Jeremiah Shares Israel’s Affliction
I am the man who has aseen afflictionBecause of the rod of His wrath.Ps 88:7, 15, 162 He has driven me and made me walkIn adarkness and not in light.Job 30:26; Is 59:9; Jer 4:233 Surely against me He has aturned His handRepeatedly all the day.Ps 38:2; Is 5:254 He has caused my aflesh and my skin to waste away,He has bbroken my bones.Ps 31:9, 10; 38:2-8; 102:3-5Ps 51:8; Is 38:135 He has abesieged and encompassed me with bbitterness and hardship.Job 19:8Jer 23:15; Lam 3:196 In adark places He has made me dwell,Like those who have long been dead.Ps 88:5, 6; 143:37 He has awalled me in so that I cannot go out;He has made my 1bchain heavy.Lit bronze pieceJob 3:23; 19:8Jer 40:48 Even when I cry out and call for help,He ashuts out my prayer.Job 30:20; Ps 22:29 He has ablocked my ways with hewn stone;He has made my paths crooked.Is 63:17; Hos 2:610 He is to me like a bear lying in wait,Like a lion in secret places.11 He has turned aside my ways and atorn me to pieces;He has made me desolate.Job 16:12, 13; Jer 15:3; Hos 6:112 He 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 made the 1arrows of His aquiverTo enter into my 2inward parts.Lit sonsLit kidneysJer 5:1614 I have become a alaughingstock to all my people,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 made me cower in the cdust.Ps 3:7; 58:6Prov 20:17Jer 6:2617 My soul has been rejected afrom peace;I have forgotten 1happiness.Lit goodIs 59:11; Jer 12:1218 So I say, “My strength has perished,And so has my ahope from the LORD.”Job 17:15; Ezek 37:11
Hope of Relief in God’s Mercy
19 Remember my affliction and my 1wandering, the awormwood and bitterness.Or bitternessJer 9:15; Lam 3:5, 1520 Surely amy soul remembersAnd is bbowed down within me.Job 21:6Ps 42:5, 6, 11; 43:5; 44:2521 This I recall to my mind,Therefore I have ahope.Ps 130:722 The LORD’S alovingkindnesses 1indeed never cease,bFor His compassions never fail.Or that we are not consumedPs 78:38; Jer 3:12; 30:11Mal 3:623 They are new aevery morning;Great is bYour faithfulness.Is 33:2; Zeph 3:5Heb 10:2324 “The LORD is my aportion,” says my soul,“Therefore I bhave hope in Him.”Ps 16:5; 73:26Ps 33:1825 The LORD is good to those who await for Him,To the 1person who bseeks Him.Lit soulPs 27:14; Is 25:9Is 26:926 It is good that he awaits silentlyFor the salvation of the LORD.Ps 37:727 It is good for a man that he should bearThe yoke in his youth.28 Let him asit alone and be silentSince He has laid it on him.Jer 15:1729 Let him 1put his mouth in the adust,Perhaps there is bhope.Lit giveJob 16:15; 40:4Jer 31:1730 Let him give his acheek to 1the smiter,Let him be filled with reproach.Lit hisJob 16:10; Is 50:631 For the Lord will anot reject forever,Ps 77:7; 94:14; Is 54:7-1032 For if He causes grief,Then He will have acompassionAccording to His abundant lovingkindness.Ps 78:38; 106:43-45; Hos 11:833 For He adoes not afflict 1willinglyOr grieve the sons of men.Lit from His heartPs 119:67, 71, 75; Ezek 33:11; Heb 12:1034 To crush under His feetAll the prisoners of the 1land,Or earth35 To 1deprive a man of ajusticeIn the presence of the Most High,Or turn aside a man’s casePs 140:12; Prov 17:1536 To 1adefraud a man in his lawsuit—Of these things the Lord does not 2approve.Lit make crookedLit seeJer 22:3; Hab 1:1337 Who is 1there who speaks and it acomes to pass,Unless the Lord has commanded it?Lit thisPs 33:9-1138 Is it not from the mouth of the Most HighThat 1aboth good and ill go forth?Lit the evil things and the goodJob 2:10; Is 45:7; Jer 32:42
39 Why should any living 1mortal, or any man,Offer acomplaint 2in view of his sins?Or human beingOr on the basis ofJer 30:15; Mic 7:9; Heb 12:5, 640 Let us aexamine and probe our ways,And let us return to the LORD.Ps 119:59; 139:23, 24; 2 Cor 13:541 We alift up our heart 1and handsToward God in heaven;Lit toward ourPs 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 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 mere aoffscouring and refuseIn the midst of the peoples.1 Cor 4:1346 All our enemies have aopened their mouths against us.Job 30:9, 10; Ps 22:6-8; Lam 2:1647 aPanic and pitfall have befallen us,Devastation and destruction;Is 24:17, 18; Jer 48:43, 4448 My 1aeyes run down with streams of waterBecause of the destruction of the daughter of my people.Lit eye bringsPs 119:136; Jer 9:1, 18; Lam 1:16; 2:11, 1849 My eyes pour down 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 bring pain to my soulBecause of all the daughters of my city.52 My enemies awithout causeHunted me down blike a bird;Ps 35:7, 191 Sam 26:20; Ps 11:1; 124:753 They have silenced 1me ain the pitAnd have 2bplaced a stone on me.Lit my lifeOr cast stonesJer 37:16; 38:6, 9Dan 6:1754 Waters flowed aover 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.Ps 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 when I called on You;You said, “bDo not fear!”Ps 145:18Is 41:10, 1458 O Lord, You ahave pleaded my soul’s cause;You have bredeemed my life.Jer 50:34Ps 34:2259 O LORD, You have aseen my oppression;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,All their schemes against me.Ps 74:18; 89:50; Lam 5:1; Zeph 2:862 The alips of my assailants and their whisperingAre against me all day long.Ps 59:7, 12; 140:3; Ezek 36:363 Look on their asitting and their rising;bI am their mocking song.Ps 139:2Job 30:9; Lam 3:1464 You will arecompense them, O LORD,According to the work of their hands.Ps 28:4; Jer 51:6, 24, 5665 You will give them 1ahardness of heart,Your curse will be on them.Or insolenceEx 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