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3. Judah's Complaint

¹ This chapter is an acrostic poem; the verses of each stanza begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and the verses within each stanza begin with the same letter.I am the man who has seen affliction
   by the rod of the LORD’s wrath.
² He has driven me away and made me walk
   in darkness rather than light;
³ indeed, he has turned his hand against me
   again and again, all day long.

    ⁴ He has made my skin and my flesh grow old
   and has broken my bones.
⁵ He has besieged me and surrounded me
   with bitterness and hardship.
⁶ He has made me dwell in darkness
   like those long dead.

    ⁷ He has walled me in so I cannot escape;
   he has weighed me down with chains.
⁸ Even when I call out or cry for help,
   he shuts out my prayer.
⁹ He has barred my way with blocks of stone;
   he has made my paths crooked.

    ¹⁰ Like a bear lying in wait,
   like a lion in hiding,
¹¹ he dragged me from the path and mangled me
   and left me without help.
¹² He drew his bow
   and made me the target for his arrows.

    ¹³ He pierced my heart
   with arrows from his quiver.
¹⁴ I became the laughingstock of all my people;
   they mock me in song all day long.
¹⁵ He has filled me with bitter herbs
   and given me gall to drink.

    ¹⁶ He has broken my teeth with gravel;
   he has trampled me in the dust.
¹⁷ I have been deprived of peace;
   I have forgotten what prosperity is.
¹⁸ So I say, “My splendor is gone
   and all that I had hoped from the LORD.”

    ¹⁹ I remember my affliction and my wandering,
   the bitterness and the gall.
²⁰ I well remember them,
   and my soul is downcast within me.
²¹ Yet this I call to mind
   and therefore I have hope:

    ²² Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
   for his compassions never fail.
²³ They are new every morning;
   great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
   therefore I will wait for him.”

    ²⁵ The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
   to the one who seeks him;
²⁶ it is good to wait quietly
   for the salvation of the LORD.
²⁷ It is good for a man to bear the yoke
   while he is young.

    ²⁸ Let him sit alone in silence,
   for the LORD has laid it on him.
²⁹ Let him bury his face in the dust—
   there may yet be hope.
³⁰ Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
   and let him be filled with disgrace.

    ³¹ For no one is cast off
   by the Lord forever.
³² Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
   so great is his unfailing love.
³³ For he does not willingly bring affliction
   or grief to anyone.

    ³⁴ To crush underfoot
   all prisoners in the land,
³⁵ to deny people their rights
   before the Most High,
³⁶ to deprive them of justice—
   would not the Lord see such things?

    ³⁷ Who can speak and have it happen
   if the Lord has not decreed it?
³⁸ Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
   that both calamities and good things come?
³⁹ Why should the living complain
   when punished for their sins?

    ⁴⁰ Let us examine our ways and test them,
   and let us return to the LORD.
⁴¹ Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
   to God in heaven, and say:
⁴² “We have sinned and rebelled
   and you have not forgiven.

    ⁴³ “You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us;
   you have slain without pity.
⁴⁴ You have covered yourself with a cloud
   so that no prayer can get through.
⁴⁵ You have made us scum and refuse
   among the nations.

    ⁴⁶ “All our enemies have opened their mouths
   wide against us.
⁴⁷ We have suffered terror and pitfalls,
   ruin and destruction.”
⁴⁸ Streams of tears flow from my eyes
   because my people are destroyed.

    ⁴⁹ My eyes will flow unceasingly,
   without relief,
⁵⁰ until the LORD looks down
   from heaven and sees.
⁵¹ What I see brings grief to my soul
   because of all the women of my city.

    ⁵² Those who were my enemies without cause
   hunted me like a bird.
⁵³ They tried to end my life in a pit
   and threw stones at me;
⁵⁴ the waters closed over my head,
   and I thought I was about to perish.

    ⁵⁵ I called on your name, LORD,
   from the depths of the pit.
⁵⁶ You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears
   to my cry for relief.”
⁵⁷ You came near when I called you,
   and you said, “Do not fear.”

    ⁵⁸ You, Lord, took up my case;
   you redeemed my life.
⁵⁹ LORD, you have seen the wrong done to me.
   Uphold my cause!
⁶⁰ You have seen the depth of their vengeance,
   all their plots against me.

    ⁶¹ LORD, you have heard their insults,
   all their plots against me—
⁶² what my enemies whisper and mutter
   against me all day long.
⁶³ Look at them! Sitting or standing,
   they mock me in their songs.

    ⁶⁴ Pay them back what they deserve, LORD,
   for what their hands have done.
⁶⁵ Put a veil over their hearts,
   and may your curse be on them!
⁶⁶ Pursue them in anger and destroy them
   from under the heavens of the LORD.

We saw in the last Lecture that the best and the only true remedy for sorrows is, when the faithful are convinced that they are chastised only by the paternal hand of God, and that, the end of all their evils will be blessed. Now this they cannot of themselves assume; but God comes to their aid, and declares that he will not be angry for ever with his children. For this promise extends generally to the whole Church,

“For a moment I afflicted thee, in the time of mine indignation, but with perpetual mercies will I follow thee,” (Isaiah 54:7, 8)

and again,

“I will visit their iniquities with a rod, yet my mercy I will not take away from them”
(Psalm 89 33, 84.)

When therefore the faithful feel assured that their punishment is only for a time, then they lay hold on hope, and thus receive invaluable comfort in all their evils.

Jeremiah now pursues the same subject, even that God will shew compassion according to the multitude of his mercies, though he causes sorrow to men. This may indeed be generally explained as to all mankind; but, as we have said, God has promised this to his own Church. All miseries, regarded in themselves, are tokens of the wrath and curse of God; but as all things turn out for good and for salvation to the children of God, when they embrace this truth, that God, as the Prophet Habakkuk says, remembers mercy in wrath, (Habakkuk 3:2,) so they restrain themselves and do not despond, nor are they overwhelmed with despair. We now then understand the Prophet’s object in saying, that though God afflicts he yet remembers mercy.

But we must at the same time bear in mind what I have before shewed, that the faithful are exposed to various evils, because it is profitable for them to be chastised by God’s hand. Hence appears the necessity of this doctrine, for were we exempt frown all adversities, this admonition would be superfluous. But as it cannot be but that God will smite us with his rods, not only because we deserve to be smitten, but also because it is expedient, it is necessary to flee to this consolation which is offered to us, even that God having afflicted us with grief will again shew us compassion, even according to the multitude of his mercies He confirms the truth of what he alleges by a reference to the very nature of God himself. Hence, that the faithful might not debate with themselves whether God would be propitious to them, after having inflicted on them a temporary punishment, the Prophet comes to their aid, and sets before them the mercy of God, or rather mercies, in the plural number; as though he had said, that it could not be that God should deny himself, and that therefore he would be always merciful to his people; for otherwise his mercy would be obliterated, yea, that mercy which is inseparable from his eternal essence and divinity.

And hence, when God is pleased briefly to shew what he is, he sets forth his mercy and patience; for except his goodness and mercy meet us, when we come to him, dread would immediately absorb all our thoughts; but when God comes forth as if clothed and adorned with mercy, we may then entertain hope of salvation; and though conscious of evil, yet while we recumb on God’s mercy, we shall never lose the hope of salvation. We not: apprehend the Prophet’s meaning. It follows, —