Skip to content
mannafest.faith
Read

Lamentations 3:1

in Lamentations 3

I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

KJV

I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

⋯

This verse in Lamentations 3

Commentary

3 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

I am the man that hath seen affliction - Either the prophet speaks here of himself, or he is personating his miserable countrymen. This and other passages in this poem have been applied to Jesus Christ’s passion; but, in my opinion, without any foundation.

This site's exposition

I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath

on Lamentations 3:1-6

Chapter 3 is a triple acrostic, sixty-six verses for the same twenty-two Hebrew letters, three verses given to each letter instead of one, the discipline of the first two chapters tightened rather than relaxed at the point of deepest grief. The voice shifts from the city's own lament to a single man's, I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath, which the bench reads as the prophet's own witness standing for the city's, one representative sufferer speaking what the whole community bears. He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light states the opening condition in one line, guidance itself turned toward night, and the images that follow, flesh made old, bones broken, compassed with gall and travail, build the case in the body's own terms before any explanation is offered.

The record, by era

The Reformation1 voice

A commentator

John Calvin

1509–1564

Commentaries (1554)

Jeremiah, then, does not here plead his own private cause, but shews to his own nation what remedy there was for them in such a state of despair, even to have an immediate recourse to God, and on the one hand to consider their sins, and on the other to look to the mercy of God, so that they might entertain hope, and exercise themselves in prayer.

The words behind it

6 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • אֲנִ֤יI

    ʾaniH589 →874 times

  • הַגֶּ֙בֶר֙[am] the man

    hageverH1397 →65 times

  • רָאָ֣ה[who] he has seen

    raahH7200 →1300 times

  • עֳנִ֔יaffliction

    ʾoniH6040 →36 times

  • בְּשֵׁ֖בֶטby [the] rod of

    beshevetH7626 →

  • עֶבְרָתֽוֹ׃fury his

    evratoH5678 →

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

11 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Psalms 88:7Your wrath weighs heavily upon me; all Your waves have submerged me. Selah5 worksJeremiah 20:18Why did I come out of the womb to see only trouble and sorrow, and to end my days in shame?4 worksPsalms 88:15–16From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair.3 worksJob 19:21Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.3 worksJeremiah 43:6the men, the women, the children, the king’s daughters, and everyone whom Nebuzaradan captain of the guard had allowed to remain with Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, as well as Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah.3 worksJeremiah 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.2 works
The other 5 cross-references, with their words ▾
Jeremiah 20:14–18Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me never be blessed.2 worksPsalms 71:20Though You have shown me many troubles and misfortunes, You will revive me once again. Even from the depths of the earth You will bring me back up.2 worksJeremiah 15:17–18I never sat with the band of revelers, nor did I celebrate with them. Because Your hand was on me, I sat alone, for You have filled me with indignation.2 worksLamentations 1:12–14Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see! Is there any sorrow like mine, which was inflicted on me, which the LORD made me suffer on the day of His fierce anger?2 worksIsaiah 53:3He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Psalms 88:7

    Your wrath weighs heavily upon me; all Your waves have submerged me. Selah

    it leads to

    • Job 6:4

      For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Psalms 42:7

      Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and waves have rolled over me.

  • Through

    Jeremiah 38:6

    So 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…

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 37:21

      So King Zedekiah gave orders for Jeremiah to be placed in the courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread daily from the street of the bakers, until all the bread in…

    • Psalms 69:2

      I have sunk into the miry depths, where there is no footing; I have drifted into deep waters, where the flood engulfs me.

    • Jeremiah 37:16

      So Jeremiah went into a cell in the dungeon and remained there a long time.

    • Psalms 69:14–15

      Rescue me from the mire and do not let me sink; deliver me from my foes and out of the deep waters.

    • Jeremiah 38:22

      All the women who remain in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon, and those women will say: ‘They misled you and…

  • Through

    Job 19:21

    Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.

    it leads to

    • Job 1:11

      But stretch out Your hand and strike all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”

Where this verse is studied

3 studies on this verse

About Lamentations

People Mourn over the Destruction of Jerusalem — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
People Mourn over the Destruction of Jerusalem — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Lamentations: the study guide →Read Lamentations 3 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Carl Friedrich Keil, Lamentations; John Calvin, Commentaries and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Lamentations 3 →