40 We search our ways, and investigate, And turn back unto Jehovah.
Your ownselves try ye, if ye are in the faith; your ownselves prove ye; do ye not know your ownselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, if ye be not in some respect disapproved of?
I have reckoned my ways, And turn back my feet unto Thy testimonies.
If thou -- thou hast prepared thy heart, And hast spread out unto Him thy hands, If iniquity `is' in thy hand, put it far off, And let not perverseness dwell in thy tents. For then thou liftest up thy face from blemish, And thou hast been firm, and fearest not.
And the runners go with letters from the hand of the king and his heads, into all Israel and Judah, even according to the command of the king, saying, `O sons of Israel, turn back unto Jehovah, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and He doth turn back unto the escaped part that is left of you from the hand of the kings of Asshur;
And also now -- an affirmation of Jehovah, Turn ye back unto Me with all your heart, And with fasting, and with weeping, And with lamentation. And rend your heart, and not your garments, And turn back unto Jehovah your God, For gracious and merciful `is' He, Slow to anger, and abundant in kindness, And He hath repented concerning the evil.
for if ourselves we were discerning, we would not be being judged,
and let a man be proving himself, and so of the bread let him eat, and of the cup let him drink;
And thou hast said unto them, Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, turn back unto Me, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, And I turn back unto you, said Jehovah of Hosts. Ye shall not be as your fathers, To whom the former prophets called, saying: Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, Turn back I pray you, From your evil ways and from your evil doings, And they did not hearken, Nor attend to Me -- an affirmation of Jehovah.
And now, thus said Jehovah of Hosts, Set your heart to your ways. Ye have sown much, and brought in little, To eat, and not to satiety, To drink, and not to drunkenness, To clothe, and none hath heat, And he who is hiring himself out, Is hiring himself for a bag pierced through. Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Set your heart to your ways. Go up the mountain, and ye have brought in wood, And build the house, and I am pleased with it. And I am honoured, said Jehovah. Looking for much, and lo, little, And ye brought `it' home, and I blew on it, Wherefore? -- an affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, Because of My house that is waste, And ye are running -- each to his house,
Turn back, O Israel, unto Jehovah thy God, For thou hast stumbled by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to Jehovah, Say ye unto Him: `Take away all iniquity, and give good, And we do render the fruit of our lips. Asshur doth not save us, on a horse we ride not, Nor do we say any more, Our God, to the work of our hands, For in Thee find mercy doth the fatherless.'
And thou, through thy God, dost turn, Kindness and judgment keep thou, And wait on thy God continually.
`Come, and we turn back unto Jehovah, For He hath torn, and He doth heal us, He doth smite, and He bindeth us up.
Forsake doth the wicked his way, And the man of iniquity his thoughts, And he returneth to Jehovah, and He pitieth him, And unto our God for He multiplieth to pardon.
`Tremble ye, and do not sin;' Say ye `thus' in your heart on your bed, And be ye silent. Selah.
for in your turning back unto Jehovah, your brethren and your sons have mercies before their captors, even to return to this land, for gracious and merciful `is' Jehovah your God, and He doth not turn aside the face from you, if ye turn back unto Him.'
in distress `being' to thee, and all these things have found thee, in the latter end of the days, and thou hast turned back unto Jehovah thy God, and hast hearkened to His voice;
and saith to them, `Ye `are' heads of the fathers of the Levites; sanctify yourselves, ye and your brethren, and ye have brought up the ark of Jehovah, God of Israel, unto `the place' I have prepared for it; because at the first `it was' not ye, Jehovah our God made a breach upon us, because we sought Him not according to the ordinance.'
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Lamentations 3
Commentary on Lamentations 3 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 3
The scope of this chapter is the same with that of the two foregoing chapters, but the composition is somewhat different; that was in long verse, this is in short, another kind of metre; that was in single alphabets, this is in a treble one. Here is,
Some make all this to be spoken by the prophet himself when he was imprisoned and persecuted; but it seems rather to be spoken in the person of the church now in captivity and in a manner desolate, and in the desolations of which the prophet did in a particular manner interest himself. But the complaints here are somewhat more general than those in the foregoing chapter, being accommodated to the case as well of particular persons as of the public, and intended for the use of the closet rather than of the solemn assembly. Some think Jeremiah makes these complaints, not only as an intercessor for Israel, but as a type of Christ, who was thought by some to be Jeremiah the weeping prophet, because he was much in tears (Mt. 16:14) and to him many of the passages here may be applied.
Lam 3:1-20
The title of the 102nd Psalm 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,
Lam 3:21-36
Here the clouds begin to disperse and the sky to clear up; the complaint was very melancholy in the former part of the chapter, and yet here the tune is altered and the mourners in Zion begin to look a little pleasant. But for hope, the heart would break. To save the heart from being quite broken, here is something called to mind, which gives ground for hope (v. 21), which refers to what comes after, not to what goes before. I make to return to my heart (so the margin words it); what we have had in our hearts, and have laid to our hearts, is sometimes as if it were quite lost and forgotten, till God by his grace make it return to our hearts, that it may be ready to us when we have occasion to use it. "I recall it to mind; therefore have I hope, and am kept from downright despair.' Let us see what these things are which he calls to mind.
Lam 3:37-41
That we may be entitled to the comforts administered to the afflicted in the foregoing verses, and may taste the sweetness of them, we have here the duties of an afflicted state prescribed to us, in the performance of which we may expect those comforts.
Lam 3:42-54
It is easier to chide ourselves for complaining than to chide ourselves out of it. The prophet had owned that a living man should not complain, as if he checked himself for his complaints in the former part of the chapter; and yet here the clouds return after the rain and the wound bleeds afresh; for great pains must be taken with a troubled spirit to bring it into temper.
Lam 3:55-66
We may observe throughout this chapter a struggle in the prophet's breast between sense and faith, fear and hope; he complains and then comforts himself, yet drops his comforts and returns again to his complaints, as Ps. 42. But, as there, so here, faith gets the last word and comes off a conqueror; for in these verses he concludes with some comfort. And here are two things with which he comforts himself:-