Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Lamentations 3:48
Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
48. runneth down with rivers of water ] a still stronger expression than that of Lam 1:16, where see note. Cp. Jer 13:17; Psa 119:136.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The deep sympathy of the prophet, which pours itself forth in abundant tears over the distress of his people.
Lam 3:51
Or, Mine eye causeth pain to my soul, i. e. maketh my soul ache, because of the sad fate of the maidens (Lam 1:4, Lam 1:18, …).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 48. Mine eye runneth down] I weep incessantly.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
48. (Jer4:19).
Ain.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Mine eye runneth down with rivers of waters,…. Denoting the greatness of his grief and trouble at the afflictions of his people, and the vast profusion of tears on that account. Here the prophet speaks in his own person, expressing the anguish of his soul he felt, and the floods of tears he shed:
for the destruction of the daughter of my people; for those that were slain of them, or carried captive; see Jer 9:1. The Targum is,
“for the destruction of the congregation of my people.”
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Interpreters give different explanations of the beginning of this verse: some render it thus, “My eye comes down unto rivers of waters;” others, “My eye flows down unto rivers of waters,” or, “rivers of waters flow down.” But as I have explained elsewhere, the Prophet rather means, that his eye came down like rivers; and to come down, or to descend, is a metaphor for flowing down; for water, as it is well known, descends when it flows. And there is a change of number when he says, “My eye descends;” there is also raider-stood the particle of comparison, כ, caph (198) The meaning is, that his eyes descended or flowed down as rivers. The last: word properly signifies divisions, but; he means that many streams flowed down, as though they were so many rivers.
For the bruising, or the breach, of my people: the Prophet speaks here in his own person, though there is no doubt but that he exhorts all others to join him in his sorrow. For the faithful would not have prayed to God with sufficient ardor, had they not been dreadfully broken and confounded; had not the calamity deeply affected them, as it ought to have done, there would have been no serious attention to prayer. This is the reason why the Prophet here mentions his own weepings, and groanings, and tears, even that he might rouse himself to prayer, and lead others also. It follows, —
(198) Let the verb have a causative sense, to cause to descend, to bring down, and there will be no difficulty in the clause; so the Sept. and the Vulg. , —
Streams of water does mine eyes bring down For the breach of the daughter of my people,
—
Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
EXEGETICAL NOTES.
() Lam. 3:46-48 present significant intimations of their base condition. Enemies making sport of them fear and pitfalls surrounding them, and the oft-recurring feeling of utter destruction instigating tears shed as copiously as rivers of water.
() Lam. 3:49. The excessive weeping is continuous. Mine eye poureth down tears, and that without interruption. Nor will the sound of weeping be stanched, except when his undercurrent of hope reaches its terminus.
Lam. 3:50. Till Jehovah looks down and beholds from heaven. When He sees the bearing and result of afflictions on His Names glory, then He hears the sighing of the prisoner. For He will not contend for ever, neither will He be always wroth.
Lam. 3:51. Beyond what the eye shows externally it exerts influence upon the inward part. Mine eye hurts my soul: not in the rather jejune sense that the flood of tears had made the eye painful, and that pain was felt in the soul; but the soul was pained because of the eye beholding the sad lot of the more delicate and defenceless part of the population, the daughters of my city.
HOMILETICS
A SYMPATHETIC NATURE
(Lam. 3:48-51)
I. Is pained by the evidences of national distress everywhere visible. Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city (Lam. 3:51). What I see I feel. I see nothing but misery, and I feel nothing but pain. Amid the general suffering, the tender heart of the prophet mourned over the cruel fate of the Jewish maidens. This is a subject to which he often refers (ch. Lam. 1:4; Lam. 1:18; Lam. 2:10; Lam. 2:21; Lam. 5:11). Jeremiah suffered not in his own person, being under the protection of the Divine Being; but though he dwelt securely from the hand of mortality, yet he was filled with the bowels of sympathy. Though he wrote of the Jews desolations, yet he named them Jeremiahs Lamentations.
II. Is aggravated in its grief because God, who sees the calamity, does not at once remove it. Till the Lord look down and behold from heaven (Lam. 3:50). While the Lord looks down. He sees all this suffering; every feature of it is fully known to Him. Why does He not interfere? How can He be so indifferent to the agonies of His people? The prophets heart is breaking, and it is a mystery and an addition to his pain that Jehovah does nothaste to the rescue. Sympathy is not always wise. Our emotions are apt to swamp our judgment. God knows infallibly how much suffering is necessary, and when the right moment is come for Him to interpose.
III. Expresses its sorrow in a copious outflow of tears. Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water, without any intermission (Lam. 3:48-49). The measure of our being is our capacity for sorrow or joy. A certain traveller states that the shadow cast by Mount Hermon at some periods is as much as seventy miles long. A sensitive nature is susceptible of great sorrow, and has manifold ways of expressing the same. While the cause of sorrow remains, the sympathetic heart will mourn.
LESSONS.
1. Callons indeed is the heart that can witness suffering without emotion.
2. The heart that loves intensely suffers intensely.
3. A sympathetic nature finds a merciful relief in tears.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Lam. 3:51. Sin the cause of suffering: I. To the patriot, as he sees its effect upon the nation. II. To the philanthropist, as he observes the mischief it works in the world. III. To the individual believer, as he is conscious of its presence in his own heart.
ILLUSTRATIONS.The power of sympathy. Happy is the man who has that in his soul which acts upon the dejected as April airs upon violet roots. Gifts from the hand are silver and gold; but the heart gives that which neither silver nor gold can buy. To be full of goodness, full of cheerfulness, full of sympathy, full of helpful hope, causes a man to carry blessings of which he is himself as unconscious as a lamp of its own shining. Such an one moves on human life as stars move on dark seas to bewildered mariners; as the sun wheels, bringing all the seasons with him from the south.Beecher.
Grief leaves its mark. Sir Walter Scott says of himself after a sore bereavement, I was broken-hearted for two years; and though handsomely pieced again, the crack will remain to my dying day
Practical sympathy. When St. Remy was preaching before King Clovis of France, telling with passionate pathos the story of Christs suffering and death, the monarch suddenly sprang from his throne, and, grasping his spear, cried, Had I been there with my brave Franks, I would have avenged His wrongs.
The relief of tears. A maniac while listening to a thrilling recital was moved to tears Lifting her withered finger she exclaimed, Do you see that tear? It is the first tear that I have shed for seven years, and it will relieve my poor burning head. I have often wished that I could weep, but I could not.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
IV. HIS PERSONAL SUFFERING Lam. 3:48-54
TRANSLATION
(48) With streams of water my eyes flow because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. (49) My eyes flow without ceasing, without any pause. (50) Until the LORD sees and looks down from. (51) My eyes afflict my soul because of all the daughters of my city. (52) Those who had no reason to be my enemies have hunted me down like a bird. (53) They have cut off my life in the pit and have cast a stone on me. (54) Waters flowed over my head. I said, I am cut off.
COMMENTS
As the weeping prophet contemplates the judgment which has befallen his people he bursts into tears anew (Lam. 3:48). Without a moments pause he continues his sorrowful intercession (Lam. 3:49). He is determined to pray until the Lord looks in tender compassion upon the affliction of His people (Lam. 3:50). The poet continues to be disturbed by the sight of the shameful defilement of the young maidens of Jerusalem (Lam. 3:51).
A problem arises with regard to the interpretation of Lam. 3:52-54. Many commentators feel that Jeremiah speaks here as a representative of the people of Judah and that he here is describing in figurative terms the experience of the nation. Others feel that Jeremiah is alluding here to his own experiences in the empty cistern before the fall of Jerusalem (Jer. 38:6-13) or to some more recent similar experience. If allowance is made for poetic imagery there is no reason why Lam. 3:52-54 could not refer to the actual experience of the prophet. Without justification the national leaders considered Jeremiah as a traitor to his nation. They hunted him down like a fowler hunts his prey (Lam. 3:52). They planned to get rid of the prophetic pest permanently by casting him into a dungeon and then covering the mouth of that pit with a stone (Lam. 3:53). Jeremiah sank into the mire of that empty cistern and the waters of death, as it were, flowed over his head. In the midst of his despair he cried out unto the Lord: I am cut off i.e., I am as good as dead (Lam. 3:54).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(48) Mine eye . . .A stronger utterance of the thought of Lam. 1:16; Lam. 2:18; Psa. 119:136.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Lam 3:48. Runneth down with Bathes in. Schultens.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
“Handfuls of Purpose”
For All Gleaners
“Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.” Lam 3:48 .
Thus the prophet does not live for himself, he lives the larger life of philanthropy and sympathy. There are men who separate themselves from the race and think of themselves only in their petty individualism; so long as they are personally comfortable they ignore the misery of society. No Christian man should reason in this way, for such reasoning has not in it one spark of the pity of Christ. We are to look upon ourselves as brethren, as put in trust with a common citizenship, and as bearing one another’s burdens as well as sharing one another’s joys. He is not a Christian man who is not moved towards joy by the laughter of childhood, and who is not depressed by the moan of human woe. When a man has bread, and another man is in want of bread, he is bound to give what he has, because the bread is not his only, it belongs to mankind. Christianity above all things seeks to dispel and utterly drive away all selfishness. We are to have all things in common in a larger than a merely mechanical sense. The strong man is to feel that his strength belongs to the weak; the rich man is to know that he is the trustee of the poor; the wise man is to know that he holds his wisdom as an open treasure on which those who are in need of wisdom can freely draw. Probably we cannot realise the whole ideal in all its detail: we must not however degrade the ideal to our capacity, but strenuously endeavour to enlarge our capacity so as to include the ideal. There are those who take a hopeful view of the world simply because they take care to walk in flowery places: they take a golden path through the world and only go abroad when the sun is shining and the birds are singing; then they exclaim, What a lovely world it is and how foolish are they who seek to darken a place made glorious by its Maker! If they would go out at other times and take other paths, how much would their view be changed, and how greatly would their tone be transformed! The prophet wept over a process which he describes as “destruction”: now this word does not always imply what is meant by violence or wreckage or visible ruin: there is another destruction a destruction of bloom, of fine feeling, of tender sensitiveness, of will power; a destruction of old ideals, and an overthrow of early conceptions of prayer and worship, of love and sacrifice. The more truly spiritual we are, the more penetrating will be our judgment of the processes of destruction. There was a time when we could only see trees that were uptorn, walls that were thrown down, towers that were dismantled: but now, being led by the Spirit, being daily taught by the Holy Ghost, we see that many a tree that is apparently rooted in the ground is perishing for lack of knowledge; many a wall that is apparently standing upright on its foundation is beginning to moulder at the top; and many a tower that seems to be as lofty as ever is giving way at the base and may any night be thrown down by some sharp blast of wind. It is not enough therefore from a Christian standpoint to take rough views of life, and to make hurried and general summaries of human experience: the Holy Spirit is in us as a spirit of penetration and discrimination, insisting upon fine and often exhaustive analyses: we are to be in our degree as is the word of the living God itself, sharp and powerful, keener than any two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of the joints and marrow. Christianity is not distinguished by its rough judgments, but by its fine analyses. Christianity does not deal with promiscuous conduct, with all its common and obvious issues; it deals with life, thought, purpose, with the very intents of the heart.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Lam 3:48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Ver. 48. Mine eye runneth down. ] Heb., Mine eye descendeth; i.e., falleth, as it were, wholly away. See Lam 1:16 ; Lam 2:18 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mine eye runneth down. Compare Luk 19:41. App-85.
eye = tears: “eye” being put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Adjunct), for the tears which flow from it.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Lam 2:11, Lam 2:18, Psa 119:136, Jer 4:19, Jer 9:1, Jer 9:18, Jer 13:17, Rom 9:1-3
Reciprocal: Psa 6:6 – I water Psa 88:9 – Mine Psa 102:9 – mingled Psa 137:1 – we wept Jer 4:11 – daughter Jer 6:26 – daughter Jer 10:19 – Woe Jer 14:17 – let mine Lam 1:16 – I weep Lam 4:10 – in Rom 9:2 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lam 3:48. This strong figure has been used previously by the prophet, and is an expression of the deep personal feeling he had concerning his people. (See Jeremiah 9; Jeremiah 1.)
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Lam 3:48-51. Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water In this and the three following verses the prophet shows that the misfortunes of his country constituted no small part of his personal affliction. Mine eye affecteth my heart Hebrew, , preys upon my soul, as the Vulgate renders the expression, that is, my grief wears out my health and strength; because of all the daughters of my city On account of the sufferings of the inhabitants of my city.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2. A recollection of past deliverance 3:48-66
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Jeremiah wept profusely and unremittingly because of the destruction that the Judahites had experienced (cf. Jer 9:1; Jer 14:17). He would do this until the Lord acknowledged the plight of His people by sending them some relief. What Jeremiah saw of the devastation of Jerusalem pained him greatly. Here "the daughters of my city" may refer to the dependent villages surrounding Jerusalem that the foe also took. [Note: Jamieson, et al., p. 665.]