Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Lamentations 3:53
They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
They have cut off my life in the dungeon – Or, They destroyed my life in the pit, i. e. tried to destroy it by casting me into the cistern, and covering the month with a stone. See the margin reference.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Dungeon seemeth not to be here taken literally, for the lowest and nastiest place in prisons, which probably was the portion but of a few of the Jews; but metaphorically, for the lowest and saddest condition of misery. Their enemies had brought them into the deepest miseries, to the cutting off of their lives; and as men use to roll great stones upon the mouths of dens and pits, where they have shut up persons, to make them sure from escaping out, so their enemies had dealt with them, doing what lay in them to make their condition remediless and desperate.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
53. in . . . dungeon (Jer37:16).
stoneusually put atthe mouth of a dungeon to secure the prisoners (Jos 10:18;Dan 6:17; Mat 27:60).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They have cut off my life in the dungeon,…. Jarchi interprets it,
“they bound me in the prison.”
Jeremiah was both in a prison and in a dungeon, where he was deprived of the society of men, as if he had been dead; and he was in danger of losing his life; but whether any respect is had to it here is not certain: it seems rather to respect the people of the Jews in captivity, who were deprived of their rights and liberties, and of the comforts of life; and were like dead men in their graves, to whom they are compared,
Eze 37:11; but since Jeremiah was not dead, nor did he die in the dungeon, Jarchi’s sense seems best, and agrees with what follows; and is confirmed by the version of others, who render it, “they shut up my life in the dungeon” q; or himself there:
and cast a stone upon me; to see if he was dead, or to prevent him from rising. The allusion is to the putting of stones at the mouths of dens and dungeons, caves and graves, to keep in those there put: or they stoned me, as the Targum; that is, they endeavoured to do it: or the Jews in captivity were like persons stoned to death, or like dead men covered with a heap of stones; for that Jeremiah was stoned to death there is no reason to believe.
q “concluserunt in fovea vitam meam”, Noldius, Concord. Ebr. Part. p. 141, “manciparunt fovea vitam meam”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
is here used transitively in Kal, as the Piel is elsewhere, Psa 119:139, and the Pilpel, Psa 88:17. , “they were destroying (cutting off) my life down into the pit,” is a pregnant construction, and must be understood de conatu : “they sought to destroy my life when they hurled me down into the pit, and cast stones on me,” i.e., not “they covered the pit with a stone” (Pareau, De Wette, Neumann). The verb construed with does not take this meaning, for merely signifies to cast, e.g., lots (Jos 4:3, etc.), arrows (Jer 50:14), or to throw down = destroy, annihilate, Zec 2:4; and does not mean “in the pit in which I was,” but “upon (or against) me.” The sing. is to be understood in accordance with the expression , to cast stones = stone (1Ki 12:18; Lev 20:2, Lev 20:27). As to for , see on in Lam 3:33. “Waters flowed over my head” is a figurative expression, denoting such misery and distress as endanger life; cf. Psa 59:2-3, Psa 59:15., Psa 124:4., Psa 42:8. ‘I said (thought), I am cut off (from God’s eyes or hand),” Psa 31:23; Psa 88:6, is a reminiscence from these Psalms, and does not essentially differ from “cut off out of the land of the living,” Isa 43:8. For, that we must thereby think of death, or sinking down into Sheol, is shown by , Lam 3:55. The complaint in these verses (52-54) is regarded by some expositors as a description of the personal sufferings of Jeremiah; and the casting into the pit is referred to the incident mentioned in Jer 38:6. Such is the view, for instance, taken by Vaihinger and Ngelsbach, who point for proof to these considerations especially: (1) That the Chaldeans certainly could not, without good cause (Lam 3:53), be understood as the “enemies;” (2) that Jeremiah could not represent the people, speaking as if they were righteous and innocent; and (3) that the writer already speaks of his deliverance from their power, and contents himself with merely calling down on them the vengeance of God (Lam 3:55-66). But not one of these reasons is decisive. For, in the first place, the contents of Lam 3:52 do not harmonize with the known hostility which Jeremiah had to endure from his personal enemies. That is to say, there is nothing mentioned or known of his enemies having stoned him, or having covered him over with a stone, after they had cast him into the miry pit (Jer 38:6.), The figurative character of the whole account thus shows itself in the very fact that the separate portions of it are taken from reminiscences of passages in the Psalms, whose figurative character is universally acknowledged. Moreover, in the expression , even when we understand thereby the Chaldeans, it is not at all implied that he who complains of these enemies considers himself righteous and innocent, but simply that he has not given them any good ground for their hostile conduct towards him. And the assertion, that the writer is already speaking of his deliverance from their power, rests on the erroneous notion that, in Lam 3:55-66, he is treating of past events; whereas, the interchange of the perfects with imperatives of itself shows that the deliverance of which he there speaks is not an accomplished or bygone fact, but rather the object of that assured faith which contemplates the non-existent as existent. Lastly, the contrast between personal suffering ad the suffering of the people, on which the whole reasoning rests, is quite beside the mark. Moreover, if we take the lamentations to be merely symbolical, then the sufferings and persecutions of which the prophet here complains are not those of the people generally, but of the godly Israelites, on whom they were inflicted when the kingdom was destroyed, not merely by the Chaldeans, but also by their godless fellow-countrymen. Hence we cannot, of course, say that Jeremiah here speaks from personal experience; however, he complains not merely of the persecutions that befall him personally, but also of the sufferings that had come on him and all godly ones. The same remark applies to the conclusion of this lamentation, – the prayer, Lam 3:55-66, in which he entreats the Lord for deliverance, and in the spirit of faith views this deliverance as already accomplished.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
He now employs other comparisons. Some improperly confine this to Jeremiah himself, as though he explained here before God the wrongs done to himself: but there is no doubt but that he undertakes the cause of the whole people; and his object was to encourage by his own example the faithful to lament their state so that they might obtain pardon from God.
He then compares himself to a man half-dead, cast into a pit, and there left for lost. Then some improperly interpret the words, “they cast stones;” for stoning was not in the mind of the Prophet; but having said that he was fast bound in a pit or dungeon, he adds that a stone was laid over him, that lie might not come forth, as we know was the case with Daniel. (Dan 6:16.) Daniel was cast into the den of lions, and then a stone was put on the mouth of the den. So also the Prophet says, that he was bound fast in the pit, and not only that, but that a stone was laid over him, that there might be no hope of coming out; and thus the pit was like a grave. Here, then, he means that lie was reduced to the last extremity, because he had not only been taken by his enemies, but had also been cast into a pit. And, as it is well known, it is a metaphorical expression or a similitude. He adds, —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(53) Cast a stone upon me.The words admit of two meanings: (1) that they cast stones at him; (2) that they placed a stone over the opening of his dungeon so as to prevent escape.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
53. Cast a stone, etc. They covered the pit in which the prophet was confined with a stone, to make escape hopeless.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lam 3:53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
Ver. 53. They have cut off my life in the dungeon. ] Where I led a lifeless life; such as did Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, in King Stephen’s time, who sustained such miseries in prison, ut vivere noluerit, mori nescierit, that live he would not, and yet die he could not.
And cast a stone upon me.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
dungeon = pit. Compare Jer 38:6; and Psa 88:6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
cut: Jer 37:20, Jer 38:6, Jer 38:9
and: Dan 6:17, Mat 27:60, Mat 27:66
Reciprocal: Jos 7:26 – raised 1Ki 22:27 – Put this fellow Psa 40:2 – the miry Psa 42:7 – all thy Psa 130:1 – Out of Isa 51:14 – die Jer 37:16 – into the dungeon Lam 3:2 – brought Jon 2:1 – out Luk 22:44 – being Act 16:24 – the inner
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lam 3:53. Jeremiah’s personal sufferings would justify this language, for he had been cast into the mire. And it was also true of Judah in a more indirect sense, for the nation had its national life cut off by the captivity.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
3:53 They have cut off my life {y} in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
(y) Read Jer 37:16 how he was in the miry dungeon.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
They silenced him by placing him in a pit and covering its mouth with a large stone (cf. Jer 38:1-6). He thought he would drown because of the water that engulfed him.