Lamentations 3

Lamentations 3 is the central poem of the five that make up the book of Lamentations. Whereas Lamentations 2 portrays the fall of Jerusalem as the plight of the whole community, this chapter brings an individual "I" to the fore. It is an acrostic: each of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet begins three consecutive verses, for a total of sixty-six verses.

Outline

• Verses 1–18 The "I" describes the suffering brought on by the LORD's wrath through images such as darkness, chains, a bear and a lion, a bow with the speaker as its target, and wormwood and gall, and declares that hope has perished.
• Verses 19–24 Remembering affliction, the speaker is downcast, yet finds hope again in the truth that the LORD's mercies and compassions fail not and are new every morning.
• Verses 25–39 The speaker teaches that it is good to wait quietly. The Lord will not cast off forever, and He does not afflict people willingly; the speaker asks why a man punished for his sins should complain.
• Verses 40–47 The speaker shifts to "we," urging a return to the LORD, and then laments that the Lord has not pardoned and has covered Himself with a cloud.
• Verses 48–54 The speaker's tears do not cease because of the destruction of the people, and he recounts how enemies cast him into a pit and threw stones at him.
• Verses 55–66 The speaker confesses that when he called from the low dungeon, the Lord said, "Fear not," and pleads that the enemies be repaid according to their deeds.

Key Verses

• Lamentations 3:22–23 "It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning" — the passage where hope breaks forth in the midst of the book's despair. "Mercies" renders the Hebrew hesed (steadfast love).
• Lamentations 3:33 "For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men" — frequently cited as a verse that invites reflection on suffering together with the character of God.

People and Places

• "I" The suffering speaker. The text does not give a name.
• Jeremiah The prophet traditionally regarded as the author of the book.

Points for Reflection

• Interpretations differ on who the "I" is. Some view the speaker as Jeremiah himself, others as the suffering community portrayed as a single person, and others as a representative sufferer. Some Christian traditions also read the suffering in this chapter in light of the Passion of Christ.
• Some interpreters connect the pit in verses 53–55 with the dungeon in which Jeremiah was confined in Jeremiah 38. This, however, is a connection added by interpreters; the text itself does not state it.
• Verse 30, "He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him," is sometimes read together with the teaching in Matthew 5:38–42.
• The background of this chapter is the fall of Jerusalem, which led to the Babylonian exile.