Lamentations 3:43

43 "You pursued us and killed us; your mercy was hidden by your anger,

Lamentations 3:43 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 3:43

Thou hast covered with anger
Either himself; not as a tender father, that cannot bear to see the affliction of a child; this does not suit with anger; but rather as one greatly displeased, in whose face anger appears, being covered with it; or who covers his face with it, that he may not be seen, withdrawing his gracious presence; or hast put anger as a wall between thee and us, as Jarchi: so that there was no coming nigh to him: or else it means covering his people with it; so the Targum,

``thou hast covered "us" with anger;''

denoting the largeness and abundance of afflictions upon them; they were as it were covered with them, as tokens of the divine displeasure; one wave and billow after another passing over them. Sanctius thinks the allusion is to the covering of the faces of condemned malefactors, as a token of their being guilty: and persecuted us;
the Targum adds, in captivity; that is, pursued and followed us with fresh instances of anger and resentment; to have men to be persecutors is bad, but to have God to be a persecutor is dreadful: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied;
had suffered them to be stain by the sword of the enemy, and had shown no compassion to them; (See Gill on Lamentations 2:21); here, and in some following verses, the prophet, or the people he represents, are got to complaining again; though before he had checked himself for it; so hard it is under afflictions to put in practice what should be done by ourselves and others.

Lamentations 3:43 In-Context

41 Let us open our hearts to God in heaven and pray,

42 "We have sinned and rebelled, and you, O Lord, have not forgiven us.

43 "You pursued us and killed us; your mercy was hidden by your anger,

44 By a cloud of fury too thick for our prayers to get through.

45 You have made us the garbage dump of the world.