Lamentations 3:4

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Lamentations 3:1-20

The title of the Ps. 102:1-28 might very fitly be prefixed to this chapter?The prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and pours out his complaint before the Lord; for it is very feelingly and fluently that the complaint is here poured out. Let us observe the particulars of it. The prophet complains, 1. That God is angry. This gives both birth and bitterness to the affliction (Lam. 3:1): I am the man, the remarkable man, that has seen affliction, and has felt it sensibly, by the rod... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible 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... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Lamentations 3:4

Verse 4 These, as it evidently appears, are metaphorical words. Illness often makes people to look old, for from pain proceeds leanness: thus the skin is contracted, and the wrinkles of old age appear even in youths. As, then, sorrows exhaust moisture and strength, hence he is said to grow old who pines away in mourning. This is what the Prophet now means. God, he says, has made my flesh and my skin, to grow old, that is, he hath worn me out, within and without, so that I am almost wasted away.... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Lamentations 3:1-21

MONOLOGUE SPOKEN BY AN INDIVIDUAL BELIEVER WHOSE FATE IS BOUND UP WITH THAT OF THE NATION ; OR PERHAPS BY THE NATION PERSONIFIED (see Introduction). read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Lamentations 3:4

Made old; more literally, worn away, as a garment (comp. Isaiah 50:9 ; Isaiah 51:6 ). Broken my bones. So Job complains, "His wrath teareth and persecuteth me" ( Job 16:9 ); and, a still closer parallel, Hezekiah, "As a lion, so will he break all my bones" ( Isaiah 38:13 ). Comp. Psalms 51:8 , "The bones which thou hast broken." read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Lamentations 3:4

Made old - Or, wasted: his strength slowly wasted as he pined away in sorrow.He hath broken my bones - This clause completes the representation of the sufferer’s physical agonies. Here the idea is that of acute pain. read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Lamentations 3:3-7

Lamentations 3:3-7. Surely against me is he turned The course of his providence toward me is quite altered. He was formerly kind and gracious, but now exercises an afflicting hand against me, and that not occasionally, or for a short time, but continually, all the day. The phrase, He turneth his hand against me, is equivalent to that which occurs Isaiah 1:25, I will turn thy hand upon thee, where see the note. My flesh, &c., hath he made old Hebrew, בלה , hath wasted, caused... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Lamentations 3:1-66

Grief, repentance and hope (3:1-66)This poem is different in style from the previous two. The poet speaks as if he is the representative of all Judah, describing Judah’s sufferings as if they were his own. And those sufferings are God’s righteous judgment (3:1-3). He is like a starving man ready to die. Indeed, he feels as if he already dwells in the world of the dead (4-6). He is like a man chained and locked inside a stone prison from which there is no way out (7-9).To the writer God seems... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown