Lamentations 3:59-63 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong Here the prophet adverts to his present sufferings, and the ill usage he met with, concerning which he appeals to God; as if he had said, Thou hast seen that I have done no wrong at all, but that I suffer a great deal. He that knows all things knew, 1st, The malice they had against him; thou hast seen, says he, all their vengeance How they desire to do me a mischief, as if it were by way of reprisal for some great injury I had done them. 2d, The designs and projects they had laid to do him a mischief. Thou hast seen, Lamentations 3:60, and again, Lamentations 3:61, Thou hast heard, all their imaginations against me, both their desires and their devices to ruin me; these, whether they show themselves in word or deed, are perfectly known to thee. 3d, The contempt and calumny wherewith they loaded him, all that they spoke slightly, and all that they spoke reproachfully of him. Thou hast heard their reproach, Lamentations 3:61; all the ill characters they give me, laying to my charge things that I know not, all the methods that they use to make me odious and contemptible, even the lips of those that rose up against me, Lamentations 3:62; the contumelious language they use whenever they speak of me. Behold, their sitting down, &c. That is, Behold at all times, whether they sit down or rise up, I am made the subject of their merriment, and their laughing-stock.