Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Lamentations 3:65
Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.
65. hardness ] or, as mg. blindness, Heb. covering. Cp. 2Co 3:15.
thy curse unto them ] dependent on “wilt give,” or meaning, thy curse shall be unto them. Either of these explanations is more in accordance with the context than to make the clause an imprecation, May thy curse be upon them!
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 65. Give them sorrow of heart] They shall have a callous heart, covered with obstinacy, and thy execration. The former is their state, the latter their fate. This is the consequence of their hardening their hearts from thy fear. Blayney translates, “Thou wilt give with a hearty concordance thy curse unto them.” That is, Thou wilt give it to them freely, and without reserve; intimating that God felt no longer any bowels of compassion for them. Formerly he inflicted punishments with reluctance, while there was any hope of amendment: but, in the instance before us, the case was so hopeless, that God acts according to the simple principle of vindictive justice. The prophet therefore considers them on the utmost verge of final reprobation: another plunge, and they are lost for ever.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The word translated
sorrow of heart is found no where else in holy writ, which makes a certain particular explication of it to be difficult, and hath given interpreters a strange liberty in translating it shield, sorrow, and grief, obstinacy or hardness of heart, perplexity, abjection or breaking of heart; the best guides we have to direct us in the sense of it are,
1. The other things joined with it; persecution, destruction, a recompence according to their works, so that some afflictive evil of a heavy nature is certainly signified by it.
2. The analogy of faith, which restraineth us from wishing or praying for spiritual or eternal evils against our worst enemies; it therefore probably signifies such perplexity and breakings of mind as commonly attend a state of great affliction.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
65. sorrowrather, blindnessor hardness; literally, “a veil” covering theirheart, so that they may rush on to their own ruin (Isa 6:10;2Co 3:14; 2Co 3:15).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Give them sorrow of heart,…. That which will cause sorrow of heart; such judgments and punishments as will be grievous to them. Some have observed a likeness between the word here used and that translated “music”, La 3:63; and think some respect may be had to it; that whereas the people of God had been matter of mirth and music to them, God would give them music, but of another sort; a song, but a doleful one. The Septuagint version renders it, “a covering of the heart”; the word a having the signification of a shield, which covers; and may signify blindness, hardness, and stupidity of heart, that they might not see the evils coming upon them, and how to escape them. A modern learned interpreter, Christianus Benedictus Michaelis, would have it compared with the Arabic word , “ganan”, which signifies “to be mad”, and from whence is “muganah”, “madness”; and so the sense be, give them distraction of mind:
lay curse unto them: and what greater curse is there than to be given up to judicial blindness and hardness of heart, or to madness and distraction? it may include all the curses of the law denounced against transgressors.
a , “tegumentum cordis”, Montanus, Vatablus; “obtegumentum cordis”, Stockius, p. 199. so Ben Melech; “scutum cordis”, V. L. “clypeum cordis”, Munster.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He expresses what the vengeance was to be, even that God would give them up to a reprobate mind; for by מגנת-לב, meganet-leb, he no doubt meant the blindness of the heart, and at the same time included stupidity, as though he had said, “O Lord, so oppress them with evils, that they may become stupified.” For it is an extremity of evil, when we are so overpowered as not to be as it were ourselves, and when our evils do not drive us to prayer. (205)
We now then perceive what the Prophet meant by asking God to give to his enemies the impediment of heart, even that he might take away a sound mind, and smite them with blindness and madness, as it is said elsewhere. — I run on quickly, that I may finish, lest the hour should prevent us. The last verse of this triple alphabet follows, —
(205) The word meant “covering, as rendered by the Sept. ; the Syr. Has “sorrow,” and the Vulg. “shield,” which has no meaning. What is no doubt meant is hardness or blindness —
Give them blindness of heart: Thy curse be to them.
—
Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(65) Sorrow of heartLiterally, covering, with a sense like that of the veil upon the heart of 2Co. 3:15, and so signifying the blindness of obstinacy. The imperatives in both Lam. 3:65-66 are better rendered as futuresThou shalt give; Thou shalt persecute.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Lam 3:65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.
Ver. 65. Give them sorrow of heart. ] In place of their mad mirth and sinful music; turn their psalm – as the Vulgate rendereth the word music in the foregoing verse – into a black santis, as they call it, ferale carmen, a doleful ditty. Dabis eis scutum cordis, saith the Vulgate. And, indeed, the word rendered sorrow signifieth a shield or cover. It noteth, saith one, the cardiaca passio, a whereby the heart is so oppressed, and there is such a stopping, that it is as it were covered sicut scute, as with a shield; there is a lid, as it were, put over the heart to keep off the most refreshing cordials, and so the heart is suffocated with sorrow. b It is as if he should say, Put them into such a condition that no creature may yield them the least refreshment. Spira was in this condition.
Thy curse upon them.
a A Lapide.
b Mr Burrough’s Hos. Operculum cordis, vel apostema cordis.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Give them sorrow of heart = Thou wilt suffer them a veiling (or obstinacy) of heart. See Isa 6:9, Isa 6:10.
sorrow = covering, or veiling.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
sorrow: or, obstinacy, Deu 2:30, Isa 6:10
thy: Deu 27:15-26, Psa 109:17, Psa 109:18, 1Co 16:22
Reciprocal: Deu 28:65 – failing of eyes 2Ki 2:24 – cursed them
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lam 3:65. This is a true picture of the attitude of the Jews with regard to the Babylonians. It is also a prediction of what God was going to do against them.