Thomas Aquinas Commentary Lamentations 3:1-3

"I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light. Surely against me he turneth his hand again and again all the day." — Lamentations 3:1-3 (ASV)

Here, after listing many punishments, the author guards against the people's despair.

This section is divided into three parts:

1. He presents the causes leading to despair.
2. He provides arguments for finding hope, beginning at remember my poverty (Lamentations 3:19).
3. After gaining confidence, he turns to plead for mercy, beginning at let us search our ways (Lamentations 3:40).

Regarding the first part, he does three things:

1. He describes their affliction.
2. He addresses the condemnation, at and my soul is removed (Lamentations 3:17).
3. He concludes with despair, at I said: I am cut off (Lamentations 3:54).

Regarding the first of these points, he does two things:

1. He presents the affliction they endured from the blows of the hand that struck them.
2. He describes the way these blows were inflicted, at a bear lying in wait (Lamentations 3:10).

Regarding the first of these, he does three things:

1. He presents the scourge of divine wrath (Lamentations 3:1).
2. He shows the effect of the flogging, at my skin he has made old (Lamentations 3:4).
3. He rules out any means of escape, at he has built against me round about (Lamentations 3:7).

Regarding the first of these, he does three things:

1. He presents the indignation of the one striking: I am the man that sees my poverty. Jeremiah speaks in his own person, because he also was afflicted along with the others, or he speaks in the name of the people, whose misery he considered his own. And know not, that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind (Revelation 3:17). In the allegorical sense, this represents Christ and the Church; in the moral sense, it represents the soul.
2. He presents the withdrawal of comfort: he has led me, and brought me into darkness, meaning the darkness of tribulation, and not into light, meaning the light of comfort, because after the scourging, God did not apply comfort as he usually does. God has surrounded me with darkness (Job 3:23).
3. He describes the nature of the lashes: only against me—here he follows the tendency of the afflicted, who focus only on their own wounds—he has turned, and turned again, striking and striking again. He has taught me, with a strong arm (Isaiah 8:11).

In this chapter, each set of three consecutive verses begins with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet, proceeding in order.