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Selected Verse: Lamentations 3:55 - King James

Verse	Translation	Text
La 3:55	King James	I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
I called out of dungeon--Thus the spirit resists the flesh, and faith spurns the temptation [CALVIN], (Psa 130:1; Jon 2:2).

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

I called out of dungeon--Thus the spirit resists the flesh, and faith spurns the temptation [CALVIN], (Psa 130:1; Jon 2:2).

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
A prayer for deliverance and for vengeance upon his enemies. Lam 3:55 Out of the low dungeon - "The lowest pit" of Psa 88:6. Some consider that Ps. 69 was composed by Jeremiah, and is the prayer referred to here (Jer 38:6 note). Lam 3:56 Thou hast heard - In sending Ebedmelech to deliver me. The next clause signifies "Hide not thine ear to my relief to my cry," i. e. to my cry for relief. Lam 3:58 God now appears as the prophet's next of kin, pleading the lawsuits of his soul, i. e. the controversies which concern his salvation. and rescuing his life, in jeopardy through the malice of his enemies. Lam 3:59 Wrong - Done to him by the perversion of justice. Lam 3:60, Lam 3:61 Imaginations - Or, devices. Lam 3:63 Their sitting down, and their rising up - i. e. all the ordinary actions of their life. Musick - Or, song, "the subject of it." Lam 3:64-66 The versions render the verbs in these verses as futures, "Thou shalt render unto them a recompence," etc. Lam 3:65 Give them sorrow of heart - Or, "Thou wilt give them" blindness "of heart." Lam 3:66 Persecute ... - Or, pursue them in anger and destroy them, etc.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
Prayer for deliverance, and confident trust in its realization. Lam 3:55. "Out of the lowest pit I call, O Lord, on Thy name;" cf. Psa 88:7, Psa 88:14; Psa 130:1. The perfect קראתי is not a preterite, (Note: The perfects are so viewed by Ngelsbach, who also thinks that the speaker, in Lam 3:55-58, thanks the Lord for deliverance from the pit, and in Lam 3:55 reminds the Lord of the prayer he has addressed to Him out of the pit. But could he possibly think that the Lord had forgotten this? What, we should like to know, would be the use of this reminder, even if 'תּעלם וגו, Lam 3:56, could be taken as the words of address to the Lord? For we can discover no thanksgiving in Lam 3:55-58. This whole mode of viewing the passage breaks down before Lam 3:59 : "Thou hast seen mine oppression; judge me!" For, if the perfects in Lam 3:55-58 are preterites, then also ראיתה, Lam 3:59, can only be a preterite; and the prophet can only be speaking of injustice that has been done him previously: hence he cannot add thereto the request, "Judge me," inasmuch as the Lord (according to Ngelsbach) has already judged him by delivering him from the pit. Moreover, it is quite arbitrary to understand the perfects in Lam 3:59 and Lam 3:62 as referring to what has been done and is still being done to the speaker by his enemies, if it be agreed that the perfects in Lam 3:55-58 refer only to past events.) but expresses what has already happened, and still happens. This is evident from the fact that the corresponding perfect, שׁמעתּ, Lam 3:56, is continued by the optative אל־תּעלם. בּור תּחתּיּות is taken from Psa 88:7 : "pit of the lower regions of the earth,"-the תּחתּיּות ארץ, Psa 63:10; Eze 32:18, Eze 32:24, i.e., Sheol, essentially the same with מהשׁכּים, Lam 3:6, which is thereby connected with Psa 88:7, - the dark regions of the depth, whose open mouth is the grave for every one (see Delitzsch on Psalms, l.c.), hence the symbol of mortal danger. Lam 3:56-66 "Thou hast heard my voice" expresses the full assurance of faith from which the request comes: "Cover not Thine ear from my sighing." רוחה, "breathing out again;" in Eze 8:11, mitigation of oppression, yet not here respiratio, relaxatio (C. B. Michaelis, Rosenmller, etc.), - since the asyndetic לשׁועתי does not accord with such an interpretation, - but a relieving of oneself by means of deeply-drawn sighs, as in Job 32:20; hence "sighing," as Luther has already rendered it, following the Vulgate: ne avertas aurem tuum a singultu meo (Thenius, Gerlach, etc.). - In Lam 3:57 and Lam 3:58, the writer still more fully expresses his confidence that the Lord will accept him. "Thou art near on the day when I call on Thee" is a sentence found in Psa 145:18, and uttered as the experience of all believers. "Thou sayest, Fear not," i.e., Thou assurest me of Thine assistance; cf. Jer 1:8, Jer 1:17, etc. "Thou dost conduct the causes (Ger. Streitsachen) of my soul" (ריבי נפשׁי), i.e., not merely "my lawsuits," but causas quae vitam et salutem meam concernunt (C. B. Michaelis). This is shown by the parallel member, "Thou redeemest my life," sc. from the destruction which threatens it; cf. Lam 3:53., Psa 103:4. With this is connected the request in Lam 3:59, "Thou dost certainly see my oppression" (עוּתה from עוּת, to bend, oppress), the oppression which I suffer; "judge my cause," i.e., help me in my cause, cf. Jer 5:28. The suppliant bases this request, Lam 3:60-62, on the recollection that God, as the Omniscient One, knows the plans and intentions of his opponents. "Thou seest all their plans for revenge." נקמה is not here the outcome of revenge, but the thought of revenge cherished in the heart; it does not, however, mean desire of revenge, or revengeful disposition, but simply the thinking and meditating on revenge, which certainly has the spirit of revenge for its basis, but is not identical with this. Their thoughts are the plans of vengeance. ,ליdat. incomm., "to my hurt;" the reading עלי of some codices is simply a correction after Lam 3:61. This revenge they express in reproaches and invectives. שׂפתי, "lips," for utterances of the lips; and קמי as in Psa 18:40, Psa 18:49 = קמים עלי, Psa 4:3, etc. שׂפתי קמי corresponds to חרפּתם, and חגיונם to מחשׁבתם, Lam 3:61; and the whole of Lam 3:62 still depends on "Thou hearest," without any need for supplying היוּ, as Rosenmller does. Thenius and Ngelsbach would combine Lam 3:62 with 63, and make the former dependent on הבּיטה; but this is unsuitable, nor do they consider that utterances or words are not seen (הבּיט), but heard (שׁמע). With this proposed combination there falls to the ground the further remark of Thenius, that "by lips, devising, sitting, rising up, are meant the conversation and consultation of the enemies one with another." Sitting and rising up have nothing in common with speaking about any subject, but merely form a circumlocution for action generally: cf. Psa 139:2; Deu 6:7; Deu 11:19; Isa 37:28. The form מנגּינה for נגינה occurs nowhere else: Ewald considers it a form that has been lengthened for the purpose of designating a mocking song - "Sing-song." This supposition has at least more to recommend it than the ingenious but worthless idea of Bttcher, that מנגּינה is contracted from מה־נגינה, "what a stringed instrument am I to them;" but it also is improbable. מנגּינה is the subject of the נגינה, as words formed with מ often express merely the subject of the idea contained in a noun or verb; cf. Ewald, 160, b, 3. After this statement of the hostile treatment which the speaker has to suffer, there follows the renewed and further extended request that God may reward the foes according to their deeds. תּשׁיב, "Thou shalt return," is a confident expression of the request that God would do this; hence the optative תּתּן follows in Lam 3:65. In Lam 3:64 is condensed the substance of what is contained in Psa 28:4. מגנּת לב, covering (veil) of the heart, - an expression analogous to the κάλυμμα ἐπὶ τὴν καρδίαν, Co2 3:15, - is not obduration, or hardening, but blinding of the heart, which casts into destruction; but it can scarcely signify "madness" (Delitzsch, Bibl. Psychology, Clark's translation), since the Arabic majannat, insania, furor, has probably received this meaning from jinn, genius, daemon; cf. Gesenius, Thes. s. v., and Rosenmller, ad h. l. "Thy curse to them!" is not to be viewed as dependent on "give," but to be explained in accordance with Ps. 3:9, "Thy blessing [be] upon Thy people!" - thus, "May Thy curse be their portion!" The curse of God is followed by destruction. "Destroy them from under Jahveh's heaven!" i.e., not merely ut non sint amplius sub caelis (C. B. Michaelis), because יהוה is not considered in this latter rendering. The heaven of Jahveh is the whole world, over which Jahveh's authority extends; the meaning therefore is, "Exterminate them wholly from the sphere of Thy dominion in the world," or, Thy kingdom.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

Prayer for deliverance, and confident trust in its realization. Lam 3:55. "Out of the lowest pit I call, O Lord, on Thy name;" cf. Psa 88:7, Psa 88:14; Psa 130:1. The perfect קראתי is not a preterite,

(Note: The perfects are so viewed by Ngelsbach, who also thinks that the speaker, in Lam 3:55-58, thanks the Lord for deliverance from the pit, and in Lam 3:55 reminds the Lord of the prayer he has addressed to Him out of the pit. But could he possibly think that the Lord had forgotten this? What, we should like to know, would be the use of this reminder, even if 'תּעלם וגו, Lam 3:56, could be taken as the words of address to the Lord? For we can discover no thanksgiving in Lam 3:55-58. This whole mode of viewing the passage breaks down before Lam 3:59 : "Thou hast seen mine oppression; judge me!" For, if the perfects in Lam 3:55-58 are preterites, then also ראיתה, Lam 3:59, can only be a preterite; and the prophet can only be speaking of injustice that has been done him previously: hence he cannot add thereto the request, "Judge me," inasmuch as the Lord (according to Ngelsbach) has already judged him by delivering him from the pit. Moreover, it is quite arbitrary to understand the perfects in Lam 3:59 and Lam 3:62 as referring to what has been done and is still being done to the speaker by his enemies, if it be agreed that the perfects in Lam 3:55-58 refer only to past events.)

but expresses what has already happened, and still happens. This is evident from the fact that the corresponding perfect, שׁמעתּ, Lam 3:56, is continued by the optative אל־תּעלם. בּור תּחתּיּות is taken from Psa 88:7 : "pit of the lower regions of the earth,"-the תּחתּיּות ארץ, Psa 63:10; Eze 32:18, Eze 32:24, i.e., Sheol, essentially the same with מהשׁכּים, Lam 3:6, which is thereby connected with Psa 88:7, - the dark regions of the depth, whose open mouth is the grave for every one (see Delitzsch on Psalms, l.c.), hence the symbol of mortal danger.

Lam 3:56-66

"Thou hast heard my voice" expresses the full assurance of faith from which the request comes: "Cover not Thine ear from my sighing." רוחה, "breathing out again;" in Eze 8:11, mitigation of oppression, yet not here respiratio, relaxatio (C. B. Michaelis, Rosenmller, etc.), - since the asyndetic לשׁועתי does not accord with such an interpretation, - but a relieving of oneself by means of deeply-drawn sighs, as in Job 32:20; hence "sighing," as Luther has already rendered it, following the Vulgate: ne avertas aurem tuum a singultu meo (Thenius, Gerlach, etc.). - In Lam 3:57 and Lam 3:58, the writer still more fully expresses his confidence that the Lord will accept him. "Thou art near on the day when I call on Thee" is a sentence found in Psa 145:18, and uttered as the experience of all believers. "Thou sayest, Fear not," i.e., Thou assurest me of Thine assistance; cf. Jer 1:8, Jer 1:17, etc. "Thou dost conduct the causes (Ger. Streitsachen) of my soul" (ריבי נפשׁי), i.e., not merely "my lawsuits," but causas quae vitam et salutem meam concernunt (C. B. Michaelis). This is shown by the parallel member, "Thou redeemest my life," sc. from the destruction which threatens it; cf. Lam 3:53., Psa 103:4. With this is connected the request in Lam 3:59, "Thou dost certainly see my oppression" (עוּתה from עוּת, to bend, oppress), the oppression which I suffer; "judge my cause," i.e., help me in my cause, cf. Jer 5:28. The suppliant bases this request, Lam 3:60-62, on the recollection that God, as the Omniscient One, knows the plans and intentions of his opponents. "Thou seest all their plans for revenge." נקמה is not here the outcome of revenge, but the thought of revenge cherished in the heart; it does not, however, mean desire of revenge, or revengeful disposition, but simply the thinking and meditating on revenge, which certainly has the spirit of revenge for its basis, but is not identical with this. Their thoughts are the plans of vengeance. ,ליdat. incomm., "to my hurt;" the reading עלי of some codices is simply a correction after Lam 3:61. This revenge they express in reproaches and invectives. שׂפתי, "lips," for utterances of the lips; and קמי as in Psa 18:40, Psa 18:49 = קמים עלי, Psa 4:3, etc. שׂפתי קמי corresponds to חרפּתם, and חגיונם to מחשׁבתם, Lam 3:61; and the whole of Lam 3:62 still depends on "Thou hearest," without any need for supplying היוּ, as Rosenmller does. Thenius and Ngelsbach would combine Lam 3:62 with 63, and make the former dependent on הבּיטה; but this is unsuitable, nor do they consider that utterances or words are not seen (הבּיט), but heard (שׁמע). With this proposed combination there falls to the ground the further remark of Thenius, that "by lips, devising, sitting, rising up, are meant the conversation and consultation of the enemies one with another." Sitting and rising up have nothing in common with speaking about any subject, but merely form a circumlocution for action generally: cf. Psa 139:2; Deu 6:7; Deu 11:19; Isa 37:28. The form מנגּינה for נגינה occurs nowhere else: Ewald considers it a form that has been lengthened for the purpose of designating a mocking song - "Sing-song." This supposition has at least more to recommend it than the ingenious but worthless idea of Bttcher, that מנגּינה is contracted from מה־נגינה, "what a stringed instrument am I to them;" but it also is improbable. מנגּינה is the subject of the נגינה, as words formed with מ often express merely the subject of the idea contained in a noun or verb; cf. Ewald, 160, b, 3. After this statement of the hostile treatment which the speaker has to suffer, there follows the renewed and further extended request that God may reward the foes according to their deeds. תּשׁיב, "Thou shalt return," is a confident expression of the request that God would do this; hence the optative תּתּן follows in Lam 3:65. In Lam 3:64 is condensed the substance of what is contained in Psa 28:4. מגנּת לב, covering (veil) of the heart, - an expression analogous to the κάλυμμα ἐπὶ τὴν καρδίαν, Co2 3:15, - is not obduration, or hardening, but blinding of the heart, which casts into destruction; but it can scarcely signify "madness" (Delitzsch, Bibl. Psychology, Clark's translation), since the Arabic majannat, insania, furor, has probably received this meaning from jinn, genius, daemon; cf. Gesenius, Thes. s. v., and Rosenmller, ad h. l. "Thy curse to them!" is not to be viewed as dependent on "give," but to be explained in accordance with Ps. 3:9, "Thy blessing [be] upon Thy people!" - thus, "May Thy curse be their portion!" The curse of God is followed by destruction. "Destroy them from under Jahveh's heaven!" i.e., not merely ut non sint amplius sub caelis (C. B. Michaelis), because יהוה is not considered in this latter rendering. The heaven of Jahveh is the whole world, over which Jahveh's authority extends; the meaning therefore is, "Exterminate them wholly from the sphere of Thy dominion in the world," or, Thy kingdom.

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² And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

¹ A Song of degrees. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.

⁶⁶ Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.

⁶⁵ Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.

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.

⁶³ Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.

⁶¹ Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;

⁶⁰ Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.

⁵⁹ O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.

⁵⁸ O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

⁵⁶ Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.

⁶ Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.

⁶ Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

⁵⁵ I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.

¹⁵ But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.

⁴ Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert.

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.

²⁸ But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.

¹⁹ And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

⁷ And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

² Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.

⁶² The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

⁶¹ Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;

³ But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him.

⁴⁹ Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name.

⁴⁰ Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies; that I might destroy them that hate me.

⁶¹ Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;

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.

²⁸ They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.

⁵⁹ O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.

⁴ Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

⁵³ They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.

¹⁷ Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.

⁸ Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.

¹⁸ The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.

⁵⁸ O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

⁵⁷ Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.

²⁰ I will speak, that I may be refreshed: I will open my lips and answer.

¹¹ And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.

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.

⁷ Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.

⁶ He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.

²⁴ There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, which caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit.

¹⁸ Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit.

¹⁰ They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes.

⁷ Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.

⁵⁶ Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.

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.

⁶² The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

⁵⁹ O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.

⁵⁶ Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.

⁵⁵ I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.

¹ A Song of degrees. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.

¹⁴ LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?

⁷ Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.

⁵⁵ I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.