Lamentations 3 is the third chapter of the Book of Lamentations in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

or the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

of the

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

, part of the Ketuvim ("Writings").

Text

The original text was written in

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. This chapter, the longest in the book, is divided into 66 verses. The chapter is

acrostic An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the Fre ...

, divided into 22 stanzas. The stanzas consist of three lines (each line is numbered as one verse), each of which begins with the same Hebrew letter of the

Hebrew alphabet The Hebrew alphabet ( he, wikt:אלפבית, אָלֶף־בֵּית עִבְרִי, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is an abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew languag ...

in regular order (22 letters of alphabet in number, make up the total of 66 verses).

Textual versions

Some early witnesses for the text of this chapter in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

are of the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...

, which includes Codex Leningradensis (1008). Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the nor ...

, i.e., 3Q3 (3QLam; 30 BCE‑50 CE) with extant verses 53-62 There is also a translation into

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

known as the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...

, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...

(B;

\mathfrak

^B; 4th century),

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...

(A;

\mathfrak

^A; 5th century) and

Codex Marchalianus Codex Marchalianus designated by siglum Q is a 6th-century Greek manuscript copy of the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh or Old Testament) known as the Septuagint. The text was written on vellum in uncial letters. Palaeographically it ...

(Q;

\mathfrak

^Q; 6th century).

Verse 1

: ''I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.'' * "Who has seen affliction": - i. e. has experienced, suffered it. Barnes, Albert
''Notes on the Bible'' - Lamentations 3
London, Blackie & Son, 1884. Reprint, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998. Jeremiah's own affliction in the dungeon of Malchiah (Jeremiah 38:6); that of his countrymen also in the siege.Robert Jamieson, Andrew Robert Fausset; David Brown. '' Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary On the Whole Bible''
"Lamentations 3"
1871. * "By the rod of His wrath": showing that it is not Babylon who has humbled Israel as Jehovah's instrument, but that God himself has brought these troubles upon his people. "He had led me, has hedged me about," etc.Joseph S. Exell; Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones (Editors)

In: ''The

Pulpit Commentary The ''Pulpit Commentary'' is a homiletic commentary on the Bible created during the nineteenth century under the direction of Rev. Joseph S. Exell and Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones. It consists of 23 volumes with 22,000 pages and 95,000 entrie ...

''. 23 volumes. First publication: 1890. The king of Babylon, called "the rod of the Lord's anger" (). This phrase can be connected to . The Targum states, ''"by the rod of him that chastiseth in his anger."''

John Gill John Gill may refer to: Sports *John Gill (cricketer) (1854–1888), New Zealand cricketer *John Gill (coach) (1898–1997), American football coach *John Gill (footballer, born 1903), English professional footballer *John Gill (American football) ...

''Exposition of the Entire Bible''. Lamentations 3.
Published in 1746-1763.

Verse 22

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...

: : ''It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed,'' :: ''because his compassions fail not.''

English Standard Version The English Standard Version (ESV) is an English translation of the Bible. Published in 2001 by Crossway, the ESV was "created by a team of more than 100 leading evangelical scholars and pastors." The ESV relies on recently published critic ...

: : ''The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;'' :: ''his mercies never come to an end;''

Verse 22 in Hebrew

Masoretic text: : חסדי יהוה כי לא־תמנו :: כי לא־כלו רחמיו׃ Transliteration: : - :: - . * "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed" literally, "The Lord's mercies that we are not consumed" (Hebrew: חסדי יהוה כי לא־תמנו '' -''). The word "we" is unclear, especially considering that in

verse 23 Verse may refer to: Poetry * Verse, an occasional synonym for poetry * Verse, a metrical structure, a stanza * Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme * Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict mete ...

(which is clearly parallel) the subject of the sentence is "the Lord's mercies," not "we," so probably the reading of the Targum and the

Peshitta The Peshitta ( syc, ܦܫܺܝܛܬܳܐ ''or'' ') is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition, including the Maronite Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the ...

(as adopted by Thenius, Ewald, and Bickell) is correct, "The Lord's mercies, verily they cease not" (''tammu'' for ''tamnu''). An example of a change from singular to plural, compare also .

Verse 23

: ''They are new every morning:'' :: ''great is thy faithfulness.'' Cross reference: ;

Verse 23 in Hebrew

:חדשים לבקרים רבה אמונתך׃ Transliteration : la-, .

Verse 24

: ''"The Lord is my portion," says my soul,'' : ''"Therefore I hope in Him!"'' * "The Lord is my Portion": "My portion is Yahweh," see ; a reminiscence of (compare ; ; ; ). Having God for "our portion" is the "one only foundation of hope".

Verses 46–51

In , two initial letters, " Ayin" and " Pe", are transposed. This is found is three instances in the whole book ( Lamentations 2:16–17; 3:46-51; 4:16–17). Grotius thinks the reason for the inversion of two of the Hebrew letters, is that the Chaldeans, like the Arabians, used a different order from the Hebrews; in the first Elegy (chapter), Jeremiah speaks as a Hebrew, in the following ones, as one subject to the Chaldeans, but Fausset thinks it is doubtful.Jamieson, Robert; Fausset, Andrew Robert; Brown, David. '' Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary on the Whole Bible''
"Lamentations 1: Introduction"
1871.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * *

External links

Jewish

Lamentations 3 Hebrew with Parallel EnglishLamentations 3 Hebrew with Rashi's Commentary

Christian

Lamentations 3 English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate
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