Major Prophets · Chapter 3 of 5

Lamentations 3

At the center of the book, an individual speaks as the man who has seen affliction under God's rod. He recounts being walled in, broken, and shut out from prayer, until his hope seemed to perish. Then, at the lowest point, he recalls one truth that revives hope: the LORD's mercies never fail but are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. From this turn flow calls to wait quietly, search, return, and trust God.

What happens in Lamentations 3

The poem opens with a man describing relentless affliction under the rod of God's wrath. He has been led into darkness, his flesh worn old, his bones broken, hedged in and chained, his prayer shut out, set as a target for arrows, filled with bitterness. His strength and hope seem gone. Then the tone turns on a single recollection: this I recall to mind, therefore have I hope. The LORD's mercies are the reason we are not consumed; his compassions never fail but are new every morning, and great is his faithfulness.

The man counsels bearing the yoke, sitting in silence, giving the cheek to the one who strikes, because the Lord will not cast off forever but shows compassion. He urges the people to search their ways and turn back to the LORD. He recalls crying from the low dungeon, hearing God say, fear not, and trusts God to plead his cause and redeem his life.

Lamentations 3 in context

The central and longest chapter of Lamentations, this triple acrostic gives three lines to each Hebrew letter, its heightened form matching its pivotal role. A single representative sufferer voices the community's anguish and then its recovered hope.

The famous lines about mercies new every morning stand at the structural and theological heart of the book, the still point where despair turns toward trust in God's steadfast love even amid ongoing ruin.

Main themes of Lamentations 3

Lamentations 3 (KJV)

1I AM the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. 2He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light. 3Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day. 4My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones. 5He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail. 6He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. 7He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy. 8Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. 9He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked. 10He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. 11He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate. 12He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. 13He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. 14I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day. 15He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. 16He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes. 17And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. 18And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD: 19Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. 20My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. 21This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. 22It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 24The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. 25The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. 26It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. 27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 28He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. 29He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. 30He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach. 31For the LORD will not cast off for ever: 32But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. 33For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. 34To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, 35To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, 36To subvert a man in his cause, the LORD approveth not. 37Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? 38Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? 39Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? 40Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. 41Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. 42We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned. 43Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. 44Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through. 45Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people. 46All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. 47Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction. 48Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. 49Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, 50Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven. 51Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city. 52Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause. 53They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. 54Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off. 55I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon. 56Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. 57Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. 58O LORD, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. 59O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause. 60Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me. 61Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me; 62The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. 63Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick. 64Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. 65Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. 66Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.

Verses to carry from Lamentations 3

“It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.”Lamentations 3:22

“They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”Lamentations 3:23

“It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.”Lamentations 3:26

Reflection

When your strength and hope feel perished, this chapter invites one deliberate act: recall to mind that God's mercies are new every morning. You may still sit in the dark, yet his faithfulness meets you at each dawn. Rest your grief on his steadfast love, made sure in Christ, whose cross gave way to the morning of the resurrection.

A prayer from Lamentations 3