Lamentations 3:8

8 Even when I cry out and call for help, He ¹shuts out my prayer.

Lamentations 3:8 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 3:8

Also when I cry and shout
Cry, because of the distress of the enemy within; "shout", or cry aloud for help from others without; as persons in a prison do, to make them hear and pity their case: thus the prophet in his affliction cried aloud to God; was fervent, earnest, and importunate in prayer; and yet not heard: he shutteth out my prayer;
shuts the door, that it may not enter; as the door is sometimes shut upon beggars, that their cry may not be heard. The Targum is,

``the house of my prayer is shut.''

Jarchi interprets it of the windows of the firmament being shut, so that his prayer could not pass through, or be heard; see ( Lamentations 3:44 ) . The phrase designs God's disregard, or seeming disregard, of the prayer of the prophet, or of the people; and his shutting his ears against it. Of this, as the Messiah's case, see ( Psalms 22:2 ) .

Lamentations 3:8 In-Context

6 In dark places He has made me dwell, Like those who have long been dead.

7 He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy.

8 Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer.

9 He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.

10 He is to me like a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in secret places.

Cross References

• 1. Job 30:20; Psalms 22:2