The Prophet Looks Back On His Own Experiences And Calls On YHWH To Avenge Him (Lamentations 3:52-66).
The chapter commenced with the personal experience of the prophet in Lamentations 3:1-18 but there it was the present experiences that he was going through which were in mind. He now closes the chapter with a look back to his personal experiences, to what he has suffered at the hands of the leaders of his people, and calls on YHWH to avenge him.
Some, however, recognise the incongruity of these words on the lips of the one who has just described his tears for his people and see these as the words of Jerusalem personified, as they bemoan what has happened to them at the hands of the Babylonians. But the words fit better with an individual, and it is quite possible that the prophet felt deeply for his people, while still feeling hard done by with regard to the aristocrats who had for so long opposed and mistreated him, (‘the powers that be'), who were after all responsible for the sufferings of the people. We must remember that if the writer was Jeremiah he had been through terrible hardships at their hands.
(Tsade) They have chased me sore like a bird,
They who are my enemies without cause.
(Tsade) They have cut off my life in the dungeon,
And have cast a stone on me.
(Tsade) Waters flowed over my head,
I said, ‘I am cut off'.
Here have three vivid pictures of the prophet's sufferings. He had been like a hunted bird, he had been put in a pit, he had experience overflowing suffering.
‘They have chased me sore (hunted me down) like a bird.' Compare the vivid picture in Psalms 11:1-2 of the bird flying off to the mountains in order to escape the voracious hunters, where it is the upright in heart who are the targets. The prophet sees himself as having been constantly hunted. And it was by ‘They who are my enemies without cause'. Compare for this phrase Psalms 35:19; Psalms 69:4. He considers that they had had no grounds for their enmity because he had only had the good of his people at heart.
‘They have cut off my life in the dungeon (pit), and have cast a stone on me.' Compare Psalms 88:6. This was literally true of Jeremiah as the pit into which he was lowered probably did have a stone covering (Jeremiah 38:6 ff). On the other hand ‘casting a stone' might have in mind stoning. But even then it is a good possibility that at some stage Jeremiah had to flee from being stoned.
‘Waters flowed over my head.' A picture of the misery and stress that was heaped on him. See Psalms 42:7; Psalms 88:7; Psalms 124:4.
‘I said, ‘I am cut off.' Compare Psalms 31:22, ‘I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before your eyes. Nevertheless you heard the voice of my supplications when I cried to you'. The prophet is describing his moment of doubt before he finally effectively prayed to YHWH and was delivered by the intervention of Ebed-melech (Jeremiah 38:7 ff).
(Qoph) I called on your name, O YHWH,
Out of the lowest dungeon.
(Qoph) You heard my voice,
Do not hide your ear at my breathing (sighing), at my cry.
(Qoph) You drew near in the day that I called on you,
You said, ‘Do not be afraid'.
His momentary doubt laid to rest the prophet called on YHWH ‘out of the lowest pit' (compare Psalms 88:6; Psalms 130:1; Jeremiah 38:6), and was immediately heard. So he now calls on YHWH to regard his sighing and respond in the same way. For YHWH had drawn near on the day that he had called on Him, and had given him the assurance, ‘Do not be afraid'.
When we reach the very lowest pit we can be sure that He will be there ready to respond to our prayer, whatever the circumstances. Notice the sequence, ‘I called -- you heard -- do not hide -- you drew near'.
(Resh) O Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul,
You have redeemed my life.
(Resh) O YHWH, you have seen my wrong,
Judge you my cause.
(Resh) You have seen all their vengeance,
And all their devices against me.
(Shin) You have heard their reproach, O YHWH,
And all their devices against me,
(Shin) The lips of those who rose up against me,
And their device against me all the day.
(Shin) Behold you their sitting down, and their rising up,
I am their song.
The prophet calls on YHWH to judge his case. For YHWH is the One Who has pleaded, as it were before a court, the causes of his inner life, and has redeemed his life (from threatened destruction - Psalms 103:4). In other words YHWH has fought for him and delivered him. YHWH is on his side. So now he calls on Him to judge his cause, because having pleaded them He must know his causes intimately.
Three times he draws attention to their device/devices against him (as revealed in Jeremiah 26:8-17; Jeremiah 37:14; Jeremiah 38:4). The first connected with their desire for vengeance, the second connected with all their reproach, and the third connected with their charges against him. They wanted vengeance, they were filled with reproach towards him, and they got together and spoke with animosity against him. And this was because they considered that he was a traitor who sided with the Babylonians.
‘Behold you their sitting down, and their rising up.' This phrase basically indicates what they did during the whole of their daytime (see Deuteronomy 6:7; Deuteronomy 11:19; Psalms 139:2; Isaiah 37:28).
And he points out that when He does so He will see that they sang insulting songs about him all day, mocking and belittling him.
(Tau) You will render to them a recompense, O YHWH,
According to the work of their hands.
(Tau) You will give them hardness (literally ‘covering') of heart,
Your curse to them.
(Tau) You will pursue them in anger,
And destroy them from under the heavens of YHWH.
So he expresses his confidence that YHWH will:
§ Recompense them (his adversaries) according to what they had done. Give them hardness (or blindness) of heart which will be a curse to them.
§ Pursue them in anger and destroy them from the earth (from under the heavens of YHWH).
And indeed this is what He did.