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3. Judah's Complaint

¹ This chapter is an acrostic poem; the verses of each stanza begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and the verses within each stanza begin with the same letter.I am the man who has seen affliction
   by the rod of the LORD’s wrath.
² He has driven me away and made me walk
   in darkness rather than light;
³ indeed, he has turned his hand against me
   again and again, all day long.

    ⁴ He has made my skin and my flesh grow old
   and has broken my bones.
⁵ He has besieged me and surrounded me
   with bitterness and hardship.
⁶ He has made me dwell in darkness
   like those long dead.

    ⁷ He has walled me in so I cannot escape;
   he has weighed me down with chains.
⁸ Even when I call out or cry for help,
   he shuts out my prayer.
⁹ He has barred my way with blocks of stone;
   he has made my paths crooked.

    ¹⁰ Like a bear lying in wait,
   like a lion in hiding,
¹¹ he dragged me from the path and mangled me
   and left me without help.
¹² He drew his bow
   and made me the target for his arrows.

    ¹³ He pierced my heart
   with arrows from his quiver.
¹⁴ I became the laughingstock of all my people;
   they mock me in song all day long.
¹⁵ He has filled me with bitter herbs
   and given me gall to drink.

    ¹⁶ He has broken my teeth with gravel;
   he has trampled me in the dust.
¹⁷ I have been deprived of peace;
   I have forgotten what prosperity is.
¹⁸ So I say, “My splendor is gone
   and all that I had hoped from the LORD.”

    ¹⁹ I remember my affliction and my wandering,
   the bitterness and the gall.
²⁰ I well remember them,
   and my soul is downcast within me.
²¹ Yet this I call to mind
   and therefore I have hope:

    ²² Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
   for his compassions never fail.
²³ They are new every morning;
   great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
   therefore I will wait for him.”

    ²⁵ The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
   to the one who seeks him;
²⁶ it is good to wait quietly
   for the salvation of the LORD.
²⁷ It is good for a man to bear the yoke
   while he is young.

    ²⁸ Let him sit alone in silence,
   for the LORD has laid it on him.
²⁹ Let him bury his face in the dust—
   there may yet be hope.
³⁰ Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
   and let him be filled with disgrace.

    ³¹ For no one is cast off
   by the Lord forever.
³² Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
   so great is his unfailing love.
³³ For he does not willingly bring affliction
   or grief to anyone.

    ³⁴ To crush underfoot
   all prisoners in the land,
³⁵ to deny people their rights
   before the Most High,
³⁶ to deprive them of justice—
   would not the Lord see such things?

    ³⁷ Who can speak and have it happen
   if the Lord has not decreed it?
³⁸ Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
   that both calamities and good things come?
³⁹ Why should the living complain
   when punished for their sins?

    ⁴⁰ Let us examine our ways and test them,
   and let us return to the LORD.
⁴¹ Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
   to God in heaven, and say:
⁴² “We have sinned and rebelled
   and you have not forgiven.

    ⁴³ “You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us;
   you have slain without pity.
⁴⁴ You have covered yourself with a cloud
   so that no prayer can get through.
⁴⁵ You have made us scum and refuse
   among the nations.

    ⁴⁶ “All our enemies have opened their mouths
   wide against us.
⁴⁷ We have suffered terror and pitfalls,
   ruin and destruction.”
⁴⁸ Streams of tears flow from my eyes
   because my people are destroyed.

    ⁴⁹ My eyes will flow unceasingly,
   without relief,
⁵⁰ until the LORD looks down
   from heaven and sees.
⁵¹ What I see brings grief to my soul
   because of all the women of my city.

    ⁵² Those who were my enemies without cause
   hunted me like a bird.
⁵³ They tried to end my life in a pit
   and threw stones at me;
⁵⁴ the waters closed over my head,
   and I thought I was about to perish.

    ⁵⁵ I called on your name, LORD,
   from the depths of the pit.
⁵⁶ You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears
   to my cry for relief.”
⁵⁷ You came near when I called you,
   and you said, “Do not fear.”

    ⁵⁸ You, Lord, took up my case;
   you redeemed my life.
⁵⁹ LORD, you have seen the wrong done to me.
   Uphold my cause!
⁶⁰ You have seen the depth of their vengeance,
   all their plots against me.

    ⁶¹ LORD, you have heard their insults,
   all their plots against me—
⁶² what my enemies whisper and mutter
   against me all day long.
⁶³ Look at them! Sitting or standing,
   they mock me in their songs.

    ⁶⁴ Pay them back what they deserve, LORD,
   for what their hands have done.
⁶⁵ Put a veil over their hearts,
   and may your curse be on them!
⁶⁶ Pursue them in anger and destroy them
   from under the heavens of the LORD.

The Prophet again complains of the reproaches to which God had exposed the Jews. We have said that of all evils the most grievous is reproach, and experience teaches us that sorrow is greatly embittered when scoffs and taunts are added to it; for he who silently bears the most grievous sorrows, becomes broken in heart when he finds himself contumeliously treated. This, then, is the reason why the Prophet again amplifies the miseries of the people, because they were exposed to the scoffs of all men. But it may seem a strange thing that the Jews were derided by their own people. This is the reason why some think that the Prophet complains of his own private evils, and that he does not represent the whole people or the public condition of the Church. But it may also be said in reply, that the Prophet does not mean that the people were derided by themselves, which could not be; but it is the same as though he had said, that their state was so disgraceful, that while they looked on one another, they had a reason for taunting, if this their condition was allowed to continue.

In short, the Prophet does not mean what was actually done, but he simply complains that their calamity was liable to all kinds of reproaches, so that any one looking on Jerusalem might justly deride such a disgraceful spectacle. And it was, as we have said, a most equitable reward, for they had not ceased to reproach God. Then rendered to them was what they had deserved, when God loaded them in turn with dishonor.

He afterwards adds, that he was their song, that is, of derision; for it is a confirmation of the former clause, and the same complaint is also formal in Job. He says that he was their song daily or all the day. This constancy, as it has been said, proved more clearly the grievousness of the evil.

Some render the last word “wormwood,” but this word seems not to me to suit the passage, for though wormwood is bitter, yet it is a wholesome herb. I therefore take it in this and like places for poison or gall; and ראש, rash, as we shall see, is joined with it. To satiate, is also a metaphor very common. Then the Prophet means that lie was full of bitterness and gall; and lie thus had regard to those calamities from which so much sorrow had proceeded.

We hence also gather that the faithful were not free from sorrow in their evils, for bitterness and gall sufficiently shew that their minds were so disturbed that they did not bear their troubles with sufficient patience. But they struggled with their own infirmity, and the example is set before us that we may not despond when bitterness and gall lay hold on our minds; for since the same thing happened to the best servants of God, let us bear in mind our own infirmity, and at the same time flee to God. The unbelieving nourish their bitterness, for they do not unburden their souls into the bosom of God. But the best way of comfort is, when we do not flatter ourselves in our bitterness and grief, but seek the purifying of our souls, and in a manner lay them open, so that whatever bitter thing may be there, God may take it away and so feed us, as it is said elsewhere, with the sweetness of his goodness. He adds, —