Lamentationschapter 3
66 verses · BSBLamentations book hub →
Speaks with:Lamentations 3×9Lamentations 2×5Psalms 88×4Job 19×4Jeremiah 38×4Job 30×3
Summary
Chapter summary
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.
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
The outline
A.I Am the Man That Hath Seen Afflictionvv. 1 to 20
Read vv. 1 to 20 →B.His Mercies Are New Every Morningvv. 21 to 27
Read vv. 21 to 27 →C.Let Him Sit Alone and Keep Silencevv. 28 to 39
Read vv. 28 to 39 →D.Let Us Search and Try Our Ways and Turn Againvv. 40 to 45
Read vv. 40 to 45 →E.Waters Flowed Over My Head; I Said, I Am Cut Offvv. 46 to 54
Read vv. 46 to 54 →F.I Called Upon Thy Name Out of the Lowest Dungeonvv. 55 to 66
Read vv. 55 to 66 →
The world behind this chapter
Lamentations 3The history
This is the centre of the book and it is the most tightly built. Where the other chapters give one verse per letter of the alphabet, this one gives three — sixty-six verses, in groups of three beginning with the same letter. The tightest possible form is used for the deepest possible grief, which is not a coincidence.
The suffering is described through captivity and pit imagery. He has walled me about so I cannot escape, he has put heavy chains on me, he has shut out my prayer; and then, they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me, water closed over my head. Anyone who knew the story of the prophet in the muddy cistern would hear it here.
Then, exactly at the middle, the poem turns on a memory rather than a change in circumstances: the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning, great is your faithfulness. Nothing outside has improved. The city is still rubble.
What follows is practical counsel for waiting: it is good that a man should bear the yoke in his youth; let him sit alone in silence; let him put his mouth in the dust — there may yet be hope. And an argument about God's character: he does not afflict from his heart, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
What it meant to them
For the first hearers the shift to a single voice mattered. Corporate grief can be a fog. One man saying I am the man who has seen affliction gives everyone else a place to stand.
And the famous lines about new mercies are not a bright saying pasted over a disaster. They come in the exact middle of the most disciplined lament in Scripture, spoken by someone who has just finished describing being walled in, chained, shot at, and buried in a pit.
Sources cited
- Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Jeremiah and Lamentations
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Lamentations 3. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 19 · Written to them
Remembering mine affliction, the wormwood and gall
topics/loss→MannaFest topical index
v. 25 · Written to them
Quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD
topics/waiting→MannaFest topical index
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.