Lamentations 3:44-45
Context3:44 You shrouded yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can get through.
3:45 You make us like filthy scum 1
in the estimation 2 of the nations.
Lamentations 3:56
Context“Do not close your ears to my cry for relief!” 5
Lamentations 3:59-61
Context3:59 You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord;
pronounce judgment on my behalf! 6
3:60 You have seen all their vengeance,
all their plots against me. 7
ש (Sin/Shin)
3:61 You have heard 8 their taunts, O Lord,
all their plots against me.
Lamentations 5:19
Context5:19 But you, O Lord, reign forever;
your throne endures from generation to generation.
Lamentations 5:22
Context5:22 unless 9 you have utterly rejected us 10
and are angry with us beyond measure. 11
1 tn Heb “offscouring and refuse.” The two nouns סְחִי וּמָאוֹס (sÿkhi uma’os) probably form a nominal hendiadys, in which the first noun functions as an adjective and the second retains its full nominal sense: “filthy refuse,” i.e., “filthy scum.”
2 tn Heb “in the midst of.”
3 tn The verb could be understood as a precative, “hear my plea,” parallel to the following volitive verb, “do not close.”
4 tn Heb “my voice.”
5 tn The preposition ל (lamed) continues syntactically from “my plea” in the previous line (e.g. Ex 5:2; Josh 22:2; 1 Sam 8:7; 12:1; Jer 43:4).
6 tn Heb “Please judge my judgment.”
7 tc The MT reads לִי (li, “to me”); but many medieval Hebrew
8 tn The verb could be understood as a precative (“Hear”).
9 tn The compound conjunction כִּי אִם (ki ’im) functions to limit the preceding clause: “unless, or…” (e.g., Ruth 3:18; Isa 65:6; Amos 3:7) (BDB 474 s.v. 2.a): “Bring us back to yourself… unless you have utterly rejected us” (as in the present translation) or “Bring us back to yourself…Or have you utterly rejected us?” It is Jeremiah’s plea that the
10 tn Heb “Or have you utterly rejected us?” The construction מָאֹס מְאַסְתָּנוּ (ma’os mÿ’astanu), Qal infinitive absolute + Qal perfect 2nd person masculine singular from מָאַס (ma’as, “to reject”) is emphatic: the root מָאַס (ma’as) is repeated in these two verbal forms for emphasis.
11 tn Heb “Are you exceedingly angry with us?” The construction עַד־מְאֹד (’ad-mÿ’od) means “up to an abundance, to a great degree, exceedingly” (e.g., Gen 27:33, 34; 1 Sam 11:15; 25:36; 2 Sam 2:17; 1 Kgs 1:4; Pss 38:7, 9; 119:8, 43, 51, 107; Isa 64:9, 12; Lam 5:22; Dan 8:8; 11:25). Used in reference to God’s judgment, this phrase denotes total and irrevocable rejection by God and his refusal to forgive the sin and restore the people to a status under his grace and blessings, e.g., “Do not be angry beyond measure (עַד־מְאֹד, ’ad-mÿ’od), O