Lamentations 3 Study Notes

3:34-36 God does not look favorably on humanity’s cruelty and injustice (Ps 22:18; Pr 23:31; Is 53:2). None of our injustices fall outside God’s control or oversight. He sees it all and keeps accurate books. Therefore, denying justice and disregarding human rights invites the judgment of God, in whose presence all this takes place (Ps 113:5-6).

3:37 This verse seems to have Ps 33:9 in mind: “he spoke, and it came into being.”

3:38 Everything, both adversity and good, comes from the hand of God. Even evil is something that he will sometimes permit according to his wisdom.

3:39 This verse returns to the theme of v. 22. How can any living person complain, since the fact that he or she is alive is evidence that God’s gracious love and mercy are still operating?

3:40-47 Jeremiah shifted to the first-person plural pronoun (us and our) for the rest of this chapter. In these verses his representative role is made plain. He will lead his people in a confession of their sins and exhort them to return to the Lord.

3:40 No phrase is more characteristic of the prophets—especially Jeremiah—than turn back to the Lord (see Jr 3:1). It is the OT word for repentance. It called for the people to examine and probe their ways, an act that implied their sin was hidden from the eyes and hearts of those who had been deceived (Jr 17:9).

3:41 Here is an appeal to prayer, as signified by the lifting of one’s hands (2:19).

3:42 This verse states the content of the prayer. The contrast between we and the Lord (you) is emphatic and specific.

3:43-45 It was impossible for God to answer the prayers of the people as long as sin festered in their lives. God’s wrath was like a cloud that prayer could not penetrate.

3:46-48 The third line of the triad of vv. 46-48 dramatically (as in v. 40) breaks back into the first-person pronoun with its reference to my eyes (which continues in v. 49), so this is a lament against Israel’s enemies.

3:49-51 The fate of defenseless women in the city was a cause for much grief, and an indication of just how total Jerusalem’s undoing was.

3:52-54 Jeremiah referred to his experience of being thrown into a pit (Jr 38:4-6). He also expressed his pain and anguish over the wretched condition of his own people and what they had endured from the Babylonians. Water flooded over my head is a metaphor for all sorts of distress (Jb 27:20; Ps 42:7; 66:12; 88:7; 124:4; Is 43:2). This representative sufferer was hunted . . . like a bird and for no reason. In that way he was like Jesus, the chief substitutionary sufferer (Jn 15:21).

3:55-66 The final twelve verses of this chapter are a prayer for deliverance, which is how chaps. 1 and 2 end.

3:55 Like the psalmist, Jeremiah called on God’s name from the depths of the pit (see Ps 130:1).

3:56-57 God heard Jeremiah’s plea. His words of assurance were, Do not be afraid.

3:58-60 There was no better judge for Jeremiah’s case than the Lord, who saw all and yet was able to defend the prophet’s cause and redeem his life.

3:61-63 The Lord, the Omniscient One, heard and saw everything. Jeremiah and Israel could be sure they were in good hands.

3:64-66 Sufferers must leave revenge (pay them back) in the hands of the Lord. Jeremiah never raised his own hand to seek personal vengeance for all he had suffered.