Lamentations 3:1

Jeremiah Shares Israel's Affliction

1 I am the man who has ¹seen affliction Because of the rod of His wrath.

Lamentations 3:1 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 3:1

I [am] the man [that] hath seen affliction
Had a much experience of it, especially ever since he had been a prophet; being reproached and ill used by his own people, and suffering with them in their calamities; particularly, as Jarchi observes, his affliction was greater than the other prophets, who indeed prophesied of the destruction of the city and temple, but did not see it; whereas he lived to see it: he was not indeed the only man that endured affliction, but he was remarkable for his afflictions; he had a large share of them, and was herein a type of Christ, who was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs: by the rod of his wrath;
that is, by the rod of the wrath of God, for he is understood; it is a relative without an antecedent, as in ( Song of Solomon 1:1 ) ; unless the words are to be considered in connection ( Lamentations 2:22 ) . The Targum is,

``by the rod of him that chastiseth in his anger;''

so Jarchi; but God's chastisements of his own people are in love, though thought sometimes by them to be in wrath and hot displeasure; so the prophet imagined, but it was not so; perhaps some regard may be had to the instrument of Jerusalem's destruction, the king of Babylon, called the rod of the Lord's anger, ( Isaiah 10:5 ) ; all this was true of Christ, as the surety of his people, and as sustaining their persons, and standing in their room.

Lamentations 3:1 In-Context

1 I am the man who has seen affliction Because of the rod of His wrath.

2 He has driven me and made me walk In darkness and not in light.

3 Surely against me He has turned His hand Repeatedly all the day.

4 He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away, He has broken my bones.

5 He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship.

Cross References

• 1. Ps 88:7, 15, 16