Lamentations 3:56-66

56 You have ¹heard my voice, "²Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, From my cry for help."

57 You ³drew near when I called on You; You said, "⁴Do not fear!"

58 O Lord, You ⁵have pleaded my soul's cause; You have ⁶redeemed my life.

59 O LORD, You have ⁷seen my oppression; ⁸Judge my case.

60 You have seen all their vengeance, All their ⁹schemes against me.

61 You have heard their ¹⁰reproach, O LORD, All their schemes against me.

62 The ¹¹lips of my assailants and their whispering Are against me all day long.

63 Look on their ¹²sitting and their rising; ¹³I am their mocking song.

64 You will ¹⁴recompense * them, O LORD, According to the work of their hands.

65 You will give them ¹⁵hardness of heart, Your curse will be on them.

66 You will ¹⁶pursue them in anger and destroy them From under the ¹⁷heavens of the LORD!

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Lamentations 3:56-66 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO LAMENTATIONS 3

This chapter is a complaint and lamentation like the former, and on the same subject, only the prophet mixes his own afflictions and distresses with the public calamities; or else he represents the church in her complaints; and some have thought him to be a type of Christ throughout the whole; to whom various things may be applied. It is indeed written in a different form from the other chapters, in another sort of metre; and though in an alphabetical manner as the rest, yet with this difference, that three verses together begin with the same letter; so that the alphabet is gone through three times in it. Here is first a complaint of the afflictions of the prophet, and of the people, expressed by a rod, by darkness, by wormwood and gall, and many other things; and especially by the Lord's appearing against them as an enemy, in a most severe and terrible manner; shutting out their prayer; being as a bear and lion to them; and giving them up to the cruelty and scorn of their enemies, La 3:1-21; then follows some comfort taken by them, from the mercy, faithfulness, and goodness of God; from the usefulness of patience in bearing afflictions; and from the end of God in laying them upon men; and from the providence of God, by which all things are ordered, La 3:22-38; wherefore, instead of complaining, it would be better, it is suggested, to attend to the duties of examination of their ways, and of repentance, and of prayer, La 3:39-41; and a particular prayer is directed to, in which confession of sin is made, and their miseries deplored, by reason of the hidings of God's face, and the insults of their enemies, La 3:42-47; and then the prophet expresses his sympathy with his people under affliction, and declares what he himself met with from his enemies, La 3:48-54; and relates bow he called upon the Lord, and he heard and delivered him, La 3:55-58; and concludes with a request that he would judge his cause, and avenge him on enemies, La 3:59-66.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 17

1. Job 34:28
2. Psalms 55:1
3. Psalms 145:18
4. Isaiah 41:10, 14
5. Jeremiah 50:34
6. Psalms 34:22
7. Jeremiah 18:19, 20
8. Psalms 26:1; Psalms 43:1
9. Jeremiah 11:19
10. Psalms 74:18; Psalms 89:50; Lamentations 5:1; Zephaniah 2:8
11. Psalms 59:7, 12; Psalms 140:3; Ezekiel 36:3
12. Psalms 139:2
13. Job 30:9; Lamentations 3:14
14. Psalms 28:4; Jer 51:6, 24, 56
15. Exodus 14:8; Deuteronomy 2:30; Isaiah 6:10
16. Lamentations 3:43
17. Psalms 8:3

Footnotes 1

[a]. Or "insolence"