Ver. 1. I am the man.] Here Jeremiah, in the name and place of all the Jewish people, setteth forth his sufferings very passionately and elegantly. Ουδεν γαρ του παθοντος ρητορικοτερον, saith Synesius; for nothing is more rhetorical than a man in misery. See on Lamentations 1:12. By the rod of his wrath,] i.e., Of God’s wrath, whom yet he nameth not prae magnitudine affectus, but referreth to him all his sufferings; and he alludeth here, say some, to that rod. (Jeremiah 1:11) Oecolamp.
Ver. 2. He hath led me and brought me into darkness.] Perstat semper in metaphora a pastoritia, say some, who by rod in the foregoing verse understand God’s shepherd’s wand, wherewith, when he is displeased, he driveth his unruly sheep into dark and dangerous places. (Psalms 23:3,4 Micah 7:9)
Ver. 3. Surely against me is he turned.] Metaphora a colaphizantibus. A metaphor from buffeters, who double their blows, beating their adversaries on both sides, as the smith doth his red hot iron upon the anvil till he hath shaped it. Hinc inde continenter verberat. -Jun.
Ver. 4. My flesh and my skin hath he made old.] Withered it and wanzed it, so that I am not like myself; facta videbor anus, as she said. See Psalms 32:3. He hath broken my bones.] Decayed and impaired, and that with greatest torment, as befalleth when bones are broken.
Ver. 5. He hath builded against me.] Bulwarks and batteries. And compassed me with gall and travel.] Or, With venom and vexation. See Jeremiah 8:14. In these and the like hyperbolic expressions we must note that words are too weak to utter the greatness of the saints’ grief, when they lie under the sense of God’s wrath and heavy displeasure.
Ver. 6. He hath set me in dark places.] Dungeons haply, which are a kind of graves, and where poor prisoners lie as forgotten. The Persians called their prisons ληθας, oblivions. And Ezekiel saith that Babylon was to the Jews as a grave, where they lay for dead till those dead bones lived again. (Ezekiel 37:1-14) As they that be dead of old.] Free among the dead and forgotten. It may be said of a saint, in some cases, that “ Vivit, et est vitae nescius ipse sum. ”
Ver. 7. He hath hedged me about.] Sorrounded me with troubles, brought me into straits inextricable and importable.
Ver. 8. Also when I cry and shout.] As poor prisoners use to do for relief and release. He shutteth out my prayer.] Or, Shutteth his ear to my prayer. This was very grievous to any good heart; more than it could be to Cicero, a stranger to the true God, who yet bewaileth the matter to his brother in these words, I would pray to the gods for those things; but that, alas! they have given over to hear my prayers.
Ver. 9. He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone,] i.e., Most strongly and closely, so that none can come at me. He hath made all my paths crooked.] So that all things go cross with me; and although they were never so well devised, yet still they sort out unto the worst.
Ver. 10. He was unto me as a bear lying in wait.] So that if I do but offer to stir, or seek to make escape, I am in danger to be devoured. And as a lion in secret places.] God hath many ways and means to bemeet with sinners. He can stop them in their course, as he did Balaam, Jonah, and others.
Ver. 11. He hath turned aside my ways.] As Lamentations 3:9. And pulled me in pieces.] As a bear or lion doth the silly sheep that falleth into their paws. Carnali quadam intemperie haec effusa sunt. The Vulgate hath it, Confregit me. He hath broken me in pieces; scil., Attempting to leap over his hedge; (Lamentations 3:7) his stone wall. (Lamentations 3:9) In the year 1590, Nicolas Frischlin, that famous poet, orator, and philosopher, attempting to escape out of prison, was so broken, a capite ad talos, a cute ad ossa. from the head to the heels, from the skin to the bones. Alsted., Chron., 480.
Ver. 12. He hath bent his bow.] Lamentations 2:4. And set me as a mark.] Which he is sure to hit. The Benjamites, (Judges 20:16) the Parthians, Alcon the Cretan, Domitian the Emperor, were excellent archers; but “ Non semper feriet quodcunque minabitur arcus; ” God’s arrow never misseth the mark.
Ver. 13. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.] Heb., The sons of his quiver, by a Hebraism. So Horace hath— “ Pharetram gravidam sagittis. ”—Lib, ii. od. 21. “Full quiver of arrows.” Job hath many like complaints. (Job 7:20 8:4 16:12,13) Renes sunt sedes libidinis.
Ver. 14. I was a derision, to all my people.] Or, To all peoples. Our Saviour suffered all this and much more for us. And their song all the day.] Or, Their lute, or kit, whom they played on at pleasure, and desired no better sport.