LAMENTATIONS 3
God’s Steadfast Love Endures
1I am one who has seen affliction
under the rod of God’sa wrath;
2he has driven and brought me
into darkness without any light;
3against me alone he turns his hand,
again and again, all day long.
4He has made my flesh and my skin waste away,
and broken my bones;
5he has besieged and enveloped me
with bitterness and tribulation;
6he has made me sit in darkness
like the dead of long ago.
7He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
he has put heavy chains on me;
8though I call and cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer;
9he has blocked my ways with hewn stones,
he has made my paths crooked.
10He is a bear lying in wait for me,
a lion in hiding;
11he led me off my way and tore me to pieces;
he has made me desolate;
12he bent his bow and set me
as a mark for his arrow.
13He shot into my vitals
the arrows of his quiver;
14I have become the laughingstock of all my people,
the object of their taunt-songs all day long.
15He has filled me with bitterness,
he has sated me with wormwood.
16He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and made me cower in ashes;
17my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is;
18so I say, “Gone is my glory,
and all that I had hoped for from the LORD.”
19The thought of my affliction and my homelessness
is wormwood and gall!
20My soul continually thinks of it
and is bowed down within me.
21But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
22The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,b
his mercies never come to an end;
23they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
25The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul that seeks him.
26It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
27It is good for one to bear
the yoke in youth,
28to sit alone in silence
when the Lord has imposed it,
29to put one’s mouth to the dust
(there may yet be hope),
30to give one’s cheek to the smiter,
and be filled with insults.
31For the Lord will not
reject forever.
32Although he causes grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
33for he does not willingly afflict
or grieve anyone.
34When all the prisoners of the land
are crushed under foot,
35when human rights are perverted
in the presence of the Most High,
36when one’s case is subverted
—does the Lord not see it?
37Who can command and have it done,
if the Lord has not ordained it?
38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that good and bad come?
39Why should any who draw breath complain
about the punishment of their sins?
40Let us test and examine our ways,
and return to the LORD.
41Let us lift up our hearts
as well as our hands to God in heaven.
42We have transgressed and rebelled,
and you have not forgiven.
43You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,
killing without pity;
44you have wrapped yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can pass through.
45You have made us filth and rubbish
among the peoples.
46All our enemies
have opened their mouths against us;
47panic and pitfall have come upon us,
devastation and destruction.
48My eyes flow with rivers of tears
because of the destruction of my people.
49My eyes will flow without ceasing,
without respite,
50until the LORD from heaven
looks down and sees.
51My eyes cause me grief
at the fate of all the young women in my city.
52Those who were my enemies without cause
have hunted me like a bird;
53they flung me alive into a pit
and hurled stones on me;
54water closed over my head;
I said, “I am lost.”
55I called on your name, O LORD,
from the depths of the pit;
56you heard my plea, “Do not close your ear
to my cry for help, but give me relief!”
57You came near when I called on you;
you said, “Do not fear!”
58You have taken up my cause, O Lord,
you have redeemed my life.
59You have seen the wrong done to me, OLORD;
judge my cause.
60You have seen all their malice,
all their plots against me.
61You have heard their taunts, O LORD,
all their plots against me.
62The whispers and murmurs of my assailants
are against me all day long.
63Whether they sit or rise—see,
I am the object of their taunt-songs.
64Pay them back for their deeds, O LORD,
according to the work of their hands!
65Give them anguish of heart;
your curse be on them!
66Pursue them in anger and destroy them
from under the LORD’s heavens.
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a Heb his
b Syr Tg: Heb LORD, we are not cut off
3.1–66 A new speaker, a male charged with the protection of women and children (Hebrew geber), laments his own captivity and torture. He vacillates between despair and hope. The community either joins or replaces him in vv. 42–47.
3.1–39 The speaker, in the first person, describes his affliction with personal authority.
3.1 I am one who. The Hebrew geber, translated one here and in v. 27, human in v. 35, and (with Hebrew ’adam) any in v. 39, means “man,” showing that the speaker here is not Zion but an individual male.
3.2–18 The description of the speaker’s suffering is so traditional that attempts to identify him are misplaced. He is a typical sufferer, like the “I” in the individual psalms of lamentation.
3.3 The hand of God often produces sickness or calamity (see v. 4; cf. 1 Sam 5.6–12; Job 19.21; Pss 32.4;38.2). Hebraic monotheism precludes dualistic explanations of evil. All the attacks described in vv. 2–18 are from God, but the poem withholds explicit identification of this enemy until v. 31, making the discovery all the more shocking.
3.4 Flesh, bones. See Pss 38.3; 51.8; cf. Ps 34.20.
3.6–7 Darkness is traditionally associated with prison (Ps 107.10–14) and the netherworld (Job 10.21; Ps 88.6, 12, 18). Prison here is viewed as a form of death.
3.6 Cf. Ps 143.3.
3.10–11 The enemies of the sufferer are often pictured as wild animals (see Pss 7.2;17.12; 22.12–13, 16), but here the enemy is the Lord, as in Job 10.16; Hos 13.7–8; Am 5.18–19.
3.12 Bow, arrow, refer to the divine archer who produces disaster and death (see Deut 32.23–24; Job 16.12–13; Pss 7.12–13;38.2).
3.13 Vitals, or “kidneys,” internal organs
essential for life.
3.14 On the pain of mockery, see also v. 63; Job 30.9; Pss 22.6–7; 44.13–16.
3.15 Wormwood, a bitter-tasting plant and a symbol of extreme calamity or sorrow (see v. 19; Jer 9.15; 23.15).
3.20–21 These verses mark an important transition from despair to hope (vv. 22–33) that is not uncommon in psalms of lamentation (see Pss 42.5, 6, 11; 73.15–17). Here hope is restored through remembrance.
3.22–23 These verses express a biblical belief (see Ex 34.6; Ps 103.8; Jon 4.2).
3.24–26 Portion, tribal inheritance of land (see Josh 18.2–10), but here, symbolically, of the Lord, as in Pss 16.5; 73.26;142.5. Hope entails patient waiting and intense longing for God (cf. Pss 40.1; 130.5–7).
3.27–30 Speaking like a sage, the sufferer counsels humble submission to suffering as divine chastisement (cf. Ps 37.7; Prov 23.13–14; Isa 50.6).
3.31–33 Affirmation of the triumph of God’s love over God’s wrath, as in vv. 22–23; Ps 103.8–14.
3.34–36 God is not indifferent to wrongs.
3.37–39 Since nothing happens apart from God’s will, divine chastisement should be accepted willingly.
3.40–41 In the light of the foregoing verses (1–39), a communal appeal is now issued for penitential self-examination, which must go beyond external ritual (hands) to interior renewal (hearts); cf. 1 Sam 16.7; Jer 4.4; 12.2.
3.42–47 A communal lament acknowledging guilt but complaining over the continuing experience of divine wrath as if taking back the acceptance of the previous verses.
3.43–44 On the hiddenness or absence of God, see Isa 45.15.
3.44 The cloud, normally a symbol of God’s protective presence (see Ex 14.19–25; Num 9.15–23), is here a symbol of God’s inaccessibility.
3.45 This verse describes a stark reversal of fortune from Deut 7.6.
3.46 See Ps 22.13.
3.48–51 This section describes the poet’s grief over the ruin of his people (cf. 1.16; 2.11, 18–19).
3.50 Until…looks down, i.e., in answer to the people’s prayers (see Ps 102.19–20).
3.52–66 The speaker recalls a past saving experience and returns to a mode of hope in God. If he is the same speaker as in vv. 1–39, his movement toward hope has been unsteady and fragile, as is often the case in situations of extreme suffering.
3.52 Without cause, or treacherously. See note on 1.2. Hunted…bird. See Pss 11.1; 124.7; Prov 6.5.
3.54 Water closed over my head, a metaphor for Sheol or death (see Pss 69.1–2, 14–15; 88.16–17; Jon 2.2–3).
3.55–66 The verbs in this section alternate between past tenses and imperatives, thus making the speaker appear to look back and forward at the same time, in remembrance of past events and in hope of future divine intervention.
3.55 Pit, a metaphor for Sheol (see Pss 28.1; 30.3; 88.4, 6;143.7).
3.56 You heard (cf. Ps 130.2). The speaker believes God is attending to his predicament.
3.57 You came…you said, or “Come near when I call on you, and say!” Do not fear, a standard divine assurance when God comes near to humans (see Gen 15.1; 21.17; 26.24; Ex 14.13; Isa 41.10, 13–14; 43.1, 5). These are the only words directly attributed to God in the book, and they are set in the past.
3.58–59 You have taken up, redeemed, and seen, or “Take up,” “redeem,” “see!” These are appeals for God to have pity on the speaker and to judge the enemy (see Pss 7.6–8; 35.24; 82.8; 94.2).
3.60–63 These verses provide motivations for the petitions that follow in vv. 64–66.
3.63 Whether they sit or rise, i.e., “in whatever they do” (see Deut 6.7; Ps 139.2).
3.64–66 Awareness of their own sin does not preclude the people from petitioning God to requite the excessive cruelties of their tormentors (cf. 1.21–22; Pss 74.18–23; 79.1–13; 94.1–7, 23).
LAMENTATIONS 4
The Punishment of Zion
1How the gold has grown dim,
how the pure gold is changed!
The sacred stones lie scattered
at the head of every street.
2The precious children of Zion,
worth their weight in fine gold—
how they are reckoned as earthen pots,
the work of a potter’s hands!
3Even the jackals offer the breast
and nurse their young,
but my people has become cruel,
like the ostriches in the wilderness.
4The tongue of the infant sticks
to the roof of its mouth for thirst;
the children beg for food,
but no one gives them anything.
5Those who feasted on delicacies
perish in the streets;
those who were brought up in purple
cling to ash heaps.
6For the chastisementa of my people has been greater
than the punishmentb of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment,
though no hand was laid on it.c
7Her princes were purer than snow,
whiter than milk;
their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
their haird like sapphire.e
8Now their visage is blacker than soot;
they are not recognized in the streets.
Their skin has shriveled on their bones;
it has become as dry as wood.
9Happier were those pierced by the sword
than those pierced by hunger,
whose life drains away, deprived
of the produce of the field.
10The hands of compassionate women
have boiled their own children;
they became their food
in the destruction of my people.
11The LORD gave full vent to his wrath;
he poured out his hot anger,
and kindled a fire in Zion
that consumed its foundations.
12The kings of the earth did not believe,
nor did any of the inhabitants of the world,
that foe or enemy could enter
the gates of Jerusalem.
13It was for the sins of her prophets
and the iniquities of her priests,
who shed the blood of the righteous
in the midst of her.
14Blindly they wandered through the streets,
so defiled with blood
that no one was able
to touch their garments.
15“Away! Unclean!” people shouted at them;
“Away! Away! Do not touch!”
So they became fugitives and wanderers;
it was said among the nations,
“They shall stay here no longer.”
16The LORD himself has scattered them,
he will regard them no more;
no honor was shown to the priests,
no favor to the elders.
17Our eyes failed, ever watching
vainly for help;
we were watching eagerly
for a nation that could not save.
18They dogged our steps
so that we could not walk in our streets;
our end drew near; our days were numbered;
for our end had come.
19Our pursuers were swifter
than the eagles in the heavens;
they chased us on the mountains,
they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
20The LORD’s anointed, the breath of our life,
was taken in their pits—
the one of whom we said, “Under his shadow
we shall live among the nations.”
21Rejoice and be glad, O daughter Edom,
you that live in the land of Uz;
but to you also the cup shall pass;
you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.
22The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter Zion, is accomplished,
he will keep you in exile no longer;
but your iniquity, O da
ughter Edom, he will punish,
he will uncover your sins.
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a Or iniquity
b Or sin
c Meaning of Heb uncertain
d Meaning of Heb uncertain
e Or lapis lazuli
4.1–22 A description of the horrors of the final siege of Jerusalem, focusing on the suffering of her people. Here the acrostic form shortens and the poetic tone looses emotional intensity. A narrator describes the destruction of the society in a seemingly numbed state (vv. 1–16). The community recalls its trauma and wishes punishment on its enemies (vv. 17–22).
4.1 How. See note on 1.1. Sacred stones, precious stones or jewels, here metaphorically the children of the city (see v. 2; 2.19; cf. Song 5.11–16), now scattered at every street corner (cf. Isa 51.20).
4.2 Earthen pots were common utensils that, when broken, were thrown away (cf. Jer 22.28).
4.3 For similarly unfavorable comparisons of human and animal behavior, see Isa 1.3; Jer 8.7. Ostriches had a reputation for neglecting their young (Job 39.13–18).
4.6 Sodom. See Gen 19.24–25; Deut 29.23; Isa 1.9–10; 13.19; Jer 23.14; Ezek 16.44–52. In comparison, Jerusalem suffered a worse fate: whereas Sodom was overthrown in a moment and without a hand laid on it, Jerusalem went through a long siege and famine before it was destroyed.
4.10 See note on 2.20.
4.11 Fire, a symbol of divine wrath (see 2.3–4; Deut 32.22; Isa 10.17), here perhaps also meant literally (see 2 Kings 25.8–9).
4.12 An allusion to Zion’s alleged inviolability as celebrated in Ps 48.4–5, 12–13. Inhabitants, or “rulers.”
4.13–14 Prophets…priests. Cf. Jer 6.13; 23.11; 26.7–8.
4.17 Perhaps an allusion to expected relief from Egypt during the siege (see Jer 34.21–22; 37.3–10).
4.20 The LORD’s anointed, the Judean king, here perhaps a reference to Zedekiah (see 2 Kings 25.1–7; Jer 39.1–7). The breath of our life (lit. “nostrils”) and under his shadow are traditional royal epithets reflecting a high view of kingship.
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