Personal testimonies can be powerful, especially when they concern rescue from near-death experiences. Such testimony can serve as encouragement to others by providing hope if they ever find themselves in similarly dire circumstances. The Bible contains many such examples that serve as encouragement for our faith (cf. Rom. 15:4). The biblical examples include the experiences of Joseph and Jeremiah. In both cases they were thrown into a pit to their deaths but were then rescued to life. If the prophet of Lamentations is not Jeremiah, even though his personal testimony in Lamentations 3:52–58 is uncannily similar to Jeremiah’s, then he serves as a third example. As men who underwent a miniature death-to-resurrection experience, they serve as an encouragement to us as they serve as types of another man who went into the pit of death and was rescued from it: Jesus Christ. Joseph and Jeremiah in their pit experiences foreshadow Jesus in his.
Indeed, this passage contains several parallels. Jesus was hunted like a bird by his enemies “without cause” (v. 52). From the early stages of his ministry the Pharisees and Sadducees, along with the Herodians (Mark 3:6), plotted how they might destroy Jesus. When they finally brought him to trial before a Roman court, Pilate could find no wrong in him—Jesus was truly innocent (Luke 23:4). Yet, despite this, they crucified him, throwing him into the pit of death (cf. Lam. 3:53), so to speak. After his death they placed a large stone over his grave (v. 53). In that experience the waters of God’s judgment rolled over his head (v. 54; cf. Pss. 42:7; 69:2; 88:6–7); like the suffering servant, he was “cut off” from God and from the land of the living (Lam. 3:54; cf. Isa. 53:8; Matt. 27:46). Yet from the depths of his pit-of-death experience he “offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (Heb. 5:7). God heard his prayers and took up his cause (Lam. 3:58); God drew near by his Spirit and raised him from the dead, redeeming his life (v. 58; cf. Rom. 1:4). Jesus’ death-to-life experience, foreshadowed by Joseph and Jeremiah/this prophet, serves as an encouragement to us. For, if God redeemed the life of his Son from death, how will he not also redeem the lives of all those united to his Son by faith?
When Jesus was on earth, he taught his disciples to pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth (Matt. 6:10). The realization of this aspect of the Lord’s Prayer is multifaceted, but one way it is manifested is through a final judgment on God’s enemies. In the OT this kind of prayer takes the form of oracles against the nations (e.g., Obadiah) and prayers of imprecation (e.g., Psalm 137), which is what we have in the final verses of Lamentations 3. Such prayers are simply a call for God to put right the wrongs done against his people. In NT terms this means God’s punishment will fall on all those who have wronged his Son the Lord Jesus (cf. Acts 2:23) or have wronged anyone who identifies with his Son as a member of his church (cf. Col. 1:24; 2 Thess. 1:4–5). Paul speaks of Jesus’ return as the time of divine “vengeance,” when God will act in justice and “repay with affliction” those who have afflicted his people (2 Thess. 1:5–8). It is, therefore, not wrong to pray for this day to come; indeed, this is exactly what Jesus taught us to pray: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The good news for us, and even our enemies, is that today is still the day of salvation. Through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ God is ready and willing to make his enemies into his friends (Rom. 5:10). And if they become his friends, then they become our friends too.Lamentations 3:52–66
Lamentations 4:1–10
Or Repay them
Or Give them
Or place your curse
Or Pursue them
Syriac (compare Septuagint, Vulgate); Hebrew the heavens of the Lord
3:52–54 These verses present the prophet’s testimony of his own personal experience of descent into death. With them comes a distinct shift in tone and perspective, as Yahweh changes roles from enemy to redeemer (v. 58). The prophet’s simile of the bird paints him as harmless and innocent. This is supported by the qualifying phrase “without cause,” which speaks of his innocence. There is no clash here with verses 40–42, since the prophet is recalling a personal experience in his own life rather than the corporate experience of Jerusalem-Judah’s sin as a nation. In verses 53–54 the image of the bird is abruptly left behind as the prophet explains in matter-of-fact detail what his enemies did to him: they flung him alive into the pit and cast a stone upon him, while the water in the pit flowed over his head.
Some comments on the Hebrew text are necessary for proper understanding. The word “alive” is a noun that could function as an adverbial accusative, but this is unlikely given the pronominal suffix “my” attached to it. A better rendering would be that they confined his life to the pit, that is, they put an end to his life. The word “pit” is often used in the context of the extermination of life—either literally, in the case of Joseph and Jeremiah, who were both thrown into a pit and left to die (cf. Genesis 37; Jeremiah 38), or metaphorically, in the Psalms as a place of destruction and death (cf. Ps. 30:3). The definite article with “pit” reinforces the significance and symbolism of the pit in this prophet’s experience: it was the place of death. This is confirmed by two lines that rule out any possibility of escape from his deathlike situation: the enemies cast a stone upon him in the pit, which suggests he had no way of escape from the pit; and water in the pit flooded over his head. The image of drowning in water is used elsewhere in the OT as a picture of being in the throes of death or under the judgment of God (cf. Pss. 42:7; 88:6–7; Jonah 2:3, 5). What the prophet uttered from the pit in his dying breath confirms this: “I am lost”—a single word in Hebrew. The verb is used elsewhere in the OT to describe being “cut off” from life (Isa. 53:8) or from God (Ps. 31:22). Thus this man not only is dying in the pit but damned to it—indefinitely. In many ways the prophet’s near-death experience is a microcosm of what the nation is presently experiencing.
3:55–57 This stanza presents the prophet’s ascent to life after his descent to death in the previous stanza. The turning point comes when he calls upon the name of Yahweh (Lam. 3:55). The last time the prophet did so as the personified nation, it changed his perspective entirely. In verse 18 he called God’s name in the darkness, and despair gave way to hope; here he calls on God’s name from the depths of the pit, and his life is redeemed. The vocative address reminds the reader that this personal testimony is directed primarily to God, even though it is also intended as an encouragement for the people not to give up hope in their “pitfall” experience (cf. v. 47). This is the first of several vocative addresses that dominate the rest of the chapter (cf. vv. 55, 58, 59, 61, 64, 66). Together they form the most concentrated use of the vocative in the entire book, revealing just how earnest is the prophet in his appeal to God for redemption (vv. 55–58) and then for recompense (vv. 59–66).
The prophet’s “calling upon Yahweh” forms an inclusio in the stanza (vv. 55, 57); in between God “hears” his plea and “comes near” (v. 56–57). God’s response to the prophet’s plea stands in stark contrast to his silence and absence felt throughout chapters 1–2. Indeed, earlier in chapter 3 God was depicted as wrapped in an impenetrable cloud that repelled the people’s prayer (vv. 43–44). But not so in the experience of this innocent prophet; he can testify that in his life God heard his voice. The plea that the prophet speaks reveals his desperate state: he urges God not to shut his ear at “[his] cry for help.” God responds to his urgent cry for help by drawing near (v. 57)—a foreshadowing of his name Immanuel. But more than that, God speaks for the first and only time in the book. He speaks three simple words; words that reverberate beyond this prophet’s life into the life of Jerusalem-Judah: “Do not fear!”
3:58–60 Verse 58 continues the testimony of the prophet before transitioning back to the prophet as the personified nation (vv. 59–66). He addresses God as his sovereign Lord, picturing him as a judge taking up a legal case. The word “cause” is a technical term for “lawsuit” (Hb. rib). Since God does not believe in subverting a man in his lawsuit (cf. v. 36), and since this prophet is innocent (cf. v. 52), God willingly takes up his cause and redeems his life from the pit (v. 58). Thus the prophet’s testimony is one of a miniature death-and-resurrection experience, a movement from the state of damnation (being cut off from man and God) to the state of redemption (being in renewed fellowship with God). The turning point was when he called upon the name of his covenant God.
It is helpful at this point to pause and be reminded why the prophet has given a personal testimony of God’s deliverance in his life: it serves as an encouragement to the people of Judah. In many ways the prophet has provided a real-life example of the lesson he gave in verses 25–33, in which he taught them that it is good to wait in silence and endure suffering for a time, for the Lord will not cast off forever; after he causes grief he will again show compassion according to his steadfast love. In short the prophet’s testimony is an encouragement to take the long view, for with God redemption, not destruction or damnation, is the last word.
Verse 59 transitions back to the prophet as the personified nation as he makes his appeal to God to judge his present cause. The rest of this stanza and the next two take up his appeal for recompense on the enemy nations. The prophet longs for justice, believing that he (and therefore his own nation) has been wronged. However, a qualification is important. There is no suggestion that the prophet thinks the nation is innocent, even though he has claimed as much for himself (v. 52). Thus far the people have willingly admitted that they have sinned against God (1:5, 8, 14, 18, 20, 22; 2:14). The difference here in 3:59 is that the prophet, representing the personified nation, believes that the agents of destruction that God used in his day of anger went beyond the stated bounds of their remit—they used excessive force and were merciless. Yes, Jerusalem-Judah deserve what they have received by the hand of God, but the nations performed the destruction with a vengeful spirit (v. 60), with scheming plots (vv. 60–61), and with a mocking attitude (vv. 61, 63). The prophet twice speaks about what God has “seen” (raʾah). The use of the word is deliberate, answering the question of whether God has heard the people’s plea to see their affliction and sorrow caused by their enemies (cf. 1:11, 20; 2:20). The prophet states that God has indeed seen the wrongs, the vengeance, and the plots. The qualifying “all” on “vengeance” and “plots” shows that there is nothing that he has not seen. And so, will “not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Gen. 18:25).
3:61–62 This stanza continues to outline the wrongs done against the nation, personified by the prophet. God has not only “seen” every vengeful act and scheming plot but also “heard” the enemies’ constant taunts. The omniscient God will take it all into account as he judges their case. The word “taunts” in Lamentations 3:61, 63 translates two different Hebrew words (translated “insults/disgrace,” cf. v. 30; 5:1; “taunt/mocking song,” cf. 3:14; 5:14), but conceptually they still form an inclusio in the stanza. In between the personified nation feels harassed by the constant antagonism of its agitators, from what they say (their “lips and thoughts”; 3:62) to what they do (“their sitting and their rising”; v. 63). It is the picture of a man hassled and hounded by the words and deeds of his enemies. The repetition of the key phrase “all their plots against me” reveals how deep the scars run for him. He cannot stop playing back what they have done to him; he is fixated on their crimes.
3:63–66 Since God has “seen” and “heard” the wrongs, the prophet now issues a full-blown imprecation for God to “repay,” to “give,” to “pursue” his enemies. The imperfect verbs may be read in one of two ways: as statements of confidence, that God will repay (ESV), or as implied directives, that God shall and ought to repay (ESV mg.). Given the imperative in verse 59 to “judge” the prophet’s cause, perhaps the latter reading is better suited to the context. In any case the prophet prays to God to act in judgment, knowing that he indeed can do so.
Imprecatory prayers are a difficult part of the Bible to understand and apply. However, keeping two perspectives in mind can help alleviate our reticence to appreciate their rightness. First, imprecations are addressed to God as the ultimate judge to whom vengeance belongs (cf. Deut. 32:35). The address to Yahweh conveys the propriety of the imprecation as well as its urgency. Second, imprecations are a call for justice and nothing more. In this case the prophet wants God to repay the nations “according to the work of their hands” (Lam. 3:64). The principle of lex talionis is a just one. In verse 65 the prophet unpacks the recompense that he calls God to enact in unique terms: the words “dullness” and “curse” occur only here in the OT. Perhaps their uniqueness indicates that this judgment will be like nothing ever seen before.
Verse 66 provides the final imprecatory appeal for God to pursue the enemy in anger and destroy them. The language employed points to the theme of divine reversal once again. The verb “pursue” is a key descriptor of the enemies’ actions against the people of Judah (1:3, 6; 4:19; 5:5); it is used also of Yahweh’s pursuing his people like a warrior wrapped in a garment of anger (3:43). Thus, what the prophet calls for is a divine volte-face: “May the nations that pursued me in the day of God’s anger now be pursued by you with that same anger.”