Lamentations 3
Verse 1 I am the man - It seems, this is spoken in the name of the people, who were before set out under the notion of a woman. Verse 4 Made old - All my beauty is gone, and all my strength. Verse 5 Builded - He hath built forts and batteries against my walls and houses. Verse 9 Enclosed - He has defeated all my methods and counsels for security, by insuperable difficulties like walls of hewn stone. Crooked - Nay, God not only defeated their counsels, but made them fatal and pernicious to them. Verse 15 Wormwood - With severe and bitter dispensations. Verse 16 Ashes - Mourners were wont to throw ashes on their heads. Verse 19 Wormwood - Wormwood and gall, are often made use of to signify great affliction. Verse 21 This - Which follows, concerning the nature of God, and his good providences. Verse 23 Faithfulness - In fulfilling thy promises to thy people. Verse 27 Bear - Quietly and patiently to bear what afflictions God will please to lay upon us. And if God tame us when young, by his word or by his rod, it is an unspeakable advantage. Verse 28 Borne it - That he keep his soul in subjection to God, because God hath humbled him by his rod. Verse 29 In the dust - Both this and the former verses let us know the duty of persons under afflictions. Verse 33 Willingly - Not from his own mere motion without a cause given him from the persons afflicted. Hence judgment is called God's strange work. Verse 36 To subvert - Here are three things mentioned, which God approveth not. Verse 37 Who - Nothing comes to pass in the world, but by the disposal of divine providence. This seems to be spoken in the name of the people of God, arguing themselves into a quiet submission, to their afflictions, from the consideration of the hand of God in them. Verse 38 Evil - Doth not evil or trouble come out of God's mouth from his direction, and providence, as well as good? Verse 39 Wherefore - The Jews, check themselves in their complaints from the consideration, that nothing had befallen them, but what was the just reward of their sins. Verse 42 Thou - Thou hast plagued us according to the just desert of our sins. Verse 49 Mine eye - The prophet speaks this of himself. Verse 53 Dungeon - Dungeon seems here to be taken for the lowest condition of misery. Verse 54 Cut off - I am undone, there is no hope for me. Verse 56 Heard - In former afflictions. Hide not - Shew me now the same favour. Verse 58 O Lord - Thou hast been wont to take my part against my enemies. Verse 60 Seen - Thou hast been a witness to all their fury. Verse 63 I am - At feasts, and at their merry meetings, I am all the subject of their discourse. Verse 66 Persecute - Many passages of this nature which we meet with are prophecies, some of them may be both prophecies and prayers.