NOTES for Lam 3:34-66
34 To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, |
35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, |
36 To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not. |
37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? |
38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? |
39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? |
40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. |
41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. |
42 We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned. |
43 Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. |
44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through. |
45 Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people. |
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. |
47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction. |
48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. |
49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, |
50 Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven. |
51 Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city. |
52 Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause. |
53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. |
54 Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off. |
55 I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon. |
56 Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. |
57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. |
58 O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. |
59 O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause. |
60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me. |
61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me; |
62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. |
63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick. |
64 Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. |
65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. |
66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD. |
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The most difficult and tragic question for the author of the Book of Lamentations remains the question of injustice toward those who are right before God and before people. When it concerns the people as a whole, everything that befell Jerusalem and its inhabitants appears not only natural, but also just. In fact, why should God endlessly endure the sins of His people without taking any action? A specific person is another matter. As is known, wars and mass repressions make exceptions for no one; in such situations the righteous usually share the fate of sinners, and often they have it even worse than sinners. After all, someone who is ready to sin adapts more easily in situations where sin triumphs, and triumphs openly. But what, then, about individual people? Of course, when the fate and spiritual state of the people are at stake, one might disregard an individual person: after all, each person is part of his people and must share their fate, bearing the collective responsibility for the sin committed collectively. But then it would turn out that the rightness of an individual person before God is worth nothing (vv. 34-36).
Yet the people consists of individual persons, each with his own deeply personal choice, which they make in a concrete situation, choosing either the path of sin or the path of righteousness. And if everyone is punished for the sins of the majority, will such punishment not become a justification for those who choose the path of sin by appealing to the majority and following the well-known principle that "one man cannot win alone"? One could, of course, agree that not everything in the world happens according to God's will, but the author of the book rejects this thought (vv. 37-38). Then all that remains for him is to review his own life again and again in order to try to see his sins and repent of them (vv. 39-40).
Of course, in a situation where sin becomes the norm of life, practically everyone, with rare exceptions, will find something in his life for which he will have to ask God's forgiveness (vv. 41-42). But such an answer is, in essence, only half an answer: it still presupposes the wrongness of the sinful person before God, if not in one thing then in another, thereby justifying mass disasters that turn into collective punishments. It does not answer the question of the suffering of the one who is unquestionably right before God and people, at least in a concrete case. All that remains for the author of the book is to state the fact that in situations where he was right before God and people, God remained with him even during the sufferings he had to endure (vv. 49-58). Yet such support must still be considered incomplete and relative, and the author of the book understands that only complete triumph over defeated enemies can satisfy him finally (vv. 59-66).
Readings for 25 October 2025
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