Lamentations 3:6
in Lamentations 3He has made me dwell in darkness like those dead for ages.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
He hath made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.
KJV
He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.
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This verse in Lamentations 3
Commentary
8 notes on this verseThird, the imprisonment of those persons captured is considered. "He has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago." And Psalm 143:3 says: "he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead." Thus, these ideas can be referred to the …
This site's exposition
I am the man who has seen affliction
on Lamentations 3:1-6
Chapter 3 is a triple acrostic, sixty-six verses giving three verses to each of the twenty-two letters. The voice moves from the city to one man: “I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath”. He is made to “walk in darkness instead of light”.
This site's exposition
like those dead for ages
Psalm 143:3 has nearly the same words, as Thomas Aquinas saw, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add Psalm 88:5 to 6. Barnes places this darkness among the dead. John Gill heard in it both the dark pit of the prophet and the grave of the people in exile.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
He hath set me in dark places,.... In the dark house of the prison, as the Targum; in the dark dungeon where the prophet was put; or the captivity in which the Jews were, and which was like the dark grave or state of the dead; and hence they are said to be in their graves, Eze 37:
), He has set me in dark places, dark as the grave, like those that are dead of old, that are quite forgotten, nobody knows who or what they were. Note, The Israel of God, though children of light, sometimes walk in darkness.
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), or the state and kingdom are sunk and ruined, the life and being of them are gone, and they are as it were thrown into the dungeon or grave and a stone cast upon them, such as used to be rolled to the door of the sepulchres. They look upon the Jewish nation as dead and buried, and imagine that there is not possibility of its resurrection.
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The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
set me--HENDERSON refers this to the custom of placing the dead in a sitting posture. dark places--sepulchers. As those "dead long since"; so Jeremiah and his people are consigned to oblivion (Ps 88:5, 6;
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A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Or, “He hath” made me to dwell “in darkness,” i. e. in Sheol or Hades, “as those” forever “dead.”
The words behind it
4 Hebrew wordsEvery 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.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| בְּמַחֲשַׁכִּ֥ים | bemachashakim | in dark places | H4285 → | |
| הוֹשִׁיבַ֖נִי | hoshivani | he has caused to dwell me | H3427 → | 1079 times |
| כְּמֵתֵ֥י | kemetei | like dead people of | H4191 → | |
| עוֹלָֽם׃ ס | olam | antiquity | H5769 → | 438 times |
בְּמַחֲשַׁכִּ֥יםin dark places
bemachashakimH4285 →
הוֹשִׁיבַ֖נִיhe has caused to dwell me
hoshivaniH3427 →1079 times
כְּמֵתֵ֥יlike dead people of
kemeteiH4191 →
עוֹלָֽם׃ סantiquity
olamH5769 →438 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach 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 143:7Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide Your face from me, or I will be like those who descend to the Pit.
it leads to
- Psalms 69:17
Hide not Your face from Your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me quickly!
- Psalms 28:1
To You, O LORD, I call; be not deaf to me, O my Rock. For if You remain silent, I will be like those descending to the Pit.
- Psalms 27:9
Hide not Your face from me, nor turn away Your servant in anger. You have been my helper; do not leave me or forsake me, O God of my salvation.
- Psalms 69:17
Through
Psalms 143:3For the enemy has pursued my soul, crushing my life to the ground, making me dwell in darkness like those long since dead.
it leads to
- Psalms 7:1–2
O LORD my God, I take refuge in You; save me and deliver me from all my pursuers,
- Psalms 7:5
then may my enemy pursue me and overtake me; may he trample me to the ground and leave my honor in the dust. Selah
- 2 Samuel 2:22
Once again, Abner warned Asahel, “Stop chasing me. Why should I strike you to the ground? How could I show my face to your brother Joab?”
- Psalms 17:9–13
from the wicked who assail me, from my mortal enemies who surround me.
- Psalms 88:4–6
I am counted among those descending to the Pit. I am like a man without strength.
- Psalms 7:1–2
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies17
On this verse
On this chapter
About Lamentations
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Lamentations; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Lamentations.