Albert Barnes Commentary Lamentations 3:55-66

"I called upon thy name, O Jehovah, out of the lowest dungeon. Thou heardest my voice; hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. O Jehovah, thou hast seen my wrong; judge thou my cause. Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me. Thou hast heard their reproach, O Jehovah, and all their devices against me, The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. Behold thou their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song. Thou wilt render unto them a recompense, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands. Thou wilt give them hardness of heart, thy curse unto them. Thou wilt pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Jehovah." — Lamentations 3:55-66 (ASV)

Lamentations 3:55: A prayer for deliverance and for vengeance upon his enemies.

Out of the low dungeon - The lowest pit (Psalms 88:6). Some consider that Psalms 69:0 was composed by Jeremiah and is the prayer referred to here (see note on Jeremiah 38:6).

Lamentations 3:56: You have heard - In sending Ebedmelech to deliver me. The next clause signifies, Hide not your ear to my relief, to my cry; that is, to my cry for relief.

Lamentations 3:58: God now appears as the prophet’s next of kin, pleading the lawsuits of his soul (that is, the controversies which concern his salvation), and rescuing his life, in jeopardy through the malice of his enemies.

Lamentations 3:59: Wrong - Done to him by the perversion of justice.

Lamentations 3:60–61: Imaginations - Or, devices.

Lamentations 3:63: Their sitting down, and their rising up - that is, all the ordinary actions of their life.

Music - Or, song; “the subject of it.”

Lamentations 3:64–66: The versions render the verbs in these verses as futures, You shall render to them a recompense, etc.

Lamentations 3:65: Give them sorrow of heart - Or, You will give them blindness of heart.

Lamentations 3:66: Persecute ... - Or, pursue them in anger and destroy them, etc.