Lamentations 3:4

4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; 1he has broken my bones;

Lamentations 3:4 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 3:4

My flesh and my skin hath he made old
His flesh with blows, and his skin with smiting, as the Targum; his flesh was so emaciated, and his skin so withered and wrinkled, that he looked like an old man; as our Lord, when little more than thirty years of age, what with his sorrows and troubles, looked like one about fifty: he hath broken my bones;
that is, his strength was greatly weakened, which lay in his bones; and he could not stir to help himself, any more than a man whose bones are broken; and was in as much pain and distress as if this had been his case; otherwise it was not literally true, either of the Jews, or of Jeremiah, or of Christ.

Lamentations 3:4 In-Context

2 he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light;
3 surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.
4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones;
5 he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation;
6 he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.

Cross References 1

  • 1. Psalms 51:8; Isaiah 38:13; Jeremiah 50:17
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.