John Gill Commentary Lamentations 3

I [am] the man [that] has seen affliction
Had much experience of it, especially ever since he had been a prophet; being reproached and ill used by his own people, and suffering with them in their calamities; particularly, as Jarchi observes, his affliction was greater than the other prophets, who indeed prophesied of the destruction of the city and temple, but did not see it; whereas he lived to see it: he was not indeed the only man that endured affliction, but he was remarkable for his afflictions; he had a large share of them, and was herein a type of Christ, who was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs:

by the rod of his wrath ;
that is, by the rod of the wrath of God, for he is understood; it is a relative without an antecedent, as in (Song of Solomon 1:1) ; unless the words are to be considered in connection (Lamentations 2:22) . The Targum is, ``by the rod of him that chastiseth in his anger;'' so Jarchi; but God's chastisements of his own people are in love, though thought sometimes by them to be in wrath and hot displeasure; so the prophet imagined, but it was not so; perhaps some regard may be had to the instrument of Jerusalem's destruction, the king of Babylon, called the rod of the Lord's anger, (Isaiah 10:5) ; all this was true of Christ, as the surety of his people, and as sustaining their persons, and standing in their room.

He hath led me, and brought [me into] darkness Which often signifies distress, calamity, and affliction, of one sort or another: thus the Jews were brought into the darkness of captivity; Jeremiah to the darkness of a dungeon, to which there may be an allusion; and Christ his antitype was under the hidings of God's face; and at the same time there was darkness all around him, and all over the land; and all this is attributed to God; it being by his appointment, and by his direction and permission:

but not [into] light ; prosperity and joy; the affliction still continuing; though God does in his due time bring his people to the light of comfort, and of his gracious presence, as he did the above persons; see (Psalms 97:11) (112:4) .

Surely against me is he turned As an enemy, who used to be a friend; he has so altered and changed the course of his providence, as if his favour and affections were wholly removed; he has planted his artillery against me, and made me the butt of his arrows: or, "only against me"; so Jarchi; as if he was the only person, or the Jews the only people, so afflicted of God:

he turneth his hand [against me] all the day ; to smite with one blow after another, and that continually, without ceasing; so the hand of justice was turned upon Christ, as the surety of his people, and he was smitten and stricken of God; while the hand of grace and mercy was turned upon them; see (Zechariah 13:7) .

My flesh and my skin has he made old
His flesh with blows, and his skin with smiting, as the Targum; his flesh was so emaciated, and his skin so withered and wrinkled, that he looked like an old man; as our Lord, when little more than thirty years of age, what with his sorrows and troubles, looked like one about fifty:

he has broken my bones ;
that is, his strength was greatly weakened, which lay in his bones; and he could not stir to help himself, any more than a man whose bones are broken; and was in as much pain and distress as if this had been his case; otherwise it was not literally true, either of the Jews, or of Jeremiah, or of Christ.

He has builded against me
Fortresses, as the Targum adds; as when forts and batteries were raised by the Chaldeans against the city ofJerusalem, in which the prophet was: and compassed [me] with gall and travail ;
or "weariness" ^F5 ; the same with gall and wormwood, (Lamentations 3:19) ; as Jarchi observes.The sense is, he was surrounded with sorrow, affliction, and misery, which were as disagreeable as gall; orlike poison that drank up his spirits, and made him weary of his life. Thus our Lord was exceeding sorrowful,even unto death; (perilupov) , encompassed with sorrows, (Matthew 26:38) . TheTargum is,

he has surrounded the city, and rooted up the heads of the people, and caused them tofail.

FOOTNOTES:

• F5: (haltw) "et fatigatione", Montanus, Vatablus,Castalio.