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I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
Verse 1. Man. Jeremias had a share in the common misery, ( Worthington.) and bewails his own condition, as a figure of Christ. Psalms 87:16. Isaiah 53:3. Calmet.—His disciples must expect to suffer. Bible.
He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
Verse 2. Led, or driven me with the rod. Bible.—God employs two. Zechariah 11:7. That of rigour was reserved for this prophet; (Calmet. 38) none of them suffered more.
Surely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long.
He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones.
Verse 4. Old and wrinkled, the effect of misery.
He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
Verse 5. Gall. Septuagint “head.” Chal. “he hath seized the chief.” Job 16:13. He speaks in the name of the besieged, who had been threatened with this punishment. verse 19. Calmet. 8:14. Calmet.—And labour. Nabuzardan ransacked the city worse than his master, ( Worthington.) if the latter was at all present. Bible.
He has made me dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead.
Verse 6. Ever indeed. Eccle. 12:5 and Psalms 48:12. Jeremias (38:6) was in imminent danger.
He has walled me about, so that I can’t go out. He has made my chain heavy.
Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
Verse 8. Prayer. God would not allow him to pray for the people. Calmet. 7:16.
He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked.
Verse 9. Stones. There is no passage. Job 19:8.
He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in hiding.
Verse 10. Places. This may refer to the prophet or to the people.
He has turned away my path, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate.
He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
Verse 12. Arrows. Such places were common where shooting was practised. 1 Kin. 20:36. Job 16:11.
He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long.
Verse 14. Song. True prophets were derided on account of impostors, and because of their declarations were unpleasant, and so forth Calmet. 17:15. Ezekiel 12:22.
He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood.
Verse 15. Wormwood, or a bitter poisonous herb. Calmet. 9:26. Deuteronomy 29:18.
He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes.
Verse 16. One. Hebrew “against a stone.” My bread is full of them. Psalms 101:10. Calmet.—He describes his afflictions, as if his teeth had been broken. Worthington.
You have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity.
I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from the LORD.”
Verse 18. End. Hebrew “strength.” Septuagint “victory.” Calmet.
Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness.
My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.
Verse 21. Hope. The remembrance fills him with grief and hope. Calmet. 20:12. Bible.
It is because of the LORD’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his mercies don’t fail.
They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
Verse 23. New. Novi should be novæ, to agree with miserationes. Calmet.—Chal. “new miracles” occur daily. Bible.—God’s mercies are ever fresh. Worthington.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.”
The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
Verse 27. Yoke. Afflictions endured for justice sake ensure a blessing. Bible.—All may derive great benefit from suffering.
Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.
Verse 28. Himself, with perfect resignation.
Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope.
Verse 29. Hope. He does not doubt, but confides with great humility.
Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach.
Verse 30. Him. We cannot verify this of the prophet as we can of Christ, (Matthew 26:62. Calmet.) to whom this particularly refers. Worthington.
For the Lord will not cast off forever.
For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
Verse 33. Men. He punishes with regret. Ezekiel 28:23. Our crimes force him to chastise. verse 36. Calmet.—Yet he seeks our advantage. Worthington.
To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve.
Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it?
Verse 37. Commanded. Hebrew “said: It cometh to pass,” as if by chance. There have always been Epicureans. Ezekiel 8:12. Psalms 93:7. Calmet.—Those who deny Providence speak. verse 30. Worthington.
Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
Verse 39. Sins? If all happened by inevitable necessity, or according to the laws of Providence, why should any one complain?
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
Verse 41. Up. This posture “is the testimony of a soul naturally Christian.” Tert. Apol.—Our heart must accompany our hands. 1 Timothy 2:8. Calmet.
The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “אֱלֹהִ֑ים” (Elohim).
“We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned.
Verse 42. Inexorable. Hebrew and Septuagint “Thou hast not shewn pity.” Bible.
“You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied.
Verse 43. Covered thyself, as if not to see our distress.
You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
Verse 44. Cloud. Isaiah 59:2. Sirach 35:21. These expressions are admirable.
You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples.
“All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.”
Verse 47. Prophecy. Many would read, vastatio. Hebrew “ruin.” Septuagint “taking away.” Calmet.—Prot. “Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.” The prophets were continually in danger. Bible.—The preaching of false prophets has brought these evils upon the people. Worthington.
My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
My eye pours down and doesn’t cease, without any intermission,
until the LORD looks down, and sees from heaven.
My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
Verse 51. Wasted. Lit. “robbed.” Bible.—I have felt more for my people than they have themselves. Moral writers often product this text, to shew the dangers of an unguarded glance ( Calmet.) at women.
They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
Verse 53. Over me, as if I were buried. Bible.—Jeremias was in prison (Calmet. 38:6) when he prayed. verse 54. Calmet. 20:7. Calmet.
Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.”
I called on your name, LORD, out of the lowest dungeon.
You heard my voice: “Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry.”
You came near in the day that I called on you. You said, “Don’t be afraid.”
Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life.
LORD, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.
Verse 59. Judge what they have judged unjustly. Worthington.
You have seen all their vengeance and all their plans against me.
You have heard their reproach, LORD, and all their plans against me,
the lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long.
Verse 62. Lips; or language (Genesis 11:1) thou knowest. verse 60.
You see their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song.
Verse 63. Up, all their conduct.—Song. 5:14.
You will pay them back, LORD, according to the work of their hands.
You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
Verse 65. Buckler, to cover all the body. They shall be surrounded with misery, (Psalms 108:29) while God will protect his servants. Psalms 5:13. Calmet.—Let sorrow pierce their heart, as thy enemies are treated. Worthington.
You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.