Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Lamentations 3:34

Clarke's Commentary

Verse 34. To crush under his feet — He can neither gain credit nor pleasure in trampling upon those who are already bound, and in suffering; such he knows to be the state of man here below. From which it most assuredly follows, that God never afflicts us but for our good, nor chastises but that we may be partakers of his holiness.

All the prisoners of the earth — By the prisoners of the earth, or land, Dr. Blayney understands those insolvent debtors who were put in prison, and there obliged to work out the debt. Yet this is mercy in comparison with those who put them in prison, and keep them there, when they know that it is impossible, from the state of the laws, to lessen the debt by their confinement.

In Lamentations 3:34-36, certain acts of tyranny, malice, and injustice are specified, which men often indulge themselves in the practice of towards one another, but which the Divine goodness is far from countenancing or approving by any similar conduct. - Blayney.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Grief, repentance and hope (3:1-66)

This poem is different in style from the previous two. The poet speaks as if he is the representative of all Judah, describing Judah’s sufferings as if they were his own. And those sufferings are God’s righteous judgment (3:1-3). He is like a starving man ready to die. Indeed, he feels as if he already dwells in the world of the dead (4-6). He is like a man chained and locked inside a stone prison from which there is no way out (7-9).
To the writer God seems like a wild animal that tears its prey to pieces, or like a hunter who has shot his prey with an arrow (10-12). Mocked and afflicted, the writer feels like one who has been punished by being forced to eat and drink things that are harmful to him (13-15). He is like a person whose face has been rubbed in the ground and whose joy for life has gone (16-18). He feels hurt and depressed, yet in all the darkness of his suffering he now sees a ray of hope (19-21).
God may punish, but the writer still trusts in him. He knows that God’s steadfast love does not change. It is constant and reliable (22-24). God disciplines and trains, but those who are patient will enjoy the fulness of his salvation (25-27). Humility and submission are important, even submission to the enemy that God sends as his agent of judgment (28-30).
The people of God can be assured that he does not reject them for ever and that he has no pleasure in punishing them. Nevertheless, punishment is necessary (31-33). But God does not approve of punishment that is unnecessarily cruel, ignores a person’s rights or perverts justice (34-36).
When people know that God is in control of all things, and confess that God’s judgment is just, they will bear his punishment patiently (37-39). The writer therefore urges the people of his shattered country to examine themselves, to recognize their sin, to acknowledge that the punishment they have received is just, and to turn to God and seek his forgiveness (40-42).
Speaking as if he is the whole nation of Judah, the writer acknowledges his sin. He confesses that it has been a barrier or cloud between him and God, preventing God from hearing his prayers for mercy. As a result he has been ruined and disgraced (43-45). He is filled with grief because of the cruelty and mockery he has suffered at the hands of his enemies (46-48). He weeps when he looks at the terrible suffering that has fallen upon the people of Jerusalem (49-51).
The writer feels like a bird that has been hunted or a person who has been thrown down a well to drown (52-54). But now that he is repentant, God hears his cries for help and assures him that he need not be afraid (55-57). He knows at last that God has saved him. At the same time he reminds God of the cruelty of those who have persecuted him (58-60), for they have heartlessly mocked and jeered the afflicted (61-63). He leaves the judgment of such people in God’s hands (64-66).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High, To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not. Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? Out of the mouth of the Most High cometh there not evil and good? Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?"

"To crush under foot… the prisoners" "This refers to the harsh cruelties of the Babylonians."The Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., p. 34. The purpose of this being mentioned here is to indicate God's disapproval of men's atrocities. "We have here a short catalogue of the oppressions visited upon God's people by their conquerors."Anthony L. Ash, Jeremiah and Lamentations (Abilene, Texas: A.C.U. Press, 1987), p. 356. The word that applies to all of these things is, "The Lord approveth not" (Lamentations 3:36).

The fact of God's strong disapproval of the cruel and sadistic actions of Israel conquerors carried with it also a pledge of the ultimate severe punishment and destruction of those oppressors.

"Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not" "It is true that God does not desire our misfortunes; but it is equally true that they do not happen without his permission (Isaiah 45:7; Amos 3:6)."The Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., p. 34.

"Wherefore doth a living man complain… for the punishment of his sins" "Nothing can happen without the permission of the Most High. Then why should a man complain when he is punished for his sins? Not suffering, but sins should be lamented. Let us not murmur against God for that which we have brought upon ourselves."Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 699. In America today, it would be much closer to what is right for aids sufferers to be lamenting the homosexuality that lies as the root cause of so much of their suffering, instead of their complaining and screaming to high heaven for billions of dollars to be spent in an effort to cure them. Sin should be lamented, not the consequences of it.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Neither does God approve of wanton cruelty inflicted by one man on another. Three examples are given: the treatment of prisoners of war; the procuring an unjust sentence before a legal tribunal acting in the name of God (see Exodus 21:6); and the perversion of justice generally.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

Many interpreters think that these three verses are connected with the previous doctrine, and show the connection thus, — that God does not see, that is, does not know what it is to pervert the good cause of a man, and to oppress the innocent; and, doubtless, God is said not to know what iniquity is, because he abhors all evil; for what is the nature of God but the perfection of justice? It may then be truly said, that. God knows not what it is to turn man aside in judgment. Others take not to see, as meaning, not to approve.

If we subscribe to the opinion of those who say that injustice is contrary to the nature of God, there is here an exhortation to patience; as though the Prophet had said that afflictions ought to be borne with resignation, because the Jews had fully deserved them. For the liberty taken to complain arises from this, that men imagine that they are without fault; but he who is convicted dares not thus to rise up against God; for the chief thing in humility is the acknowledgment of sin. This, then, is one meaning. But they who give this explanation, that God does not approve of those who pervert judgment, think that there is here a ground of consolation, because God would at length succor the miserable who were unjustly oppressed. And doubtless it avails not a little to encourage patience when we are persuaded that God will be an avenger, so that he will at length help us, after having for a time suffered us to be severely treated.

But these expositions seem to me to be too remote; we may give a correcter explanation by supposing a concession to be made, as though the Prophet had said, “It is indeed true that the wicked take much license, for they imagine that God is blind to all evil deeds.” For this madness is often ascribed to the ungodly, that they think that they can sin with impunity, because God, as they suppose, cares not for the affairs of men. They then imagine that God is asleep, and in a manner dead, and hence they break out into all kinds of wickedness. And for this reason it was that David so vehemently rebuked them:

“He who has formed the ear, will he not hear? He who has created the heaven, will he not see?” (Psalms 94:9.)

This explanation also I cannot approve of, it being forced and not obvious.

I therefore think that the reference is to the impious words of those who complain that God is not moved by any compassion. For this thought almost lays hold on us wheel pressed down by adversities, — that God has forgotten us, that he is either asleep or lies down inactive. In short, there is nothing more difficult to be assured of than this truth, that God governs the world by his counsel, and that nothing happens without a design. This is indeed what almost all confess; but when a trial comes, this doctrine vanishes, and every one is carried away by some perverted and erroneous thoughts, even that all things roll round fortuitously through blind fate, that men are not the objects of God’s care. Nor is there a doubt but that in Jeremiah’s time words of this kind were flying about; and it appears evident from the context that those Jews were reproved who thought that their miseries were disregarded by God, and hence they clamored; for men are necessarily carried away into a furious state of mind, when they do not believe that they have to do with God. The Prophet, then, refers to such impious words, or if they dared not to express in language what they thought, he refers to what was believed almost by all, — that the wicked perverted the judgment of man, that they turned aside a man in his cause, that they tore under their feet all the bound of the earth; ⁽¹⁹⁰⁾ that is, that all those things were done by the connivance of God. The plain meaning, then, is, that judgment is perverted before the face of the Most High, — that the bound of the earth such as are helpless, are despised, trodden under foot by the wicked, — that a man in his cause is unjustly dealt with, and that all this is done because God does not see ⁽¹⁹¹⁾ We now, then, perceive what the Prophet means.

But whence came such madness? even because the Jews, as I have said, would not humble themselves under the mighty hand of God; for hypocrisy had so blinded them, that they proudly clamored against God, thinking that they were chastised with unjust severity,. As then, they thus flattered themselves in their sins, this expostulation arose which the Prophet mentions, that man’s judgment was perverted, that the innocent failed in a good cause, that the miserable were trodden under foot; and whence all this? because God did not see, or did not regard these things. Now follows the reproof of this delirious impiety, —

(190) The order is here reverted. It is a common thing in Scripture to state first the chief thing, the chief good or evil. Here the greatest evil is mentioned first, the tearing under foot of such as were already bound, or imprisoned; then the sparing of the guilty; and thirdly, the withholding of justice to the righteous. To turn aside or divert judgment, is not to punish the guilty; and to wrong a person in his cause, is to deny his right. By “the bound,” or “prisoners of the earth,” or land, Blayney understands persons imprisoned for debt, who were obliged to work as slaves until they satisfied their creditors. See Matthew 18:30. Cruelty to such is referred to in Isaiah 58:3. — Ed.

(191) The Targ. and the versions differ as to the import of this clause. The verb to see, has been taken to mean three things, — to know, to approve, and to regard or to notice. The Vulgate takes the first, our version the second, and Calvin the third. The context seems to favor the last meaning especially the following verses.

There is a difficulty as to the antecedent to the pronoun “his, before “feet.” It seems to refer to “man” in the last verse; for the words are, “the sons (or children) of man,” not of “men.” The verb ראה, when followed by ל, means to look on, at, or simply to see. Psalms 64:5. Then the literal rendering of the passage would be as follows, —

On the tearing under his feet
Of all the bound of the land,
On the diverting of a man’s judgment,
In the presence of the most High,
On the wronging of a person in his cause
The Lord doth not look.

Or if the “on” be dropped, the last line may be,

The Lord doth not see.

This is manifestly the saying of unbelieving men, or of those weak in faith, as proved by the next verse, when rightly rendered. — Ed.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 3

In this third lamentation he begins from the depth of depression and despair. He begins with hopelessness, and hopelessness is always the experience behind depression. Depression is the loss of hope, no way out, nothing I can do. Hopelessness leads to depression.

I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He has led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light ( Lamentations 3:1-2 ).

It seems like God has turned against the prophet. "I have seen the wrath of God. God's brought me into darkness, not into light."

Surely against me is he turned; he's turned his hand against me all the day. My flesh and my skin hath he made old: he hath broken my bones. He's built against me, and circled me with gall and travail. He has set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. He hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he has made my chain heavy. Also when I cry and shout, he shuts out my prayer ( Lamentations 3:3-8 ).

God isn't listening to my prayer. God seems to have closed every door of escape. There is no way out. I'm in the hole and there is no place to go. I'm in this darkness, and God isn't listening to my prayers.

[It's like] he has enclosed me with hewn stone ( Lamentations 3:9 );

That is, he's built a wall around me.

and he's made my paths crooked. He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he has made me desolate. He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark ( Lamentations 3:9-12 ).

I'm a target for God's arrows.

He has caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day. He has filled me with bitterness, he has made me drunken with wormwood. He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he has covered me with ashes. You have removed my soul far off from peace: I forgot prosperity. And I said, my strength and my hope is perished from the LORD: Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me ( Lamentations 3:9-20 ).

Boy, that is about as low as you can get. That's the bottom, that's the pits. He's down, just the bottom. And out of the depths of his despair and depression, suddenly there is a dramatic change. That dramatic change is explained; the reason for it is explained in verse Lamentations 3:21 . In the midst of his hopelessness, in the midst of his despair, when it seems that all is forsaken, there is no way out, that God isn't even listening, and God isn't ready to help me, in the midst of this place of total despair, he said,

This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope ( Lamentations 3:21 ).

He changed his whole mindset. The Bible speaks about our renewing our minds. The Bible speaks about our bringing every thought into captivity unto the obedience of Jesus Christ. And we can think ourselves into a miserable mood. We can think ourselves into despair and hopelessness. You can think yourself into the grave. Or, by setting your mind upon the Lord, renewing your mind in Him, you can come into a whole new state of consciousness. No longer one of total despair and hopelessness, but one now of victory and hope.

And that's what Jeremiah did. He changed the thought patterns from, "Oh, woe is me. Oh, this is the end. Oh, there is no hope. Oh, I've had it. Oh, there's no one to help. Oh, I'm boxed in," to thinking about the Lord. As we think about ourselves, we often become depressed, because none of us are all of what we would like to be.

We, each of us, have a divergence between our ego and our super ego, the real me and the ideal me. Oh, but you see yourself in an ideal way. "This is what I really am," providing everything is all right. It's only because of these other factors that you see me like this, this nastiness isn't the real me. I'm very sweet, and generous, and kind, and benevolent, and loving, and marvelous, and a very lovable person. The person that you see is what has happened to me, because of, you know, what you've done. But that's not the real me, you see. So, there is this idealization, the ideal me, the super ego, and then there's the real me.

Now if there is a vast difference between your super ego and your ego, then you're going to have real problems of mental instability. The more well adjusted a person is, is in measure to the distance between his ego and super ego. If your ego is close to your super ego, then you're a well adjusted person. If there is a wide divergence between your ego and super ego, then you're very maladjusted in your life. Now the psychologist says, "Bring your super ego down. You've got too high of ideals. You've got too high of standards. No one can live to those. You've got to lower your ideals." The Lord says, "Bring your ego up, through the power of the Spirit, through My help. Become the person that I want you to be. Receive My strength, receive My ability, and I will make you that person that is pleasing and glorifying unto God. That person who is loving, who is kind, who is compassionate, who is filled with joy."

So, he came to a change of mental attitude. No longer thinking about himself, but now thinking about the Lord. It made such a great difference. Oh, if we could only get our minds off of ourselves and onto the Lord. In the times of discouragement, in the times of defeat, in the times of depression, if we could only get our minds off of ourselves and onto the Lord. That's the secret of the way out. Rather than wallowing in this self pity. Just get our minds and hearts... "Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee" ( Isaiah 26:3 ). Keep your minds stayed on the Lord and God will keep you in perfect peace. Get your mind on yourself and you're going to have all kinds of turmoil and depression.

[So when I recall to my mind,] this I recall to my mind ( Lamentations 3:21 ),

What does he recall to his mind? First of all,

It's the LORD'S mercies that we're not consumed ( Lamentations 3:22 ),

Things are bad, but they could be worse. It's God's mercies that we're still here. The fact that I wake up in the morning is proof that God is merciful. You see, God is under no obligation to keep me around. It's only by His mercies that I've not been consumed. Secondly,

because his compassions fail not ( Lamentations 3:22 ).

In First Corinthians 13, as Paul is describing agape, he said, "Love never fails." God's love never fails. God has never stopped loving you. God does not love you when you are good and hate you when you are bad. God's love for you is unchanging. It doesn't fail. God's love is continually being poured out upon your life. God's love is not contingent upon what you are, but upon what He is. "His compassions they fail not."

Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds. "Oh, I love you. You're my dream come true. I'd swim the Pacific to be by your side. I'd fly to the moon to be close to you. Yikes. You have bad breath. I change my mind." That's not true love. Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds. We have in our minds, again, an idealization, the perfect man, the perfect woman. And we meet someone and fall in love, not with them but with our idealization. And when it comes that they don't meet up to the standards of our idealization, then we're no longer in love. That's ridiculous. You never were in love to begin with. Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds. Therefore, true love is hard to find among men. And that's using it in a generic sense, talking of the Homo Sapien. True love can only really be found with God.

You see, He isn't deceived by an idealization. You haven't fooled Him with your smooth, suave manners: the opening of the doors, and the genteel, gallant ways. Hasn't deceived Him at all. He knows what a rat you are from the beginning. But He loves you; that's the amazing thing. "His compassions they fail not." And God knowing me as well as He knows me, still loving me is one of the great miracles. God's compassions fail not. He never stops loving you. You need to remember that.

Now Jeremiah was thinking that God had forsaken him completely. "God's hedged me in. He's not listening to my prayers." But when he really adjusts his thinking, he knows that God's love is unfailing. God continues, never stops His loving me.

They are new every morning ( Lamentations 3:23 ):

The mercy and the love of God, fresh every day.

oh great is thy faithfulness ( Lamentations 3:23 ).

God is so faithful. As Jeremiah was looking at this devastated city, that desolation was a testimony of God's faithfulness. God had said to those people, "If you continue in your wickedness, if you continue in your idolatry, I am going to bring the Babylonian army against you, and they're going to destroy you, and they're going to break down the walls of this city. And those that aren't killed by the famine will be killed by the sword. And those that aren't killed by the sword will be killed by the pestilence. But I'm going to destroy you out of this holy mountain."

And now God has kept His word and Jeremiah is looking at the faithfulness of God to His word. "Great is Thy faithfulness." God, You said You would do it, and You did it.

Now the faithfulness of God can be a glorious thought and blessing, or it can be a horrendous thought. It all depends on what side you are. If you're a child of God, then God's faithfulness to His promises of that which He is going to do for His children, a believer in Jesus Christ, all that God has promised us. Oh, and we can rest and hope for God is faithful. He will do what He said. If you're not a child of God, then the faithfulness of God is an awesome prospect, because you can be sure that God will do exactly what He said He is going to do to all of the sinners, those that reject Him. "Great is Thy faithfulness." God is faithful in keeping His word.

The LORD is my portion ( Lamentations 3:24 ),

Now he's thinking upon the faithfulness of God, the love of God, the mercies of God, and now, "The Lord is my portion." Everything else has been taken away. My house is destroyed. All of my possessions are gone. I've been stripped, but I have the Lord. And if I have the Lord, that's all I really need.

The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him ( Lamentations 3:24 ).

Those who do not have the Lord as their portion have very little hope. But my hope is in Him.

The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, the soul that seeks him ( Lamentations 3:25 ).

If you'll wait upon God, if you'll seek God, God is good, so good to those that wait upon Him and seek Him.

It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD ( Lamentations 3:26 ).

What else can I do?

It is good for a man that he bears the yoke of his youth. He sits alone and keeps silence, because he has borne it upon him. He puts his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach ( Lamentations 3:27-30 ).

A prophecy of Jesus Christ in the midst of this, even as Christ always is there in the time of suffering to bear the burdens and the reproach that we bear for Him.

The Lord will not cast off for ever ( Lamentations 3:31 ):

This judgment isn't going to last forever. This forsaking of the people by God isn't going to last forever.

But though he has caused grief, yet he's going to have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies ( Lamentations 3:32 ).

God will change in His actions towards us.

For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men ( Lamentations 3:33 ).

In other words, it doesn't really please God to have to deal in such stringent ways with his children. I've often said, you can make it easy on yourself or make it hard on yourself. And any time you fight God, you're making it hard on yourself. That's the lesson that Jonah learned. He fought God and ended up in the belly of a whale in a miserable condition. Three days and three nights in that hot mammal. Ninety eight degrees with high humidity. He talks about the waves rolling over his head and the seaweed twined around him. Probably stinky at that. And when he came out of that horribly miserable experience, he shared the lesson that he learned.

They that observe lying vanities, forsake their own mercies. If you think you can run from God or hide from God, you're only making it hard on yourself. You're heading for trouble. You're heading for misery. He thought he could hide from God. He thought he could run from God, that he could escape the call of God. It's a lie. There is no way. You're just going to be miserable, friend. Try to fight God; you're heading for misery. He doesn't afflict willingly. He doesn't want to lay the rod on you. He gets no delight in the chastising of His children, but because He loves us. He is faithful and will chastise.

To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High, To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approves not. Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commanded it not? Out of the mouth of the Most High proceeds not evil and good? ( Lamentations 3:34-38 )

God doesn't talk out of both sides of His mouth. James speaks about the double minded man, unstable in all of his ways. Jesus speaks of how the same fountain cannot bring forth bitter and sweet waters. God doesn't speak both good and evil.

Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? ( Lamentations 3:39 )

Rather than complain of the chastisement.

Let us search and try our ways, and turn again unto the LORD. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto the God in the heavens. For we have transgressed and have rebelled: and you have not pardoned. You have covered with anger, and persecuted us: and you have slain, and you have not pitied ( Lamentations 3:40-43 ).

And now he goes back into the dirge. You see, he came out for a while into the light.

You have covered yourself with a cloud, that our prayers should not pass through ( Lamentations 3:44 ).

It seems like, you know, people say, "Well, it seems like, you know, the ceilings were of brass." But Jeremiah sees the, you know, like the prayers are just being closed off by a cloud between God and me.

Thou has made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people. All of our enemies have opened their mouths against us. Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction. My eye runs down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. My eye trickles down, and ceases not, without any intermission, Till the LORD looks down, and beholds from heaven. My eye affecteth my heart, because of all of the daughters of my city. My enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause. They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. Waters flowed over my head; then I said, I'm cut off. And I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon. And you have heard my voice: hide not your ear at my breathing, at my cry. For you drew near in the day that I called upon thee: and you said, Fear not. O Lord, thou has pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. O Lord, thou has seen my wrong: judge thou my cause. For thou has seen all their vengeance and their imaginations against me. You heard their reproach, O LORD, and all of the imaginations against me; The lips of those that rose up against me, and the device against me all the day. Behold their sitting down, their rising up; I am their music. Render unto them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. Persecute and destroy them in the anger from under the heavens of the LORD ( Lamentations 3:45-66 ).

Here again is sort of a David type of a prayer against his enemies. Jeremiah doesn't ask God to bless his enemies, but to really do them in. It is in the New Testament that Jesus taught us to bless those that curse you. Bless and curse not. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

B. Jeremiah’s hope 3:19-40

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The Lord disapproves of injustice in its many forms and of the brutal oppression of prisoners (cf. Psalms 69:33; Psalms 146:7; Isaiah 42:7; Luke 4:18).

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth. These words, with what follow in Lamentations 3:35; either depend upon the preceding, and are to be connected with them, "he doth not afflict", c. Lamentations 3:33 though he lays his hand on men, he do not crush them under his feet, or break them in pieces, and utterly destroy them, even such, and all such, as are bound in affliction and iron; or, in a spiritual sense, such as are prisoners to sin, Satan, and the law, as all men by nature are; he does not crush these to pieces, though they deserve it, at least not "all" of them; for he proclaims in the Gospel liberty to the captives, and says, by the power of his grace, to the prisoners, go forth, and encourages the prisoners of hope to turn to their strong hold: and also, though he afflicts, he does no injustice to them, does not turn aside their right, or subvert their cause, Job 8:3; or rather these depend upon, and are to be connected with, the last clause of Lamentations 3:36; "the Lord approveth not": as he does not do these things himself, he do not approve of them in others; that they should use captives cruelly, trample upon them like mire in the streets, or as the dust of their feet; particularly regard may be had to the Jews in Babylon, used ill by those that detained them; for though it was by the will of God they were carried captive, yet the Chaldeans exceeded due bounds in their usage of them, and added affliction to their affliction, which the Lord approved not of, but resented, Zechariah 1:15.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.   22 It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.   23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.   24 The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.   25 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.   26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.   27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.   28 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.   29 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.   30 He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.   31 For the Lord will not cast off for ever:   32 But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.   33 For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.   34 To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,   35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,   36 To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.

      Here the clouds begin to disperse and the sky to clear up; the complaint was very melancholy in the former part of the chapter, and yet here the tune is altered and the mourners in Zion begin to look a little pleasant. But for hope, the heart would break. To save the heart from being quite broken, here is something called to mind, which gives ground for hope (Lamentations 3:21; Lamentations 3:21), which refers to what comes after, not to what goes before. I make to return to my heart (so the margin words it); what we have had in our hearts, and have laid to our hearts, is sometimes as if it were quite lost and forgotten, till God by his grace make it return to our hearts, that it may be ready to us when we have occasion to use it. "I recall it to mind; therefore have I hope, and am kept from downright despair." Let us see what these things are which he calls to mind.

      I. That, bad as things are, it is owing to the mercy of God that they are not worse. We are afflicted by the rod of his wrath, but it is of the lord's mercies that we are not consumed,Lamentations 3:22; Lamentations 3:22. When we are in distress we should, for the encouragement of our faith and hope, observe what makes for us as well as what makes against us. Things are bad but they might have been worse, and therefore there is hope that they may be better. Observe here, 1. The streams of mercy acknowledged: We are not consumed. Note, The church of God is like Moses's bush, burning, yet not consumed; whatever hardships it has met with, or may meet with, it shall have a being in the world to the end of time. It is persecuted of men, but not forsaken of God, and therefore, though it is cast down, it is not destroyed (2 Corinthians 4:9), corrected, yet not consumed, refined in the furnace as silver, but not consumed as dross. 2. These streams followed up to the fountain: It is of the Lord's mercies. here are mercies in the plural number, denoting the abundance and variety of those mercies. God is an inexhaustible fountain of mercy, the Father of mercies. Note, We all owe it to the sparing mercy of God that we are not consumed. Others have been consumed round about us, and we ourselves have been in the consuming, and yet we are not consumed; we are out of the grave; we are out of hell. Had we been dealt with according to our sins, we should have been consumed long ago; but we have been dealt with according to God's mercies, and we are bound to acknowledge it to his praise.

      II. That even in the depth of their affliction they still have experience of the tenderness of the divine pity and the truth of the divine promise. They had several times complained that God had not pitied (Lamentations 2:17; Lamentations 2:21), but here they correct themselves, and own, 1. That God's compassions fail not; they do not really fail, no, not even when in anger he seems to have shut up his tender mercies. These rivers of mercy run fully and constantly, but never run dry. No; they are new every morning; every morning we have fresh instances of God's compassion towards us; he visits us with them every morning (Job 7:18); every morning does he bring his judgment to light,Zephaniah 3:5. When our comforts fail, yet God's compassions do not. 2. That great is his faithfulness. Though the covenant seemed to be broken, they owned that it still continued in full force; and, though Jerusalem be in ruins, the truth of the Lord endures for ever. Note, Whatever hard things we suffer, we must never entertain any hard thoughts of God, but must still be ready to own that he is both kind and faithful.

      III. That God is, and ever will be, the all-sufficient happiness of his people, and they have chosen him and depend upon him to be such (Lamentations 3:24; Lamentations 3:24): The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; that is, 1. "When I have lost all I have in the world, liberty, and livelihood, and almost life itself, yet I have not lost my interest in God." Portions on earth are perishing things, but God is portion for ever. 2. "While I have an interest in God, therein I have enough; I have that which is sufficient to counterbalance all my troubles and make up all my losses." Whatever we are robbed of our portion is safe. 3. "This is that which I depend upon and rest satisfied with: Therefore will I hope in him. I will stay myself upon him, and encourage myself in him, when all other supports and encouragements fail me." Note, It is our duty to make God the portion of our souls, and then to make use of him as our portion and to take the comfort of it in the midst of our lamentations.

      IV. That those who deal with God will find it is not in vain to trust in him; for, 1. He is good to those who do so, Lamentations 3:25; Lamentations 3:25. He is good to all; his tender mercies are over all his works; all his creatures taste of his goodness. But he is in a particular manner good to those that wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. Note, While trouble is prolonged, and deliverance is deferred, we must patiently wait for God and his gracious returns to us. While we wait for him by faith, we must seek him by prayer: our souls must seek him, else we do not seek so as to find. Our seeking will help to keep up our waiting. And to those who thus wait and seek God will be gracious; he will show them his marvellous lovingkindness. 2. Those that do so will find it good for them (Lamentations 3:26; Lamentations 3:26): It is good (it is our duty, and will be our unspeakable comfort and satisfaction) to hope and quietly to wait for the salvation of the Lord, to hope that it will come, thought the difficulties that lie in the way of it seem insupportable, to wait till it does come, though it be long delayed, and while we wait to be quiet and silent, not quarrelling with God nor making ourselves uneasy, but acquiescing in the divine disposals. Father, thy will be done. If we call this to mind, we may have hope that all will end well at last.

      V. That afflictions are really good for us, and, if we bear them aright, will work very much for our good. It is not only good to hope and wait for the salvation, but it is good to be under the trouble in the mean time (Lamentations 3:27; Lamentations 3:27): It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Many of the young men were carried into captivity. To make them easy in it, he tells them that it was good for them to bear the yoke of that captivity, and they would find it so if they would but accommodate themselves to their condition, and labour to answer God's ends in laying that heavy yoke upon them. It is very applicable to the yoke of God's commands. It is good for young people to take that yoke upon them in their youth; we cannot begin too soon to be religious. It will make our duty the more acceptable to God, and easy to ourselves, if we engage in it when we are young. But here it seems to be meant of the yoke of affliction. Many have found it good to bear this in youth; it has made those humble and serious, and has weaned them from the world, who otherwise would have been proud and unruly, and as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. But when do we bear the yoke so that it is really good for us to bear it in our youth? He answers in the following verses, 1. When we are sedate and quiet under our afflictions, when we sit alone and keep silence, do not run to and fro into all companies with our complaints, aggravating our calamities, and quarrelling with the disposals of Providence concerning us, but retire into privacy, that we may in a day of adversity consider, sit alone, that we may converse with God and commune with our own hearts, silencing all discontented distrustful thoughts, and laying our hand upon our mouth, as Aaron, who, under a very severe trial, held his peace. We must keep silence under the yoke as those that have borne it upon us, not wilfully pulled it upon our own necks, but patiently submitted to it when God laid it upon us. When those who are afflicted in their youth accommodate themselves to their afflictions, fit their necks to the yoke and study to answer God's end in afflicting them, then they will find it good for them to bear it, for it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are thus exercised thereby. 2. When we are humble and patient under our affliction. He gets good by the yoke who puts his mouth in the dust, not only lays his hand upon his mouth, in token of submission to the will of God in the affliction, but puts it in the dust, in token of sorrow, and shame, and self-loathing, at the remembrance of sin, and as one perfectly reduced and reclaimed, and brought as those that are vanquished to lick the dust,Psalms 72:9. And we must thus humble ourselves, if so be there may be hope, or (as it is in the original) peradventure there is hope. If there be any way to acquire and secure a good hope under our afflictions, it is this way, and yet we must be very modest in our expectations of it, must look for it with an it may be, as those who own ourselves utterly unworthy of it. Note, Those who are truly humbled for sin will be glad to obtain a good hope, through grace, upon any terms, though they put their mouth in the dust for it; and those who would have hope must do so, and ascribe it to free grace if they have any encouragements, which may keep their hearts from sinking into the dust when they put their mouth there. 3. When we are meek and mild towards those who are the instruments of our trouble, and are of a forgiving spirit, Lamentations 3:30; Lamentations 3:30. He gets good by the yoke who gives his cheek to him that smites him, and rather turns the other cheek (Matthew 5:39) than returns the second blow. Our Lord Jesus has left us an example of this, for he gave his back to the smiter,Isaiah 50:6. He who can bear contempt and reproach, and not render railing for railing, and bitterness for bitterness, who, when he is filled full with reproach, keeps it to himself, and does not retort it and empty it again upon those who filled him with it, but pours it out before the Lord (as those did, Psalms 123:4, whose souls were exceedingly filled with the contempt of the proud), he shall find that it is good to bear the yoke, that it shall turn to his spiritual advantage. The sum is, If tribulation work patience, that patience will work experience, and that experience a hope that makes not ashamed.

      VI. That God will graciously return to his people with seasonable comforts according to the time that he has afflicted them,Lamentations 3:31; Lamentations 3:32. Therefore the sufferer is thus penitent, thus patient, because he believes that God is gracious and merciful, which is the great inducement both to evangelical repentance and to Christian patience. We may bear ourselves up with this, 1. That, when we are cast down, yet we are not cast off; the father's correcting his son is not a disinheriting of him. 2. That though we may seem to be cast off for a time, while sensible comforts are suspended and desired salvations deferred, yet we are not really cast off, because not cast off for ever; the controversy with us shall not be perpetual. 3. That, whatever sorrow we are in, it is what God has allotted us, and his hand is in it. It is he that causes grief, and therefore we may be assured it is ordered wisely and graciously; and it is but for a season, and when need is, that we are in heaviness,1 Peter 1:6. 4. That God has compassions and comforts in store even for those whom he has himself grieved. We must be far from thinking that, though God cause grief, the world will relieve and help us. No; the very same that caused the grief must bring in the favour, or we are undone. Una eademque manus vulnus opemque tulit--The same hand inflicted the wound and healed it. He has torn, and he will heal us, Hosea 6:1. 5. That, when God returns to deal graciously with us, it will not be according to our merits, but according to his mercies, according to the multitude, the abundance, of his mercies. So unworthy we are that nothing but an abundant mercy will relieve us; and from that what may we not expect? And God's causing our grief ought to be no discouragement at all to those expectations.

      VII. That, when God does cause grief, it is for wise and holy ends, and he takes not delight in our calamities, Lamentations 3:33; Lamentations 3:33. He does indeed afflict, and grieve the children of men; all their grievances and afflictions are from him. But he does not do it willingly, not from the heart; so the word is. 1. He never afflicts us but when we give him cause to do it. He does not dispense his frowns as he does his favours, ex mero motu--from his mere good pleasure. If he show us kindness, it is because so it seems good unto him; but, if he write bitter things against us, it is because we both deserve them and need them. 2. He does not afflict with pleasure. He delights not in the death of sinners, or the disquiet of saints, but punishes with a kind of reluctance. He comes out of his place to punish, for his place is the mercy-seat. He delights not in the misery of any of his creatures, but, as it respects his own people, he is so far from it that in all their afflictions he is afflicted and his soul is grieved for the misery of Israel. 3. He retains his kindness for his people even when he afflicts them. If he does not willingly grieve the children of men, much less his own children. However it be, yet God is good to them (Psalms 73:1), and they may by faith see love in his heart even when they see frowns in his face and a rod in his hand.

      VIII. That though he makes use of men as his hand, or rather instruments in his hand, for the correcting of his people, yet he is far from being pleased with the injustice of their proceedings and the wrong they do them, Lamentations 3:34-36; Lamentations 3:34-36. Though God serves his own purposes by the violence of wicked and unreasonable men, yet it does no therefore follow that he countenances that violence, as his oppressed people are sometimes tempted to think. Habakkuk 1:3, Wherefore lookest thou upon those that deal treacherously? Two ways the people of God are injured and oppressed by their enemies, and the prophet here assures us that God does not approve of either of them:-- 1. If men injure them by force of arms, God does not approve of that. he does not himself crush under his feet the prisoners of the earth, but he regards the cry of the prisoners; nor does he approve of men's doing it; nay, he is much displeased with it. It is barbarous to trample on those that are down, and to crush those that are bound and cannot help themselves. 2. If men injure them under colour of law, and in the pretended administration of justice,--if they turn aside the right of a man, so that he cannot discover what his rights are or cannot come at them, they are out of his reach,--if they subvert a man in his cause, and bring in a wrong verdict, or give a false judgment, let them know, (1.) That God sees them. It is before the face of the Most High (Lamentations 3:35; Lamentations 3:35); it is in his sight, under his eye, and is very displeasing to him. They cannot but know it is so, and therefore it is in defiance of him that they do it. He is the Most High, whose authority over them they contemn by abusing their authority over their subjects, not considering that he that is higher than the highest regardeth,Ecclesiastes 5:8. (2.) That God does not approve of them. More is implied than is expressed. The perverting of justice, and the subverting of the just, are a great affront to God; and, though he may make use of them for the correction of his people, yet he will sooner or later severely reckon with those that do thus. Note, However God may for a time suffer evil-doers to prosper, and serve his own purposes by them, yet he does not therefore approve of their evil doings. Far be it from God that he should do iniquity, or countenance those that do it.