lamentations-3:16-kjv,asv

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 3:16

He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones ,.... With gritty bread, such as is made of corn ground with new millstones, the grit of which mixes with the flour; or with stony bread, as Seneca F14 "Pane lapidoso", Seneca De Beneficiis, l. 7. calls a benefit troublesome to others; with bread that has little stones mixed with it, by eating of which the teeth are broken, as Jarchi observes: the phrase signifies afflictions and troubles, which are very grievous and disagreeable, like... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Lamentations 3:16

He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones - What a figure to express disgust, pain, and the consequent incapacity of taking food for the support of life; a man, instead of bread, being obliged to eat small pebbles till all his teeth are broken to pieces by endeavoring to grind them. One can scarcely read this description without feeling the toothache. The next figure is not less expressive. He hath covered me with ashes - באפר הכפישני hichphishani beepher , "he hath plunged me... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Lamentations 3:16

Verse 16 Many renderings are given of these words’ there is, however, no over-statement here; for, as it has been often said, the grief of the people under such a mass of evils could not be sufficiently expressed. The Prophet, no doubt, extended here his hand to the weak, who would have otherwise lain down as dead; for under such evils the ruin of the whole nation, the fall of the city, and the destruction of the temple, it could not be but such thoughts as these must have occurred. Now, as to... 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 3:16

He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones; i.e. he hath given me stones instead of bread (comp. Matthew 7:9 ). The Jewish rabbi commonly called Rashi thinks that a historical fact is preserved in these words, and that the Jewish exiles were really obliged to eat bread mixed with grit, because they had to bake in pits dug in the ground. So too many later commentators, e.g. Grotius, who compares a passage of Seneca ('De Benefic.,' 2.7), "Beneficium superbe datum simile est pani... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Lamentations 3:10-18

Having dwelt upon the difficulties which hemmed in his path, he now shows that there are dangers attending upon escape.Lamentations 3:11The meaning is, “God, as a lion, lying in wait, has made me turn aside from my path, but my flight was in vain, for springing upon me from His ambush lie has torn me in pieces.”Desolate - Or, astonied, stupefied that he cannot flee. The word is a favorite one with Jeremiah.Lamentations 3:12This new simile arises out of the former one, the idea of a hunter being... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Lamentations 3:14-19

Lamentations 3:14-19. I was a derision to all my people To all the wicked among them, who made themselves merry with the prophet’s griefs and the public judgments; and their song all the day Hebrew, נגינתם , their instrument of music. The word, says Blaney, “is commonly rendered their song; but I rather think it means a subject upon which they played, as upon a musical instrument, for their diversion.” He hath filled me with bitterness A bitter sense of these calamities. God has... 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

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Lamentations 3:16

Lamentations 3:16. He hath—broken my teeth— He hath broken my teeth as a gravel-stone. He hath fed me with dust. Houbigant. In this and the preceding verse the prophet aggravates the calamities of his people by such expressions as imply that misery and affliction are poured without measure upon the sons of Jacob. Possibly he alludes to his personal afflictions. See Jeremiah 37:0; Jeremiah 38:0. read more