The center panel and the most intricate: a triple acrostic of sixty-six verses, three to each letter. 'I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath', led into darkness, walled about, his prayer shut out, his teeth broken with gravel stones. Then, at the exact middle of the book, the turn: 'This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of Jehovah's lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness' (3:22-23). 'Jehovah is my portion, saith my soul.' It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait; for he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.

Drawn from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary, John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and John Calvin, Commentaries.

Context

Poetry · Jeremiah — Lamentations overview

A. 1–20 I Am the Man That Hath Seen Affliction
B. 21–27 His Mercies Are New Every Morning
C. 28–39 Let Him Sit Alone and Keep Silence
D. 40–45 Let Us Search and Try Our Ways and Turn Again
E. 46–54 Waters Flowed Over My Head; I Said, I Am Cut Off
F. 55–66 I Called Upon Thy Name Out of the Lowest Dungeon

Top cross-references8 chapters ▾

Lamentations 39 verses
- Lamentations 3:5He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
- Lamentations 3:8Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer.
- Lamentations 3:14I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
- Lamentations 3:15He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood.
- Lamentations 3:18So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.”
- Lamentations 3:19Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.
- Read Lamentations 3: 3 more there →
Lamentations 27 verses
- Lamentations 2:4He has bent His bow like an enemy; His right hand is positioned. Like a foe He has killed all who were pleasing to the eye; He has poured out His wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion.
- Lamentations 2:10The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.
- Lamentations 2:11My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.
- Lamentations 2:15All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
- Lamentations 2:16All your enemies open their mouths against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth, saying, “We have swallowed her up. This is the day for which we have waited. We have lived to see it!”
- Lamentations 2:17The LORD has done what He planned; He has accomplished His decree, which He ordained in days of old; He has overthrown you without pity. He has let the enemy gloat over you and exalted the horn of your foes.
- Read Lamentations 2: 1 more there →
Job 193 verses
- Job 19:7Though I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.
- Job 19:8He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.
- Job 19:21Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.
- Read Job 19 →
Jeremiah 383 verses
- Jeremiah 38:4Then the officials said to the king, “This man ought to die, for he is discouraging the warriors who remain in this city, as well as all the people, by speaking such words to them; this man is not seeking the well-being of these people, but their ruin.”
- Jeremiah 38:6So they took Jeremiah and dropped him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah with ropes into the cistern, which had no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.
- Jeremiah 38:9“My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have dropped him into the cistern, where he will starve to death, for there is no more bread in the city.”
- Read Jeremiah 38 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

Psalms 883 verses
- Psalms 88:5I am forsaken among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom You remember no more, who are cut off from Your care.
- Psalms 88:7Your wrath weighs heavily upon me; all Your waves have submerged me. Selah
- Psalms 88:15From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair.
- Read Psalms 88 →
Isaiah 593 verses
- Isaiah 59:9Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We hope for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
- Isaiah 59:11We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but find none, for salvation, but it is far from us.
- Isaiah 59:15Truth is missing, and whoever turns from evil becomes prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice.
- Read Isaiah 59 →
Job 303 verses
- Job 30:9And now they mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.
- Job 30:20I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.
- Job 30:26But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.
- Read Job 30 →
Isaiah 633 verses
- Isaiah 63:10But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their enemy, and He Himself fought against them.
- Isaiah 63:15Look down from heaven and see, from Your holy and glorious habitation. Where are Your zeal and might? Your yearning and compassion for me are restrained.
- Isaiah 63:17Why, O LORD, do You make us stray from Your ways and harden our hearts from fearing You? Return, for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage.
- Read Isaiah 63 →

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.