Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations - Volume 5

1I am a man who hath seen affliction Through the rod of his indignation’

2Me hath he led and made to go Into darkness, and not into light.

3Surely against me is he turned, He turns his hand daily.

4To grow old hath he made my flesh and my skin, He hath broken my bones.

5He hath builded against me, And surrounded me with gall and trouble.

6In darkness hath he made me to lie As the dead for ever.

7He hath shut me up, that I cannot go forth He hath made heavy my fetter.

8Even when I cried, and cried aloud, he shut out my prayer.

9He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stones, My paths hath he perverted.

10A bear lying in wait hath he been to me, A lion in his den.

11My ways hath he perverted, and lie hath torn me, He hath made me a waste.

12He hath bent his bow, and made me As a mark for the arrow.

13He hath made to enter into my reins The sons of his quiver.

14I became a derision to all my people, Their song all the day.

15He hath satiated me with bitterness, He hath filled me with gall.

16He hath broken with pebbles my teeth, He hath covered me with dust,

17And far removed from peace is my soul; I have forgotten good.

18And I said, “Perished hath my strength And my hope from Jehovah;”

19When I remember my affliction and my trouble, The poison and the gall:

20Remembering remember does my soul, And it is humbled within me

21This will I recall to my mind, Therefore will I hope.

22The mercies of Jehovah! surely they are not consumed; Surely failed not have his compassion’s;

23Renewed are they in the morning; Great is thy faithfulness.

24My portion is Jehovah, said my soul, Therefore will I hope in him.

25Good is Jehovah to him who waits for him, To the soul that seeks him;

26Good it is to hope and to be silent, As to the salvation of Jehovah;

27Good it is for a man To bear the yoke in his youth:

28He will sit apart, and be silent, For he will raise it on himself;

29He will put in the dust his mouth, If so be that there is hope;

30He will give to the smiter his cheek, He will be filled with reproaches.

31For not cast away for ever Will the Lord;

32For though he causes grief, he will yet show compassion, According to the multitude of his mercies;

33:For he does not from his heart afflict, Nor cause grief to the children of men.

34When one tears under his feet All the bound of the earth, —

35When he perverts man’s judgment Before the face of the Most High, —

36When he turns a man aside in his causes — The Lord does not regard.

37Who is this that says, “It was, And God has not commanded it”

38From the mouth of the Most High Can not good and evil proceed?

39Why should he weary himself, a living man, And a man in his sins?

40Let us examine our ways, and search, And turn to Jehovah;

41Let us lift up our hearts with our hands To God in the heavens.

42We have sinned, and have been rebellious, Thou hast not spared;

43Thou hast covered us over in wrath, and pursued us, Thou hast slain and not spared.

44Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, So that prayer cannot pass through.

45An offscouring and a refuse hast thou made us In the midst of the nations;

46Opened at us their mouth Have all our enemies;

47Fear and the pit have come to us, Desolation and a breach.

48Rivers of waters mine eye brings down, For the breach of the daughter of my people.

49Mine eye flows down and rests not; There will be no intermissions,

50Until Jehovah looks down, And beholds from heaven.

51Mine eye grieves my soul, Because of all the daughters of my city.

52Hunting they have hunted me as a sparrow, Who are mine enemies without cause;

53They have made fast in a pit my life, And cast a stone over me;

54Flowed have waters over my head; I said, I am cut off.

55I called on thy name, Jehovah, From the deepest pit:

56My voice hast thou heard; close not thine ear To my groaning, to my cry.

57Thou didst draw nigh in the day I cried to thee, Thou didst say, “Fear not.”

58Thou hast, O Lord, pleaded the cause of my soul, Thou hast redeemed my life.

59Thou hast seen, e Jehovah, my oppression; Defend my cause.

60Thou hast seen all their vengeance’s, All their counsels against me.

61Thou hast heard, O Jehovah, their reproaches, All their counsels against me,-

62The speeches of those who rose against me, And their words against me daily.

63Look on their sitting down and their rising up; I am their song.

64Render to them their reward, O Jehovah, According to the work of their hands.

65Give them blindness of heart; Thy curse be on them.

66Pursue them in wrath, and destroy them From under the heavens of Jehovah.