Jeremiah Shares Israel’s Affliction
I am Jeremiah the man who has aseen afflictionBecause of the rod of His wrath.Ps 88:7, 15, 162 He has led me and made me walkIn adarkness and not in light.Job 30:26; Is 59:9; Jer 4:233 Surely He has aturned His hand against meRepeatedly all the day.Ps 38:2; Is 5:254 aHe has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away;He has bshattered my bones.Ps 31:9, 10; 38:2-8; 102:3-5Ps 51:8; Is 38:135 He has abesieged and surrounded me with bbitterness and hardship.Job 19:8Jer 23:15; Lam 3:196 He has made me live in adark placesLike those who have long been dead.Ps 88:5, 6; 143:37 He awalled me in so that I cannot get out;He has weighted down my bchain.Job 3:23; 19:8Jer 40:48 Even when I cry out and shout for help,He ashuts out my prayer.Job 30:20; Ps 22:29 He has ablocked my ways with cut stone;He has made my paths crooked.Is 63:17; Hos 2:610 He is to me like a bear lying in wait,And like a lion hiding in secret places.11 He has turned aside my ways and atorn me in pieces;He has made me desolate.Job 16:12, 13; Jer 15:3; Hos 6:112 He has abent His bowAnd bset me as a target for the arrow.Ps 7:12; Lam 2:4Job 6:4; 7:20; Ps 38:213 He has caused the arrows of His aquiverTo enter my inner parts.Jer 5:1614 I have become the object of aridicule to all my people,And the subject of their mocking bsong all the day.Ps 22:6, 7; 123:4; Jer 20:7Job 30:9; Lam 3:6315 He has afilled me with bitterness;He has made me drunk with wormwood .Jer 9:1516 He has abroken my teeth with bgravel;He has covered me with cashes and made me cower in the dust.Ps 3:7; 58:6Prov 20:17Jer 6:2617 My soul has been cast far away afrom peace;I have forgotten happiness.Is 59:11; Jer 12:1218 So I say, “My strength has perishedAnd so has my ahope and expectation from the LORD.”Job 17:15; Ezek 37:11
Hope of Relief in God’s Mercy
19 Remember O LORD my affliction and my wandering, the awormwood and the gall .Jer 9:15; Lam 3:5, 1520 aMy soul continually remembers themAnd is bbowed down within me.Job 21:6Ps 42:5, 6, 11; 43:5; 44:2521 But this I call to mind,Therefore I have ahope.Ps 130:722 It is because of the LORD’S alovingkindnesses that we are not consumed,bBecause His tender compassions never fail. Mal 3:6Ps 78:38; Jer 3:12; 30:11Mal 3:623 They are new aevery morning;Great and beyond measure is bYour faithfulness. Is 33:2Is 33:2; Zeph 3:5Heb 10:2324 “The LORD is my aportion and my inheritance,” says my soul;“Therefore bI have hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him.” Num 18:20Ps 16:5; 73:26Ps 33:1825 The LORD is good to those who await confidently for Him,To those who bseek Him on the authority of God’s word.Ps 27:14; Is 25:9Is 26:926 It is good that one awaits quietlyFor the salvation of the LORD.Ps 37:727 It is good for a man that he should bearThe yoke of godly discipline in his youth.28 Let him asit alone in hope and keep quiet,Because God has laid it on him for his benefit. Rom 8:28Jer 15:1729 Let him put his mouth in the adust in recognition of his unworthiness;There may yet be bhope. Mic 7:17Job 16:15; 40:4Jer 31:1730 Let him give his acheek to the one who strikes him;Let him be filled with reproach.Job 16:10; Is 50:631 For the Lord will anot reject forever, Ps 94:14Ps 77:7; 94:14; Is 54:7-1032 For if He causes grief,Then He will have acompassionAccording to His abundant lovingkindness and tender mercy.Ps 78:38; 106:43-45; Hos 11:833 For He adoes not afflict willingly and from His heartOr grieve the children of men. Ezek 18:23, 32; Hos 11:8; Heb 12:5-10; 2+@Pet 3:9Ps 119:67, 71, 75; Ezek 33:11; Heb 12:1034 To trample and crush under His feetAll the prisoners of the land,35 To deprive a man of ajusticeIn the presence of the Most High,Ps 140:12; Prov 17:1536 To adefraud a man in his lawsuit—The Lord does not approve of these things.Jer 22:3; Hab 1:1337 Who is there who speaks and it acomes to pass,Unless the Lord has authorized and commanded it?Ps 33:9-1138 Is it not from the mouth of the Most HighThat both aadversity and good proceed?Job 2:10; Is 45:7; Jer 32:42
39 Why should any living mortal, or any man,aComplain of punishment in view of his sins?Jer 30:15; Mic 7:9; Heb 12:5, 640 Let us test and aexamine our ways,And let us return to the LORD.Ps 119:59; 139:23, 24; 2 Cor 13:541 Let us alift up our hearts and our hands in prayerToward God in heaven;Ps 25:1; 28:2; 141:242 We have atransgressed and rebelled,You have bnot pardoned.Neh 9:26; Jer 14:20; Dan 9:52 Kin 24:4; Jer 5:7, 943 You have covered Yourself with aangerAnd bpursued us;You have slain without pity and chave not spared.Lam 2:21Ps 83:15; Lam 3:66Lam 2:2, 17, 2144 You have acovered Yourself with a cloudSo that bno prayer can pass through.Ps 97:2Lam 3:8; Zech 7:1345 You have made us ascum and refuseAmong the peoples .1 Cor 4:1346 All our enemies have agaped at us.Job 30:9, 10; Ps 22:6-8; Lam 2:1647 aPanic and pitfall have come on us,Devastation and destruction.Is 24:17, 18; Jer 48:43, 4448 My aeyes overflow with streams of tearsBecause of the destruction of the daughter of my people .Ps 119:136; Jer 9:1, 18; Lam 1:16; 2:11, 1849 My eyes overflow aunceasingly,Without stopping,Ps 77:2; Jer 14:1750 Until the LORD alooks downAnd sees from heaven.Ps 80:14; Is 63:15; Lam 5:151 My eyes see things that bring pain to my soulBecause of all the daughters of my city.52 aWithout cause my enemiesHunted me down blike a bird;Ps 35:7, 191 Sam 26:20; Ps 11:1; 124:753 They silenced me ain the pitAnd bplaced a stone over me. Jer 38Jer 37:16; 38:6, 9Dan 6:1754 The waters ran adown on my head;I said, “I am cut off !”Ps 69:2; Jon 2:3-555 I acalled on Your name, O LORD,Out of the lowest pit. Jer 38:6Ps 130:1; Jon 2:256 You have aheard my voice,“bDo not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief,From my cry for help.”Job 34:28Ps 55:157 You adrew near on the day I called to You;You said, “bDo not fear.” James 4:8Ps 145:18Is 41:10, 1458 O Lord, You ahave pleaded my soul’s cause You have guided my way and protected me;You have rescued and bredeemed my life.Jer 50:34Ps 34:2259 O LORD, You have aseen the wrong done to me;bJudge my case.Jer 18:19, 20Ps 26:1; 43:160 You have seen all their vengeance,All their aschemes against me.Jer 11:1961 You have heard their areproach, O LORD,And all their schemes against me.Ps 74:18; 89:50; Lam 5:1; Zeph 2:862 The alips and whispering of my assailantsAre against me all day long.Ps 59:7, 12; 140:3; Ezek 36:363 Look at their asitting and their rising their actions and secret counsels;bI am their mocking song the subject of their ridicule. Ps 139:2; Is 37:28Ps 139:2Job 30:9; Lam 3:1464 You will arepay them, O LORD,According to the work of their hands.Ps 28:4; Jer 51:6, 24, 5665 You will aharden their hearts;Your curse will be upon them.Ex 14:8; Deut 2:30; Is 6:1066 You will apursue them in anger and destroy themFrom under the bheavens of the LORD.Lam 3:43Ps 8:3