III.
The third lamentation — a lamentation over the afflicted prophet identified with his punished people
3:1-66
A.
The prophet's (representing his people's) affliction
vv. 1-20
Lam. 3
:1
3:1
1I am the man who has seen affliction
By the rod of His wrath.
Lam. 3
:2
3:2
He has driven me and brought me
Into darkness and not light.
Lam. 3
:3
3:3
Surely against me He has turned His hand
Again and again all the day.
Lam. 3
:4
3:4
He has wasted my flesh and my skin;
He has broken my bones.
Lam. 3
:5
3:5
He has built up
a siege against me
And encircled me with gall and travail.
Lam. 3
:6
3:6
He has made me dwell in dark places,
Like those who have long been dead.
Lam. 3
:7
3:7
He has walled me about so that I cannot go forth;
He has made my bronze chain heavy.
Lam. 3
:8
3:8
Indeed, when I cry out and call for help,
He shuts out my prayer.
Lam. 3
:9
3:9
He has walled in my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.
Lam. 3
:10
3:10
He is to me like a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in hidden places.
Lam. 3
:11
3:11
He has turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces;
He has made me desolate.
Lam. 3
:12
3:12
He bent His bow
And set me as a target for the arrow.
Lam. 3
:13
3:13
He has caused the arrows of His quiver
To enter my inward parts.
Lam. 3
:14
3:14
I have become a
aderision to all my people,
Their
mocking song all the day.
Lam. 3
:15
3:15
He has filled me with bitterness;
He has made me drunk with wormwood.
Lam. 3
:16
3:16
He has also crushed my teeth with gravel;
He has covered me with ashes.
Lam. 3
:17
3:17
And You have removed my soul far from peace;
I have forgotten prosperity.
Lam. 3
:18
3:18
And I said, My strength has perished
As well as my hope in Jehovah.
Lam. 3
:19
3:19
Remember my affliction and my
1wandering,
The wormwood and the gall.
Lam. 3
:20
3:20
My soul remembers
them well
And is bowed down within me.
B.
The prophet's (representing his people's) hope
vv. 21-39
Lam. 3
:21
3:21
This I recall to my heart;
Therefore I have hope.
Lam. 3
:22
3:22
It is Jehovah’s
alovingkindness that we are not
1consumed,
For His
bcompassions do not fail;
Lam. 3
:23
3:23
They are new
1every amorning;
Great is Your
2bfaithfulness.
Lam. 3
:24
3:24
Jehovah is my
1aportion, says my soul;
Therefore I hope in Him.
Lam. 3
:25
3:25
Jehovah is good to those who
1await on Him,
To the soul that seeks Him.
Lam. 3
:26
3:26
It is good for one to hope, and
to do so in silence,
For the salvation of Jehovah.
Lam. 3
:27
3:27
It is good for a man to bear
The yoke in his youth.
Lam. 3
:28
3:28
Let him sit alone and be silent,
Because He has laid
it upon him.
Lam. 3
:29
3:29
Let him put his mouth in the dust —
Perhaps there is hope.
Lam. 3
:30
3:30
Let him give his
acheek to him who strikes him;
Let him be filled with reproach.
Lam. 3
:31
3:31
For the Lord will not
aCast off forever.
Lam. 3
:32
3:32
But even if He causes grief, He will have compassion
According to the multitude of His lovingkindness;
Lam. 3
:33
3:33
For He does not afflict willingly
Or grieve the children of men.
Lam. 3
:34
3:34
The crushing under his foot
Of all the prisoners of the earth,
Lam. 3
:35
3:35
The turning aside of the justice due a man
Before the face of the Most High,
Lam. 3
:36
3:36
The wronging of a man in his cause —
Will not the Lord see
all these?
Lam. 3
:37
3:37
Who is he who says, and it comes to pass,
What the Lord has not commanded?
Lam. 3
:38
3:38
Out of the amouth of the Most High
Do there not proceed
bevil things and something good?
Lam. 3
:39
3:39
Why does a living man complain,
A man for the punishment of his sins?
C.
The prophet's request to his people
vv. 40-54
Lam. 3
:40
3:40
Let us examine our ways and try
them,
And let us
aturn again to Jehovah.
Lam. 3
:41
3:41
Let us lift up our heart with
our hands
Unto God in the heavens.
Lam. 3
:42
3:42
We have transgressed and rebelled;
You have not pardoned.
Lam. 3
:43
3:43
You have covered
Yourself with anger and have pursued us;
You have slain; You have not spared.
Lam. 3
:44
3:44
You have covered Yourself with a cloud
That prayer might not pass through.
Lam. 3
:45
3:45
You have made us
aoffscouring and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.
Lam. 3
:46
3:46
All our enemies have opened
Their mouths against us.
Lam. 3
:47
3:47
aFear and the pit are upon us,
Devastation and destruction.
Lam. 3
:48
3:48
My eye
aruns down with streams of water
For the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Lam. 3
:49
3:49
My eye pours forth and does not stop;
There is no cessation,
Lam. 3
:50
3:50
Until Jehovah looks down
And sees from the heavens.
Lam. 3
:51
3:51
My eye pains my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.
Lam. 3
:52
3:52
They have hunted me down like a bird,
They who are my enemies without cause.
Lam. 3
:53
3:53
They have brought my life to its end in the pit
And have thrown a stone upon me.
Lam. 3
:54
3:54
Water streamed over my head;
I said, I have been cut off.
D.
The prophet's (representing his people's) prayer to Jehovah
vv. 55-66
Lam. 3
:55
3:55
I 1acalled upon Your name, O Jehovah,
From the lowest pit.
Lam. 3
:56
3:56
You have heard my voice; do not hide
Your ear at my breathing, at my cry.
Lam. 3
:57
3:57
You drew
anear in the day that I called upon You;
You said, Do not fear.
Lam. 3
:58
3:58
Lord, You have pleaded my soul’s case;
You have redeemed my life.
Lam. 3
:59
3:59
You have seen, O Jehovah, my oppression;
Judge my cause.
Lam. 3
:60
3:60
You have seen all their vengeance,
All their plans, against me.
Lam. 3
:61
3:61
You have heard their reproach, O Jehovah,
All their plans against me,
Lam. 3
:62
3:62
The lips of those who rise up against me
And their meditation against me all the day.
Lam. 3
:63
3:63
Look upon their sitting down and their rising up;
I am their mocking song.
Lam. 3
:64
3:64
aYou will render to them a recompense, O Jehovah,
According to the work of their hands.
Lam. 3
:65
3:65
You will give them hardness of heart;
Your curse be upon them.
Lam. 3
:66
3:66
You will pursue them in anger and will destroy them
From
aunder the heavens of Jehovah.
