and is, in the places cited above. In the latter place, Dr. J. A. Alexander says, “It is a probable, though not a necessary supposition, that the terms here used are borrowed from the ancient art of hunting. פחד [fear] would then denote some device by which wild beasts were frightened into snares and pitfalls. It is at least a remarkable coincidence that the Romans gave the name formido to an apparatus used for this purpose.” We may, however, take fear in its usual sense, without destroying the allusion to hunted wild beasts, suggested in this passsage by pit, and in Jeremiah and Isaiah by pit and snare. He who flies for terror falls into the pit. So Jarchi, quoted by Gerlach. Calvin: “He compares here the anxieties into which the people had been brought, to a pitfall and dread. * * The meaning is, that the people had been reduced to such straits, that there was no outlet for them; * * filled with dread, they sought refuge, but saw pitfalls on every side.”—W. H. H.] Is come upon us,—fell to our lot [happened to us, or came upon us], desolation and destruction—shame and hurt. [The E. V. is better, and is adopted by most versions. See Gram. note above.—W. H. H.] In these pithy and forcible words the Poet sums up all that Israel had suffered.

Lamentations 3:48-51

48Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter 49 of my people. Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission50, 51Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven. Mine eye affecteth mine heart, because of all the daughters of my city.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Lamentations 3:48.—The first clause is found in Psalm 119:136, almost word for word. For construction, see my Gr., § 69, 2 a. [After verbs of plenty and want, the accusative denotes the more remote object (Naeg. Gr.)].—פֶלֶג Jeremiah never uses. [Observe it is here the initial word, where special choice and even preference for novelty of expression would be expected.—W. H. H.]

Lamentations 3:49.—The verb נָגַר, of which Jeremiah uses the Hiphil, once only [Jeremiah seems to have been predisposed to use words only once,—so new words in Lamentations need not surprise us, Jeremiah being the author.—W. H. H.], Jeremiah 18:21, occurs only in Niph, Hiph. and Hoph. Such places as 2 Samuel 14:14; Job 20:28; Psalm 77:3, give it the sense of overflowing, as well as of being poured out.—וְלֹא תִדְמֶה reminds us of וְאַל־תִּדְמֶינָה, Jeremiah 14:17.—מֵאֵין הֲפגֻוֹת seems to be only another form of the same thought in Psalm 77:3, where we read the words פוּג ּיָדִי נִגְרָה וְלֹא תָפוּג is debilem, languidum esse, viribus defici ( Genesis 45:26; Habakkuk 1:4). Both פּוּגָה, Lamentations 2:18, and הֲפוּגָה, signify remissio, relaxatio. Both are ἄπ. λεγ. See Lamentations 2:18 and remarks there.

Lamentations 3:50.—שָׁקַף (comp. σκἐπ–τεσθαι, spectare) is prospicere, despicere. It occurs only in Hiph. and Niph.; is not found in Jeremiah; see Deuteronomy 26:15; Psalm 14:2; Psalm 53:3; Psalm 102:20, in all of which places the word is used with the addition of מִשָּׁמַיִם or מִמָּרוֹם.

Lamentations 3:51.—If we compare the Hithp. הִתעַלֵל, which in such places as Numbers 22:29; Judges 19:25; 1 Samuel 31:4; Jeremiah 38:19, has the sense of satisfying one’s desire by violence; if, further, we compare the substantives עֲלִיִלָה,עֲלִילִיָה, and מַ‍ֽעֲלָל, which denote, not merely generally facinus, a deed, but also especially a bad deed (see Deuteronomy 22:14; Deuteronomy 22:17; Psalm 141:4; Ezekiel 20:43; Jeremiah 14:18; Jeremiah 11:18, etc.);—there can be no doubt that the idea of doing a harm inheres in the Poel also. In Lamentations 1:12; Lamentations 1:22; Lamentations 2:20, where also this word occurs, this idea is made expressly apparent by other words of this sense. But we are authorized by the above citations, to take the word in this sense, without such express indication of its meaning in the context. [Gerlach: עולל with ל, to do some one an injury, occurs in Lamentations 1:12; Lamentations 1:22; Lamentations 2:20; therefore there is nothing unusual in the ל here, as Ewald says.]—Böttcher would read מִכֹּל בַּכּוֹת עִירִי, of all the weeping of my city. But even if Piel is authorized by Jeremiah 31:15; Ezekiel 8:14,—and בֹּל with the Inf, by Deuteronomy 4:7, yet בַּכּוֹתִי would be expected [and then would be ungrammatical, as Gerlach shows]. But no change in the reading is necessary.—מִן is causal, as Deuteronomy 7:7-8; Joel 4:19; Isaiah 53:5; Proverbs 20:4, etc.—עִירִי, Isaiah 45:13; 2 Samuel 19:38.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Lamentations 3:48-51. These four verses treat of the eye of the speaker, as the organ by means of which he manifests his pain:—for Lamentations 3:50 contains only a thought subordinated to that of Lamentations 3:49. The new succession of thoughts begins with the last member of a triad (the פ triad). Nothing like this has occurred before in this Song [where the triplets have been remarkable for their unification]. Would the Poet thus intimate that he has passed the culmination-point of his Poem, and therefore the culmination-point of its artistic structure also? It is not easy to decide. Besides, the fact that these verses are of the character of one sustained and continuous transition period, is itself an indication of artistic execution. For while in these verses the Poet himself is the speaker, yet he speaks of his own pain with reference to the public calamity [thus connecting what is here said with what precedes], whilst from Lamentations 3:52 he not only himself speaks, but he speaks of himself [so that these verses form a connecting link with what follows, and the subject gracefully passes from the public calamities to the private griefs of the speaker.—W. H. H.].

Lamentations 3:48. Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water.—See Psalm 119:136. We find the same sentiment in Jeremiah 8:23 [E. V, Jeremiah 9:1], Jeremiah 9:17 [E. V, Jeremiah 9:18], Jeremiah 13:17; Jeremiah 14:17; Lamentations 1:16.—For the destruction of the daughter of my people.—See Lamentations 2:11.

Lamentations 3:49. Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission.—Mine eye overflows unceasingly, without intermission. [Lit, My eye is poured out, or overflows, and ceaseth not, so as not to be (from not being) intermission. In correct English, My eye overfloweth, unceasingly without intermission. Gerlach: “intermissions, not of miseries (Michaelis, Rosenmueller, see Vulg.), but so that there is no cessation, without discontinuance. See Lexicons and Ewald, § 323, a.”—W. H. H.]

Lamentations 3:50. Till—or until—the LORD—Jehovah—look down and behold from Heaven.—As already remarked, this is a thought subordinate to that of Lamentations 3:49, which it limits, or qualifies. The Poet’s tears shall flow without ceasing, not absolutely for ever, but until the Lord, by graciously regarding them, shall cause them to cease. [When God looks down and beholds, He begins to hear prayer and afford saving grace. See Psalm 102:19-20. Henderson translates, While Jehovah looketh down and beholdeth from Heaven, and remarks, “The Prophet regarded it as a great aggravation of the calamity, that the Lord should see it all, and yet not interpose for its removal.” But this is to take the Hebrew preposition עַד, in an unusual sense, and is wholly inconsistent with the constant tenor of Bible language, which represents God as averting His face from those who offend Him, and as looking only on those who are objects of His favor. Besides, here God has wrapped Himself in His wrath, Lamentations 3:43, and in dark impenetrable clouds, Lamentations 3:44, that He may not be moved to compassion either by the sight or the cries of the sufferers.—W. H. H.]

[Calvin: “Mine eye grieves my soul. He had said, that his eye flowed down, and then, that it was like a fountain, from which many streams or rivers flowed: he now adopts another mode of speaking, that his eye troubled or grieved his soul.” Broughton: Mine eye worketh into my soul. Blayney: Mine eye worketh trouble to my soul. Noyes and Gerlach take my soul as if it were simply a personal pronoun. Mine eye is painful to me (Noyes), or pains me (Gerlach). But to my soul, לְנַפְשִׁי, as the expressed object of the verb, is indubitably emphatic. So Wordsworth: “Mine eye vexeth my soul (nephesh), the seat of passion (see Lamentations 3:20) by the misery which it sees, and for which it weeps.” See Gram. notes above.—W. H. H.]—Because of all the daughters of my city. It is not necessary to change the Hebrew here, as Böttcher proposes (see Gram. notes above), for Lamentations 1:4; Lamentations 1:18; Lamentations 2:10; Lamentations 2:21, show that the Poet regarded the sad fate of the tender virgins as one of the culmination points of the general calamity. For the same reason, I do not think that by the daughters of my city are intended daughter cities. [Töchterstädte, i.e., cities dependent on Jerusalem. So Ewald, Blayney too: “Probably the lesser cities and towns dependent on the metropolis are hereby intended, see Jeremiah 49:2.”] The Poet nowhere else refers to such cities. Besides, it should be observed, that daughters of my city is in parallelism with daughter of my people, Lamentations 3:48. This gives a beautiful symmetry to the whole paragraph; the first and last verses, Lamentations 3:48; Lamentations 3:51, each closes with a statement of a reason for his weeping, while the intervening verses describe the extent and character of his weeping. [The English version indicates in the margin a possible translation, which Calvin alone has had the audacity to adopt: Mine eye affecteth mine heart more than all the daughters of my city. This would seem to mean, that his heart was more affected by his own grief, than by that of all the daughters of Jerusalem; or, that his grief affected his own heart, more than it did the daughters of his city. But Calvin explains it as meaning, that he wept more than all the girls in Jerusalem! “As the female sex, as it is well known, are more tender and softer than men, the Prophet amplifies his lamentation by this comparison, that in weeping he exceeded all the young women of the city, so that he had almost forgotten his manhood.” Kalkar takes the daughters of the city in the impossible sense of incolæ urbis (an ingenious adoption of a feminine form used for common gender), and translates I was more vehemently affected than all the inhabitants of the city. The simple and natural translation of the words gives such good sense and is so in harmony with the sentiments of the whole poem, as shown above, that it is astonishing what wasteful invention has been used to find out some other sense.—W. H. H.]

Lamentations 3:52-54

52, 53Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause. They have cut off 54 my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Lamentations 3:52.—The verb צוּד Jeremiah uses once, Jeremiah 16:16.—צִפּוֹר Jeremiah never uses. [Jeremiah often uses צוֹף in the collective sense for fowl or birds. In one single verse, Jeremiah 12:9, he twice uses עַיִט, meaning birds of prey, ravenous birds. This passage in Lamentations is the only place where he has occasion to speak of a single bird pursued by the hunter. If he had ever used another word in the same sense, צִפוֹר would have been chosen for this place for the sake of the alliteration, צוֹד צָדוּנִי כַּצִּפוֹר, and also as suggesting the twittering of the helpless victim.—W. H. H.]—The expression אֹיְבַי חִנָּם occurs only here. In Psalm 35:19; Psalm 69:5, שׂנְאַי חִנָּם occurs, both times in parallelism with אֹיְבַי שֶׁקֶר. This shows that חִנָּם belongs, as an adverbial qualification, to אֹיְבַי, not to צָדוּנִי.

Lamentations 3:53.—צָמַת occurs in Kal only here. Niph. is without doubt extingui ( Job 23:17), exarescere (of water, Job 6:17); Piel is perdere, to destroy ( Psalm 88:17; Psalm 119:139); Hiph. has the same sense ( Psalm 18:41; Psalm 54:7; Psalm 69:5, etc.). צָמַת might indeed have an intransitive sense, to be sunk in silence, in speechlessness, that is to say, to be destroyed, to perish, in favor of which sense are the kindred roots דָּמָה,דָּמַם,דוּם, and the Dialects. [So Henderson: They have made my life silent in the dungeon.] But since in all the parallel members of the paragraph, Lamentations 3:52-54, the enemies are the subject, it is necessary to regard them as the subject of צָמְתוּ also, and to take this word in a transitive sense. If צָמַת signifies destroy, בַּבּוֹר can signify in the pit, or into the pit. In the latter case it would be constr. prægnans. This would be more correct, because it better answers to the fact. For the enemies did not succeed in destroying the life of the prophet in the pit, but casting it down into the pit for the purpose of destruction.—וַיַדּוּ. with reference to the form, see וַיַגֶה Lamentations 3:33 [Green’s Gr., § 150, 2.]

[The use of Kal may indicate that the word here denotes, not as in Hiphil, dashing over, overwhelming, but, like זוּף and זוּבּ, to melt, dissolve, flow, trickle down. This sense is favored by the preposition עַל, to, on, not over.—W. H. H.]—אָמַרְתִי, see וָאֹמַר, Lamentations 3:18.—גָּזַר ּנִגְזָ‍ֽרְתִּי is dissecare, discindere. Jeremiah never uses it. Niph, besides here, in Isaiah 51; Isaiah 1:8; Psalm 88:6; Ezekiel 37:11, etc.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Lamentations 3:52-54. The speaker here returns to the description of his own personal sufferings. The central point of these sufferings is the pit, into which the Prophet has been thrown, and that by enemies who were personally hostile to him without cause ( Lamentations 3:52), and who pursued him incessantly ( Lamentations 3:52) with vindictiveness and mockery ( Lamentations 3:60-63). Ought we to interpret all that is said of the pit as merely figurative? So far as what is said of the pit alone, this could be done. But what the Poet says of his enemies, cannot possibly be a mere figure of speech. When he mourns that though he had given them no cause for hatred, they had, nevertheless, incessantly insulted him and pursued him with measureless vengeance,—this surely is no figurative way of speaking. We have already shown that the subject who speaks in this song (except in those parts in which the Poet speaks in the first person plural) cannot be the people. The enemies, further, cannot be the Chaldeans, because they are called those that are my enemies without cause, and because the Poet speaks of his being already delivered from their power and now only invokes [not deliverance from them but] the vengeance of God upon them ( Lamentations 3:55-66). On the other hand, Jeremiah speaks of his enemies, Jeremiah 20:7-12, exactly as is done here. He describes their insulting mockery (For I heard the defaming of many) and their vindictiveness (we shall take our revenge on him, נִקְחָה נִקְמָתֵנזּ מִמֶּנּזּ, Lamentations 3:10, comp. Lamentations 3:60), and hopes that God will avenge him upon them (let me see thy vengeance on them, Lamentations 3:12). Since the description of his enemies in this place exactly corresponds with that which Jeremiah gives of his enemies, all of which is confirmed by so many facts related in his prophetical book ( Jeremiah 11:18-20; Jeremiah 12:1-6; Jeremiah 26:8; Jeremiah 37:11-15; Jeremiah 38:4-6), can we doubt that what is said of the pit should be taken literally, especially if we consider the fact that what is here said agrees substantially with what Jeremiah says, chap38, of the pit into which he was actually thrown by his enemies? We are sure, therefore, that the Poet here had in his eye the persecutions which Jeremiah suffered from his enemies. He personates Jeremiah. The chief subject of the third song is Jeremiah.

Lamentations 3:52. Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.—Hunted, hunted have they me like a bird, all mine enemies without cause. Like a bird: see Psalm 11:1, where the soul of the persecuted innocent is likewise compared to a bird. [They that were without cause mine enemies hunted me down like a bird. So Blayney and Noyes render the verb צוּד, which seems to mean, not to hunt, in the abstract sense, but to obtain by hunting, to seize, to lay hold of, and as used here in an intensive sense, would imply persevering and successful hunting. Douay: My enemies have chased me and caught me like a bird. Hunted me down like a bird expresses the idea suggested by the comparison.—As even a bird is at last tired out and hunted down by a persevering pursuer. The point of the comparison is the perseverance of the successful hunter in pursuit of a bird: as David says of Saul’s tireless and remorseless pursuit of him, “The King of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains” ( 1 Samuel 26:20). This idea is expressed in the Paris ed, 1805, of the French, Ceux qui sont mes ennemis sans cause m’ont poursuivi à outrance, comme on poursuit un oiseau. The French of Martin gives the same sense. The commentators generally fail to explain the comparison. Calvin, who supposes the lack of “both prudence and courage” in birds is referred to, is evidently wrong, both as to the fact that birds are thus deficient, and as to its application here. Both Gesenius and Fuerst explain the verb, צוּד, as used here, in the sense of laying snares as for a bird. This gives a good sense, and carries out the comparison; but it is adopted by none of the versions, and seems inconsistent with the general use of the verb and the intensive meaning suggested by the duplication.—W. H. H.]

[Though there is a foundation for this distinction between these two prepositions, yet they are often used indiscriminately, without affecting the sense, as for instance with the verbs בּ .דָרַשׁ .וָגַע,דָּכַק, too, is used in the general sense of over, as with מָשַׁל, in the sense of ruling over, or having the management of affairs, see Psalm 103:19; Genesis 24:2; Genesis 45:8; Genesis 45:26; Deuteronomy 15:6; Judges 8:22; Joshua 12:5; 1 Kings 5:1. If the use of בְּ here in the sense indicated by E. V. is not absolutely forbidden, it is certainly to be preferred1. It would have been a wanton outrage to throw stones upon the Prophet after he was cast into the pit2. It seems incredible that Jeremiah should not in his narrative of the affair have mentioned such a remarkable incident, if it had occurred3. They could only have thrown the stones for the purpose of killing him, and how then had he escaped death? 4. The fact that the pit was covered over with a stone, to prevent his possible escape, was a most likely occurrence, and yet one that, because likely and even to be presumed, might have been passed over without special mention. Finally, all the versions, except Naegelsbach’s and Gerlach’s, render it as in E. V.; Gataker indicates both senses without deciding in favor of either.—W. H. H.]

Lamentations 3:54. Waters flowed over my head.—Waters dashed (surged) over my head. This cannot be meant of the flowing together of the water in a physical sense, over his head. For in Jeremiah 38:6, it is expressly said that there was no water in the pit, only mud. Besides, the flowing together of water over his head must inevitably have had for its speedy consequence the death of him who was thrown into the pit. Either the words mean merely, water ran on my head; or, what is more likely, this way of speaking should be understood as metaphorical, as also in Psalm 69:3 ( Psalm 69:2), Psalm 69:15 ( Psalm 69:14), Psalm 69:16 ( Psalm 69:15), he who is sunk in the mire, speaks at the same time of being drowned by the water-flood. That he intends this as an image descriptive of the greatest peril of death (see Psalm 18:17 ( Psalm 18:16); Psalm 32:6; Psalm 42:8 ( Psalm 42:7); Psalm 88:17 ( Psalm 88:16), Psalm 88:18 ( Psalm 88:17); Psalm 130:1; Psalm 144:7), is evident also from Psalm 69:2 (1), where for the waters are come in even to my soul can only be taken in a figurative sense. [In Psalm 69 all is figurative. But here, where all the rest is literal, to take one term alone as figurative, is unnatural. It would be better, with Henderson, to take the whole description as figurative, and as having no direct allusion to the account given in Jeremiah 38:6-12. But this is not necessary. The words may only mean Water ran on my head. See Gram. notes above. If there was mud in the bottom of the pit, there was a supply of water in some quantities from some source. The mere condensation of the vapor in the atmosphere against the sides of the pit, would produce some, and there may have been from small springs supply enough to trickle down and splash upon his head. The language, if suggested by any Psalm, was more likely that of Psalm 40:3 ( Psalm 40:2), than of the 69—and brought me up from a pit of noise, and from the miry clay,—where the noise referred to seems to be that of running water. The Prophet, sinking in the mud beneath, and reminded by the water falling on his head that he was in danger of drowning, might well exclaim I am lost, I am already as good as gone!—W. H. H.]—Then I said, I am cut off,—I said, I am cut off. Noyes: I am undone. Gerlach: I am lost. Comp. Psalm 88:5.]

Lamentations 3:55-66

55, 56I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard 57 my voice; hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. Thou drewest near 58 in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, thou hast 59 pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. O Lord, thou hast 60 seen my wrong; judge thou my cause. Thou hast seen all their vengeance, and 61all their imaginations against me. Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, 62and all their imaginations against me. The lips of those that rose up against 63 me, and their device against me all the day. Behold their sitting down, and 64 their rising up; I am their music. Render unto them a recompence, O Lord, 65according to the work of their hands. Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse 66 unto them. Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

[There is not enough difference in the two expressions to afford the shadow of an argument for or against the authorship of Lamentations, even if the latter expression had been frequent with Jeremiah; but as in fact it only occurs once, who can say which of the two expressions was characteristic of his style?—W. H. H.]—מִבּוֹר תַּהְתִּיּוֹת. Psalm 87:7, בְּבוֹר תַּ׳. Elsewhere occur only the expressions גֻלּתֹ תַּ׳, Joshua 15:19, and אֶרֶץ תַּ׳, Ezekiel 26:20; Ezekiel 32:18; Ezekiel 32:24 [in each case in close connection with בוֹר.—W. H. H.], or תּ׳ אֶרֶץ, Isaiah 44:23; Psalm 63:10; Psalm 139:15. תַּחְתִּיות is to be regarded as related to בּוֹר in the genitive not in the accusative sense.

Lamentations 3:56. The verb עָלַם Jeremiah uses in no form. The expression עָלַם אֶֹזן occurs only here.—[Henderson: “Before לְרַוְחָתִי, the preposition has the signification of with a view to; before לֲשַׁועָתִי, it takes its temporal signification, at, at the time of.”]—שַׁוְעָה, once in Jeremiah 8:19; see Lamentations 3:8; Psalm 34:16.

Lamentations 3:57. קָרַב Jeremiah uses only once in the Hiphil, Jeremiah 30:21.—The Perfects, אָמַרְתָּ,קָרַבְתָּ, of this verse and רַבְּתָּ,גָאַלְתָּ, Lamentations 3:58, stand parallel to the Perfect שָׁמַעְתָּ Lamentations 3:56. They contain the specifications of that general declaration. They are therefore to be translated in the Perfect, not in the Present. אְקְרָאֶךָ does not conflict with this, as Thenius thinks, for the Imperfect stands here to represent the repetition of the act in times past. See my Gr. § 87, f.

Lamentations 3:58. The expression רָב רִיב is found in Jeremiah twice, Jeremiah 50:34; Jeremiah 51:36. Yet Jeremiah never uses the plural רִיבִים, which occurs, besides here, only in Psalm 18:44 ( 2 Samuel 22:44). [The singular here would be inappropriate, if the meaning of the phrase is that God interposed to deliver him from all the causes which endangered his life, see Lamentations 3:53.—נַפְשׁי is not merely a circumlocution for the suffix, my, (Noyes), but רִיבֵי נַפְשִׁי are causæ quæ vitam ac salutem meam concernunt (Gerlach), dangerous transactions (Fuerst’s Lex.).—W. H. H.]—Jeremiah uses only the Part. גֹאֵל of גָאַל, and that only once, Jeremiah 50:34. See elsewhere, Psalm 69:19; Psalm 103:4; Psalm 119:154.

[Henderson: “For לִי twenty-three MSS, originally thirteen more, now two, the LXX, Targ, Syr, Vulg, and Venet. Greek, read עָלַי as in Lamentations 3:61; where, on the other hand, seventeen MSS. read לִי for עָלַי.”]

Lamentations 3:61. חֶרְפָה is used here in an active sense, as in Jeremiah 51:51; Job 16:10; Zephaniah 2:8, etc.—[The difference between עָלַי of this verse, and לי of Lamentations 3:60, according to Owen, “is occasioned by the verbs Thou hast seen and Thou hast heard. God had seen the thoughts or purposes effected against him; and He had heard the purposes formed concerning him. He refers first to the purposes carried into effect, and then, as it is common in the prophets, he refers to the purposes previously formed respecting him.” This difference of meaning in the two verses is, however, entirely due to the verbs, and not at all to the prepositions, which would even better express the ideas Owen attaches to them if their positions were reversed,—have seen their devices executed עַל upon me, and heard their devices devised לִ with reference to me.—W. H. H.]

Lamentations 3:62.—[This verse may be dependent on שָּׁמַעְתָּ Lamentations 3:61, Gerlach and most of the translators; or on הַבִּיטָה Lamentations 3:63, Thenius, Naegelsbach. To supply the substantive verb הָיוּ, sunt, before עָלַי, as Rosenmueller suggests, is altogether unnecessary and inelegant.—W. H. H.].—קָמִים, for enemies, is found in Jeremiah only in the expression לֵב קָמַי, Jeremiah 51:1.—הִגָּיוֹן is not found in Jeremiah; [nor anywhere else except Psalm 9:17; Psalm 19:15; Psalm 92:4. It is an unusual word on which no theory of authorship can be rested.—W. H. H.]

[Gerlach: “The opinion of Boettcher deserves at least some consideration, that here as in Malachi 1:13, there lies concealed in the מ a מַה (quam, quale; what a Saitenspiel [derisive song] I am to them). But this is not in accordance with the punctuation and receives support from none of the versions except the Syr. See Psalm 89:48.”]

Lamentations 3:64.—הֵשִׁיב גְמוּל is found in Psalm 28:4; Psalm 94:2; Joel 4:4, 7; Obadiah 1:15; Proverbs 12:14. In Jeremiah occurs only שִׁלֵם גְמוּל Jeremiah 51:6.—כְּמַ‍ֽעֲשֵׂה יְדֵיהֶם is found in Jeremiah 25:14 (a place critically suspicious), Psalm 28:4.

[Broughton translates it a bursting of heart, following Chaldæus, תְּבִירוּת לִבָּא, confractio cordis. Blayney derives the word from Piel of מָגַן, to deliver or make over; “a delivery of the heart, that is, a willing one, to which the heart consents;” and translates, omitting the first לָהֶם on the authority of the ancient versions and one MS, and making a single member of the verse in defiance of accents and analogy, Thou wilt give with a hearty accordance Thy curse unto them. Sept. ὑπεραπίσμον, covering; Vulg. scutum, a shield; Syr. sorrow.—W. H. H.].—תַּ‍ֽאֲלָה, from אָלַל, a curse, is ἅπ. λεγόμ. [Sept. and Vulg. seem to have read תְּלָאָה from לָאָה. For construction see Psalm 3:9. עַל־עַמְךָ בִרְכָהֶךָ super populo tuo sit benedictio tua. Rosenmueller, Gerlach.—W. H. H.]

Lamentations 3:66.—תִּרְדֹף וגו׳. See Lamentations 1:6; Isaiah 14:6; Jeremiah 21:14.—Of the root שָׁמַד Jeremiah uses only the Niphal, Jeremiah 48:8; Jeremiah 48:42.—The expression שְׁמֵי יי׳ is found only here.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Lamentations 3:55-66. These twelve closing verses contain a prayer, so that Lamentations 3, like chs 1,2, ends with a prayer. This prayer is divided into three parts. In the first part, Lamentations 3:55-58, the speaker thanks the Lord for his deliverance from the pit. In the second part, Lamentations 3:59-63, he reminds the Lord of all that his (the speaker’s) enemies had done and were still doing to him. In the third part, Lamentations 3:64-66, he prays the Lord to avenge upon his enemies the evil they had done to him.

Lamentations 3:55. I called upon thy name, O Lord—Jehovah. The speaker begins by recalling the prayer which he had addressed to the Lord out of the pit. Hitzig is of the opinion that we have this prayer in Psalm 49. Delitzsch also concedes that there is much to favor this opinion; see his Bible Commentary on the Psalm, 1867, p438. [The caption of this Psalm ascribes it to David. There is no internal evidence sufficient to set this aside and to prove that the Psalm was written by Jeremiah or some one else “during the captivity at Babylon.” Its appropriateness to Jeremiah when in the pit, is only a proof of the singular adaptation of the inspired psalms to the wants of God’s children in all varieties of emergencies and circumstances. That Jeremiah repeated this Psalm when in the pit, is most likely. That it was present to his mind when writing these Lamentations is rendered probable by many suggestive thoughts and sentiments.—Gerlach and Noyes translate the verbs, from Lamentations 3:55 to the end, in the present tense. This makes the translation in some respects smoother and the sense in some places more apparent. But the references are to deliverances past, pointing hopefully, amidst present and unrelieved afflictions, to deliverances yet in the future. For this reason alone, the preterite sense of the verbs should be retained, even if the difficulties of translation were greater than they really are.—W. H. H.].—Out of the low dungeon—out of the hellish (höllischen) pit. A similar expression [differing only in the preposition.—W. H. H.] is found in Psalm 88:7. If our Poet had in mind Psalm 88, which I regard as certain, then it is probable that he used this peculiar expression in the same sense in which it is used there. Psalm 88, it is true, is commonly understood of an affliction of another kind (by leprosy, Lamentations 3:9; Lamentations 3:16): but there is room for the question, whether this Psalm, “the gloomiest of all the lamentation Psalm,” as Delitzsch says, does not also apply to that gloomiest of all situations which any servant of the Lord in the Old Testament ever experienced? In that case תַּחְתִּיוֹת, hellish, should be understood, not of Hades itself, but of the Hades-like place in which the Prophet found himself. It would then indicate not merely the locality, but the condition of the Prophet. [See Gram. notes above. There is not necessarily in these words an allusion to Sheol, nor is hellish pit even a correct translation of the words, which mean literally, a pit of low or under places, or pit of depths; out of the depths of the pit, if not an exact is yet a sufficiently accurate rendering. Gerlach, while he also supposes an allusion, in a figurative sense, to Sheol, translates, aus der Grube der Tiefen, out of the pit of the depths, meaning perhaps, figuratively, the infernal regions. But the passages in which this and similar expressions occur do not justify the idea that the pit of Hell or Sheol, i.e. the place of the dead, is intended, even figuratively. The literal sense out of the pit of depths, a poetical expression for depths of the pit, is most consonant with the fact that the Prophet alludes to the time when he was literally sinking in the mire at the bottom of the well.—W. H. H.]

Lamentations 3:56. Thou hast heard my voice,—Thou heardest my voice. The Poet gratefully recognizes the fact that the Lord heard his cry,—Hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.—[saying] Hide not Thine ear to my refreshment, to my cry. This is not a prayer which the speaker now addresses to the Lord [but the prayer which he did make when he was in the pit]. It is connected with קוֹלִי, my voice, as an explanation of the purport of that cry, and it shows what the speaker prayed for at that time.—The word רְוָחָה [E. V. breathing, Naegelsb.refreshment] occurs besides here only in Exodus 8:11 (15) [and is there rendered by Sept. ἀνάψυξις], signifies undoubtedly the obtaining breath, ἀνάψυξις (see 1 Samuel 16:23; Job 32:20; Esther 4:14). It is not synonymous with שַׁוְעָח, cry, but it denotes the end to which the latter serves as the means. [The sense is, as given by Noyes: Hide not Thine ear from my cry for relief. But a more exact translation is given by Blayney: Hide not Thine ear from my relief at my cry;—so Broughton: Hide not Thine ear from my release at my prayer. The verb means strictly to veil (and is so rendered here by Gerlach, Veil not Thine ear), and then to conceal, hide. “To veil the eye is, not to look at what is set before it; and to veil the ear is, to render it deaf to what is said;” remarks Owen, who proposes the translation Deafen not Thine ear. Fuerst, in his Lex, says, Turn not away Thine ear. Calvin renders it, Close not Thine ear.—My breathing. Wordsworth: “My respiration, my recovery of breath. Comp. Exodus 8:15, the only other place where the word occurs, and where it is rendered respite.” The word relief seems in accordance with the use of the word in that passage, and exactly to represent the sense it has here.—But how are these last words connected with the first words of the verse? The difficulty which has embarrassed commentators here, is one of Gerlach’s arguments for taking the perfect verbs in a precative sense and rendering them in the present, which apparently meets the difficulty. But the objections to this have been stated above on Lamentations 3:55. To supply intermediate words and thoughts between the first and second members of the verse, as Thou heardest my voice, therefore now, in my present exigency, hide not Thine ear, etc., or therefore I now am encouraged to pray Hide not, etc., is at least arbitrary.¹ To regard the last member as independent of the first, an interjectional prayer, introduces an abrupt and serious break in the consecutive flow of the thought. Besides, both of these interpretations are open to the objection that קוֹלִי שָׁמָעְתָּ, Thou heardest my voice, is not equivalent to saying, Thou didst answer my prayer, or receive it favorably; a mistake that even Gerlach has fallen into. The word קול denotes any audible sound or noise. Thunder ( 1 Samuel 7:10), the blast of a trumpet ( Exodus 19:19), the crackling of thorns under a pot ( Ecclesiastes 7:6), the rustling of a shaken leaf ( Leviticus 26:36), the singing of birds ( Psalm 104:12), the bleating of sheep and lowing of oxen ( 1 Samuel 15:14), the roaring of a lion ( Jeremiah 12:8), the shout of a multitude and clamor of a battle ( Exodus 32:17), etc., the sound of the human voice in speaking, singing, weeping, etc., are all represented by the common generic word קוֹל, a sound, a noise. In three passages the word is used in the sense of rumor, or the bruit of common fame: Genesis 45:16; Ecclesiastes 10:20; Jeremiah 3:9. When connected by בְּ or לְ to verbs implying compliance with a request, obedience to a command, acceptance of advice, or the like, usage allows the word to stand in a specific sense for prayer, command, injunction, or the like; as Genesis 30:6, שָׁמַע בְּקוֹלִי, hath heard my voice, i.e. my prayer. In no other case does this word, alone and by itself, signify a command, prayer, or speech, or words spoken. It does not designate articulate utterance, but the sound produced by speech, or aught else that makes a noise, or is audible. Its meaning is always evolved from the context, and when spoken words are intended, it is almost invariably followed by לֵמוֹר,אָמַר, or some similar word. Its use in Hebrew is so purely idiomatic, that the sense may often be better given in English by its entire omission, than by a verbally literal translation. This is often done in our English version: Genesis 45:2, he wept aloud; 1 Kings 18:27, cry aloud, Lamentations 3:28, they cried aloud; Nehemiah 8:15, publish and proclaim; Job 29:10, The nobles held their peace; Proverbs 26:25, when he speaketh fair, etc. In Song of Solomon 2:8; Song of Solomon 5:2 (see Prof. Green in Lange), and Isaiah 40:3; Isaiah 40:6 (see Ewald.), the word may be rendered as an interjection, Hark! It is obvious, therefore, that קוֹל cannot be translated prayer. שָׁמָעְתָּ קוֹלִי can only mean Thou heardest the sound of my voice. What that sound was, whether of weeping, lamentation or supplication, is left to be explained, and is explained by the words following; the sound, or cry was, Hide not Thine ear from my prayer for relief. Similar constructions are frequent, especially with Jeremiah. Jeremiah 3:21, a sound was heard upon the high places—weeping supplications; Jeremiah 4:31, The cry of the daughter of Zion—woe is me now! etc.; Jeremiah 8:19, The voice of the daughter of my people—Is not Jehovah in Zion? etc.; see Jeremiah 31:15; Ezekiel 3:12, I heard a voice—Blessed be the glory of Jehovah, etc.; Job 33:8-9, I have heard the cry of words—I am clean, etc.; Lamentations 4:16-17, I heard a voice—shall mortal man, etc.; Psalm 116:1, He hath heard my voice—my supplications; Psalm 119:149, Hear my cry—Jehovah quicken me, etc. See Isaiah 28:23-24; Isaiah 32:9-10; Proverbs 8:4-5; Micah 6:1-2; Proverbs 1:20; Proverbs 1:22; Proverbs 8:1; Proverbs 8:4-5. In all these passages the word קוֹל is immediately put into expository words. So in our text, the second member of the verse is in apposition with the first and explanatory of the word קול, Thou heardest my cry—Hide not Thine ear from my prayer for relief.—W. H. H.]

Lamentations 3:57. The Poet now describes what the Lord did after hearing the prayer of the suppliant.—Thou drewest near in the day that—on the day when—I called upon Thee. See Psalm 20:10; Psalm 56:10; Psalm 102:3; Psalm 138:3.—Thou saidst, Fear not. See Jeremiah 1:8; Jeremiah 30:10; Jeremiah 46:27-28.

Lamentations 3:58. The Lord has not only spoken, but also acted. [ Lamentations 3:57-58 are amplifications of Lamentations 3:56, showing how the Lord heard the prayer there recorded.—W. H. H.].—O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul.—Thou hast fought, O Lord, the fights of my soul! It is evident that the Poet intends by these conflicts (ריבִים) the attacks of his enemies, which he has described in Lamentations 3:52-55, and for which, from Lamentations 3:59 onward, he implores vengeance. That the struggles on which his life depended were severe, appears both from Lamentations 3:52-55 and from the following words Thou hast rescued my life. [The Versions generally take the words in the judicial sense, as in our English Bibles. The commentators fail to explain the significance of the metaphor. Pool’s annotation is a curious instance of blindly unsaying in the note what is said in the text,—“Thou hast been wont to take my part against my enemies, not like a lawyer by word of mouth, but actually and really pleading my cause.” Pleading a cause, metaphorically speaking, must at least involve the idea of securing justification, or exemption from punishment, before some legal tribunal, real or imaginary. This idea is not appropriate here, nor is it so in other places of the Bible where the same Hebrew words are similarly translated. This leads us to doubt the judicial interpretation of the terms used. Dr. Naegelsbach’s translation is supported by Isaiah 49:25, I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children; Isaiah 41:11, they that strive with, thee shall perish; Isaiah 34:8, the controversy of Zion; Psalm 35:1, E. V, Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me: fight against them, that, fight against me, where the first clause is rendered by Dr. Alexander, Oppose my opposers, strive with my strivers, or contend with my contenders, which is recommended by the parallelism; and Jeremiah 51:36, E. V, I will plead thy cause and take vengeance for thee, which Dr. Naegelsbach translates, I fight thy fight, and avenge thy vengeance. But the words may have another meaning still. רוּב has an acquired sense, from the idea of conducting a cause before a tribunal, of managing another’s affairs, and also of protecting their person, properly and rights. In this sense the word seems to be used in Isaiah 1:17, E. V, plead for the widow. J. A. Alexander: “Befriend the widow, take her part, espouse her cause. * * The common version (plead for the widow) seems to apply too exclusively to advocates, as distinguished from judges;”—a remark that will especially apply in the present case. The word seems to have the same sense in Isaiah 51:22, and Jeremiah 50:34. In the last the expression is רִיב יָריב אֶת־רִיבָם, E. V.: He shall thoroughly plead their cause, Luther and Naegelsbach, He will certainly accomplish, or carry through (durchführen) thy cause, where the idea seems to be that of zealously and successfully prosecuting the interests of another. This is the meaning which Gerlach adopts, Thou managest the business of my soul, i.e., as he explains, the affairs which concern his life and his salvation. This idea of God’s controlling interposition in those matters in which the Prophet’s life was in jeopardy seems to me the idea here expressed.—W. H. H.]—Thou hast redeemed my life.—Thou hast rescued my life. [The propriety of connecting this verse with Lamentations 3:55-57, instead of with Lamentations 3:59-60, and thus dismembering the triplets, is very dubious.—W. H. H.]

Lamentations 3:59-63. These verses embrace, as remarked above, the second part of the prayer. The speaker here reminds the Lord of all the evil which he had suffered from his enemies, as the Lord Himself had seen and heard, and prays Him ( Lamentations 3:62-63) to consider well what, his enemies yet continually designed against him. These verses contain a brief intimation of the prayer which he presents at large in Lamentations 3:64-66, that the Lord would execute justice ( Lamentations 3:59).

[See also Psalm 9:5 (4).]

[Calvin: vengeances. Gerlach: revengefulness.]—And all their imaginations against me—all their devices against me. The Poet seems to allude to certain passages in Jeremiah, namely, Jeremiah 11:19; Jeremiah 18:18, where this very same word, מֲחַשָׁבֹת, is emphatically used of the machinations of his adversaries.

Lamentations 3:61. Thou hast heard their reproach—reviling—O LORD—Jehovah. See the introductory remarks above on Lamentations 3:22-24.—And all their imaginations—all their devices—against me.—Twice in the Book of Jeremiah the devices, מַֽחֲשָׁבֹת, of his adversaries are spoken of; twice also the Poet uses it here.

Lamentations 3:62. It is better every way to refer this verse to the Behold or observe, הַבִּיטָה, of Lamentations 3:63, than to the, שָׁמַעְתָּ, Thou hast heard, of Lamentations 3:61. For if referred to what precedes, Lamentations 3:62 would contain a tautology, because what is the product of their lips and their thoughts must be, in any case, substantially the same with what the Lord has heard according to Lamentations 3:61. But if Lamentations 3:62 be referred to what follows then we gain a beautiful gradation; the lips indicate what the enemies speak, הֶגְיוֹנָם, their meditation, what they think, and their sitting down and their rising up, what they do. [The position of the word Behold, חַבִּיטָה, in the Hebrew, at the end of the first member of Lamentations 3:63, favors this construction. Yet it ought to be remarked, that the connection of Lamentations 3:62 with Lamentations 3:61, creates no unpleasant tautology but the repetition of the same ideas under new terms would be forcible and poetical—W. H. H.]—The lips stand for what they utter. [Calvin, Boothroyd, Henderson, translate speeches; Noyes, words.] See שְׂפַת כְּנַעַן, lips, or language of Canaan, Isaiah 19:18; a lip or language I understood, not, Psalm 81:6 ( Psalm 81:5). Compare מוֹצָא שְׂפָתַיutterance of my lips, Jeremiah 17:16.—Of those that rose up against me—my adversaries [so Blayney, Boothroyd, Noyes, Rosenmueller, Gerlach].—And their device against me—and their thoughts against me. Thoughts, הִגִיוֹן, meditation, Psalm 19:15 ( Psalm 19:14). [Blayney, Boothroyd and Owen, render the word muttering. Henderson and Noyes, machinations. But the sense of meditation, thoughts, is adopted generally. Rosenmueller, cogitatio.—W. H. H.]—All the daylong: a particular conspicuous also in Jeremiah 20:7-8.

[I am the constant subject of their derision and merriment. Wordsworth: “Compare the Passion Psalm Psalm 69:12, I was the song of the drunkards. There the word neginah is used, here the cognate word manginah.”—W. H. H.]

Lamentations 3:64-66. In these last three verses, the Poet prays directly that the Lord would take vengeance on his enemies according to their desert.

Lamentations 3:64. Render unto them a recompense, O Lord—Jehovah,—according to the work of their hands. [Broughton: “St. Paul translateth this verse against Alexander, the copper-smith, 2 Timothy 4:14” The phrase is borrowed from Psalm 28:4.—W. H. H.]

Lamentations 3:65. Give them sorrow (marg, obstinacy) of heart. Thou wilt give them blindness of heart. The word rendered blindness, מְגִנָּה, according to the fundamental idea of the root נָּנַן, to enclose, to veil (see מָגֵן,נַּנָּה,גַּן), can only mean veiling, covering (κἁλυμμα τῆς καρδίας, veil of the heart, 2 Corinthians 3:15). It seems then that blindness [Calvin, Rosenmueller, Noyes, Gerlach], not hardness [Boothroyd, Henderson], is meant. See Deuteronomy 28:28. On what Delitzsch (Psychol., p291) grounds his conjecture, that it may be a name for madness, I do not comprehend. [The opinion that the word means madness is derived from the Arabic, and is maintained by C. B. Michaelis and A. Schultens. See Rosenmueller, Gerlach. See Text. and Gram. notes.—By blindness of heart we are to understand a reprobate mind, involving the idea of stupidity (Calvin) produced by sin.—If the future verbs in Lamentations 3:54; Lamentations 3:56, are taken as Imperatives, the verb in this verse should also be so translated, Give them blindness of heart—W. H. H.]—Thy cur unto them.—upon them.

Lamentations 3:66. Persecute and destroy them in anger—Pursue them in wrath and exterminate them—from under the Heavens of the LORD—Jehovah. See Deuteronomy 9:14, which place seems to have been in the eye of the author. [Calvin, regarding the Heavens as designating God’s throne, interprets the meaning to be that their destruction should testify the Divine sovereignty and Providence. So Fausset: “destroy them Song of Solomon, that it may be seen everywhere under heaven that Thou sittest above as Judge of the world.” This is very forced. The idea is simply that of utter extermination; destroy them so completely, ut non sint amplius sub cœlis, that they may no longer exist under Heaven. Michaelis, Gerlach.—Broughton concludes the chapter with the following characteristic note: “Jeremy, Jeremiah 24, told how the men of the third captivity should come to nothing. And Ezekiel prophesied only in their days, but they would take no warning. This threefold alphabet endeth in their threefold and absolute destruction. Yet Ezra was of that captivity; but an infant. And of Anathoth, cursed by Jeremy, one hundred and twenty-eight returned, Ezra 2.”—The enemies of Jeremiah returned not.—W. H. H.]

Footnotes